Doreen Bilezikian
“Someone to Be Proud Of” Series
April 7, 2008
Doreen Bilezikian ’61
Doreen Bilejikian, UMass Boston ’61, was a recent guest at the
Keith Motley: Welcome. I'm so honored to be in your presence today and hosting this event featuring one of our distinguished alumnae. As you know, the
You're the reason why there is this ethic of care that permeates the campus. You're the reason why teaching is still important even though we're one of the most prolific research universities in this city. Please come back and visit. We have many wonderful things to see and experience.
Thank you for this opportunity to introduce our featured guest, Doreen Bilezikian. Doreen is a graduate of the Class of 1961 Sate College of Boston. She's a daughter of immigrants. This distinguished alumna story resonates deeply with the pathway of so many of our students. With the determination to succeed; astute business sense; and a wealth of people skills, Doreen Bilezikian has built one of the most well known retail establishments in
I have to admit, I am the Christmas Tree Shop person in my house. I'm the one that goes shopping for one thing and comes out with a whole basket full of things. So you have laid an unbelievable foundation. But most importantly, your ethic of giving back is what I'm so proud of this morning. Through the Bilezikian Family Foundation, Doreen has become a philanthropic leader. We're delighted to have this time together with her. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Doreen Bilezikian.
Glenn M.: Doreen, we're very happy to have you here. As Keith mentioned, you started your education at
Doreen Bilezikian: I think in those days most of us who graduated, did not become teachers. Rather, it was our passport, it was our ticket, to a degree and then to go on to do other things.
I became a social worker. I worked for the City of Boston Welfare Department and then went on to work for the MSPCC, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Later, I went to
Glenn M.: So you are BC alum also.
Doreen Bilezikian: Not really. At that time BC had a rule that if you were more than four months pregnant you could not attend school. So they actually asked me to leave, and I didn't get my degree. When I tell that story my niece asks me, "Did you grow up in the Neanderthal era?"
Glenn M.: I suspect they have changed that policy. How did you end up down on the
Doreen Bilezikian: Well, my husband, Chuck, was in retail. He worked at Gilchrist and at several other retailers. One was a small company called Cambridge Coffee, Tea and Spice. Remember that?
Glenn M.: Yes, I think they were located in
Doreen Bilezikian: Yes. At the time, that store wasn't doing very well, and Chuck wanted to have his own business. We looked around and tried different companies. Chuck had done business with this fellow who owned this little Christmas Tree Shop on the corner of 6-A and
In 1970, we went to the
Glenn M.: How large was the business back then?
Doreen Bilezikian: There were three little stores; one in West Yarmouth, one in West Dennis and then the store in Yarmouth Port. They were all half the size of what they are today.
In
Glenn M.: What did you do in the off-season?
Doreen Bilezikian: Well, we started building a business in the off-season. Generally, Chuck and I would go for vacation the first week of November, because that was the end of the season. But we still kept busy doing other things.
Glenn M.: Was the merchandise in the shops similar to what the merchandise is now?
Doreen Bilezikian: Oh, no. The business changed dramatically. It was a close-out business. In those days, you wanted to buy things that were ten cents on the dollar and some people would say, "I'd rather throw it in the river than sell it for ten cents on the dollar". It was a different business then. Today, it's a chic business.
We went through a major learning experience. Although Chuck was the retailer, it was a different business for him to learn. For me it was thirty-seven years of on-the-job training.
Glenn M.: What was it like to expand the business off the
Doreen Bilezikian: Well, that was a huge decision. Our first off-Cape store was Pembroke. Although it was only forty-five minutes away, you would have thought we were going five hundred miles away.
We faced many critical questions. Could we do business over the bridge? How were we going to manage it? How were we going to supply the store? Can we really do this? It took us about six or eight months to make the decision to go ahead and expand over the bridge. One of the important pieces of this expansion was our learning to delegate. Once we did that, we were able to open stores elsewhere.
Glenn M.: What was it like running a business with your husband? How did you and Chuck split responsibilities?
Doreen Bilezikian: Well, some things I'll tell you and some things I won't! He had his responsibilities and I had my responsibilities.
I did some of the buying. I did the marketing and the PR, the advertising. He stayed out of that. He had much of the other things to do -- the real estate, the operations, that kind of thing. So, I left him to play with that. We always went overseas together.
Glenn M.: When did the slogan “don't you just love a bargain?” come about?
Doreen Bilezikian: Well, that was mine! It came about when we were starting to really advertise with television, and to do the fliers at the end of the '70's, beginning of the '80's. I developed that whole part of the business.
Glenn M.: And, it has stuck?
Doreen Bilezikian: It stuck, yes, it did. And, then we developed a jingle.
When we started our advertising we had, 'don't you just love a bargain?' In focus groups women would say, "Well, if I'm in the kitchen, I want to have a signal on the TV so I can run and see what you're advertising." We developed the jingles to 'Don't you just love a bargain?' so our target consumer would be triggered to watch and not just listen to the ad.
Glenn M.: How about the distinctive look of the stores?
Doreen Bilezikian: I think that was really Chuck. He likes to create a very comfortable atmosphere for the customer. He would really spend a lot of time on store design -- color, lighting, fixtures and moldings. He really had much to do with creating that ambiance for the customer.
Glenn M.: At any point did you ever consider changing the name of the store from Christmas Tree Shops?
Doreen Bilezikian: We inherited the name Christmas Tree Shop. Although it was hokey, the name did have some good will. It was small, little business, and our horizons were to become the best gift shop on the
Glenn M.: You grew the business to twenty-six stores all of New England and in
Doreen Bilezikian: There was no specific time. It just evolved, it really did. I think that most entrepreneurs struggle with developing the infrastructure to scale the business. For us, infrastructure was establishing the accounting department, HR department, real estate department, and so on.
As I mentioned, learning to delegate responsibility to others was difficult but important. That's when I think some of the stress developed for us. Others don't quite do things the way you would do them. You've got to allow people the freedom to execute their way.
Glenn M.: Were you sourcing a lot of your product from
Doreen Bilezikian: Yes. We went to
Glenn M.: Were there any other women that you could collaborate with and to give you advice on running the business?
Doreen Bilezikian: There weren't very many women in business that I could relate to at that time.
Glenn M.: You sold to Bed,
Doreen Bilezikian: We sold it in 2003, but I think that we were thinking of it in 2001-and a half. It took about a year and a half to make the decision. It was a very, very hard decision to make. It was difficult for Chuck and me. It's our baby. It was like another member of our family. It really was very hard for both of us.
Glenn M.: I know your current activities are heavily focused on philanthropy through your family foundation. Please tell us a little bit about how the foundation operates and what important causes you support.
Doreen Bilezikian: The Family Foundation is one way that we can all continue to share in a meaningful endeavor. The Bilezikian Family Foundation is governed by our two boys, Chuck and me. We have a fifth person to break the deadlock sometimes, and to bring an outside perspective to some of our discussions. The Foundation continues to evolve.
Our youngest son, Jeff, is very active in managing the Foundation and really is the leader now for the family. He works hard at sourcing proposals and presenting potential organizations for grants. My older son has a little import business. He isn't able to devote as much time to it.
The focus of our giving is human services. What our money supports is quite varied. For example, we support bricks and mortar for the Boston Food Bank and the Ronald McDonald House at Children's Hospital. We also have given money to repair the fish tanks at our local Brewster Museum of Science on the
Glenn M.: I read a story in the Cape Cod Times that you're trying to pass that 'giving back' notion on to your grandchildren. How are you accomplishing that?
Doreen Bilezikian: We are fortunate, we have six grandchildren. The oldest is thirteen. I believe it is important to teach children the importance of giving back. I’ve read that it should start at about eight or nine years old.
One year at Christmas I gave the three oldest grandchildren a hundred dollars each. They had to find an organization to which to donate the money within a six month period, and then report back to me what they did with the money. They did a very good job. Our oldest grandchild gave to the YMCA. She is doing volunteer work there as a result of that. She goes there once a week. They give her meaningful work to do, even though she's just thirteen. A second grandchild is involved with 4-H. She gave the hundred dollars to a farm that had to build a new barn. The third grandchild donated his money to a pet care center. These were all meaningful causes.
Glenn M.: What a fabulous idea of being able to pass on very early on in life the notion of giving back. Let me open up to the audience any questions you may have of Doreen.
Audience Participant: Doreen, you spoke about 2001 and the difficulty in deciding to sell the business. If you had kept the business, what were some of the challenges you would have faced?
Doreen Bilezikian: We were at the point at which we needed a large infusion of capital to grow. We had to build another warehouse and hire more staff. The only way we could have done those things would have been to go public. We were family-owned business. As you know, there's a different mentality to being a publicly held company. Once you go public, you have to run it for Wall Street, and you don't run it for yourself anymore. Even though you have a successful company, if you don't meet their criteria, you're out of luck. We were not of that mindset. That was an important part of our decision to sell.
Audience Participant: Can you talk about the psychology about what it is about that store that keeps bringing people back?
Doreen Bilezikian: As part of our marketing I used to go around and speak to different audiences. At one event I was about to tell the story of the Christmas Tree Shops. One woman raised her hand and said, "Before you start, I want you to know that for 20 bucks, you're cheaper than a psychiatrist”. We have very loyal customers.
Audience Participant: What was it like the first morning when you woke up and the numbers weren't coming over the fax?
Doreen Bilezikian: It felt like a loss, I'll tell you. There was a void. For the first six months it was really very tough to make that adjustment.
Audience Participant: Would you talk about the dynamics of working with you husband in an office next door and how you kept from overwhelming your personal life at the dinner table every night?
Doreen Bilezikian: To tell you the truth, we really weren't very successful at keeping our personal lives separate from the business. (Applause and laughter)
There has to be a balance I think, and it's very difficult to achieve that balance.
It's very hard when you're running the business seven days a week. We would get up in the morning and run to the home fax machine to look at the numbers. It is your life.
Our sons are very aware of the balance issue. I think they're trying to achieve the appropriate mix for them between family and business.
There's a lot of fun to running a family business. It's your business and you can do what you want. If you have a bad year, you can make it up next year. That’s much harder to achieve with a public company.
Audience Participant: It sounds like you might not have always seen eye to eye with your husband…
Doreen Bilezikian: Well, who does? (laughter)
Audience Participant: Did you ever think of going off on your own saying to Chuck, "I've had enough"?
Doreen Bilezikian: No, I had carved out my own little space, and I was very happy with my own little space. I was very successful at it. I liked the family business.
I used to get calls from headhunters all the time: "Do you want to come and be in charge of our advertising or marketing?" They didn’t know that I was a principal of the company.
Glenn M: How do you spend your time these days?
Doreen Bilezikian: Don't laugh. I have an office. Chuck and I have our own offices because there were still things I need. I need the infrastructure of a fax machine, conference room and other things. So, we have a little office up the street from where we live. You can actually walk there. It's so close. I'm busy all day long.
Glenn M.: Doreen, I call this program "Someone to be Proud Of", and you truly are someone we are very proud to have as an alumna of the