Camping World Holdings CEO Marcus Lemonis admitted on Wednesday that he’s “made some rookie mistakes” as the CEO of a public company.
This story by Elizabeth Gurdus originally appeared on CNBC.com.
“There’s a big transition from being private and I would say that I’ve really learned,” he told Mad Money host Jim Cramer in an interview, adding that “the biggest learning curve” was how to communicate his corporate strategy to the public market.
One recent misunderstanding revolved around Camping World’s recent acquisition of Gander Mountain, a hunting, fishing and camping equipment retailer.
“We disclosed today at the Baird Conference, in a public environment, our real strategy behind the acquisition of Gander,” said Lemonis. “It was our backdoor entry into the market in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas, where we’re going to be putting RVs in most of those locations.”
Camping World’s business also has a technological twist: the majority of its business comes from an online database called the Good Sam Club. On Wednesday, Lemonis argued that Good Sam Club made his company “the category-killer.”
“That’s really how we make our money,” he said. “We acquire new customers and we find new people through the sale of RVs and the other products. And I think that’s different than people thought it was.”
