How Stanley 1913’s C-suite Partnership Helped Scale a Century-Old Brand

This piece summarizes a conversation between Kate Ridley, chief brand officer at Stanley 1913, and Graham Nearn, chief product and sustainability officer, about how a strong executive partnership supported the brand through transformational growth. They focus on interpersonal practices, decision frameworks, and concrete approaches to partnerships, product and international expansion.

Leadership approach that speeds execution

Ridley and Nearn emphasize candid, frequent communication as central to making high-stakes decisions quickly. They use a concept they call "secure vulnerability": leaders share uncertainties and trade-offs openly so the team can align on priorities without performative certainty. That approach reduces late-stage surprises that commonly derail launches.

Pre-alignment and continuous dialogue

Before launching campaigns or products the team invests in pre-alignment: stakeholders agree on intent, success metrics, and non-negotiables. This is followed by continuous dialogue during execution to surface issues early and adjust. The goal is to prevent costly missteps by catching misalignment before public launch.

A practical growth filter: should vs could

When evaluating new opportunities, Stanley 1913 distinguishes between what it could do and what it should do. The company combines psychographic and commercial data with emotional conviction to decide which partnerships or products match the brand's strategic trajectory. That discipline helps prioritize opportunities that drive sustainable value rather than episodic attention.

Partnerships and culturally relevant international growth

Ridley and Nearn discuss collaborations such as LoveShackFancy and a partnership with Jennie Kim as examples of how culturally relevant creative partnerships can unlock new markets and audiences. They stress that international growth should be activated through partnerships that resonate culturally, not by transplanting domestic strategies unchanged.

Diagnosing capability gaps and investing in talent

The leaders describe a methodical way to surface capability gaps: collect employee feedback, frame specific commercial risks the gaps create, and present a clear investment case to stakeholders. Turning qualitative feedback into concrete capability-build projects makes it easier to secure resources and measure progress.

Practical implications for other legacy brands

• Make leadership vulnerability a repeatable practice: schedule candid check-ins that focus on trade-offs and unknowns.
• Write a short pre-alignment brief for major launches: objective, metrics, red lines, and contingency triggers.
• Apply a simple "should vs could" checklist to every new partnership, using both psychographic insight and commercial thresholds.
• Convert employee feedback into prioritized capability projects with measurable outcomes.

The conversation lays out a pragmatic playbook for evolving a 100-year-old brand while handling hypergrowth and global expansion. The emphasis is on leadership behaviors that produce faster, clearer decisions and on structured frameworks that turn opportunities into scalable, brand-appropriate outcomes.