Post Summary
| Debbi Fields is a successful American entrepreneur and founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies.
Fields turned her passion for baking cookies into a business and created a business plan to seek a business loan. Eventually, she found a bank willing to invest $50,000, which was enough to open her first physical store at Liddicoat’s Market in Palo Alto. Debbi’s first store in Palo Alto sparked 500 more in and out of the United States. By 1990, Mrs. Fields had international stores in Japan, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Debbi also expanded the company’s product line to include walnut, coconut-macadamia, and oatmeal-raisin cookies, among many others. Unfortunately, in 1993, Debbi lost 80% of her company to lenders due to over $94 million in outstanding debts. She was replaced as CEO and president but remained chairman of the board. Three years later, Debbi and Randy Fields divorced. It’s unclear which year in the ’90s Debbi sold her stake in the company, but she did for a $100 million investment. |
A Look at the Life of Debbi Fields
Debbi Fields is one of the few American entrepreneurs to have their name become a globally recognized brand. Others who have achieved such acclaim include Ford, Kellogg, Edison, Dell, and Bell.
Fields started her company, Mrs. Fields Cookies, in 1977 with no business experience. Many of her family members, friends, and close encounters told her that starting the business was a bad idea and that she would fail.
Debbi, however, didn’t let their ill-fated words discourage her. Fast forward 45 years later, Mrs. Fields Cookies is a multi-million dollar corporation with over 400 stores and operations in 34 countries and territories.
Early Life
In 1956, Debbi Fields was born Debra Jane Sivyer in East Oakland, California, the youngest of five daughters to a U.S. Navy welder.
Not much is known about her mother other than that she taught her and her sisters to be good mothers and wives.
Debbi grew up in a middle-class home environment. Her family didn’t own luxuries such as washers and dryers.
Her mother resented cooking, so she rarely tried to make good food for her family.
Debbi loved well-cooked food and sometimes opted not to eat her mother’s meals. However, she enjoyed baking and eating cookies.
Debbi attended Alameda High School in California and graduated in 1974 at 17 years. By this time, she was well-known in her community for her prowess in baking cookies. Debbi loved to experiment with different cookie recipes.
She started with the Toll House Cookie recipe from Nestlé’s Chocolate Chips bag. By 18 years, her cookies were richer, doughier, and softer than others. People dubbed her the cookie queen.
After graduating in 1974, Debbi enrolled at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. She studied there for two years and, shortly afterward, married Randall Keith Fields, a 29-year-old financial consultant.
At this time, Debbi worked various jobs but later became a housewife.
Adulthood
When Debbi married Randy, he was in the midst of opening an investment firm.
He called it Fields Investments Group. Debbi, by contrast, was content being a housewife. She loved baking cookies for her husband and his acquaintances. On many occasions, Randy would carry Debbi’s cookies to the office and return home, regaling the numerous praises from co-workers.
However, Debbi didn’t think of her baking skills as anything more than a hobby, at least not until an embarrassing incident that changed her outlook on life.
On one occasion, the Fields attended a dinner with one of Randy’s clients. During small talk, the man asked Debbi what she did for a living.
She responded that she was trying to get ‘orientated.’ The man shamed Debbi for mispronouncing the word ‘oriented’ and told her not to speak English if she couldn’t get it right.
Debbi was so embarrassed that she cried on the way home. This embarrassing incident reminded Debbi of the many times people asked her what she did for a living.
Whenever she responded she was just a housewife, they walked away and did not engage further. The incident became a wake-up call for Debbi that she could be somebody more than a homemaker. It motivated her to find her path to success rather than be Randy’s tag-along.
Founding Mrs. Fields Cookies
Soon after the embarrassing incident, Debbi Fields tried to explore her options. She decided to turn her passion for baking cookies into a business. Her family, friends, and acquaintances were skeptical of the idea, saying she didn’t have the capital, experience, or education.
Debbi, however, remained determined. She created a business plan and used it to seek a business loan. Eventually, Debbi found a bank willing to invest $50,000, which was enough to open her first physical store at Liddicoat’s Market in Palo Alto.
Debbi’s first store in Palo Alto sparked 500 more in and out of the United States. By 1990, Mrs. Fields had international stores in Japan, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Debbi also expanded the company’s product line to include walnut, coconut-macadamia, and oatmeal-raisin cookies, among many others.
When it came to her business, Debbi preferred maintaining personal control. She also valued quality over profits. Debbi visited her stores on rotation, talking to employees and inspecting the operations to assess if everything met her standards.
She was also against franchising but later relented in 1990 by allowing a franchising agreement with the Marriot Corporation.
Unfortunately, in 1993, Debbi lost 80% of her company to lenders. Mrs. Fields Cookies had more than $94 million in outstanding debts.
She was replaced as CEO and president but remained chairman of the board. Three years later, Debbi and Randy Fields divorced.
It’s unclear which year in the ’90s Debbi sold her stake in the company, but she did for a $100 million investment.
Debbi Fields: Husband(s)
Debbie Fields tied the knot with Randall Keith Fields in 1976 when she was 19. At the time, Randall was a graduate of Stanford University, where he had studied political science and was in the midst of launching an investment firm, now called the Fields Investment Group.
In the late 1980s, Randall created an innovative computer system to improve the efficiency of cookie production at Mrs. Fields Cookies, making the company a leader in technology.
Although many assumed that Randall was the driving force behind Mrs. Fields’ operation, he always rejected this idea and claimed that Debbie was the indispensable one.
Randall’s background as an investment banker and public speeches established him as a reputable economist, and he is acknowledged for the growth and management of Mrs. Fields Cookies.
Randall and Debbi Fields divorced in 1996, and Debbi remarried two years later. She tied the knot with Michael David Rose, who worked as the former CEO and Chairman of Holiday Corp. Michael Rose succumbed to cancer in 2017 at 75 years old.
Debbi Fields: Daughters
Debbi Fields has five daughters from her first marriage: Jenessa, Jennifer, Jessica, McKenzie, and Ashley. Fields also has a stepdaughter, Gabrielle Rose, from her second marriage to Rose. Her stepdaughter swam for Brazil in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Interesting Facts
- Debbi Fields was voted homecoming queen during her senior year at Alameda High School.
- Randy Fields predicted Debbi would not make $50 on her first day selling cookies at her store. Debbi, however, made $75. By noon, no customer had purchased her cookies, so she gave samples to passersby on the street. Some bought her cookies after tasting the samples.
Debbie Fields TimeLine
Debbie Fields TimeLine1956
Debbi Jane Sivyer is born in East Oakland, California.
1974
Debbi graduates from Alameda High School and joins Foothill College.
1976
Debbi marries Randall Keith Fields.
1977
Debbi establishes Mrs. Fields Cookies and opens her first store at Liddicoat’s market in Palo Alto.
1987
Debbi publishes her autobiography, One Smart Cookie.
1993
Debbi loses 80% stake in Mrs. Fields Cookies to lenders.
1996
Debbi and Randy Fields divorce. Debbi stars in her public television series, Debbi Fields’ Great American Desserts.
1997
Debbi Fields marries Michael David Rose.
1999
Debbi publishes the cookbook Mrs. Fields Cookie Book: 100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields.
2000
Debbi publishes another cookbook, Debbi Fields’ Great American Desserts: 100 Mouthwatering Easy-to-prepare Recipes.
2014
Debbi and Michael relocate to Nashville from Tennessee, Memphis.
Success and Life Time Achievements
Debbi built her empire despite pushback from her family, that told her she didn’t have the skill to run a business and that her idea would never work.
At an early age, she purchased butter from her first paycheck, developed her recipe, and pursued her dream into an operation that led to a global leader in the cookie industry, with international sales and locations.
Besides her role in Mrs. Fields Cookies, Debbi achieved other lifetime accomplishments. She is a best-selling author, having published her autobiography One Smart Cookie in 1987. Debbi has also written a couple of cookbooks, including one famous one called Mrs. Fields’ Cookies Book: 100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields.
Failures
Debbi started her first cookie store and failed to sell cookies on the first day. She felt failure creeping up and was going to take away her dream; instead, she turned her failure into success by tuning the fear of failure into action.
Debbi gave away cookies on the street because she knew people would buy them if they could taste them. Her plan worked, and she started to make sales.
Character Traits
Debbi Fields was determined and believed you should celebrate failure, which translates into learning from setbacks and turning them around.
Fields had a positive attitude, and a positive attitude mixed with passion is a driving force that can keep you going when faced with challenges.
Management Style
Debbi Fields had no business experience when she started. Sometimes that could be a good thing because you start without bad habits. That being said, management styles are related to character traits.
Lessons Learned
Quality is above everything else. Debbi once visited a location and found the cookies were too flat and over-baked. However, he said they were good enough when she talked to the manager.
“Good enough never is,” she told the manager, and instead of allowing the manager to sell the cookies and fix the issue on the next batch, she threw them out.
Therefore it was a teachable moment for the manager, showing her passion and pride for her product.
There are many lessons we can learn from Debbi Fields, and if you’re interested, you can look into the information from the following link.
Quotes
Some of Debbi Fields’ quotes include:
- “I use nothing but the best ingredients. My cookies are always baked fresh. I price cookies so you cannot make them at home for any less. And I still give cookies away.”
- “If you’re going to be at a job environment, you should love it. You shouldn’t do it just for money. You should do it because you love it. And the money comes naturally.”
- “Good enough never is.”
- “The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”