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Neil Clifford, the boss of Kurt Geiger, one of Britain\u2019s most prominent footwear brands, started his career a world away from the glitz and glamour of fashion.<\/p>\n
Growing up, the CEO failed almost all of his exams because of his dyslexia struggles. After leaving school with just one qualification in art, Clifford went to the job center and found work at a Fiat car dealership, where he was paid \u00a325 ($33) a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my first job in August \u201983, so I suppose I\u2019ve done all right,\u201d Clifford told Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s done all right indeed: The now 57-year-old went from the car dealership and cleaning toilets for extra pocket money to running \u00a3330 million-a-year ($432 million) business Kurt Geiger\u2014and has done so for more than two decades.<\/p>\n His career trajectory shifted gears after a friend got him an interview for Burton\u2019s menswear at Debenhams in his hometown of Portsmouth.<\/p>\n \u201cSuddenly, I was going from delivering paraffin to selling suits,\u201d he remembers. \u201cI realized at that point I was really good at selling stuff because I was able to convince people how wonderful they looked.\u201d<\/p>\n It was there that Clifford got the big break that launched him into the high-flying world of fashion.<\/p>\n A few months into working at his local department store, Clifford noticed that Burton\u2019s then CEO and the founder of Topshop, Ralph Halpern, made a habit of walking the shop floor most Saturdays.<\/p>\n To stand out among the hundreds of other workers across the U.K., Clifford knew he had to seize this opportunity. His plan? He would muster the courage to pitch his ambitions directly to the boss.<\/p>\n He bided his time, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce\u2014when his manager was away on holiday.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew, right, if he comes in today, I have my speech all sorted in my head,\u201d he remembers. \u201cI knew that was a moment for me. It was a bit like if I was a footballer, brought on as a substitute and I had to take a penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had this half an hour opportunity to chat to the big, big, big, big boss,\u201d he adds. \u201cI knew I wanted to ask for advice, but also express my enthusiasm, express my ambition, my energy\u2026 So, yeah, it was a moment for me that I knew I had to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n The advice that stuck with Clifford was \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of jobs, but you need to move to London. You\u2019re not going to make it in Portsmouth.\u201d<\/p>\n It was the push he needed to leave his sleepy hometown and embrace the hustle of the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI applied for a job straight away that week in Woolwich,\u201d Clifford recalls of the pivotal moment in his career. \u201cI didn\u2019t know where Woolwich was, to be honest, but it had a London postcode.\u201d<\/p>\n The role offered him the chance to manage his own boutique store instead of a concession stand within a department store\u2014it was a big step up, and to his surprise, he was offered the job straight away.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was the only applicant,\u201d he laughs. \u201cNo one else applied for the job because, as it transpired, Woolwich in \u201986 was a bit of a rough old joint.\u201d<\/p>\n And just like that, Clifford swapped the safety of Portsmouth for one of the roughest parts of London and never looked back.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll the staff were stealing, so I had to change all the staff,\u201d he says, adding that it gave him the opportunity to turn the business around and make a name for himself.<\/p>\n By the end of the year, Clifford, who was only 19 years old at the time, says the store was the most profitable and best performing.<\/p>\n \u201cI won this big award, Store Manager of the Year; I was earning \u00a39,000 ($12,000) a year. I was the king.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The experience set him on a quick path to success which saw Clifford bag promotion after promotion, before being poached by Kurt Geiger in 1996.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn the end, within 18 months, I was managing the biggest store in the company in Bromley, with 40 staff, [turning over] \u00a34 million [$5.2 million] pounds a year at 21\u2014I was the youngest flagship store manager in the whole of the Burton group.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Clifford, Walmart\u2019s CEO Doug McMillon came from humble beginnings. He started his career in the company\u2019s warehouses in the summer of 1984, at the age of 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since then, he\u2019s scaled the retail giant\u2019s ranks from unloading trailers for $6.50 an hour to becoming the company\u2019s youngest CEO since its founder Sam Walton\u2014with a $25 million salary<\/a> to show for it.<\/p>\n He, too, got his big break by stepping up and making his mark when his boss was on vacation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons that I got the opportunities that I got was that I would raise my hand when my boss was out of town and he or she was visiting stores or something,\u201d McMillon recently revealed.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI then put myself in an environment where I became a low-risk promotion because people had already seen me do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nClifford\u2019s career-defining moment<\/h2>\n
Moving to London changed the course of Clifford\u2019s career<\/h2>\n
Walmart CEO got his big break the same way<\/h2>\n
Explore our new special issue.\u00a0<\/strong>A Wall Street legend gets a radical makeover, crypto iniquity, misbehaving poultry royalty, and more.\u00a0Read the stories.<\/a><\/div>\n