Hun begyndte sin karriere i salgsafdelingen og blev til sidst indkøber hos Nordstrom; Tricia Smith, den globale administrerende direktør for Anthropologie Group, siger, at hun har haft en lidt utraditionel rejse, der førte hende til at lede den globale livsstilsvirksomhed.
“I spent a lot of my time early on connecting with customers,” Smith said in a conversation with Jenny B. Fine, editor in chief of Beauty Inc and executive editor of Beauty at WWD, at WWD’s 2026 Women in Power event. “I was a young woman who loved fashion and I loved shopping.”
Efter at have avanceret gennem forskellige ledelsesroller i Nordstrom, indså hun for syv til otte år siden, at hun ønskede at lære mere om forretningen og detailbranchen. Mens de fleste af Smiths tidligere stillinger fokuserede på merchandising, forlod hun Nordstrom, da muligheden opstod for at overtage ledelsen af Anthropologie.
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At nævne skiftet fra en virksomhed, hun tilbragte næsten 25 år i, og at arbejde inden for et område, der lå uden for hendes sædvanlige, som en risiko, sagde Smith, at muligheden for både at lede og lære samtidigt trak hende til — hvilket hun ser som det mest givende for kvinder.
“I absolutely love creating opportunities for women,” Smith explained. “While I didn’t see a ceiling or any limitation for being a woman in our industry, I also didn’t see a lot of women who came before me in those types of roles. I wanted to create opportunities for other women — and with my ambition and aspiration, it became clear that it was time to make a change.”
Starting her role at Anthropologie in April 2021, she took up the CEO position in the midst of the pandemic; Smith was forced to rely on her own expertise to take the lead of the organization.
“The Anthropologie culture was not that dissimilar to Nordstrom — with a lot of long-tenured people that have worked at the brand for a very long time and absolutely loved it. Then you had a lot of new people that were coming on board; some of whom had never met each other in person because they were hired during the pandemic.”
Når hun skulle samle sit eget lederskab og bringe brandet til et nyt sted, ønskede Smith også at være respektfuld over for den sti, brandet allerede var på. Det betød at definere virksomhedens overordnede værdier og deres udvikling, især i takt med at de introducerede mærket for en ny generation.
Når hun samlede sit ledelsesteam, sagde Smith, at hun sørgede for at bruge tid sammen med folk for at forstå, hvor de har haft mulighed for at få succes.
“We have all women leaders on our executive team that have worked together over the course of four-and-a-half years, some of which had been with the brand for quite some time. Some of them we brought on board — with very diverse backgrounds — and some have longer tenures than others.”
While it wasn’t the goal for her team to be all women, it ended up being a team of all women leading the charge for the company.
“Our chief operating officer has an automotive background, which is different in a retail industry. She thinks differently and she approaches things very differently, and I love that. It’s important as leaders of organizations to make sure that you create space for people to bring their authentic self. It’s important for a broad group of women and employees to see that you can show up differently for work. You can show up differently in a meeting and you can be as effective as somebody else; it doesn’t necessarily need to be that the culture is created around a certain way of leading — and that the people can see each other,” Smith concluded.
