Make it stand out.
Global Fast fashion Retailer
This was a multi brand global fast fashion retailer whose name I have kept anonymous for reasons which will become clear and with a turnover of over $US10 billion operating over 2300 outlets. Not everything went perfect on this project and I have included it as a lesson to anyone considering getting involved in a large transformation
Brief
The finance team although technically excellent lacked an ability to see beyond the numbers and give good commercial insight to the management team. This had led to various supply chain issues, overstocking with stock days being 6 months + in some areas. My objective was to help develop more commercial acumen within the senior finance team and ensure that the business was prepared for a world which was to be increasingly dominated by clicks rather than bricks.
Outcome
Following extensive research with the leading management consulting team on the retail sector and feedback on research from an extensive inhouse survey of broader business stakeholders within the group we developed a program for over 120 of the senior finance team. Although there was lots of positive buy in from the senior managers, the executive team were culturally still much more focused on technical excellence over the softer skills needed for commercial acumen to really improve. This was despite having a full time client liaison manager working with the client and agreeing and signing up to everything we delivered. I think the key lesson form this one is that before deciding to undertake such a transformation executive level buy in must be 100%