Tom Ripley was an infantry and special operations officer in the U.S. Marine Corps – what he considers his family’s business. Today, he is a partner and co-founder of Ames Watson, a private holding company with over $2 billion in revenue that purchases, transforms, and partners with companies to create long-term value. We recently sat down with him to uncover how his military experience shaped his approach to leadership, mission, and responsibility in the business world.

Let’s start with the “original family business.” Your father, Col. John Ripley, was a decorated Marine and showed you what true leadership meant from an early age. Tell us about your early life.

I like to joke that my family business turned 250 years old last year. I’m from a Marine household – my grandfather, dad, uncles, brothers, and nephews are all Marines. I grew up on Marine Corps bases and moved 14 times. I loved my childhood and wanted to be exactly like my father. He is famous for singlehandedly blowing up a bridge during the Vietnam War – the story of which is actually now required reading for all first-year Marines. My father was one of the best Marines I have ever heard of – he was the person I idealized, the person I wanted to be.

He was my mentor, and I was incredibly fortunate to have him as a wealth of knowledge in my early career.

The Marines have a few great sayings. Two that come to mind are “Mission first, Marines always,” and “Leadership isn’t about rank; it’s about responsibility,” the second of which your dad coined. Talk about what you learned from him and the Marines about leadership.

As an officer in the Marine Corps, you’re taught early on that you can delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility. In the end, you’re responsible for everything that your unit does or fails to do. That’s no different than any business. When we buy a company and hire someone as president, I tell them, “Congratulations! You have the loneliest job in the building. You have no peers and no one you can commiserate with. And when you come to work every morning, outside your door will be a line of other people’s problems to solve.”

My Marine Corps experience prepared me very well for that kind of mindset. As an officer, you don’t commiserate with your Marines. You deal with the problems and move forward. Sometimes, you have to be optimistic when there’s nothing to be optimistic about. You have to compel people to do dangerous things that they probably rationally wouldn’t want to do and make sure that it’s done completely.

Now, I buy distressed companies, which are basically in triage. You can’t do everything to fix them immediately; you need to prioritize the things that have to happen. And you need to be direct and clear about it.

You mentioned “Mission first, Marines always.” As a young Marine officer, you’re taught that the mission is all that matters. If you don’t do it, you have to send another Marine to do it. That said, you’ll never accomplish your mission if you don’t take care of people.

Talk about being shoulder to shoulder with your team and how that’s transferred from your military service to the business world.

When I was a young officer, my father told me that leadership is a contact sport. People want to see a steady hand at the wheel, especially in distressed situations. They want to see someone in the trenches with them, standing shoulder to shoulder, and working on a problem.

When I buy a business, one of the first things I tell the teams is that I work for them. I am the chief problem solver.

You’ve helped turn around brands like Lids, Champion, and South Moon Under, and right now you are focused on helping Claire’s do the same. What about these businesses was the common thread that made you believe you could turn them around?

Across those businesses, we have a little over 3,000 stores.

When we bought Lids, it was not bankrupt, but it was on its way. The singular thing that we had to do was create a reason for people to walk into the store. It sounds simple, but that’s it. If they don’t have a reason to walk into your store, they’re going to buy it online.

We’re fortunate that hats can be tricky and vary greatly from person to person, so there is a compelling reason to go. But we had to make it an impressive, exciting experience for a young customer to come in and see the hat selection, pick the team they want, try on different hats, have access to exclusive products, and so forth.

With Claire’s, we keep getting asked what we’re going to do about mall traffic. Mall traffic goes down every year. What you need to do is create the environment so that people want to go. Engage your customers when they walk across your lease line. Have exclusive products; have things that get them excited about the experience.

Let’s look at Claire’s a bit more for a moment since it’s one of your newer projects. How are you rethinking this brand to make it resonate with the new generation?

Claire’s has 1,000 stores across North America, almost all of which are in malls. We bought the business out of Chapter 11. The first thing you often need to do at a distressed business is turn around the irrational behavior that was happening as it fought to hang on.

I also set up a standing weekly meeting immediately. Everyone comes together in person to talk about what they’re working on and where they need support. These meetings are very candid and direct. This was something we did in the Marines. You start off with the basic, everyday things of the business.

The next step is to clean up the company. We’re going to organize the company and have a singular focus in our mission. Claire’s has seen an explosion in stock-keeping units (SKUs). They’ve tried a bit of everything, so we need to bring that target closer and refine the assortment.

The last piece is that we need to talk to our customers where they are. Right now, Claire’s does very little social media. But their target audience is there, so we will start to engage them.

When I think of both Lids and Claire’s, there is definitely an experiential connection for those stores. It is fun to try on accessories in person. Was that what drew you to them?

The biggest component for us with Lids, Claire’s, and Champion, which we purchased from Hanes, was dominant market share.

As an example, there are going to be about 40 million hats sold in the U.S. this year. Lids will sell 33 million. Roughly 45% of what is sold in every college bookstore is a Champion product. And then, 60% of all ears pierced in the U.S. happen at Claire’s. That dominant market position means the business has a reason to exist.

Aged brick-and-mortar businesses better have a reason to exist. That’s our starting footprint. From there, it’s about creating excitement and a reason to be there.

You have some unique approaches to how you recruit and retain talent. You’ve talked about hiring for three things: judgment, professional courage, and being able to find problems before solving them. How did you identify those three characteristics?

The first criterion I have for my team is excellent judgment, because I can’t be there for every decision that is made. I have to rely on the team to make decisions – or to have the judgment to know when to pull me into a situation to ask for help or resources.

I can’t train judgment – you either have it or you don’t. To me, the biggest indicator for excellent judgment is a lack of ego. If you approach problems recognizing that you are not the most qualified person in the room, that you need help, you’re going to be quicker to raise your hand.

Ego is a very dangerous thing and can lead you to stop learning. And when you stop learning, you stop asking questions and looking around corners – and that is when catastrophe happens. I’m looking to hire egoless people, because those people are quick to say, “I don’t know the answer. I need help.” That is courage.

Finally, teams, not individuals, are what solve problems. What I need are problem finders. I need people to come and have the courage to talk to me about the problems. I am supremely confident I can assemble a team to solve the problem, but I have to know about it first.

As leaders, we need to create an environment where it’s okay to talk about problems.

What are some of your main areas of focus after buying a distressed business, specifically as it relates to culture and purpose?

We are not passive investors – we buy two to three companies a year and are fully invested and involved in them. We believe those companies have dominant market share and are distressed due to some bad decisions.

When we look at our businesses, one of the first controllable things that we try to attack is rent. We work very hard on having relationships with our landlords. If we can make that rent variable, it’s a homerun for us. It means we give up some of the upside, but it also means that we make money in all markets and all conditions.

Second, we work to change employees’ mindset. A lot of these companies have a problem in corporate and send it down to the stores to solve it. That is the opposite of what you should do. If you have a problem, you take that problem and solve it so that the stores can do what they’re supposed to do, which is engage customers.

The last thing that we’ve done in some of our companies is make a material investment in our benefits. I don’t design benefits for the people in corporate. I design benefits for the store manager. It’s about investing in the ground floor of the team that is doing the work where the metal meets the meat – at that point of contact with the customer.

It also feels very simple to say it, but you just have to be really honest. Not everyone is going to make it. Not all revenue is good revenue. Be very direct and honest about the changes you’re going to make and the speed at which you’re going to make them.

Last question: What do you want your legacy to be?

You prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.

Tom, thank you for your time.