My Peerless Story
It Starts with the Collar
From factory to corner office – how a Canadian men’s tailored suit entrepreneur developed his company into a leader in the industry.
Description
In 1951, Alvin Cramer Segal, at the age of eighteen and without a formal education, started working in the factory of his stepfather’s company in Montreal. Today he is the chairman and chief executive officer of the largest supplier of men’s fine-tailored clothing in North America, and is considered an outstanding business and community leader, at the forefront of policy-making in Canada’s apparel industry, with commitments to philanthropic efforts that echo his business accomplishments. In My Peerless Story, Segal recounts how he learned business from the collar down and from the ground up, transforming a family-owned business into one that would eventually come to licence labels such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Michael Kors. Sharing anecdotes and personal experiences, Segal describes the history of garment manufacturing in Montreal and his intuitive strategies to leverage growth by improving fabrics, and adapting to innovative changes in the industry, eventually becoming the main inventory source of designer label suits to major department stores. Written from the heart, not as a handbook but rather as the story of a well-suited business career, My Peerless Story nonetheless includes relevant business lessons for the aspiring and inspired.
Reviews
“Alvin Segal’s voice is as authentic and honest as there is in the Montreal business community. His story about how he made Peerless Clothing into a world leader in the production of men’s suits is a straight-ahead account of savvy business practice, exceedingly hard work, and fearlessness in the face of risk – both a valuable document for anyone building a company who wants to know how high-wire entrepreneurship works, and an important contribution to the history of garment manufacturing in Montreal.” Bryan Demchinsky, former business editor at The Montreal Gazette