Within the wake of mass layoffs and a unstable job market, many CEOs say making cuts and restructuring choices will be powerful.

However for Levi Strauss CEO Charles Bergh, there’s nothing powerful about it.

In a brand new interview with CNBC, Bergh claims that he fired greater than half of the highest executives on the firm when he took over in September 2011.

“The simplest option to change the tradition is to vary the individuals. I had 11 direct experiences, and within the first 18 months, 9 of them had been gone,” Bergh advised CNBC in an interview.

^{Profile shoot of Charles V Bergh, President & Chief Government Officer of Levi Strauss & Co. (Getty Photos)}

When Bergh took over as CEO, the corporate was making an attempt to resonate with youthful consumers.

“The corporate’s efficiency had been actually erratic for greater than 10 years,” he mentioned. “One 12 months the revenues would go up, however the income would go down. The subsequent 12 months, they’d repair the income, however the revenues went down.”

However as Bergh applied adjustments to the corporate’s enterprise mannequin, he advised CNBC that his largest remorse was that he did not let sufficient individuals go quickly sufficient.

“My largest remorse is that we did not lean into a few of these nice leaders, and we misplaced some as a result of I held on to any person longer than I ought to have,” he mentioned bluntly.

Bergh is about to step down as CEO subsequent 12 months. He shall be succeeded by former Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass.

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Levi Strauss is coming off a rougher-than-expected Q2 2023 after reporting a excessive drop off in wholesale income and tender gross sales in its U.S. market.

Total gross sales had been $1.34 billion, a 9% lower from the $1.47 billion in gross sales the corporate noticed on the similar time final 12 months.

Levi Strauss was down simply over 18.6% in a one-year interval as of Wednesday afternoon.

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