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Shaping Supply Chain ChangeGetting the Right Mental Mould

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Table of contents

Warming up the Frying Pan ...................................................................................................................................3

Breaking the Chain: Decisively Capturing Opportunity ......................................................................................4

Kate Padget-Koh is the Founder at Fashionable Futures, a consultancy for apparel and footwear brands as they look to navigate into the future. She formerly held leadership roles with PVH, Li & Fung and Puma.

10 Mental Toughness Actions to Unlock Better Decision Making ......................................................................7

Paul Lyons is the Managing Partner at Mental Toughness Partners, an advisory and consultancy specialised in the field of mental toughness. He works with business leaders to build mental toughness for themselves and their teams and organisations. He formerly held CEO roles in the Recruitment and Executive Search industry.

The C Word that Leads True Innovation ............................................................................................................11

Richard is the founder of Spire Executive. He has spent 7 years working with leaders in the Apparel, Footwear and Retail industries as an executive search consultant.

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Executive summary

Warming up the frying panThe changes that we are about to witness in the industry needed to happen.

I only wish that the manner and delivery of these changes had come in a different form, not at the expense of billions of Earth’s inhabitants . This period has brought a realiza-tion to the long existing thirst for meaningful supply chain innovations that have for long gone unaddressed as well as for changes that better address societal needs and cre-ate dramatic positive impact. From reconsidering supplier collaboration and rethinking payment terms to overhaul-ing the operating model using digitisation and de-mand-driven production, the possibilities are almost overwhelming.

John Thorbeck of Chainge Capital made the following comment on a recent Sourcing Journal webinar;

“For a business model to change, company culture needs to change first. That makes it a leadership challenge and that always re-quires courage.”

The engines for change are the people in the industry, and for people to drive change “real” trust needs to be culti-vated, ego needs to be put in the back seat and leadership needs to look over the steering wheel as well as into the rearview mirror. This whitepaper aims to provoke ques-

tions and discussions regarding the mechanisms for change as well as the state of readiness for the evolution that is to come.

We again want to state our commitment to support those who aren’t so fortunate through this period. We hope that you’ll point those in our direction if the opportunity arises.

Richard & Eric

About Spire Executive

Spire Executive is a connecter and success enabler across leadership, management and critical hiring in the Apparel, Footwear and Retail Sourcing industries. Hong Kong is our home and we have a physical presence in Europe, we take on assignments locally as well as offshore, applying a “boots on the ground” approach to engaging with talent. Our definition of “a job well done” is the success of the tal-ent that we recommend to our clients and our network, knowledge and guiding principles enable us to create sus-tainable outcomes.

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The past few months have been unprecedented times for the Global Supply Chain. There have been signifi-cant impacts in the Textile, Apparel & Footwear Supply Chains, namely being the insolvencies, order cancella-tions and the shaming of Brands not honouring their purchase order commitments. With furloughed work-ers across the world and the tragic challenges for fac-tory workers across Asia, never before have we seen (in reality) an impact of this scale on the lives of so many vulnerable people. This pandemic has certainly made visible the vulnerabilities and inequalities within the Fashion Supply Chain system.

The purpose of this text is not to talk about all the news we have read, nor to ask how did we get here, but to consider where do we go to now?

With Kate Padget-Koh

Breaking the Chain: Decisively Capturing Opportunity

Author description: Kate is the Founder of Fashionable Futures, an industry specialist con-sultancy that works with fashion brands and manufacturers to create extraordinary, sustain-able futures through customised strategy and focus leveraging industry experience. She has started several businesses in the industry and has held leadership roles in Product Strategy, Sourcing and Supply Chain with leading organ-isations including PVH, Puma and Li & Fung.

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Anyone who has worked in the Global Supply Chain Indus-try across Asia has experienced the fragility of this system at one time or another. The constant drive for lower prices and cheaper manufacturing locations, coupled with rising labour costs, materials and energy prices has stretched its links and threatening its elasticity. We continue to accept and satisfy a high level of disconnection between the de-mands of the Retail / Branded Business and needs of those in the business of Manufacturing and Supply Chain.

How many leaders have the time to ask themselves, “What impact and role do I want to play in shaping the future?”.

The future supply chain has no simple definition and no “one size fits all”, but several planes will emerge as clear leaders setting the tone for impactful and sustaining change. Leadership, flexibility, team, partnership and col-laboration, circularity, the right way, transparency or clar-ity and value.

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP

What are the needs and abilities of the leaders for the fu-ture? A critical quality will be Creative Leadership and flex-ibility as a skill as well as the ability to pivot the Business Model which still is without clarity on where it is heading. Leadership will need to have a strong focus for the future of the Industry from a holistic perspective. Leaders will be creative-connectors, strategists and true partners of the entire system. One fundamental discovery from this pan-demic is that there is no business as usual and we are in a constantly evolving and shifting consumer world. A world which demands speed, creativity, flexibility, transparency and collaboration.

SIMPLICITY & EFFECTIVENESS

Sometimes the best moves are the most obvious. Simplic-ity in the pivots chosen will be key to unlocking the power for more radical moves that gear up supply chains for the creation of a sustainable future. The future supply chain requires all links in the chain to view their world from the consumer perspective, connecting with the customer ena-bles businesses to optimise and bring opportunities across the supply chain. Fundamentally, we are talking about integration and collaboration on a whole new level.

The supply chain is no longer a separate industry and is a critical partner in the creation of the brand or business; not to be viewed as only a sourcing division, but a value creator.

DELIVERING VALUE

We are entering a world of less. Our own experiences tell us that through this period we realise that many of our day to day needs are infact confused “wants” and “desires”. Less consumption is a reality for now and for the next 1 to 3 years at the very least. How are we to grow meaningfully and where do we unlock value if people are indeed pur-chasing less? Questioning how we define growth and pri-oritising the customer stakeholder before the investor will allow for future proofing and real value.

CHALLENGE TO OPPORTUNITY

In every challenge there is opportunity. A minimalist driven consumer is a seemingly insurmountable challenge for businesses that have for long been thriving in the large quantity segment of the industry. Our addiction to over-production and over-consumption has left all of our businesses in a precarious situation. Huge overheads hedged on an aggressive spending, we’re in a time where our core offerings and reasons for existence aren’t per-forming the same role, or if any role at all. With a new cus-tomer we need to zero in on where they see value and place their needs at the heart of everything that we do., the future supply chain needs to not only deliver value and quality, but also experience.

THE RIGHT WAY PAYS

I believe the industry at its heart has always wanted to do the right thing, but we professionals have always been in conflict with cost. The four letter word has been at the centre of the supply chain resulting in a dogged chase year on year. Now is the time to do it the right way.

Not all consumers will change and many will revert, but the pocket of the conscious consumer will deepen. Change in consumption will quench our thirst for the abil-ity to deliver meaningful products with a positive impact on the environment as well as vulnerable communities.

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Sustainability now sits at the C-suite, it goes higher on the list of board level priorities and mountains start moving as a result. It undoubtably becomes an integral part of the value chain and a fundamental driver for opportunity, cus-tomer connection and commercial viability.

PARTNERSHIP & THE END OF COMPETITION What do we need to put in place in order to create the sup-ply chain which has positive impacts in the world? How do we now partner with factories and suppliers to ensure the safety of workers? How can we work with our Mill Partners to create materials which benefit quality of life and with a consideration to the end of life use as well as recyclability?

What will it take to better collaborate with our so-called competitors in order to arrive at practices and behaviours that cultivate change industry wide, because change is easier together. Will we see the rise of coalition leader-ship? What will it take to create an industry no longer vili-fied for wastefulness, exploitation and pollution, but one which plays the protagonist and lead role in environmen-tal affairs? The reward for endeavours may not reveal itself in the near future, but no doubt all those who do lead in the future will walk tall.

You can connect with Kate on or over email kate@fashionablefutures.com

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Making better decisions is the key performance measure for us all. Better decisions in our personal and profes-sional lives produce more effective outcomes which ena-ble us to feel consistently healthier and happier. This in turn helps us to create a sound platform on which to make more better decisions. This circular effect also happens where you make a series of poor decisions with negative consequences that feed a weaker mindset and potentially more negative decisions.

So where does a mentally tough mindset come into the mix?

Being mentally tough (which is being more resilient and more positive) increases the likelihood of you making bet-

Author description: Paul Lyons is the Man-aging Partner at Mental Toughness Part-ners, an advisory and consultancy special-ised on mental toughness, he works with business leaders to build mental tough-ness for themselves and for their teams and organisations. He formerly held CEO roles in the Recruitment and Executive Search industry.

With Paul Lyons

10 Mental Toughness Actions to Unlock Better Decision Making

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ter decisions with beneficial outcomes because you are generally thinking, and so behaving, in a more consist-ently systematic and logical manner. This mindset and ap-proach enables you to take control of your conscious brain and higher order thinking and so lessens the likeli-hood of making more emotional, more impulsive and less objective decisions which more often lead to poorer qual-ity outcomes.

Whilst you still want to recognize and remain receptive to your emotions you want for the most part to be able to manage and control them rather than the other way around.

Developing a more resilient and positive mentally tough mindset will help you do this and here are ten suggestions to help you. The first six are around resilience, creating psychological safety through more certain and consistent operating conditions and the other four are focused on developing a more positive and growth orientated mind-set to generate more opportunities.

1. Know Yourself Better

Being mindful of who you are and how you respond in dif-ferent situations, better understanding your strengths and aptitudes, your fears and foibles gives you a distinct ad-vantage when it comes to making better decisions. By achieving clarity on your identity, you invariably feel men-tally stronger.

2. Have a Plan

A plan gives your life more structure and so helps you manage your thoughts and emotions to better fit within your plan. Having a vision of what you want to achieve and why, what your principles to manage your life are, and again why, helps enormously with your decision making because you have more familiar reference points. You can then break your life’s purpose into smaller chunks so that each month, week and day and ‘right now’ you have goals and targets to achieve that guide more and better deci-sions.

3. Control what you can control

One of the challenges of being wholly emotive is that it

can lead to you feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the world within you and around you and then reacting impulsively accordingly. By learning to focus only on what you can control, and influence, reduces or removes this sense of overwhelm and if you can then make better deci-sions, you’re more likely to feel mentally stronger. Most of us need at least some control over the direction of our lives. If we don’t, we can easily feel the victim of circum-stance which is often a difficult and unhappy place to be.

4. Build good Routines

Building consistent and effective routines and habits that fit within your plan will enable you to achieve more control therefore usually leading you towards better decision making and feeling mentally stronger as a result. One easy example is your early morning routine that sets you up mentally and physically for the day.

Get up every day at the same time and for 30-60 mins and run through the same routine which may include exercise, visualization of the day ahead, mindfulness and eating a healthy breakfast.

Exercise Sleep, Diet feature heavily in most good morning routines as they provide a consistent and certain runway for a good day.

5. Keep Moving Forwards

This strategy like many of the above are interconnected. In difficult times when you may feel overwhelmed, there is a strong temptation to avoid making decisions in case they are bad ones which often bring more challenging out-comes. No matter how difficult the day becomes, just do what you can do to make decisions that allow you at least achieve some progress which in turn helps to build your mental strength.

6. Find Your Tribe

One of the challenges with the Covid 19 pandemic for many people, was being alone and vulnerable which led to nega-tive emotion infiltrating their mindset and preventing good decision making. Staying connected with those people that matter to you helps you maintain a sense of perspective and gives you reference points on making decisions.

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Being resilient is about forming and holding your structure

and the above suggestions help you build a stronger more

secure mindset structure to enable consistently better deci-

sion making. Your positive mindset helps you make pro-

gress beyond your current structure by extending your

comfort zone and learning to have the confidence to

make decisions with less information than you would

normally like. Much of resilience is about process, but

adopting a positive “glass half full” mindset is about

training your mind to think more positively most of the

time.

7. Ready for Anything

Recognizing that change is constant and that you are men-

tally ready to embrace the adversity or opportunity that to-

morrow’s change brings, over time this will build your confi-

dence, especially where you successfully negotiate that

change. You begin to feel less vulnerable and more positive

that whatever happens you can deal with it.

8. Opportunities from Challenges

There are always challenges and obstacles in life and some-

times they are immense. However, in every challenge there

are opportunities and one tip is to quantify the size of the

situation and all its associated threats and then identify a

similar number of opportunities arising from the same situ-

ation. This forces you to look through a more positive lens.

9. Be More Positive

You can choose whether you interpret life through a positive or a negative frame. Learning to be realistically optimistic helps you make decisions that with a negative frame may appear impossibly difficult but when viewed with a positive mindset become more achievable. There are many different ways to develop your confidence but they all require you to run a positive “you can do this” internal commentary.

10. Replenish your wellbeing

One of the important aspects of a resilient and positive mindset is having the energy and mental resources to man-age the stress and pressure you encounter during the day so that it doesn’t fatigue you and negatively affect your de-cision making ability. Find some time each day to replenish your energy reserves so you can better manage the stress and pressure as it arises. The Big Three Resources tend to be Sleep, Exercise and Diet, but everyone is different so find out what you can do to bring you joy and energy each day.

For most people the above will be useful strategies to help make better decisions. However, since we all have a unique mental profile it’s likely that each person may have a differ-ent combination of strategies that work.

Paul on +61 419 224 875 or via paul@paullyons.com or learn more about mental toughness at www.mentaltoughness.partners

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Author description: Richard is the founder of Spire Execu-tive. He has spent 7 years working with leaders in the Apparel, Footwear and Retail industries as an executive search consultant.

With Richard Donne

The C Word that Leads True Innovation

A Harvard Business Review study of companies across 4 separate eco-nomic downturns found that only 14% seized advantage in an economic downturn and invested in growth.i They concluded that leading organisa-tions not only cut costs out of their bottom line, but in parallel invested in growth whilst taking a long-term view to the challenges they faced.

Two months ago, we ran a survey across the industry, asking leaders what opportunities they felt would push their businesses forward into the fu-ture. Big picture ideas came back in response, “Predictive Analytics, A.I. Driven Demand Management, Mass Customization, Robotic Manufactur-ing.” On the other side of the coin leaders believe their organisations have major skills gaps in the areas “Flexibility, Agility, Resilience and Collabora-tion”. These skills gaps can be seen as talent issues, however culture often defines the type of talent we hire and what type of talent succeeds.

Apparel, Footwear and Retail sourcing organisations face a “car without tires” type of paradox. If you can imagine the car as the business’ tangi-bles and the tires as a company’s culture. It doesn’t matter how much you invest under the hood the car won’t roll forward without wheels.

What’s the real issue

When encountered with feedback on organizational cultures across the industry a common key word that comes to mind is “silo”. Silos once guided businesses through tough consumer cycles like SARS, 2008 Finan-cial Crisis and 9/11. None of these world altering events hit the business of retail as hard as this one. In the whirlwind that has been 2020, we first en-countered a supply problem and in a 180 degree turn of events a demand crisis that looks to continue. The issues of supply and demand aren’t source problems, they are results caused by skill gaps in flexibility, collab-

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oration, agility and communication among others. Organi-sations need the highest level of these skills if they are to sustain through this time.

Organisational Culture trumps everything If global supply chains are to go through the phases of sur-vival, revival and new normal arrival the most pressing op-portunity to capitalize on right now is culture, not digitiza-tion or artificial intelligence powered demand management. Throughout the tangle that has been this year, culture will have played either the antagonist or pro-tagonist in the fight that organisations are currently put-ting up, but to succeed in the new world it doesn’t matter which side of the seesaw your culture sits, it’s time to leave the playground and recognize it as a lever for survival. Cul-ture is the first and most important innovation area and the businesses that do prioritise this will sustain through the future.

The positive here is that the upfront dollar cost of a cul-tural transformation pales in comparison to software im-plementations, management consultancy engagements or manufacturing capital spend. Whilst we are still de-scending and waiting for the curve to trend upwards the opportunity to strike at culture is now. Moving quickly and decisively on opportunities is a critical trait of those 14% of businesses that achieved differential growth.ii Before we start to ride the rollercoaster uphill our culture and tal-ent needs to be prepared to fire on all cylinders.

Recognise your culture has already changed Every organisation has been undergoing some form of at-trition, it could be in the form of salary reductions, head-count cuts or a change in strategy. Until now your busi-ness has been holding off the enemy’s advancements, but they inch closer to your trenchline with every action. The culture your business had before differs to the one in place today. Organisations need to be aggressive in ensuring that their troops are still able to hold up the frontline. Cul-tural cogs to your business may have fallen casualty in the battle already, new enablers need to be tasked with carry-ing the flag and leading from the front.

F.A.R.C up the culture Apparel, Footwear and Retail sourcing organisations have skill gaps in the areas of Flexibility, Agility, Resilience and Collaboration. All four words are seen as critical traits of an organisational culture to support the progression of the business into the future. These characteristics may have held a different context pre-2020, but the world now is a new one. We may have previously thought that our ability to collaborate internally and externally was at high levels, but revisiting, retesting and rescoring our cultural competencies in these areas is absolutely necessary.

Your culture advocates and leaders should gather stories from within the business that showcase the desired traits in action and in context, this adds realism and makes adoption achievable. No doubt in the first 5 months of 2020 the stories of flexibility, agility, resilience and collabo-ration are fresh in mind and even more relevant than ever.

Don’t change because of Covid-19 A major trap right now is letting Covid-19 control the cul-ture change dialogue. If your change is focused on the cur-rent environment then you give little hope for the future. Both talent and culture need to be innovation oriented, “purpose-led” and sustainable. This current downturn will permeate into the bedrock of cultures if it is allowed to, leaders and organizational influencers need to do their best to forecast the future and turn the conversation from one solely focused on controlling the damage to one fea-turing hope whilst maintaining realism.

Don’t call it “transformation” People are hungry for a more positive conversation and change drivers with a more “inspiring” why. Change and transformation bear painful associations for many, begin talking about evolution for the business as well as the cul-ture. Start chipping away at silos by involving others in the conversation allowing for true and organic collaboration to foster across the business. Set the tone for the future using reinforcing language that encourages the desired culture that supports the direction that the business is moving towards.

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Future-proof your committee The industry has been missing an influx of talent for some time now, best guess is average ages across the sourcing industry hit around the late 30s to early 40s. As we move up the hierarchy to the organizational helm those ages in-crease. Transformations are usually led by appointed committees, the make-up of these needs to be self-sus-taining. Leaders in the organisation need to identify their future leader profile and get them championing change, therefore allowing for continuity.

Up your upstream culture More than 50% of those who responded to our previous survey indicated towards supplier collaboration as an area of key focus going forward. Consolidation and rationalisa-tion will be carried out across supply chains in the coming years, these exercises should see benefits to partners throughout. If the new supply chain is indeed going to be more partnership driven than before “organisations across the supply chain can no longer operate as single entities”iii. Trust already exists for most, but now this needs to be developed from a pure economic definition where costs and benefits are evaluated into a “norm-based” type of trust where increased outcomes and re-duced uncertainty comes as a result. To build this new form of trust, keep suppliers abreast of the evolution you’re driving and stress the importance that your culture needs to harmonise with the culture of a supplier without being like for like. Offer to support this with the likely supe-rior HR and Talent resources that you possess. That way you’ll open up new levels of collaboration.

Hope and Pragmatism A culture that is hopeful, but at the same time pragmatic stands a good chance of seeing the other side of this pe-riod.iv We are here for good and as painful as it is to realise

it, the organisations that take to heart the following quote from Jim Stockdale regarding his time as a 7 year P.O.W. in Vietnam will be able to fight harder and for longer;

“I never doubted not only that I would get out (of prison), but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”

i. https://hbr.org/2019/04/companies-need-to-prepare-for-the-next-economic-downturn

ii. https://hbr.org/2009/02/seize-advantage-in-a-down-turn

iii. Cousins, P.D. and Crone, M.J. (2003), “Strategic models for the development of obligation based inter-firm rela-tionships: A study of the UK automotive industry”, Inter-national Journal of Operations and Production Manage-ment Vol. 23, No. 11/12, pp. 1447- 1474.

iv. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-stockdale- para-dox_b_5897ca82e4b02bbb1816bc38?guccounter=1&-guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8 &guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJQ0_4oYJ4mHtmuIa3bN8S-Sf0HMti-HRq48fhx_Tv5iW6lxiNdBFa- aP9HMTexjiUjeD-3jZMitqUMlUSmiWl9ayVkYP1JMBYiKnQz7ibb4G-Ja2WaQXd1oYqVu7BaeuPvchlaptbTJO7vaj LjeZaPxEEzkeAXi6-2i0ipJLQL0iY9

v. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-stockdale- para-dox_b_5897ca82e4b02bbb1816bc38?guccounter=1&-guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8 &guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJQ0_4oYJ4mHtmuIa3bN8S-Sf0HMti-HRq48fhx_Tv5iW6lxiNdBFa- aP9HMTexjiUjeD-3jZMitqUMlUSmiWl9ayVkYP1JMBYiKnQz7ibb4G-Ja2WaQXd1oYqVu7BaeuPvchlaptbTJO7vaj LjeZaPxEEzkeAXi6-2i0ipJLQL0iY9

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About Spire ExecutiveSpire Executive is a connecter and success enabler across leadership, management and critical hiring in the Apparel, Footwear and Retail industries. Hong Kong is our home and we have a physical presence in Europe, we take on assign-ments locally as well as offshore, applying a “boots on the ground” approach to engaging with talent. Our definition of “a job well done” is the success of the talent that we recommend to our clients and our network, knowledge and guiding principles enable us to create sustainable outcomes.

To speak with us;Asia | richard@spirexec.com | +852 9242 5537

Europe | eric@spirexec.com | +852 6016 1701

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