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1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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1-800-Flowers.com

1-800-flowers.com

1-800-Flowers.com (FLWS): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

On this episode of Executive Exchange, Founder and CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com Jim McCann joins senior editor and host Ruth Umoh in our Fortune studios to discuss how he turned one flower shop in Manhattan into a $3 billion company with worldwide recognition. Today, Jim oversees a sprawling $3 billion multi-platform e-commerce site that sells much more than just flowers, including The Popcorn Factory, Cheryl's Cookies, Harry & David, and Wolferman's Bakery.

Here's how 1-800-Flowers founder Jim McCann made his first billion dollars

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1-800-Flowers.com founder and CEO Jim McCann details how he doesn't know how he made his first million dollars in business, but recalls when he made his first billion dollars.

Walk us through how you made your first million. I don't know. Uh I don't know when that happened because wealth is generated mostly by creating that. Somewhere in that 1st 10 year period, I accumulated a bunch of these stores and they were profitable. And when I bought the company that had the 800 number in it, uh I had a must have gather all the money. And when I was able to put up $2 million to, to buy the company, that's when I realized I had more than a million dollars. Are you able to share how you made your first billion dollars? Sure. It's, it's brick on brick. Uh For us, it's continuing to build a portfolio of brands uh making yourself more convenient so people can act on their thoughtfulness very conveniently. And the mobile device was the, the way that really catapulted us. And mobile has completely revolutionized our business. And that's when we cross the billion dollar threshold. When, hey, if you were in the back of an Uber and you just came from a great meeting with Ruth and you wanted to say thanks to her and say she, I'd like to send her a, I want to send her bouquet. Well, now, instead of having to wait till you get to the office or open up your laptop and go in through your PC, you have this mobile device in your hand. Now you can just go click on our app and with voice interactivity, say I'd like to send Ruth a bouquet of flowers. Here's what I like to say on the card and you're done. So, uh that's when Mobile really kicked in. That's when of course the billion dollar threshold. I want to end with uh some quick questions for you around Robin. If you will, uh best business advice you've ever received. Best business advice would probably be uh to not listen to all the people who tell you that your wacky idea can't happen that listen, listen for good advice. But if you think it can work, keep going because people don't know what they don't know. It's easy to say that in hindsight, it is, it is easy to say it in hindsight. But when you're making decisions now and you think back, what would the advice be from that person on this back then it helps you to contextualize. And the other thing in terms of leadership was, uh I don't know if you heard this guy Jamie Diamond, he was a little bank up town here, but he's someone Chris and I are friendly with and advice. He gave me one time and I, I think about it often is he said, Jim, you spend way too much of your time evangelizing. I said, what do you mean? He said you spend too much energy and time trying to get everybody in the organization to get it. So they don't all need to get it. He says they just need to have the faith that you get it and that if they do their job of moving things from here to here and everybody does that, it will roll up into a beautiful, a beautiful noise, a beautiful crescendo. The most important question. What is your favorite flower? Hm. Well, this, this is a year round answer, I guess and a seasonal answer seasonally. A ping because it's still with all those things we've done in terms of the science, they're still kind of rare. My wife is the uh head gardener at home. I'm her, uh her helper. Uh but we have a beautiful P and ES and they're majestic and special. But on a year round basis, we were talking about roses before I'm a purist. I bring flowers home. I don't bring them oftentimes, a mixed bouquet. I bring a single flower and I like to work them and see how long I can get them to last. And I like to work the flowers myself. So, but I love of a vase of roses all one color and uh that's what it gets me excited at home. I now have a hand for fruit and chocolate. All, who knows? Maybe it's in your future.

[ MUSIC ] So Chris, tell me where does your affection, passion, interest in flowers stem from? Well Phil, I kind of think of myself as an accidental florist. When my brother bought his first flower shop, I was 15 years old. So I kinda have grown to love it. It's been really fun to watch how the business has evolved over the years from one store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to a telephonic commerce company to an e commerce to a mobile commerce company to what we are today >>. Going back to that time, tell us what were your favorite and least favorite parts of working in that flower shop. While working in my brother's flower shop, some of the favorite times I had was making deliveries, and especially being here in Manhattan. I grew up in Queens, but they got me to parts of the city I would never have gotten to otherwise and get to know a little bit. Some of my least favorite parts was the hours. When we worked the holidays, we'd be there for two or three days straight, working around the clock, maybe grabbing a nap in the back room, and you could But it's rough. It's a rough, tough business. [ MUSIC ] What's your favorite flower and tell us why? My favorite is probably the anemone. And it's I love it because of its vibrancy, the colors they have, and its simplicity. It's just a small to viewless stem stands single no wheel pedals on the stem of bikes up by the flowers, and then his vibrancy of color and it just kinda stands there like here I am. Tell us what is a secret to make your flowers last longer. When you get your flowers you want to give them a fresh cut. You cut them on an angle with either a sharp knife or a clippers and then keeping the water clean. So, everybody knows that roses are synonymous with Valentine's Day but what are some of the other flowers people should consider tulips are very popular Gerber daisies which for us is the flower of the year. Daisies, orchids are very popular, but if you wanna say I love you, nothing does it more like a red rose. In the 30 plus years you've been at the company, are there any particularly memorable or stand- out orders that you got? The thing I'm most proud of is my career. Is when we were asked to decorate Yankee Stadium with flowers after 911 for the prayer for America, and we put out words so many people from our company volunteer their time and services suppliers volunteered and donated product. flowers from around multiple states came in and to watch everybody work round the clock. And then go and decorate the stadium like we did covering the pitcher's mound and flowers look like an American flag and all around the basis something to be really proud of. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Chris, we're about to put together this bouquet but first, tell me what flowers we're dealing with already. So I feel so already starting off with our cushion palms in here. Snapdragons, these beautiful purple snapdragons, we have some of the fili flower, the limonium, the wax flower. We have the carnations in here. It's really ready to go with the focal flowers, beautiful gerbera daisies, and our roses. Ready? Yep. All right, let's do it. Let's start with the gerberas So tell us, what's the first golden rule of putting together a bouquet? Well, I think it would start with the focal point. I'd like this [ UNKNOWN ] daisy to be right up, right in the top, just sitting above the fray a little bit. We put in the taller flowers, the Liatris that we mentioned before, the snapdragons, put those in. This gives it the shape at the top. Now, we're filling it out and rounding it out. So we start kinda from the top down. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Now we have it. Well these are great. I do say so myself. So thank you for the instructions and Happy Valentine's Day. To you and yours. And to you as well. Thank you very much, they look beautiful. [ MUSIC ]

Out of the Office: Stopping to smell the roses with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. CEO Chris McCann

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Smelling the roses with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. CEO

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