Interview: Asos chief Nick Robertson on winning Leader of the Year

Nick Robertson has been described as everything from a retail upstart to a new breed of chief executive, and it’s difficult to deny the fact that the Asos boss has had a fundamental impact on UK retail. But when Retail Week meets him to talk about him being crowned the Clarity Retail Leader of the Year, he is keen to pass the plaudits on to his employees.

“It’s not about what I have built. What Asos has achieved is about lots of people,” he insists. “Some who are still here, but also lots of people along the journey who have all played their part.”

However, it is Robertson’s unwavering belief in Asos that has made it the £5.8bn business it is today and turned him into the industry’s most admired leader.

Solving a different problem

Set up just after the dotcom bubble burst in June 2000, few would have bet on Asos becoming the retail growth story of the decade.

“We weren’t retailers, and we weren’t fashion people. We weren’t even internet builders,” he says. “We were entrepreneurial and we were solving a very different problem - how do customers want to shop online? Well, they want as much choice as they can have.”

Robertson says that while so many of his peers fell by the wayside, Asos succeeded because of its limited coffers.

“We didn’t have the money to get ahead of ourselves. That’s why everyone else came and went, because they got too much money, too quick and the customer base and the sales weren’t there to support it.”

Robertson and co only raised £2.8m from early investors but from the smallest of seeds big trees grow.

He says not bringing in “money men” as he calls them has helped Asos grow to the size it is today.

“The whole ethos of the business is invest back, invest back, invest back.”

“The whole ethos of the business is invest back, invest back, invest back. We don’t have to pull financial levers to try to get back a venture capitalist’s money.

“Money men want back the profit, whereas we can say hold on, I’d rather give free delivery because that scales [the business] again. It’s investing in the next big thing that’s going to keep momentum going.”

Investing in delivering what the customer wants has helped Asos become the go-to-place for young fashion.

Robertson is a firm believer that if you give customers what they want, you will see the benefit. “Build what they want and then engineer the business so we can afford it,” he says.

Asos has continued to lead the field in terms of customer experience. From an ever-improving delivery service to a highly engaging website that features everything from news and interviews, music and the company’s Fashion Finder - which highlights the latest trends including products from rival retailers - Asos has raised the bar.

And it looks likely to continue to do so under Robertson’s watch - he is determined to ensure Asos is ahead of the curve.

It smells like entrepreneurial spirit

Robertson says the pace of life at Asos is turbo-charged and unlike other organisations. “We just get on and do shit and move really quickly. We don’t analyse stuff to the nth degree.”

Arguably, that willingness to follow instincts is prevalent only in entrepreneur-led businesses. Robertson is keen to ensure that the entrepreneurial spirit that drove Asos’ success is still omnipresent, and he wants to be sure the business is not afraid of taking risks.

“You have to be in this space because however quickly we got here, the thing that’s going to kill us probably hasn’t been born yet, so you’ve got to keep asking what’s next.”

Entrepreneurial spirit has kept Robertson going during the difficult times. Asos may be the darling of the City now, but he has endured trials and tribulations on the road to success, including closure over the Christmas peak in 2005 when its Hemel Hempstead warehouse was damaged in the Buncefield oil depot explosion.

“When you can’t pay salaries, when your back’s against the wall and it’s desperate every day, your warehouse blowing up is just another bump in the road,” he says.

“That’s where the entrepreneurial spirit kicks in. You take a big personality from a blue-chip company and stick them in somewhere and, the first bump in the road, they’re off. We are hardened to bumps in the road.”

Robertson admits that it is hard to keep a risk-taking culture alive and kicking in a business of Asos’ size. “The early people we had were young, hungry and interesting, but to be a bigger retailer you need to bring in certain skillsets. It starts working against the ethos you started out with,” he acknowledges.

But the risk-taking culture is something he and the executive team work hard to make sure is preserved.

‘Doss Fridays’

Robertson has not only built a £5.8bn business, he has constructed a company his young workforce love to work for.

Its legendary summer and Christmas parties and “doss Fridays”, when staff can leave at 3pm throughout the summer months, might have something to do with it. Robertson has ensured Asos is a place where people work hard but have fun too.

One Oracle Retail Week Awards judge says of Robertson: “The staff worship him and he is the culture.”

“There are no ivory towers here. It’s about engaging with the people you work with.”

Robertson is clearly still a man of the people and says that there is a feeling that “we’re all in it together” at the retailer. “There are no ivory towers here,” he laughs. “It’s about engaging with the people you work with.”

That staff engagement went up a notch last year when he awarded staff a £2.8m special bonus, which he covered personally.

In turn, Robertson must trust his staff - he admits he is no fashion expert. “We let them get on with it. They’re going to know far more about social media than I’m ever going to,” he says.

Robertson maintains his phenomenal success has not changed him. “More grey hairs maybe,” he jokes. “I still have a laugh at every opportunity.” It’s true that he does have a camaraderie with his management team - finance director Nick Beighton interrupts the photo shoot to argue that he, and not Robertson, has the face to carry the Asos brand.

One thing that remains unchanged is Robertson’s fierce ambition. Back in 2010, when the etailer was making just over £200m in turnover, he told the world that in five years it would break through the £1bn sales barrier. It is on track to achieve that this year - a full 12 months ahead of schedule.

One Oracle Retail Week Awards judge says of Robertson’s target: “I thought, blimey that’s bold - you will go off the rails. But in spite of this stellar growth, its managed to keep momentum and it will achieve a billion pounds turnover.”

Robertson says setting that target “galvanised” the business. “It made people understand what we were trying to build,” he says.

“It also changed the mindset internally. If that’s where we’re going, everything we do has to line up behind that, from the people we employ, the systems we put into place, to the size of the warehouse.”

Robertson remained tight-lipped about what his next target will be, but he believes that Asos has still not even scraped the surface of what it can achieve as the internet becomes the channel of choice for youngsters.

“We think we’re tiny in the overall scheme of things. New Look has a £1bn business in its own right. We sell New Look and we sell Asos and we sell 850 other brands. If you get 5% of the purse for all the brands we sell, that’s a f**king big business.”