Besides salary, you ought to incorporate occasional incentive programs and consider giving people discretionary bonuses from time to time. We sometimes bestow a certificate for a dinner or a round of golf, or else tickets to a sports events or Broadway show -- again, we make a concerted effort to be sure these are rewards aligned to the beneficiary’s passions.

In addition, we have a defined bonus plan for some areas within the store, such as the buying team. A certain portion of their bonus is based on measurable factors like gross profit and turn rate.

We have created programs like the 2-4-6-8 bonus program, which includes everyone from the stores (except the family). We started it after 9/11, when people were understandably feeling gloomy and full of uncertainty. It works like this: from November 10 to Christmas, if there’s a 2 percent increase in sales over a year ago, everyone gets a bonus of "x" amount -- say $250. If sales rise 4 percent, they get double that, or $500, and so on up the ladder. Everyone gets the bonus. Tailors get it, buyers get it, receptionists get it, parking attendants get it, everyone. That way, it inspires teamwork throughout the entire organization.

Sophia at Richards has been known to jump up onto the counter and belt out exuberant cheers like "Let’s go, let’s go -- two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate . . . Rickee, Nadia, Nina, yeahhhh!"

We find that when all of our associates "work for the customer," they work with one another even better. It’s fabulous because it creates a level playing field where everybody wins when the store wins, not just the sellers.

I call it a company-wide associate-and-customer-centric hugging culture.

This magic does indeed pay off. In a study of more than two thousand businesses, the Gallup Organization found that sales were 3.4 times higher when engaged associates sold to engaged customers.

These bonus periods are marvelous things to behold. And remember we do them during the busiest and most profitable time of the year.

We also really like short-term contests. For instance, we might hold one where the purpose is for our sellers to focus for a prescribed period of time on one product or collection, such as the number of made-to-measure men’s orders for a Zegna or Brioni weekend trunk show. We also engage in slightly lengthier contests -- if we sell 70 percent of our Armani Collezioni stock for the season, incentives will be awarded.

Because we don’t have assigned parking spots, one piece of recognition we sometimes give for contest winners at Mitchells is the right to park in "choice" parking spots close to the associates’ entrance for a defined time. Goodness, is that a treasured benefit when it’s five below outside.

A valuable by-product of contests is that associates learn a lot about a product or department, which helps them perform not only in the short run but also in the long run once the contest ends. We try hard to set up these events so at least everyone has an opportunity to win, which means you sometimes have to handicap people just like you do in golf, so you don’t constantly have the same winners. What happens, of course, is that even if you handicap a Frank Gallagi or an Amy Jarman, they’re so extraordinary that they just sell more! So you have to keep giving everyone else more strokes.

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