从Esprit创始人到Tory Burch：创业夫妻为何多以离婚收场？

    道格•汤普金斯与苏西•汤普金斯•布埃尔

    1968年，苏西•汤普金斯•布埃尔与她的一个朋友在旧金山创立了Esprit公司的前身，当时这家公司还不叫这个名字。不久后，随着苏西的丈夫道格卖掉了自己的服装公司North Face，他也加入了Esprit的领导层。从80年代中期开始，他们的婚姻以及这家一度非常红火的公司都陷入了严重的麻烦。二人于1989年离婚后，公司的“宫斗”戏还上演了好几年。前一分钟是道格领导公司，下一分钟就换成了苏西。

    当事人说：一名曾在该公司工作过的员工对《旧金山周刊》表示：“道格和苏西都有很强的愿景，但他们之间的协同效应消失了，所以使公司变得更加困难，因为人们都知道公司有内部冲突。”

    结局：官司和收购来得比产品还快。如今，已经公开上市的Esprit控股公司将总部设在香港和德国。2011年，该公司在一份文件中称：“过去几年，这个品牌已经逐渐失去了灵魂。”

    Doug Tompkins and Susie Tompkins Buell

    Though founded by Susie Tompkins Buell and a friend in San Francisco in 1968 under a different name, Esprit 330 was soon also led by her husband Doug, after he sold his own clothing company, North Face. The once-successful line and the marriage both began having serious troubles in the mid-1980s, chronicled by SF Weekly. While the couple divorced in 1989, the business’ drama took years to unfold. One minute Doug was leading the company, the next Susie.

    Telling quote:"Both Doug and Susie had very strong visions, but some of the synergy had fallen away, so it did make it more difficult," a former employee told SF Weekly. "It was more difficult because people knew there was internal conflict."

    The upshot:Lawsuits and takeovers moved faster than the products. These days, the publicly traded Esprit Holdings is based in Hong Kong and Germany, and in 2011, the company said in a filing, "The brand has gradually lost its soul over the past few years."