How Passion-Driven CEO Kathwari Turned Ethan Allen Into A Household Name

When Farooq Kathwari wanted to pursue a better life than the one he had in his native Kashmir, he took a big risk and left the land of his youth and came to America to start a new life. In 1988, he became the CEO of Ethan Allen, the iconic interior design company that specialized in furniture with a “colonial” look and feel.

He never forgot the refugee’s experience of leaving the familiar behind in order to be able to control his own destiny, so when he became Ethan Allen’s CEO, he did two things: first, to ensure that Ethan Allen could control its own destiny, he led a management buyout and took the company private in 1989. Then, he modernized the entire furniture line with a fresh look before putting the company back on the New York Stock Exchange.

The result is that at a time when research shows the average tenure of CEOs to be 7.6 years, Kathwari is now in his 36th year at the helm of Ethan Allen. He has helped transform the company into a household name, while burnishing its reputation for sustainability and treating people with dignity. Kathwari himself has earned accolades like the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his peace and diplomacy efforts.

Kathwari demonstrates the power of passion to turn a business into a force not only for great products but also a great culture and a better world. In the podcast, he explores the business and leadership fundamentals he draws on to achieve these extraordinary successes. To cite just one, early in his leadership at Ethan Allen, he began the practice of asking for weekly reports from his leadership team, asking questions such as: “What did you do this week to get better at improving your talent and service, growing your marketing within the team or community, improving technology, and stepping up in the space of social responsibility?”

The reports came back during the weekend, and Kathwari took the time to read them over, so he stayed engaged. He still does this every week. “I spend three or four hours on Sunday evening up to midnight answering, and I answer every one of them,” he says.

Listeners will get an inside look at the five key areas of accountability—talent, service, marketing, technology and social responsibility—forming the backbone of Kathwari’s leadership fundamentals. Key lessons and insights include:

• What playing the game of cricket can teach us about creating tight teams that can manage themselves.

• The important business lesson he learned about risk-taking from his experience as a refugee.

• The culture-building impact of storytelling on internal and external stakeholders.

Rather than keep his board of directors waiting for monthly or quarterly reports, Kathwari regularly sends them a selection of Business Status and WOW Stories from the weekly Management Reports he reads each weekend. “WOW stories highlight how our designers have wowed a customer,” Kathwari explains with a gleam in his eye. “Our board is very well-informed. My advice is that you should go out actively and seek these stories, and then make sure to spread them widely!”