Jim McCann
Starting with a flower shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan 41 years ago, Jim McCann, 66, built a publicly traded flower and gift franchiser with revenue of $1.2 billion. His strategy: pounce on new ways to market his products. In 1986, believing customers would respond to an 800 number in the company name, he bought 1-800-Flowers from a defunct firm. Five years later, betting that ecommerce would take off, he launched a website, eventually adding “dotcom” to the company name in 1995. His latest bet is that customers will want to order flowers with voice commands to a virtual assistant like Alexa. The company went public in 1999 but its stock has underperformed, never rising above its offering price of $21. In March 2016, McCann announced he was turning the CEO job over to his brother Chris, the company’s president since 1995. Now executive chairman, Jim is investing in startups and exploring alternatives to traditional advertising. In this interview, which has been edited and condensed, he talks about building the company, embracing new technology and how to talk to customers about death. Continue reading >>>
