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Beth Cross was raised on a farm outside Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Her parents were successful entrepreneurs, and the farm was used for raising thoroughbreds - two aspects of her childhood which, with the advantage of hindsight, now appear to have crucially shaped her future. Beth was indeed fated to forge ahead as a businesswoman by introducing unlikely innovations in what is possibly the most traditional of all worlds: the seemingly male dominated world of English Saddle riding. Flair and an unusual capacity to see opportunities for improvement where others could not, together with persistence and hard work, contributed to make her venture an unqualified success. After completing her MBA at Stanford University, Beth, along with fellow student Pam Parker, began working at Bain Consulting Group. As colleagues, Beth and Pam worked for athletic shoe companies Reebok and Avia, developing designs and strategies, where they came across equestrian footwear. As a horse rider, Beth knew the extent to which riding shoes were technologically backward. But when at Reebok she floated the idea of entering the equestrian boot market, the response was, "Nice idea, but riding boots aren't sold at Foot Locker." Beth's own response was to quit her position at Bain and work full-time drawing up a business plan for going into that market. If sporting goods stores didn't sell riding boots, tack stores would surely do. In planning their strategy, Beth and Pam's
first thought was to identify the main problem with riding boots:
an ill fit. Based on what they knew about sneakers, they took up
the challenge of producing a new, technologically advanced boot,
thus gambling on a market that hadn't been tampered with for over
one hundred years. Next, the two women hired a designer they had met at Reebok to assist in the "blueprint" of their first boot. Using other contacts with the athletic shoe industry, as well as opinions from top riders and trainers at that time, they revamped the boot by developing what they called the "Advanced Torque Stability Footbed," a technology involving a forked, carbon-fiber shank and gel cushioning. This, together with the characteristics of the leather and the fit, was meant to provide the rider not only with superior efficiency and control in the saddle, but also with superb comfort and support on rough ground - for, as Beth knew, walking was what riders did 80% of their time! At that time, the technology envisaged would propel a long-established, nineteenth century design forward into the late twentieth century. Would traditionalist riders approve? In an image-based sport, both in the U.S. and abroad, maintenance of the established, time-honored appearance of a conventional boot was critical. Yet like all good entrepreneurs, Beth had "a sharp eye for shifting customer wants and needs, new technological developments, openings to enter attractive foreign markets, and other important signs of growing or shrinking business opportunity". After an intense period of hard work, Ariat was born. The name, Beth says, means "Perfect Performance" in Italian. Before Ariat's entry into the riding boot market, women's boots were often designed as a merely smaller specimen of the male version, with no regard to differences between the shape and contour of the feet and calves of men and women - despite knowledge of the fact that about ninety percent of English riders were women! Ariat wasted no time in designing boots specifically for women, producing a basic prototype in April 1991. Following this, a few elite riders were chosen to be "testers," a valuable marketing strategy Beth and Pam had learned while working with Avia and Reebok. The testers were instructed to provide feedback so that the designs could be modified accordingly. With a prototype now in the bag, Beth was put in charge of seeking out investors. Because equestrian sports are a kind of "country-club" sport, many of her would be investors had some affiliation with horses, among them the Fisher family who own The Gap, Inc. Convincing such people, however, was not easy. Beth's first contacts were businessmen who seemed to have little regard for women in general. These men considered any woman owning her own company "risky business". However, Beth used her femininity to her advantage, an advantage she calls the "element of curiosity". Investors, she explains, are naturally curious to see what a woman could possibly come up with in terms of boot manufacturing, and that was her ticket in. So, given the slightest opening, Beth went in confident that she could market her innovative, quality product. And she was right. In a short amount of time, she managed to raise enough capital to start her business. And yet the road ahead was still uphill. According to Beth, the more serious problem was persuading retailers that the boots would be profitable, as they seemed convinced that she could never sell a modernized product to a traditional rider. Time after time, she recalls being turned away by shop owners and managers: they didn't need any more boots on their walls, she should do something else with her time. Beth's response was that she wanted to be number one. They told her she was nuts, that it can't be done. Beth politely yet firmly disagreed. As she put it, "If people say 'no, it can't be done', you come back and ask again." Finally, however, Beth managed to place 10 pairs of Ariat boots in a store to sell. From there on, to hear her say it, "word spread like wildfire." Ariat participated in as many wholesale trade shows as financially possible, getting the product out to industry leaders and athletes for feedback. It then launched full-scale advertising campaigns in vertical publications, taking up full-page color ads in eight of the leading equestrian publications. At the ads were coming out, Beth was eight months pregnant with her first child. January 27, 1993, saw the birth of the first orders and of Beth's first son. On that day, even in labor, Beth was all business, handling over fifty calls and asking nurses to send faxes for her. In a week, she was back to work, going on to realize, within the first year of business, four hundred thousand dollars in revenue. Advertising at this stage was crucial to rapid growth, helping turn Ariat into an overnight success. Within five years, Mel Gibson was to appear on the cover of People wearing his Ariats, as was George W. Bush in photos of him walking about his ranch. Unfortunately, in 1995 due to health reasons Pam Parker had to leave Ariat, forcing Beth to take on the roles of both President and CEO of a company that was growing at an average of thirty percent each year. The store that originally bought ten pairs of boots from Ariat was now buying ten thousand annually, a sales volume replicated up and down the US. With such strong home sales, Ariat reached out for the world, capturing in the process a large part of the UK market. In fact, Ariat is now the leader in English riding boots sales in the world. Here at home, Ariat is now the fastest-growing Western riding boot producer, a position that helped promote it to its present role of official boot of the U.S. Equestrian Team and the NHSRA (National High School Riding Association). (Ariat had already won, in 1997, the Western Image Award from the Dallas Western Market and a Seal of Acceptance from the American Pediatric Medical Association. ) Today, Ariat sells to over four thousand worldwide accounts and employs one hundred twenty-five people, with a top line of revenues ranging between fifty and sixty million. Beth's plan for the future now involves entering the equestrian apparel market, while maintaining constant her niche market - selling a greater variety of products to mostly the same consumers. Given Ariat's high profile and reputation for quality products, this focus on new product development should prove successful, for unless the current economic downturn worsens considerably, there is no reason to suppose that the purchasing power of Ariat's main clientele, and its appreciation of quality, is likely to change. Did Beth ever have doubts? "No," says Beth flatly, quoting Goethe: 'Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.'" What, then, makes an entrepreneur successful?
Anyone can formulate an idea, perhaps even a plan. However, executing
that plan is where real genius comes in. In the face of countless
denials and disagreements, the resignation of her partner, and the
pressure and practical difficulties associated with the birth of
her first child, Beth came through with flying colors. And she had
the expertise and the boldness to see the possibility of applying
state of the art technologies and marketing techniques to a product
that appeared unredeemingly stagnant. "Entrepreneurial strategy-makers
are inclined to be fast-movers, responding quickly and opportunistically
to new developments. They are willing to take prudent risks and
initiate trailblazing strategies". Beth Cross' audacious and
bold redesign of a tradition proved to be entrepreneurial brilliance.
Brown, Steven E. F, "Riding High: Union
City riding footwear spurs revenue growth DeWeese, Daniel. "Ariat: From the Ground Up." Western Horseman (1999): 126-132 Kaufmann, Martin. "Pace Horse: Ariat's
two women founders catch a ride in specialty Thompson, Arthur A. Jr. and Strickland, A.J.
III. Strategic Management: Concepts and
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