Lida Orzeck of Hanky Panky speaks with BBPW
Last night I attended Barnard Business and Professional Women’s (BBPW) final event of the season, a discussion with Hanky Panky founder and CEO and class of ‘68 grad, Lida Orzeck. Led by ‘04 grad Shira Silberg who worked at Hanky Panky for several years after graduating, the discussion touched on everything from the company name, to how Lida and partner Gail Epstein developed the “world’s most comfortable thong,” to the challenges of growing explosively post-front-page-WSJ-article.
What I took away from it was that Lida and her partner created something they believed in and continue to believe in more than 30 years later. They have a partnership that works, that thrives and that makes money and haven’t strayed from where they started (high quality, USA-made, “green” undergarments). I applaud them!
A few key business points Lida touched on:
- Hanky Panky grew organically, through word of mouth. If you have a good product, in essence, it will sell itself.
- Many women-owned businesses don’t tend to take on the amounts of debt or look for equity partners the way male-owned businesses do (a generalization, yes, but it’s been documented). Hanky Panky fits this bill but Lida commented that she wouldn’t have had it any other way; they have the autonomy to run the company the company how they want.
- “Social media is the new advertising.” Hanky Panky have staff who tweet and facebook all day long, something that Lida said it took a while for her and Gail to be comfortable with, but that she knew needed to happen.
For some interesting discussion on Hanky Panky’s arrival at the Barnard Store, read this Columbia Spectator article and comments (including Lida’s final weigh-in). Yes, I bought a Barnard-dazzled thong at my reunion a few weekends ago. Yes, I love it.
