Kendra Scott Eyes Global Expansion

All businesses – whether service or product-based – need to consider taking their business global.  It's a good growth method.

Take Kendra Scott.  She recently named Adrienne Gernand the company's first chief business officer.

In her new role, Gernand will be responsible for broadening the scope of the Kendra Scott brand through category growth and global expansion. 

Gernand comes with experience helping scale such retail brands as Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta and The Children’s Place. She has worked on new market entry models, the optimization of real estate portfolios and the formation of strategic partnerships.

Learn more how Gernand will identify high potential global growth opportunities for Kendra Scott.

The Hidden Tax On Every Interrupted Thought

What's the rarest skill in the modern economy?  Attention span.  I may have lost you already.

There is a version of productivity that looks like motion but produces very little. You know it when you see it – the day full of switching, responding, reacting – and you know it even better at 5 p.m. when you can’t quite name what you actually accomplished. It felt busy. It wasn’t deep.

What you were practicing, without choosing to, is the dominant cognitive mode of the modern era. And what you were not practicing is the discipline of one thing.

Find out what the hidden tax is on every interrupted thought.

Oh, and keep this in mind:  What the biographical record of high-achievers tends to reveal, stripped of legend, is not supernatural talent but an almost stubborn commitment to staying with a single problem long enough for it to yield.  To achieve that, you must not just work differently, but think differently. 

1.9% Isn't a Ceiling. It's a Gap.

More women are planning to start businesses this year than ever before. According to an “Entrepreneurship in 2026” survey by QuickBooks, one in four women plan to launch a new business this year. Another 58 percent say they would consider it. 

Only 1.9% of women-owned businesses ever reach $1 million in annual revenue. Not because women aren’t capable, but because the system – and often our own beliefs about money – have held us back.

Imagine if 10% of women-owned businesses hit $1M.  The Women Presidents Organization (WPO) would be fortunate to serve them all!  

That 1.9% isn't a ceiling. It's a gap – and gaps are where organizations like WPO do their best work. Every woman who joins a peer advisory group, finds a mentor, or simply decides her business deserves to be a $1M business is closing that gap, one decision at a time.

The women starting businesses this year don't need permission. They need community, capital, and a peer group that expects them to think bigger. That's what WPO and WPO Chicago is here for.

So here's the real question: What would it take for your business to be one of the 10%?