1.Charity Cooperation

For the charity partner of the event, I found British Skin foundation. The British Skin Foundation raised funds to study skin diseases and help people get out of their troubles. This goal is similar to Organa’s goal, and Organa provides customers with the healthiest skin care by looking for organic and healthy products.

British Skin Foundation helps to find treatments for common skin diseases such as eczema or acne, as well as potential killers like malignant melanoma, by raising funds for important research.The British Skin Foundation founded in 1996 and has supported 400 research projects and provided £16,000,000 for all skin diseases.

In this event, Organa invited the experts of the Foundation to give lectures. On the one hand, it can bring the science of skin diseases to the people and raise people’s awareness of skin disease prevention. On the other hand, through this event, the Foundation can raise charitable funds. If the event is successful, then Organa can develop the long-term relationship with the foundation.

2.Decoration  

Regarding the design of interior decoration, according to the theme of our event, we designed the idea of ​​beach house. I suggested setting up a photo wall to make it attractive for customers to take photos, and the design of the photo frame makes the Organa brand stand out, which is also an advantage for social media marketing after the event. And the price of this customized photo frame is about 35 pounds, which can achieve good results. This not only satisfied the needs of customers to take pictures, but also invisibly promoted the brand of Organa. In addition, I recommend placing a bucket as shown on the scene at the event site. We can make healthy and low-cost drinks ourselves. In the barrel, we can put on the sparking water and lemon slices. The appearance makes people feel the coolness of summer, and the content is in line with the healthy lifestyle advocated by Organa. It is more economical in terms of cost and effectively saves the budget. Even if the final event was changed to filming event, the idea could still be implemented.

 As shown in the picture, on the day of the event we prepared the similar drink for the guests to enjoy.

3.Youtube Promotion Plan  

On the day of the event, we successfully completed the interview according to the plan. And will make 8 videos for later social media promotion. On the youtube channel, my personal idea is to open a channel for Organa Beauty, and to post videos every week on a specific time, the length of the video does not need to be too long and it is better in 8 to 10 minutes.Based on our target customer base, we plan to release videos on a regular business day. Generally speaking, people are used to browsing videos during their leisure time after dinner. This time period is from 7 pm to 10 pm. But since the video is posted on youtube, it takes some time for the video to be indexed, so our best release time is from 4pm to 6pm. Choosing the best time to post a video is important to us, which means we may get more page views.

Reference

British Skin Foundation. (2019). Who we are. [online] Available at: https://www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk/who-we-are [Accessed 12 Jul. 2019].

EDGY_ Labs. (2019). Marketing How-To: The Best Time to Post on YouTube. [online] Available at: https://edgy.app/best-time-to-post-on-youtube-live-youtube-subscriber-count [Accessed 12 Jul. 2019].

1.Project progress

The time away from the activity is getting closer and closer, and everyone’s state is very tense, for fear that something has gone wrong. Prior to this we have completed the booking of the venue, in a very lively location, very objective price. And completed the design of the poster to prepare for the subsequent ticket sales. In addition, we have confirmed the list of guests to be contacted and a list of potential co-brands. Among them, the most gratifying thing is that we have successfully contacted the British skin foundation, and there will be experts to give lectures. Although this process is difficult, it always comes to some success, but in the following, we still have more tasks and difficulties need to overcome. The appeal of our event is to increase brand awareness and establish opportunities to work with other brands. However, due to the limited budget, we are committed to running the most successful events at the lowest price.

2.Venue interior decoration

For this event, we rented an empty store with a size of about 50 square meters. The interior of the site is empty and there is no furniture or decoration. So we need to find the  furniture to decorate the interior space. According to the needs of the event, we need to have a space for taking pictures, space for food and space for product display. And due to the limited space, it is especially important to make full use of outdoor space. Our goal is to marvel at the space-arranged guest with a limited budget. After the meeting, we determined that the decoration theme was beach house, and then we divided the work to find the right moodboard and decoration style. During the investigation, we found that buying a brand new furniture is too expensive and requires storage issues after the event. Therefore, most of the activities required, we choose to rent, which can save budget and avoid storage problems. After that we browsed many websites that rented furniture and found that the price was lower than we expected. Even large green plants can choose to rent, do not have to buy, this saves a lot of budget, but also provides a lot of convenience.

3.Neon light

Regarding the decoration of the event site, we designed a custom neon light hanging on  the wall. After we decided on this plan on June 24, we started looking for the suitable manufacturer to create exclusive neon lights for us. After measuring the size of the venue, we confirmed that each letter has a length of about 30 cm and a total of 15 letters. In the beginning, our team searched many online shop for neon vendors that could provide customized services. But we found that it was expensive and the production time was as long as 5 to 7 working days, plus the delivery time would take 7 to 10 working days. Because the date of the event is imminent, it is too late in time. After that, we tried to contact Taobao, China’s e-commerce platform. The neon customization price on Taobao was much cheaper, about 150 pounds, which was half the price compared with the British price. However, due to the special nature of the product, the courier service could not be used. This inconvenience made the plan have to be abandoned. In the end, one of our team members found a product that was short in production time but different from other neon lights as an alternative plan. The advantage of this product is that the production time is fast, it can be shipped in two days, and the delivery is fast, and the price is lower than 300 pounds. The difference is that the manufacturer supplies a hose that will glow, and we need to design the shape ourselves.After our group discussion，we think this is the best choice so far.

References

Yahire.com. (2019). Outdoor Furniture Hire London| Gazebos | Yahire. [online] Available at: https://www.yahire.com/outdoor-furniture-hire [Accessed 27 Jun. 2019].

 

 

1.Brand value

Organa focuses on organic, non-hazardous products. Look for brands with the same values in different areas such as beauty, skin care, hair, and wellbeing. At the same time, the brand continues to work with charities to donate 2% of profits to charities. In July, Organa is plan to hold an event for VIP customers. The event will work with the British Skin Foundation. Founder Niki is committed to making Organa an organic retail website that is suitable for family.

2.Brand experience

This event in July was very important for Organa. Through this event, the brand can strengthen communication with customers and communicate with cooperative brands. This is like a huge platform, bringing together all the participants, sharing their experiences and laying the foundation for further cooperation. Especially for Organa, the brand is still in the early stage of development, and the success of this event has a huge impact on the brand value building.

3.Project strategy plan

3.1.location research

Our team went to the area near Chelsea for the venue research. We first went to the Saachi Gallery, located close to the subway station, and the environment was good and the space was enough. But after learning that the price  was 6,500 pounds, we had to give up the plan. After that we went to the The Kensington Hotel and asked about the rental site. Observing that the venues that the hotel can provide are very limited, the interior decoration is more like providing business meeting than hosting events. Finally, we found an empty  store near Fulham Rd as an alternative plan for the event venue.

3.2.Blogger influencer research

We also plan to invite bloggers with some influence on social media to participate in our activities. Our group do the research through social media, mainly Instagram, by searching for keywords such as: organic, beauty, travel and so on. We have selected several bloggers in the UK, and they have in common a certain number of fan bases, and their post content is associated with our event theme.

  

3.3.Brand cooperation research 

In terms of co-branding, we have mainly researched in the field of hair products. We selected some slogans for natural, organic hair care brand, and the company is located in the UK. The popularity of these brands is not so wide, which is an opportunity for cooperation and development for Organa and the brand, so this event is also an opportunity for Organa to show brand strength to these brands.

3.4.Expert research 

In order to enrich the content of the event, we looked for industry experts who are suitable for the speech. Kevin Murphy is an expert in the hairdressing industry. He owns the hair brand of the same name and founded a hairdressing school. If we can invite him, this will greatly enhance the visibility of our event.

3.5.Charity collaboration 

British Skin Foundation is a UK charitable organization that helps skin patients by raising funds for important research. This foundation has the same brand value as Organa. This event, in collaboration with the Foundation, we can invites Foundation experts to give lectures on skin diseases. Organa’s original intention is to provide customers with organic and healthy products. So such cooperation can help build brand awareness.

4.E-invite and merchandising Moodboard  

At the event site, a large number of green plants can be used to arrange the venue to create a theme that is responsive to travel and organic. And plan a photo wall to facilitate customers to share photos to social networking sites.

5.Team role

In this event, the main task of our team is to find the partner brands and bloggers. And attract more followers by operating social media networks. Promote the event and achieve maximum results.

In the group, my role is Activity Director, including the planning of activities and the search for brand cooperation resources.

Reference

British Skin Foundation. (2019). British Skin Foundation. [online] Available at: https://www.britishskinfoundation.org.uk/ [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].

Pinterest. (2019). Pinterest. [online] Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?q=public%20chair&rs=typed&term_meta%5B%5D=public%7Ctyped&term_meta%5B%5D=chair%7Ctyped [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].

Instagram.com. (2019). KEVIN.MURPHY (@love_kevin_murphy) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/love_kevin_murphy/?hl=en [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].

Organa Beauty & Wellbeing. (2019). Organa Beauty & Wellbeing. [online] Available at: https://www.organabeautywellbeing.com [Accessed 13 Jun. 2019].

 

1.Organa introduction

Organa beauty wellbeing is an online retailer founded in 2017 that sells organic skin care products, cosmetics and household items. Founded by Niki , she created the brand as an opportunity to become more interested in natural and organic beauty products. The founders believe that these organic products will bring a healthier lifestyle to users.Organa’s team aims to provide consumers with the most extensive organic products, focusing on the selection of the best organic beauty products.Meanwhile Organa has long partnership with charities and will donate 2% of its income into it, hoping to pass on a better lifestyle and help more people.

2.Target Consumer 

The target customer group of Organa is independent, and people who care about healthy lifestyles and mostly women, aged 18 to 44. They are middle-class or upper class, earning no less than £2,200 a month, living in a quieter area in central London. They are frequently updated on skin care products and cosmetics products. They usually follow some well-known beauty bloggers on social media platform, learning more about beauty trends and new brands. And because of the health concerns, products with organic labels are more likely to attract their attention. In life, they pay attention to diet and choose healthy and low-calorie organic food. They are well organised for their work and might choose a relaxing exercise during the leisure time. 

3.Competitors 

In the UK, the beauty market has grown year after year, with sales of organic products reaching £63 million. Organa also has many competitors in this huge market, mainly Space NK, Content Beauty, Goop, Credo Beauty.They all provide the similar product range with Organa through online platform.And they are not only the retailer that offers a wide range of beauty product ,but also sells many healthy lifestyle related products.

3.1 Space NK 

Space NK has grown from a store in Covent Garden to a well-known retail brand in the beauty industry for over 20 years, with more than 60 stores across the UK and Ireland and 29 stores in the US, including independent shops and boutiques in Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom. 

In Space NK’s stores and websites, customers have a wide range of choices across different product categories, including more than 70 internationally renowned make-up brands such as Nars, Laura Mercier.

3.2 Content Beauty 

Content Beauty was founded in 2008，it is a boutique organic skincare store focused on discovering niche organic skin care brands. Product categories include hair care, fragrances, and organic skin care products. In addition to this, skin diagnosis and professional beauty services are available. Content is not only a full-service online store, but also an offline beauty store that caters to all consumer pursuits of beauty.

3.3 GOOP 

The GP was launched in Gwyneth Paltrow’s kitchen in 2008. As a local weekly newsletter, GP created GOOP to share her unbiased travel advice with friends, health-focused recipes and shopping discoveries. It then evolved into a versatile online store that provides consumers with everything from a healthy lifestyle perspective. It also includes many organic skin care products.

3.4 Credo Beauty

Credo is an online retail store whose products are rigorously screened and do not contain any “dirty ingredient”. Credo’s mission is to provide consumers with the healthiest organic skin care products.

4.Benchmarking analysis

According to the two charts above, it can be seen that Space NK is the largest retailer with the largest number of products and the largest number of cooperative brands among several brands. Organa was founded at the latest, and there is a big gap between the number of products and the product categories compared to the other four brands. Among them, Credo was established in 2014 but still has more than 1,000 kinds of products and more than 100 cooperative brands. On social media, there are even 112k followers. Organa Beauty needs to increase the number of products and co-brands, and can learn how other brands operate social media to build brand trust and awareness

References

Goop. (2019). What’s goop?: The Story Behind the Brand | goop. [online] Available at: https://goop.com/whats-goop/ [Accessed 30 May 2019].

Organa Beauty & Wellbeing. (2019). Organa Beauty & Wellbeing. [online] Available at: https://www.organabeautywellbeing.com [Accessed 30 May 2019].

NK, S. (2019). Space NK | Luxury Beauty Products | Skincare | Makeup. [online] Spacenk.com. Available at: https://www.spacenk.com/uk/en_GB/home-uk?&cm_mmc=PPC%7cGoogle%7cUK-_-Brand%7cCore-_-SpaceNK-_-spacenk&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_r3nBRDxARIsAJljleEZSVCJ-HwCRpfIwOS8fBzUzX5E74Ua9_QcSAobuZNZTnhSeIIytxEaApybEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds [Accessed 30 May 2019].

Credo. (2019). Bestsellers. [online] Available at: https://credobeauty.com/collections/bestsellers [Accessed 30 May 2019].

1.My leadership brand

Many people think that the leadership is born, I don’t know whether this is related to nature, but I feel that a person who has leadership talent is inseparable from his family.

About me, I was born in a family with many children and is the oldest child. I have a younger brother . My father is a businessman and has his own company. After learning and understanding the French and Raven’s power model, I think that my behavior from young to youth has changed. Leadership can also be influenced by the family. When I was young, I often feel that I am the dictatorial leader in my relationship with my brother. Often, if my brother does something that doesn’t meet my expectations, I will scold him. At that time，i am coercive power leadership.But as I grew older, I found that my brother would never listen to me again. Then I asked my father, why didn’t my brother obey my instructions as before , my father told me that firstly you need to be convinced. At that time, I still couldn’t understand it. Later, I gradually understood the meaning of this sentence. I didn’t blame my brother, but I focused more on doing my own things, hoping that I could become a example for my brother. I often encourage and praise my younger brother. Later, I gradually found out that my younger brother has become “obedient.” Now I think my leadership brand is reward power, but I prefer to have referent power. This means that I have to work harder to make myself become a role model. Meanwhile, let others approve my achievements, and then I could become a persuasive person.

2.Assess the relevance of my leadership brand to fashion industry

In this economically uncertain environment, leaders in the fashion industry face a series of challenges. Leaders need to pay attention to the company’s strategy and the impact of these forces on talent, ensuring that their companies are able to cope with the changes of the workforce and consumers in different markets.

The fashion industry is more complex than before. In this highly competitive market, customer loyalty is reducing, and social media makes it difficult for brands to maintain control over their image. If company wants to gain a competitive advantage, the leaders of the fashion industry must have the strength of building a culture of trust and cooperation, giving employees a sense of trust and support, not command and control. Guide others and lead by example, focusing on creating lasting partnerships rather than constantly questioning the work of others.

These are related to reward power. First of all, we often encourage and praise employees, which can enhance their self-confidence and help build trust. And there is no dictatorial management mode that directs and controls others, but the rewards are used to motivate employees to accomplish their goals step by step. At the same time, leaders must also complete their own thing, play a good leading role, and convey the correct corporate values. Leaders can use some reality examples to encourage employees.

3.Self-evaluation

This term, we also have a group to complete a lot of tasks. There is a leader who is responsible for leading the team and take turns every week. I was the leader when we were preparing the debate. Overall, we finished the mission smoothly, but it was not a complete completion. First of all, I need self-reflection ,in this mission, although I urged everyone to prepare, I did not play a role in the follow-up work. The other team members commented on me that the degree of cooperation is high and will assist other members of the group with complete the task on time. However, the enthusiasm for taking risks is not high, and sometimes i want to shirk responsibilities to others. And the requirements for the work content are not strict enough. Although everyone prepared their views for the debate, I did not organize everyone to share the information that made our group’s views unrelated.

4. Personal development plan

In the future development, I will continue to maintain my  advantages, but also learn to take responsibility instead of escaping. In the subsequent group cooperation, I will urge all the team members to complete the tasks on time and also complete my own work. When others are doing well,I should praise and encourage them more.Besides， establish a good level of trust in the team. Let each team member plays their own strengths and achieve a good cooperation model.

References

Schrage, M. (2016) ‘Like It or Not, You Are Always Leading by Example’ Harvard Business Review [online] October 05, 2016.  Available from < https://hbr.org/2016/10/like-it-or-not-you-are-always-leading-by-example> [21 March 2019]

Spencerstuart.com. (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.spencerstuart.com/-/media/pdf%20files/research%20and%20insight%20pdfs/leadership-in-the-retail-fashion-and-luxury-sector-final.pdf [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].

Identify the problem

Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company founded by Mr Bezos as an online bookstore, now it has a market capitalization of $270 billion and becomes diversified industry. The reason I chose this business is that Amazon is a representative global company and is seriously affected by Brexit. Besides, the achievements and success Amazon is worthy of learning by all the other companies for its management is good and successful.

The company’s success is largely due to its agility and ability to “shape” its business model into the market in which the company decides to participate. This is useful for any manager who wants to optimize his business.

The Brexit has a very complex impact on Amazon’s expansion plans. In the first place, Brexit makes hiring at Amazon become much difficult. After Brexit, a shortage of migrant workers would affect Amazon’s recruitment efforts. In addition, Brexit would significantly affect Amazon’s European business.Global Equities Research shows that Brexit will raise labour costs, with an oversupply of some skilled workers and lack of others. This would reduce the profits of many companies and lead to a reduction in the size of the company’s operations in the UK. At the same time, Brexit will lead to VAT on imported parcels increasing.If the UK leaves the EU, then all goods coming into the UK will be subject to VAT, including all goods coming into the EU. Finally,Brexit also leads to Amazon’s unified delivery (EFN) and Pan-European plans being affected, and sellers will need to ship independently in the UK and other European countries, so the pressure on sellers’ inventory will increase.

Develop a solution to the problem

Suggestion to the tough hiring

To make up for the shortage of human resources, Amazon needs to hire some skilled workers from China, India and other third world countries.It can reduce labor costs while paving the way for future strategic expansion.

Suggestion to Amazon’s European business expansion

Affected by the Brexit, Amazon’s business operation scale is shrinking in the UK and Europe. In order to gain more profits and expand the business, Amazon can look for more finance support for the development of the company in those areas and other part of the world. Meanwhile, Amazon can find more potential business partners from other countries to boost the expansion.

Suggestion to increasing VAT

On the one hand, the seller should cooperate with the platform and jointly abide by the VAT tax regulations. The seller should register the tax number and upload the required tax certificate to the platform within the specified time.The seller should return to the product itself and improve the product competitiveness. As we all know, customers pay more attention to shopping experience, and have high requirements on product quality. Therefore, sellers can focus on tapping the market potential, establish special category management, and select refined products.

In order to balance the profit, the seller can try to raise the price a little, but if the product advantage declines, the operation personnel need to adjust the operation mode and reserve more flexible space for the profit of the product.

Design an action plan for Amazon

Amazon’s new projects in cloud services, artificial intelligence, logistics and distribution are just getting started. In the future development process, in order to expand the scale of the enterprise, it is necessary to increase investment in these aspects and focus on development. Companies should diversify their investments, including logistics, cloud applications and media.Expand its own logistics network, improve transportation and logistics advantages, and vigorously promote unmanned logistics and distribution in the future. So Amazon could build a convenient delivery system that meets users around the world.

Because Brexit makes Amazon’s business in Europe more complex, companies can consider diverting attention to other regions, such as China.For example, although there already had Taobao, the leader in the e-commerce industry, the Chinese market still has demand for overseas products. Due to the large number of customer bases in the Chinese market, and the strong purchasing power of consumers. So Amazon can consider expanding its business to Asia Pacific.

Define my learning outcomes

In all business, one always wonders whether certain activities should not be managed by another partner, more experienced and better able to execute them, has a better cost. Often this is a paid strategy when no actor in the Eco-system has more information than another. By studying Amazon’s management model, I learned the following:

• When it’s uncertain, manage to transfer the risk to others.
• There are necessarily synergies in the marketing mix, exploit them.Put yourself in the client’s shoes.
• Make every effort to simplify your customer’s life and remove any friction in their buying process.

References

Burnes, B. (2009), “Managing Change”, 5th Edition, Financial Times Press

Kotter, J.P. and Schliesinger, L.A., (2008), “Choosing strategies for change”, Harvard Business Review, (Jul-Aug2008), Vol. 86 Issue 7/8, p130-139

McGuire, J.B., Palus, C.J., Passmore, W. and Rhodes, G.B. (2009), “Transforming your Organisation”, Centre for Creative Leadership

Newstartestates.com. (2019). After Brexit, how will British buyers in Spain be affected?. [online] Available at: https://newstartestates.com/news/104/after-brexit-how-will-british-buyers-in-spain-be-affected/ [Accessed 31 Mar. 2019].

Uhl-Bien et al. (2007) suggest that the leadership theories from the 20th century are not appropriate for knowledge-based economies. Others have criticize how leadership theories are mostly masculine theories based on Western working practices.

In the 20th century, most countries in the world were destroied by the war, and the whole market was product-oriented, to be more specific, the leadership relationship of large-scale companies or factories was direct and straightforward that was the employers have absolute decision-making power over everything. In addition, a most ordinary person at that time was suffered from war and poverty, for whom getting a good education seemed impossible. As a result, those people with the objective of seeking security and rewards could only do physical jobs, having few opportunities to promote. In the 21st century, this is an era of globalization and informatization. Obviously, the theory of leadership in the industrial age does not apply to the present. (PWC ,2010)

Western countries have suffered far less damage from war than the Eastern countries, so they started to develop their businesses earlier and accumulated more practical experience. However, the leadership theories based on Western working practices may not fit Eastern companies.

The definition of the leader’s current challenges

Currently, the biggest challenge leaders facing is to adjust the great changes in the world. As the information on a daily basis changes dramatically, the theory and technology of some companies may be outdated, so employers of the organization should modestly acquire modern knowledge and respect diversity. (de Valk, 2008) Otherwise, a stubborn and arrogant leader will go bankrupt for his business. (Jill Treanor ,2013)

For example, in the last century, the population has not migrated a lot, so it is common to liberate employees from the company’s single culture. Until this century, the population began to migrate frequently for globalization; therefore, many companies have become international and employ employees with different backgrounds (Egan, 2016), so in this case, leaders should face different cultures. Different understanding of the norms, adjusting different communication norms and finding the appropriate way for their multicultural organizations to function. (PWC , 2010)

Examples to evaluate the impact of contemporary Leadership Styles

I would like to make an example in the high-tech industry.Apple is a world-known high-tech company, unlike other high-tech companies that have gradually disappeared in recent years, becoming the lead-sheep in this field by making a revolutionary breakthrough and transforming the outdated leadership. As a high-tech company, managing knowledge effectively can provide firms with sustainable competitive advantages. Leaders are central to the process of managing knowledge effectively. Creating, sharing, and exploiting knowledge are three key processes in managing knowledge. Leaders are central to each of these processes at multiple levels of the firm. Examining the role of leadership in converting knowledge into competitive advantages is essential to our understanding of leaders and organizations. Transformational leadership is more effective at creating and sharing knowledge at the individual and group levels. (Grossman, S. J., & Smiley, E. B. ,1999)

Discussion of leadership theories’ future development

Nowadays, the impact of the Internet has influencing nearly all industries, and at the same time it brings the change of thinking and the great change of the enterprise development model. In this revolution, traditional leadership can no longer adapt to the needs of the market, so some traditional industries are marginalized or even dying. The transformation of the era is also lead to the “evolution” of the leadership model.

According to the researches, to develop a perfect team or organization, the leader is demanded to create an open circumstance to encouraging employees to share aims and objectives, fully participate and agree with decisions and express feelings and disagreements freely. In this way, employees may quickly get a sense of belonging to the group and accept group values and norms. ; Set a complete reward and punishment system to ensure conflicts can be resolved within the group. ; Working effectively, effective leadership enables organizations to adapt to internal and external changes. (Mullins ,2016); Aware of the importance of improving managers’ knowledge and skills to meet these increasingly global challenges. (de Valk, 2008) 

References

Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., and McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity Leadership Theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The leadership quarterly, 18(4), 298-318.

Mobility, T. (2010). 2020. PwC.

Jill Treanor (2013). The Guardian. Tuesday 20 August 2013, 17.03 BST

Egan, E. J. (2016). The Next Engine of US GDP Growth: The Market for Ideas. Policy Brief: Recommendations for the New Administration. 

Grossman, S. J., & Smiley, E. B. (1999). APPLE: Description and evaluation of a substance abuse education and prevention program for collegiate athletics. Journal of

Primary Prevention, 20 (1), 51-59.

Mullins, L. J. (2016). Management and Organisational Behaviour 11th edn . Pearson Higher Ed. 

Van de Valk, L. J., & Constas, M. A. (2011). A methodological review of research on leadership development and social capital: Is there a cause and effect relationship?. Adult Education Quarterly, 61 (1), 73-90

Burberry is a luxury brand that has experienced 160 years of British style. Founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry, Burberry’s high quality and classic timeless design has been accepted and enjoyed by the majority of luxury brand lovers. 

2018 is a very important year for Burberry, because the management team has experienced great changes. First on July 15, 2017, the new CEO Marco Gobbetti took over Christopher Bailey, the original CEO and creative officer. Later, Riccardo Tisci, who worked at Givenchy for more than a decade, joined Burberry plc and become the new designer. In April 2018, plc appointed Gerry Murphy as the new chairman, replacing the John Peace who had worked in Burberry Plc for 16 years. At this point, Burberry completed the update of the company’s management group in the past year. The two old employees of Burberry are regarded as the “sinner” of the group that failed to reform rapidly trough the luxury market declined. After the formation of the new management team, Marco Gobbetti proposed a new strategic direction in November, aiming to push the Burberry to the higher-end luxury market.Before the brand complete innovation in 2022, the Burberry Group PLC expects revenue and earnings growth to stagnate in the next three years. As of December 31, 2018, Burberry’s retail revenue declined by 2%, with Asia Pacific growing 5% and the Americas down 1%.

In recent years, the Burberry Group PLC board led by John Peace has been criticized, and the move of CB as CEO and designer is unsatisfactory. In addition, the issue of share dividends has also caused dissatisfaction among many shareholders. Due to the instability of management personnel and the decline in revenue, the company announced that it will make a pay cut for management. The reduction is between 20% and 200% according to different bonus types. Prior to this, Christoper Bailey proposed a fiscal austerity plan in 2016, including closing stores with poor sales, reducing the number of products, and so on. To better control operational costs, streamline processes and promote teamwork efficiency, Burberry moved 300 positions to Leeds’ new business center, including finance, human resources, procurement and customer service teams. It is estimated that operating costs will be saved by £100 million by 2019.

The reduction in operating costs is undoubtedly a challenge for management group, and it is in a passive position. In addition to this, investors also showed their dissatisfaction. The two major shareholder groups believe that the creative director’s salary is too high and put pressure on the brand. The company executives can only give up the initiative and weaken the problems as much as possible. HSBC lowered Burberry’s stock rating to ‘reduction’ and pointed out that reducing costs can only protect short-term gains. Stocks rely on sales growth rather than cost control.

The rapid development of the contemporary information society, the traditional offline-based consumption can not meet the needs of the vast number of consumers, the biggest challenge of the luxury brand industry is the need to continue to innovate, always stand at the forefront of fashion, leading the new fashion trend. As a major obstacle for Burberry’s enterprise in this era, it is necessary to further enhance its position in the global fashion industry and make the brand become a tide brand! The way to stay motivated must first grow and reshape itself by preserving the traditional British culture to create a coveted luxury brand in the global fashion market.

Riccardo Tisci also modified the logo of the brand. The exclusive logo of ‘TB’ is based on the original letter of the brand’s founder Thomas Burberry. Among them, ’TB’ series printed T-shirts have become Burberry’s new main products. The overall design style has added street elements and face to younger consumer. The redesigned has attracted a lot of public attention. In addition to the original customer base, it has attracted the consumption of the younger generation and has led to an increase in sales. This phenomenon affirms the economic value of new designers for the brand.

To embrace new cultural practices, the company’s leadership must implement the company spirit to every employee, so that every employee can understand that the company should always adhere to the core design concept of advocating diversity and inclusiveness, and we need everyone to work together. Burberry creates a lifestyle brand, letting classics and fashion go hand in hand. Both style designers must exert their own ingenuity and fully reflect the value of the brand in concept and spirit. Improve internal cohesion, all staff are united and convey the connotation and temperament of Burberry, an extraordinary fashion brand, to millennials and mature generations, to the UK and the world.

References:

Burberry Corporate Website. (2019). Board of Directors. [online] Available at: https://www.burberryplc.com/en/company/board-of-directors/board-of-directors.html [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].

U.S. (2019). Burberry parts ways with Bailey as new CEO refashions brand. [online] Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-burberry-group-moves-bailey/burberry-parts-ways-with-bailey-as-new-ceo-refashions-brand-idUSKBN1D0155 [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].

The Business of Fashion. (2019). Why Burberry Chose Riccardo Tisci. [online] Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/riccardo-tisci-is-the-new-creative-director-of-burberry [Accessed 18 Mar. 2019].