Katy Andersen joined Lay & Wheeler in January 2016 and became Managing Director in the summer of the same year. Previously, she ran the service development team at onefinestay, a UK-based hospitality start-up, for four years, after a year at the wine flash sale site Lot18 in New York City. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB from Princeton University, between which she was a Fulbright Scholar in Italy studying artisan cheese. She also holds a WSET Diploma.
How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
When I was in college, I started a farmers’ market on Princeton’s campus. Bringing people together from all walks of life -- university officials, farmers, bakers, townspeople, students, professors -- to sell and enjoy local food was an excellent introduction to what it takes to get a business off the ground. And I had a wonderful cofounder, which taught me the importance of working with the best people you possibly can. Now, leading Lay & Wheeler, we treat hiring as the single most important activity towards building a large and profitable fine wine business.
In business school, I led our Wine & Cuisine Society. It’s easy to dismiss this type of experience as just a student club, but it turned out to be some of my first exposure to the opportunity of exciting people to learn about and enjoy fine wine. We were fortunate to welcome world-class producers like Opus One and Chateau Margaux, and it was addictive, introducing classmates to the best wines in the world. The opportunity was clear!
How has your previous employment experience aided your tenure at Lay & Wheeler?
During business school, I was fortunate to spend a summer working at Amazon, where the customer experience comes first, above anything else. That was a business life lesson I’ll never forget -- and fortunately, one Rowan [Naked Wines founder] believes in, too. I then spent four years at a hospitality start-up, heading up the team responsible for developing the customer experience, which only reinforced the lesson!
When I first graduated from Harvard Business School, I worked at an online wine start-up called Lot18. They got two things right: education and culture. Everyone’s wine courses, through the WSET (Wine & Education Spirits Trust), were paid for - so I took their Level 3 and passed. This was later my basis for undertaking Level 4, the Diploma programme, in 2015, which is the de facto certification for wine professionals and immensely useful at Lay & Wheeler. And the culture was one of personal responsibility - you could work your own hours, take whatever holiday you wanted - and care, where the company looked after things like healthy snacks in the office and wellness classes so we could all get on with our work. I’ve brought those ideas to Lay & Wheeler, where we are rebuilding the business to become a place where we focus on the most important things -- delivering our numbers and a superb fine wine experience for our customers -- and not counting holiday days or fixing breakfast.
What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Lay & Wheeler?
I walked into this business, which was founded in 1854, one year ago knowing two things. We had great wines, great customers and some great people. But, we were losing money, and we weren’t growing. The first challenge was rebuilding the team. The second was starting to make money again. So it was a big thrill when Majestic PLC, our parent company, reported we were moving into 30% sales growth year and year in our interim results this autumn. And later, that we were up over 60% year on year over the Christmas trading period.
What advice can you offer to women who want a career in your industry?
Fine wine is an industry often referred to as an ‘old boys club.’ Don’t get caught up in it -- there are two things you need to know. The first is that if you build a great business, everyone will want to work with you, irrespective of age or gender or anything else. And there are a lot of bright young people, men and women, already in the trade. If you see your gender as a problem, it might become one. So see it as an opportunity. Make some girlfriends! Some allies, whether they’re your colleagues or counterparts, with whom to share a glass of wine and compare notes, commiserate or celebrate. Or all three!
What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career to date?
People make the world go round -- so find the best and invest in them. If you have a great team you can trust, all the other pieces fall into place. And when a team member isn’t working out, don’t drag it out. Take the hard right over the easy wrong, and help them move on.
How do you maintain a work/life balance?
There are two things I need to function: sleep and exercise. But I never had enough time to do both and everything else. The solution was a surprising one -- an OMM backpack. I now run home each night from the office, with my clothes, laptop and often a bottle of wine on my back. It’s a 6.5 mile run along the Thames, where I can reflect on what’s happening in the business. And it’s given me an extra hour in the evenings to catch up on work or sleep. I cook dinner at least two nights during the work week. It’s rewarding to master a new recipe and to share a healthy, delicious meal with my boyfriend. We open a bottle of wine (from Lay & Wheeler, of course!), light candles, put away our phones, and talk! I also believe you have to love what you do -- the more fluid work and life are, the more you naturally find balance.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
I think our biggest opportunity is to keep an eye out for each other -- whether it’s mentoring, promoting, encouraging, or simply leading by example.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?
It’s made all the difference! Let me share a story. As an MBA intern at AmazonFresh, their grocery delivery group, I was assigned a mentor named Dini Rao. Dini was an impressive lady -- she’d helped start (and subsequently shut down) Amazon Wine, and was studying for her MW (Master of Wine, of which there are only a few hundred in the world). On top of that, she was one of the stars of the team. She was an inspiration to work in wine, and really looked out for me. Fast forward exactly one year, and I was about to graduate from business school. Dini had left Amazon to join a small, fast-growing startup called Lot18. I reached out to her for job advice, and within a month she was not just a mentor, but also my manager! So it was no surprise when, five years later, I reached out to her for advice before joining Lay & Wheeler. When it turned out she had met and trusted my future boss, I knew it was the right decision to say yes.
Which other female leaders do you admire and why?
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for her love and commitment to her work, her family and her country. I’ve just begun her memoir (a gift from my boyfriend!), and her brilliance, strength and leadership have been clear from page one. I’m also constantly in awe by the successes I read -- daily -- of any and all female entrepreneurs! We are surrounded by great female business leaders, and their voices are increasingly heard. Let’s hope it continues to snowball.
What do you want Lay & Wheeler to accomplish in the next year?
We’ve had a special year: in a period of significant change for a 163 year old business, we’ve delivered better-than-ever sales results. But we’ll only be a success if we can sustain it, and continue to grow the business.