Make Your Mark Alex and Ani Bracelet

The news of Alex and Ani's bankruptcy was in one way unsurprising.

Its struggles have been well-covered and founder Carolyn Rafaelian left a year ago, with a bit of push.

But it still left me with a pang.

Because I had loved the story of the astonishing rise of this cool female entrepreneur from Cranston.

There was a shiver of pride in 2017 when Forbes named her the country's 18th richest self-made woman with a worth of $1.2 billion. That same list included Oprah Winfrey, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and eBay guru Meg Whitman, but Forbes put Rafaelian on the cover as the most interesting story of all.

In many ways she was.

By now, billion-dollar tech companies are common, but a jewelry unicorn?

The compelling part was how Rafaelian projected her eccentric personality into her products, an all-American tale in the vein of Steve Jobs.

Like him, Rafaelian was a bit wacky. She had a make-your-own-rules approach, but that proved the secret sauce for both. They put their quirkiness into their goods.

More:Alex and Ani files for bankruptcy protection

Yes, Rafaelian had a great product: expandable wire bangle bracelets you festooned with charms. But she made it clear she was really selling something else.

Positive energy.

That was the buzz that made customers buy.

In the same way people wanted Apple products to be part of a "think different" culture, Alex and Ani customers liked the promise of earthly balance.

It was actually brilliant. If you gave Rafaelian's invention to 1,000 people and sent them to Shark Tank, 999 would have said, "Let's sell this expandable bracelet."

Rafaelian said, "Let's sell harmony with the universe."

Of such vision, great entrepreneurs are made.

Alex and Ani's "killer app" – both psychologically and profit-wise – was that people could add dozens of charms not just to show off bling, but reflect who you are.

Owls, Evil Eyes, friendship symbols and hundreds more.

But behind each, Rafaelian tossed in even deeper meaning.

This charm here reflected growth, that one for faith, others for strength, hope, protection or luck.

That built the company from around $2 million in sales in 2009 to a half billion seven years later.

And it all happened out of Cranston.

More:Court docs: Carolyn Rafaelian no longer controls Alex and Ani

I loved that part of the story, too.

And that she did it in so unlikely a field – jewelry, whose once-huge footprint here had declined as dramatically as factories in the rust-belt.

Carolyn's father Ralph Rafaelian owned one of the local jewelry firms that survived, a maker of trinkets like Liberty Bells and American flag pins.

It's where Rafaelian got the know-how — and a factory.

But no one would say she simply built on what was there.

That's what makes hers a great American story. She re-imagined the company, pivoting to the future — dramatically — instead of just being a steward of the past.

It made her a billionaire at age 50, and she lived the part, buying a Newport mansion, a wine vineyard and a home on California's Venice Beach. And many others.

There have been many analyses of Alex and Ani's decline. I won't say "downfall" because it's still a big business. The current owners are saying bankruptcy is to recover from the pandemic's hit on retail store sales. And though she's now far from a billionaire, Rafaelian is still worth a cool $100 million or so.

Yet the company is hardly what it was, and there's no way to spin bankruptcy as a positive.

One day there may be a Harvard Business School case study on what happened, but some of it stems from the ups and downs after Rafaelian brought in a fellow URI grad named Giovanni Feroce as CEO in 2009.

More:Feroce's high life comes crashing down

He was yin to her yang, a former Army liaison officer who once worked at Central Command with U.S. Army General Tommy Franks, who oversaw the 2003 Iraq invasion that pushed out Saddam Hussein.

Feroce's hyper-ambitious marketing discipline — and vision — was at the heart of Alex and Ani's explosive rise. But in the end, his ego was as big as Rafaelian's and his style as opposite. So they parted ways.

Feroce went on to found a new watch and clothing company with the Benrus brand that he vowed would be worth $1 billion, but it imploded after some early buzz.

Clearly, this story has a lot of fallout from egos.

Back at Alex and Ani, problems behind Rafaelian's celebrated quirkiness surfaced when ousted execs sued, telling tales of business decisions being made by tarot cards and spiritual advisers. There was the time a shaman was hired to put crystals around the Cranston headquarters and a claim an astrologist was put on the board.

Had Alex and Ani kept booming, we'd no doubt be extolling such things in the same way Steve Jobs added to his legend by walking around the Apple office barefoot, firing people randomly and living in a house with no furniture.

But one can't help but think that some forms of quirkiness — even if at first the key to success — can go too far.

Like Icarus, Rafaelian's Alex and Ani soared high by defying complacency, but was brought crashing to earth when creative ambition turned into hubris.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

Make Your Mark Alex and Ani Bracelet

Source: https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/columns/2021/06/11/painful-see-ri-high-flyer-alex-and-ani-file-bankruptcy/7638130002/

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