LEADERS HAVE TO BE COMFORTABLE
MAKING OTHERS UNCOMFORTABLE.

Leadership is about pursuing a vision, something you’ve never seen, that’s somewhere you’ve never been. As creatures of habit, change is uncomfortable for humans, but for the people and partners of RH, a culture of leadership and innovation is at the core of who we are, and reflected in everything we do.

We’ve grown comfortable making ourselves and others uncomfortable for nearly two decades, and plan to continue for the foreseeable future. It’s what leaders do, and how we know we’re on the right path. Whether it’s opening our first restaurant in an abandoned historic building in a residential neighborhood of Chicago that wasn’t zoned for retail – The seven-year journey of overcoming the obstacles to bring RH New York to life (visit RH.com and watch RH New York, The Movie) – The years conceptualizing and creating RH Ski House, the encore to RH Beach House that will be introduced this Winter – Leading the redevelopment of San Francisco’s Pier 70 in the Dogpatch by reimagining the Historic Bethlehem Steel Building in what was a deserted district void of any retail, opening this Spring – The decades designing our first Guesthouse with the vision of creating a new market for travelers seeking privacy and luxury opening Summer of 2020 in the city that never sleeps – Or the thousands of hours spent with our partners Julie Lawrence and the Van Thiel family refining and perfecting our two newest collections gracing the cover and opening spreads of our Fall Source Book and Website, you should count on us to take the road less traveled, one guided by our vision and values that will continue to ignite our spirit and inspire our customers.

Eighteen years ago, we began this journey with a vision of transforming a nearly bankrupt business that had a $20 million market cap and a box of Oxydol laundry detergent on the cover of its catalog into the leading luxury home brand in the world. The lessons and learnings, the insights and intricacies, the sacrifices made and scar tissue developed by getting knocked down 10 times and getting up 11 leads to the development of the mental and moral qualities that build character in individuals and form cultures in organizations. Lessons that can’t be learned in a classroom, or by managing a business, but must be earned by building one.

In a world that rewards duplication and penalizes the inherent bumpy road of innovation (especially for companies in the public domain), we, the people and partners of RH, will continue to drive ourselves to destroy today’s reality so we can create tomorrow’s future, while remaining completely comfortable, making ourselves and others uncomfortable.

Carpe Diem,

Gary Friedman
Chairman & CEO