Is Josie Natori ready to step down?

Her son, Kenneth Natori, who earned his BA at Amherst College in Massachusetts and MBA from Stanford, California, was recently promoted to president of The Natori Company. According to the company, “Ken will immediately take control of all finance and operations, while continuing to be responsible for the company’s e-commerce, licensing and PR/marketing departments.”

Josie was effusive in her comments about her son’s ascent within the company. “I am thrilled to be promoting Kenneth to president,” she said. “Since he left Wall Street to join the company in 2007, he has learned the business through his work in finance, single-handedly launched e-commerce, dramatically expanded our licensing business in size and breadth, and guided the expansion of our marketing efforts.”

But the media brief also noted that, even with Ken’s promotion, Josie continues to take an active role as CEO and chief creative officer, running several departments including design, sales and merchandising, product development and production.

“His interest is more in improving our operations and efficiency,” Josie said via e-mail from New York. “While he is creative, he recognizes that there are too many people in fashion with a view on what works creatively, and not enough people with a view on what works in terms of process. He picks and chooses his creative battles and realizes there is a lot more low-hanging fruit in terms of improving our operations.”

Though it seemed like a natural fit for Ken, talks of bringing him into the business fold only came later.

“We didn’t really speak much about the mechanics of the business,” Josie said. “The discussions about him joining on a day-to-day basis didn’t really come up until after he graduated from business school.”

For his part, Ken said: “As Josie’s son, I have navigated my role in our family business gently, and have mostly focused on running my direct departments. I have never been more excited about the future of the company, and look forward to working with Josie to provide strategy, structure, leadership and support to the entire company.”

Expansion

Last year, the company expanded across Asia, particularly Japan, with new storefronts. Now it’s not just going into retail but also across categories.

“There are many categories, such as shoes and handbags, that are natural extensions of our current collections, and I know Ken is set on finding partners that can help us expand horizontally,” Josie explained.

“Our latest partnership is in leg wear, which we are showing in the February market for a Fall 2016 in-store debut. This latest launch strengthens our ability to fully dress women from the inside out, and from day to night.”