TED Talks Daily - The question that saved my company from bankruptcy | Sharon Price John

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Everything successful starts with heart — even the most pragmatic business plan, says Sharon Price John, CEO of Build-A-Bear. She shares how she led a purpose-centered approach to save the beloved teddy bear company from bankruptcy and get it back to global profitability, all by asking one powerful question. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. When Sharon Price-John, the CEO of Build a Bear Workshop, first took over the organization, it was nearing bankruptcy. In her talk, she shares how rediscovering the company's true purpose, not for products or profits, but adding a little more heart to life, became the unlikely engine for a major global turnaround. She asks, in our own organizations and lives, are we willing to, quote, look past the stuffing and find the purpose that makes everything come alive?

Do you know your organization's true purpose? Many people say it's shareholder value, the products you make or the services you provide, but it's much, much more than that. It's like what really makes your company's heartbeat. Well, in today's complex world, shouldn't we all be thinking about that? I know I had to when I became the CEO of Build a Bear Workshop. Back in 2013, I was asked to take the helm of this mall-based,

make-your-owned stuffed animal retail company for kids from the beloved founder. 2012 had been the worst year in the company's history, having lost $50 million. and 20% of the stores were not turning a profit. The team had struggled for eight years in the wake of the recession, mall traffic declines, the rise of the digital economy. Well, bankruptcy was a real threat. So, shortly after I got there,

I brought the whole organization together to share my textbook turnaround plans that, of course, included cost-cutting, store closures, and maybe some layoffs. But I was met with skeptical stares in silence. Wow, don't they get it? I mean, the world had changed a lot since 1997 when Bill DeBarre was started.

But it was almost like they were afraid to change. But why? Frustrated, I turned to the crowd, and I said, does it matter if Bill DeBer exists? Now, before you answer that question, might need to know just a little bit more. Build a bear was a pioneer in experiential retail. So when you go to a store, you go through a process. Now, that process includes, first,

picking out an unstuffed furry friend, but then with the help of a bear builder, you're able to go through a personalized stuffing experience. So that stuffing experience also includes a very special heart ceremony. Now, with this heart, you bring your teddy bear to life. And you go through a informal but very fun experience of placing some attributes on your bear, like maybe making stronger, making him sparta, maybe always have your back or in your heart. But then there's a very emotional process that's very memorable. And you put a wish on the heart. That ends with a kiss. And he goes, inside your heart, often along with a personalized recorded message. Then you get to dress it, name it, and get your birth certificate.

Now, these experiences are woven into millions of childhood memories. And they're a part of multi-generational family lore for everything from birthday celebrations to graduations to wedding proposals and birth announcements. So build a bear is a lot more than a place. In fact, billed bear is often used for the Red Cross to provide teddy bears to people who need comfort in natural disasters.

For parents who are grieving the loss of a child and even for children who are suffering from illness. So not only are we so much more than a place, we're a feeling. Buildabair is a feeling based on memorable moments, and it's for people of all ages. So when I asked the team, does it matter if Buildabair exists?

Of course, they said yes, but it wasn't because of my textbook turnaround plans. It was because they already understood deeply what I just shared with you. And what I was telling them made them fearful that I was going to rip the heart out of the company they had created. So that let me know that before they were going to go on this journey with me, they needed to know where my heart was.

And I needed to share plans that were based on our true purpose. And we needed to find something that we could all believe in as much as people believed in the wishes on these hearts. well that led to a new and inspirational mission statement of we add a little more heart to life and yes missions should be big and it created a strategy for us that was based in something that we had already organically become build a bear was already more than its original vision We just needed a business plan to profitably unlock that value. So, with that, the team was enabled to go through the tedious process of turnaround

and return to some operational excellence because it was just a step in becoming something more, but with heart. So you're probably wondering, did it work? Well, we returned to profitability that very year. but more importantly the more strategy which it became helped us recognize what we were not trapped in the mall-based retail that had created us so we opened in more places we understood where people were now going for fun and entertainment like tourist locations hospitality everything from cruise ships to amusement parks to resorts and now we're in over 30 countries around the world

with virtually all of our stores profitable. We embraced the digital economy by opening a brand new website that was focused on more categories like gifting and collectibles. And that took our web business from less than 5% of total sales to somewhere between 15% to 20% of total sales.

And that led us to recognize that we could target more people. That multi-generational aspect that I was sharing that helped us to understand that teens and adults were a real target market for us. And we happened to figure that out right at the beginning of a trend called kiddulting. Yeah, that's a real thing. And so we doubled the teen and adult business that is now 40% of our sales. I have to give the team a lot of credit because they gave this a lot of heart.

and it was 10 years of near bankruptcy, the retail apocalypse, activists, activists, investors, Brexit, and a global pandemic where we had to shut down all of our stores around the globe in 48 hours, and our stock price dropped to an all-time low. Now I'm happy to tell you, 250 million furry friends later and a whole lot of heart ceremonies,

we have had four years of record results. And recently, a stock price appreciation of over 2,000 percent. So, yeah, a teddy bear company outpacing tech giants like Nvidia, Microsoft. You got to ask, how is that possible? Is there a strategy smart enough to make that happen? Well, actually, I have to believe that it all came down to getting in touch with our real purpose, who we really were. And that had to start with heart. Uh-oh.

Am I seeing skeptical stares and maybe some silence? I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, all that heart stuff, that works for companies like Bill the Bear. But there's no way starting with heart can be more important than just being smart when it comes to turnarounds in business. Okay, I'll give you that. But I'm going to submit a quote to you, widely attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States.

Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Really, no matter how brilliant you are, what your big ideas, your financial acumen. If nobody's going to put their heart into your concepts, it doesn't really matter, does it? I'll tell you something else. Your heart is the most consistent and the strongest organ in your body. It's also the first to develop, not your brain. So guess what? it really does all start with heart.

I'll end with this. Not only can starting with heart change your organization, it can change your life. These days, even after I gather all the data and ask everybody and we figure it out about what's the next big smart thing we can do, I always look in my heart

before we make a final decision. I found personally that a heart-centric approach to life can unlock remarkable power, immense joy, and in fact provide clarity and resilience to focus on what is possible while others are petrified by what's probable. It provides journeys unfolding an amazing way. ways with extraordinary outcomes, including me, being right here today on a TED stage sharing

this story with you. Do you believe your organization can be more? Do you believe you can be more? Well, you're going to have to get to where your power lies. And that's going to require some courage. courage to look inside maybe past the stuffing past a few pre-recorded voices

to find your true purpose but that will only come when you're willing to find your own heart thank you that was Sharon Price John at TED at BCG in Dubai in 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines.

And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonicaa Sungmar Nivong. This episode was mixed by Christopher Faisi Bogan. additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balezzo. I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.