The techie-turned-digital-fashion-expert is only two years removed from chucking a very creative career with BBC Food, the British television network. But she has clearly lost none of her lust for the creative arts; a few months ago she considered launching a clothing start-up business with her aunt.
“That was a security versus freedom decision,” laughs Suzy. “After three years of personal uncertainty, I wanted a salary for at least a few years.”
She was also paying off her tuition. Suzy left Bath University School of Management in September last year but her path was uncertain. At the start of the course, her classmates chatted corporate jobs – “but I just wanted to make stuff and create things,” she says.
In October last year, Suzy sprang a surprise when she joined Clarks, the giant British fashion retailer. Famed for shoe sales and kids’ sandals, it was a world away from her culinary quest.
Yet her background has the makings of a tech and website geek. Suzy has launched more websites than most web developers. She knows a great deal about web-based CMSs and is a qualified Scrum Master – a leader in agile software development.
She helped launch the BBC’s iPlayer product in 2007 and quickly realized her “heart and soul is in tech”. But Suzy also has a passion for fashion.
After two years at the BBC, ending in a project management role in 2009, she took a gamble on Net-a-Porter, the online luxury fashion retailer. “I realized that fashion in some areas was really still ignorant about e-commerce,” she says. “Websites hadn’t really cottoned on to any of that – it was still all about shops.”
Net-a-Porter, though, is a different beast. While some older outlets have struggled to adapt to younger, tech-savvy audiences, the company’s sales have sky-rocketed. Sales leapt 55% in 2012 from £238 million to £368 million. The firm’s founder, Natalie Massenet, was recently appointed chairwoman of the British Fashion Council.
“Net-a-Porter were obviously the best at doing high-end fashion online [at the time],” says Suzy. On an afternoon in 2009, she tracked down company founder Natalie, who was launching Net-a-Porter’s new iPhone app at Apple’s flagship store in Central London, through Twitter.
“I listened to the talk and then introduced myself and said I was really interested in fashion and tech,” laughs Suzy. The audacious move paid off. “She was amazing. She said: ‘yes, absolutely. Here’s my email – send me your CV. I went and interviewed and then went and worked for them.”
With a background in big companies and an MBA to boot, Suzy cuts a vaguely corporate figure. After reading English at Oxford University, she went to work for a start-up finance firm, set-up with Merrill Lynch, but went to work as a development producer when things didn’t work out.
“Coming from an English graduate background, my confidence and understanding of finance and business plans was really low,” says Suzy. “But I knew I could manage things and knew I was creative.”
She still harbors more unconventional career plans than your average MBA, though. When I ask what her motivation for enrolling at business school was, Suzy’s answer is all about entrepreneurship.
“I really [wanted] to get more confident to set-up a business,” she says. “I had got to a point through various routes in my career where I knew I could manage things and deliver things.”
Suzy studied an MSc in electronic publishing at City University London before training as a chef at City of Bath College. Her husband, an architect, had at the time been offered a job somewhere in Bath. “We decided to move, so I gave up the job [at Net-a-Porter] to go and be a chef – to just drop out and make things,” she says.
Her first plan was to set-up her own food business. It didn’t transpire. “It was a lack of confidence. Some [start-ups] are very successful but some fail abysmally. I thought I’d be in the latter category,” says Suzy.
So she learned her trade for two years at college between 2010 and 2012. It was more than just cooking. “If I want to learn to cook and I can stay at home and watch Masterchef,” she jokes.
She landed a job as a commis chef at a restaurant in Bath in 2011. But disaster struck when she slipped a disc in her back. It still plagues her today; the problem flared up again when she moved house two weeks ago.
“There was no trauma,” Suzy insists when I raise the subject. “It was gradual: the combined effort of 14-hour days where you’re on your feet all the time moving around a kitchen.”
It is a manageable injury. But the huge workload put her start-up plans on hold. “I was probably too old,” she deadpans. “I would not wish to work 20-hour days not really having many relationships outside the kitchen. The intensity of the work is enormous. The stuff you see on TV is really very different.”
But she hasn’t given up hope. “I thought about working in a soup truck. I still think there’s a very valid opportunity to go to Bath University in the afternoons and evenings, because the food offering is frankly terrible,” she jokes.
After a stint as a food journalist at the BBC, it was time for an MBA. “I had good solid experience, but with this gap it was going to be a bit tricky to get back to regular corporate life,” she says, “and an MBA would help me do that.”
Suzy met the head of branding at Clarks in the summer before enrolling at Bath. When the time came to begin an MBA project, she gave him a call. “He came back with this amazing, brilliant project to look at social media in China,” she says.
After working on the project for five months – which included a trip to Shanghai – Clarks took her on as a freelance digital manager. “I did a couple of day’s work which turned into a couple of weeks and then they asked me to manage for the season – 4 months’ work,” says Suzy.
Out of the blue, her boss resigned. A digital marketing manager’s role became available – “a perfect fit for me”. “I kind of have three threads in my life now: fashion, food and tech. And they intertwine.”
Would she have got the job without an MBA? “I don’t think so. Other than it proving something to an employer, it proved to me what I’m good at. It becomes easier to see what you’re good at and how to stand out, which makes it much easier to sell yourself.”
She didn’t go into business with aunty McKeever – but she doesn’t rule out a foray into entrepreneurship. “The MBA did help deconstruct the idea that you’re either an entrepreneur or a corporate person. I felt it was a false distinction,” says Suzy.
“Flipping between small companies and large companies is a completely legitimate – and quite savvy – career choice. With this job I don’t know where it will lead me. But that’s fine.”
Student Reviews
University of Bath School of Management (MBA)
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