Sweet Baby's fashion house

Reflection on the space in Covent Garden

On Tuesday afternoon, the Hale Clothing team have visited the site chosen for the launch event. The address is near covent garden, where is very popular and has a large flow of people every day. Covent Garden is a fashionable, up-to-the-minute shopping and dining destination, and this area also synonymous with performance, from humble beginnings recorded by Samuel Pepys as the birthplace of the ‘Punch & Judy’ puppeteer show, to the home of street performance today, Covent Garden has never missed a chance to put on a show (Coventgarden 2019). In addition, covent garden often hosts a variety of activities to attract customers, especially around Christmas.Based on the advantages of this strong geographical location and the heat brought by fashion week, choosing the location of the press conference is very helpful for customers who are shopping in this location to participate in our fashion conference.

Entering the building of which we choose for the launch event, there are four floors. The floors are made of wood and which give people a retro feel. I especially like the first floor, the floor and ceiling are composed of a lot of wood, the walls are pure cement walls without painting, and there are two Windows with good lighting, which are in sharp contrast with the interior. The whole floor is simple and retro that the bright color echoes the dark tone of the ceiling. From my point of view, the area of this floor is enough for launch event. And a corner between the G floor and first floor can also be used. If we have an enough budget, two floors is a good choice. One floor can be used for displaying products and the other floor is used for reception and party.

The Plan for Hale Clothing Launch Event

The hale clothing launch event will hold for 2 days during on London Fashion Week. We need to prepare champagne, water, some snacks and drinks in advance to welcome the invited guests. In addition, it is better to have an area ready for the arrival of guests to save coats and backpacks and other items, so that they can more convenient shopping, and prepare the corresponding number plate, convenient to retrieve their goods.The interior design also needs to be prepared a week in advance. Need to prepare a striking standing billboard on the site of the launch event outside, can let more people to pay attention to this activity. Some posters of our models could prepared post up on the wall.

The launch event  could starts at 11:00 Am in the morning and ends at 8:00 in the afternoon for the 2 days. Then the party time for invited guests is available from 8:00 to 10:00. Specially invited guests need to register at the reception for confirmation, shopping can get a certain discount on that two days. If there are some important media or Internet celebrities coming, we could provide them clothes for better publicity.In terms of promotion, students present on the same day can get a 10% discount on consumption with their student cards or identification.In addition, a Chinese restaurant is willing to participate in our cooperation, and customers who consume on the day of the launch can get a 20% discount coupon from the restaurant. For the convenience of customers, Hale clothing could offer free delivery service in the UK for customers who spend more than 200 pounds on that two days. In addition, the membership mechanism is also opened on the same day. The customers can set up a membership card for free and get points for the amount of consumption on the same day. When the points reach 1000 pounds, they can get a 10% discount automatically. In addition, customers who sign up can get 20% off their birthdays and wedding anniversaries.

Evening time is party time. Some buyers and people in the fashion industry, or who are very interested in fashion, can get together to drink champagne, listen to music, communicate about fashion, take photos and post on social media, which is also a good way to increase the brand’s exposure.

Budget Planning 

The biggest cost of this event is the rent of the venue, which is expected to be 10,000 pounds. In addition, the site layout, poster printing, billboard and decoration are expected to be within 500 pounds. And the cost of serving customers is expected to be within 200 pounds.

Press Presentation 

Invited influencers will post photos of our event on their personal social network and @ brand website and official social network. In addition, interested companies can also communicate with the brand on social networking sites, and we can use our products as return.This can expose our brand awareness, let more people pay attention to the brand. According to Datareportal 2019, there are now more than 3.5 billion social media users around the world, representing roughly 46 percent of the world’s total population (datareportal.com 2019 )

References:

DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. (2019). Social Media Users — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. [online] Available at: https://datareportal.com/social-media-users [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019]. Warc.com. (2019). Marketers use social media to boost sponsorships | WARC. [online] Available at: https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/ 

Covent Garden London. (2019). Covent Garden – Shopping, Food and Cultural Destination In London. [online] Available at: https://www.coventgarden.london [Accessed 21 Nov. 2019].

In recent years, with the development of electrical network and people’s demand for social activities, social media has developed rapidly and been favored by more and more people. The audience includes individuals of all ages, as well as companies and groups. According to Datareportal 2019, there are now more than 3.5 billion social media users around the world, representing roughly 46 percent of the world’s total population, and the average user has an account on more than 9 different social media platforms, spends an average of 2 hours and 16 minutes on social media each day. It can be concluded that social media has a huge market. Based on the development of the social media, We media and companies have also gained huge benefits. The NBA, for example, generates 18% of its media value from its social media efforts. That translates into an estimated $350 million over the course of a season for all of the league and team’s official sponsors (Nielsensports 2019). Among them, user traffic and attention is a very significant factor. So how to attract people’s attention if you want to develop your brand or level up as a social media? How do you get exposure among so many users? Developing a social media strategy or digital communication strategy is essential.

In general, make goals of the social media is the first step of the marketing social media. Currently, for the Hale Clothing brand, increase brand awareness, drive traffic to the Instagram, generate new followers should be the first consider goals. In additional, if it is possible to increase mentions in the press should also be one another significant goals. Because Hale is still a growing brand, the social media followers and exposure are at a fundamental level. Define the brand, know the audience and post consistently are the basic. Then choose active sponsors and partners, make sponsorship and cooperation with relatively well-known brands and have communication with them on social media are effective measures to improve awareness. Marketers often use social media to boost sponsorships and social media plays increasingly important support roles in brands’ sponsorship activities, new research has shown (WARC, 2017). A survey by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) garnered responses from 119 corporate members and found that most US marketers (85%) were using social media to support sponsorships before, during, and after the sponsorship (WARC, 2017).

So it is significant for Hale clothing to find sponsors and partners to boost the users traffic of the social media. For instance, Equinox is a luxury fitness club brand which is from US and now has launched in more than 135 locations that include London. It is more than a gym, it is a club which gives many benefits for their membership that includes: complimentary equifit fitness assessment, complimentary personal training session  and 25% off the first treatment at the Spa (EQUINOX 2019). If Equinox and Hale Clothing could corporate, Hale Clothing could prepare a T-shirt and a discount card into the ‘Welcome Package’ for the members to attract more fitness men know Hale Clothing brand.Moreover, as a sponsor, Equinox could give a discount for the audience who spend up to a certain level in Hale Clothing.In addition, Equinox has 258 thousands followers on their Instagram and most of the high quality poster has more than thousand ‘likes’ which means it has a huge active users. If it can be Hale clothing’s sponsor, take photos with the model who wears Hale Clothing and put the photo on the instagram and adda link with Hale’s website or Instagram could help Hale clothing get more exposure and user traffic.

References:

Equinox.com. (2019). Member Benefits. [online] Available at: https://www.equinox.com/memberbenefits?icmp=topnav-memberbenefits [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

Nielsen Sports. (2019). Perspectives: Social Media and Sponsorship | Nielsen Sports. [online] Available at: https://nielsensports.com/perspectives-social-media-sponsorship/ [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. (2019). Social Media Users — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. [online] Available at: https://datareportal.com/social-media-users [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

Warc.com. (2019). Marketers use social media to boost sponsorships | WARC. [online] Available at: https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/marketers_use_social_media_to_boost_sponsorships/39347 [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

Activeendurance.com. (2016). 5 Ways to Increase Value for Sponsors | ACTIVE Network, Endurance Blog. [online] Available at: http://www.activeendurance.com/blog/2016/03/10/5-ways-to-increase-value-for-sponsors-using-social-media/ [Accessed 7 Nov. 2019].

A high-quality model can not only represents the image of the brand, but also can show the brand to the audience through the form and convey the information of the brand that wants to convey to customers.Therefore, it is especially important for hale brand to select the right model to convey the excellent visual effect of the product. Based on these, an international male model casting event is planned to be held from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Oct. 11 at Coventry University London Campus.At castings, models are asked to wear as simply as possible, since the people responsible for casting need to see what each model looks like, without being distracted by loud or trendy clothes(Boston College 2018). In addition, the Hale team has prepared kinds of preparatory activities including designing posters, putting out online and offline advertisements, looking for suitable male model to ask them if it is possible to join us. During the advertising, the team are very creative and try our best to attract more models to join in.

After the adverting, 23 male models signed up for the model casting event. During the event, the male team members have selected the model’s personal information and take pictures from them. The models also work actively with the team to accomplish these.

Based on the deep discussion of the Hale team, 5 models : Martin, Michi, Ted, Adrian and Trung were chosen by team members and unanimously agreed. In my opinion, Trung and Martin are the best choice because they looks very young, sunshine, blood and in a good shape which is suit for the culture of Hale clothing. And then they were invited by team to come on class, try some new pictures and talk about the location, time, hair and make up of the shoot.

During the meeting, Hale team has discuss and make true the photo shoot and video shoot will make on weekends. The video team planed to portray the story that two athletic boys went back home after the gym, and when they met that they find they both are wearing Hale’s clothes.  After the show of the video, team members found that the story of the video is great but the flat is too mixed which need to improve to be more simple and clean. So that it is better to make a fake flat which is more suitable for the video shoot.  In addition, the film shaking seriously, which requires the photo team to practice shooting skills. Picking up a camcorder for the first time has just about everyone wanting to hit the zoom button on every shot while panning across the horizon. The result can leave viewers seasick (Glenn 2019). So the Moreover, the music for the Hale video is still not  chosen so that our team should think of the suitable music as soon as possible. 

In addition, the picture shoot team has planed to go to 2 places with these five models to take pictures.Tate museum is chosen for one place to take pictures with Hale T-shirt wearing. It has a great view of the gray wall. The great point is that the grey wall and steps make the photos have a modern decorative style which is very elegant. And another shoot picture is Richmond where has a lot of nature scenery that make the photos look very nature and relaxed. But some model’s feeling is not very applicable for Hale which include the hair style and the expression.

Pop-ups are temporary and only have a limited amount of time to woo customers. Used the knowledge of visual merchandising, product layout, POS, and window dressing is very significant(Aleks 2018). About the interior design of the Hale pop up store, 3 suitable style pictures have been selected by me to be considered for team. After the presentation and meeting, the Plan C is the most popular one from the team. It is also need to be improved by adding some bright color to make it looks creative. The new plan will coming soon.

Reference:

The Balance Careers. (2019). Top 10 Tips to Shoot Video Like a Professional. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/tips-shoot-professional-videographer-2315393 [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019].

Interior Design Retail Design Home Staging Consultants Edinburgh. (2018). POP-UP SHOP IDEAS – Interior Design Retail Design Home Staging Consultants Edinburgh. [online] Available at: https://aleksandrajhannah.com/pop-up-shop-ideas/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019].

College, C. (2018). Fashion & Beauty Lessons We Can Learn from Model Casting Calls – College Fashion. [online] College Fashion. Available at: https://www.collegefashion.net/beauty-and-hair/models-101-fashion-beauty-lessons-from-a-casting-call/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019].

Hale Clothing is a New brand that focus on delivering a great fitting menswear created for men with athletic physique. It is also mainly build the strong reputation around the contemporary style, reliability, quality and transparency. Recently, more and more people pay attention the health and wellness life, which also means they are much more focus on the quality life. So the Hale brand is focus on the feeling of the target audience, which is designed to compliment and respect the body shape whilst striving for the same level of performance, durability and trust men that they demand from the technical wear, make them feel confidence. In addition, the brand target audience is much more from the younger men who are focus on healthy, elegance and confidence.

Hale Clothing will hold a launch event in January 2020 to expand and market the brand. In order to better expand the market, the brand will carry out a series of marketing activities, among which the sponsor is one of the indispensable important factors for the brand. Through the cooperation and support of sponsors, brands and sponsors will achieve win-win results. Sponsorship is that adversing seeks to establish a deeper association and integration between an advertiser and a publisher((Marketingterms 2018). There is no debt that sponsorship is a form of marketing. Usually, sponsorship is a financial or in-kind support of an activity. Business often sponsor events, to reach special business goals and increase their competitive advantage( thebalancesmb 2019). In addition, sponsors could help the developing brand reduce the costing. Based on the brand information and target audience, the food and drink companies are the best choice to support the launch event in 2020. Because the Halt Clothing is a developing brand so that it is better to choose the developing brand who are forward to find chance to market themselves too. In addition, healthy low-calorie foods such as fruit and light foods should be added to the sponsor’s selection, which is consistent with the value the brand conveys.

In addition, champagne and wine companies are also good choices to choose to be the sponsor.

But how to manage the sponsor? A important factor is that make sure and put together a sponsor agreement that signed by the sponsor leader and brand organizer (Ted 2018). Keep communication consist with the sponsor is also significant that make sure the sponsorship went smoothly.Moreover, attend to them at the event on time is very important, connect with them a few times during the event. After the event, follow up and assess impact to know how they feel about and promote the next cooperation is much more significant, it is a good way to save money and time.

References:

Ted.com. (2018). Relationship management. [online] Available at: https:// http://www.ted.com/participate/organize-a-local-tedx-event/tedx-organizer-guide/sponsors- finances/sponsors-partnerships/relationship-management [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].

Marketing Terms. (2018). What is Sponsorship? – Marketing Definition & Information. [online] Available at: https://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/sponsorship/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].

The Balance Small Business. (2019). Learn About Sponsorship and How to Use It to Improve Marketing. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/ sponsorship-a-key-to-powerful-marketing-2295276 [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].

Thesponsorshipguy.com. (2017). [online] Available at: https:// thesponsorshipguy.com/2017/09/what-is-sponsorship-and-how-does-it-work/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2019].

The culture of an organization expresses its personality and character. Different organizations have different organizational cultures, reflected in their common values, beliefs, and assumptions. The key factors of an organization culture include its history and environment as well as the employees who lead and work for it. So when an organization’s culture is successfully established, does the leader decision-making have a strong impact on the organization’s culture? Is it appropriate for the development of the organization and the performance of internal personnel? What impact does organizational culture have on business development? Those will be discussed based on the organization culture management in this blog.

The Schein model has explained three levels of culture:’ What is assumed, what they say and what we see. There is a famous British fast fashion brand will be as an example to be evaluated based no the organization culture management. 

New Look, as a fast-fashion British brand established in UK since 1969. The brand has expanded rapidly with 519 stores in the UK and Ireland, 302 stores across Europe, Asia and China by 2019(New Look 2019). The New Look combines online and offline sells, and the official online website has spread all over 66 countries accounts for 20% of the total sales (New Look 2019). New look’s main target audience are the women aged 16-35 who likes affordable and fashionable products (NL 2014). Whether the consumers shopping women’s, men’s or any of other ranges; Inspire (sizes 18-28), Teens, Tall, Petite or Maternity, the ranges from New Look could offer a broad width of appeal hence all of the customers could purchase into the latest trends in a way that suits them. The New Look reacts quickly to the trends and successfully provide products to suit customers’ individual style (New Look 2019).

Consumer Mood Board

According to the New Look’s 2017-2018 annual report, the total revenue of New Look in 2018 was £1,347.8 million, decreased  £106.9 million than 2017 (New Look, 2018). In UK, the fashion industry contributed 32.3billion to the UK’s gross domestic product in 2017, up 5.4% on 2016 (Rush 2018). The drop in turnover confirms that the brand has been experiencing significant challenges in recent years based on the competitors rapidly grow and the internal weakness.

Compared with the New Look 3 main competitors Asos, Top shop and Bohoo, one of the significant reason that make New Look now experience difficulty is the organization culture management. If New Look does not have its own specific organization culture and strategy to support the survival of the company in this highly competitive industry, then the performance decline of enterprise losses is inevitable. A strong culture is critical to the success of an organization as it enables employees to identify their thoughts and feelings as well as increase their commitment to the organization (Deere and Kennedy 1988, Kanter 1984). Some people believe that organization culture is depended on the leader’s preferences, the enterprise only needs to follow and listen. This interpretation is narrow and unilateral. But the impact of organizer’s decision on organization culture also plays a key role. 

In recent years, the management of New Look has been committed to expanding stores to increase their revenue, while ignoring the implementation and development of the internal culture. The former boss Alistair McGeorg has blamed  the dire performance on the previous management team chasing a ‘young and edgy’ audience, and also lost connection with the corn customers (The guardian 2018). Despite its long history and story, New Look has not been an advantage in developing its organizational culture. Organizers have focused too much on how to scale up to meet the ambitions of shareholders and investors, ignoring product development and employee training so that they has spend most of their money investing in the financial sector, resulting in excessive cost output and less investment in products and employees.‘Companies win or lose based on the cultures they create’ (Puffer, 1999:). 

Ethical leadership begins with understanding the core values of the organisation and developing the discipline to incorporate them into the daily lives of the people. Virtue needs an ethical leader to reflect more on how the values, vision and voice are maintained within the common good (Ghuman and Aswathappa, 2010 p.406, Grace, 1999 p.10).

The Culture Web

The Cultural web can analyze organizational culture from six aspects. Organizational culture plays a significant for companies and organizations functions that from the strategy to leadership and how managers relate to and  how to interact with customers, as well as how knowledge is shared (Mats 2013). New Look has always meeting made satisfied young audience pursuit of rapid fashion renewal as one of their organizational cultures. However, when the author entered a number of stores to find that its staff’s service attitude is not good, the classification is messy and the same price of product quality can not be comparable with other key competitive brands, which undoubtedly reflects the lack of organizational culture and shortcomings.

In conclusion, to improve and manage New Look’s organization culture, new look need  to improve their commutation with the audience, pay more attention on the products’ quality and innovation as well as the customer services instead of only focusing on their shareholder’s dividend. The leaders should have a new plan about the market strategy what it suits for New Look and also need to develop a mission and vision for the company to build employees’ confidence. So that the culture be managed and developed within organizations.

References:

Schein, E. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, 45(2), pp.109-119.
Puffer, S. (1999). Global statesman: Mikhail Gorbachev on globalization. Academy of Management Perspectives, 13(1), pp.8-14.

Ghuman, K. and Aswathappa, K. (2010) Management: Concepts, Practice and Cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw

Whittington, B. and Johnson, J. (2005). Pressure acid leaching of arid-region nickel laterite ore. Part III: Effect of process water on nickel losses in the residue. Hydrometallurgy, 78(3-4), pp.256-263.

Jahshan, E. (2018). New Look reports operating loss of £74.3m – Retail Gazette. [online] Retail Gazette. Available at: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2018/06/new-look-reports-operating-loss-74-3m/ [Accessed 2 July. 2019].

Newlook.uk.com. (2019). newlook.uk.com. [online] Available at: http://newlook.uk.com/ [Accessed 2 July. 2019].

When I first heard about leadership, one word come to me is the ‘Value’. So what is the meaning of leadership? It is a relationship through which one person influences the behavior or actions of other people(Mullins 2016: 312).‘Effective leaders, who can inspires others to realize their personal and collective potential, are often the deciding factor between a company being good at what it does and achieving  greatness.’(CBI 2015) The key point about leadership is that it can occur at different levels and be manifested in different ways(Mullins 2016: 312). John Adair has shows his ideas on action-centred leadership theory, which focus on the leaders’ actions by meeting three areas of need: The need to achieve the common task involve defining team works and achieving aims, organizing the work and controlling the performance.The need for team maintenance involve team spirit and maintaining morale, maintaining discipline and communication with the team.The individual needs involve facing the individual needs of team members and attending to personal problems, providing status and coordinating conflicts (Adair 1984).

The leadership style theory could be a way to perform leadership functions and is typical of the leader’s approach to team members.

About the authoritarian leadership, that always reflect by the leaders who tend to have complete control over the team’s decision-making process. The leader gives instructions, and the team follows up and reports. However, this style of leadership can save time in the short term, with few new ideas and low morale (West Gippsland & Latrobe Valley 1993). Participative leadership can express the leaders encourage their team to be actively involved in decision-making. They delegate authority to appropriately skilled team members and provide opportunities for others to develop their skills. This leadership style uses a variety of methods to meet team members’ specific skill levels and motivational needs(West Gippsland & Latrobe Valley 1993). Laissez-fair leadership type of leader tends to adopt a policy that does not “interfere” with the team and lets them manage it themselves. This approach is usually only effective in highly specialized areas(West Gippsland & Latrobe Valley 1993).

Uhl-Bien et al (2007) suggest the leadership model of the last century is the product of a top-down, bureaucratic paradigm that does not apply to the knowledge-based economy. So today’s leaders face many challenges. Especially performances in developing countries. I would like to have an example of the challenges that leadership is facing in some developing countries in Asia. In some developing countries, such as India, the production industry of leadership remains in its infancy. Leaders always have top-down direct power. 

Many developed countries choose to produce fashion products in India due to the low labour costs so that made India’s textile and apparel industry is a major contributor to India’s GDP and the second largest source of employment in India. According to the Indian government, the country’s textile industry is worth 35 billion pounds a year and employs 35 million people. Clothing exports are worth 21 billion pounds. There is a huge demand in the market. However, since their level of leadership is from authoritarian leadership that leaders have top power, the process of production always have some problems on employee and environment. In order to make a high profit, the leader gives a high workload, the employees must work overtime to complete the work, without any personal opinion (the guardian, 2012). Also, Many workers claimed that long hours and poor health and safety conditions made them ill. In particularly, most of the leaders are men. A factory’s leader form Gap admits it has underpaid workers for overtime and has required them to work illegally long hours (the guardian, 2012). This shows that this high control leadership could result in some negative effects. Leads to employees feeling disrespected, less enthusiasm for work, and even more insecurity. This is also common in China. The Wah Tung factory in Heyuan, where staff said they worked 175 hours of overtime in one month. Thus, the leadership of developing countries still faces serious challenges.In my opinion, a good leadership should have a positive impact on society, not a destabilizing factor. Leadership of any kind should be based on respect for human rights, the employ engagement should not be forced. Of course, women and men should be equal at the work environment. And the leaders should change their leadership style depending on their situation. The path-goal theory of leadership suggest that the performance of subordinates is affected by the extent to which the manager satisfies their expectations. So is a good way to use and could improve the employee satisfaction.

In conclusion, with the development of globalization and a competitive environment, leadership should not apply only to western developed countries. Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries also need leadership systems that are appropriate for them. I believe that in the near future, a leadership system will be established for different countries environments. More female leaders would be performance at companies. When it comes to women inclusion in leadership positions, Eastern Europe leads the world in gender-diverse leadership (Catalyst, 2018). However, the global figures are not impressive – the proportion of women in senior positions is falling (Forbes 2019). Women’s leadership should be more focused.

References:

Adair, J.E. (1973), “Action-Centred Leadership”. McGraw-Hill, London

Mullins, L. and Christy, G. (2016). Management and organisational behaviour. 11th ed. Pearson Education Limited.

House, R. and Dessler, G. (1974). ‘The Path-Goal Theory of Learderhsip. Southern Illinois University Press.

Expert Program Management. (2019). Expert Program Management. [online] Available at: https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2018/12/path-goal-theory-of-leadership/ [Accessed 01 Jul. 2019].

Jsw.org.au. (2019). Leadership Styles. [online] Available at: http://www.jsw.org.au/elearning/retail/certIV/lead_and_manage_people/unit_lm/concepts/lmc0102.htm [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].

Chamberlain, G. (2012). India’s clothing workers: ‘They slap us and call us dogs and donkeys’. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/25/india-clothing-workers-slave-wages [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].

Forbes.com. (2019). Female Leadership–‘Be Competent Like A Woman And Confident And Ambitious Like A Man’. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninaangelovska/2019/04/23/female-leadership-be-competent-like-a-woman-and-confident-and-ambitions-like-a-man/#2c12576a201c [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].

Nowadays, the rapid development of the global economy makes the world pattern constantly change.How to deal with change and how to manage change are challenges for many businesses currently.Innovation and change can make the company continue to progress and develop, but it is not easy to implement.  Organizations that handle change well thrive. So the successful leaders need to be positive and effective to face the change.In my blog, I will focus on fashion industry and discuss its impact of the Brexit based on the change management theories. The solution and recommendation will be included at last.

What will happen to the UK economy by Brexit? According to statistics, the UK exported goods worth 133 billion pounds to the rest of the EU, almost half of the world’s exports in 2015. This could take a major hit on export businesses in the UK, as their costs will hike up with the increased tariffs.This will lead to a decline in the competitiveness of British businesses in the EU market and globally, particularly in the fashion industry due to the British fashion industry relies on international trade, on the prosperity of global talent resources. The UK fashion industry is worth a value to the UK economy at a cost of 32 billion pounds, said by British Fashion Council CEO (standard 2018).Richard Lim, chief executive of analyst Retail Economics states that a hard Brexit with existing trade disappear, and designers, retailers and manufacturers would have to pay to trade with the EU (standard 2019). The threat of Brexit is growing. If without a deal, the UK will lose seamless tariff-free access with the world’s largest economy and be subject to WTO trade rules. Some manufacturers lose their competitive advantage as a result of currency volatility.

Mulberry is a leading British lifestyle brand that founded by Roger Saul with his mother in 1971. The brand is committed to British manufacturing and develop craft talent (Mulberry 2019). Although mulberry is made in UK, its leather raw materials mainly come from Europe, especially Italy. Raw material cost from Italian tanneries are higher than before as a result of the Brexit (Independent 2018). The CEO of Mulberry says the company is struggling to cope with rising leather import costs since the Brexit vote (Independent 2018). So to deal with the currency volatility and rising costs caused by Brexit, brands need to face the challenges through change management.

Management of  change 

According to Lewin (1947a,1947b), because people in an organization work as groups, individual behavior must be observed, modified, or altered in accordance with the group’s general practices and norms (Burnes, B. 2009). So the change of organization is important. The Lewin’s change model could be used by Mulberry brand and fashion industry to face the issues and is widely used by companies. The Lewin’s theory performance by the three stages of changes: Preparing the desired change, implementing the desired change and solidifying the desired change (Mulder, P. 2012). Mulberry and the other British brand from the fashion industry could go to find some local manufactures that could supply the raw products to reduce the cost in logistics. On the other hand, it is a good chance for Mulberry and local brand to promote the products for the tourists because more people choose to come to UK for travel at this time based on the currency volatility. Make some activities and use social media is a good way to to advertise to tourists.

When the fashion industry is start to make change, one of the most difficult parts of change management is the personnel element. The ADKAR model provides a way for teams to complete the change process. The model shows the five sequential actions and results necessary for successful individual organizational changes. The ADKAR Model performance by the 5 stages: Awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. For the fashion industry and employee, communication, coaching, training and celebrating are the significant factors based on the theory.

In conclusion, in today’s business world, change is inevitable. Agile businesses that adapt to changing environments and continuously improve processes can gain an edge in the competition. But deciding what needs to change and how it should be changed is just the beginning. Fashion industry should prepare and make change scientific and reasonable when they face challenges such as Brexit. The leaders also need to provide a long view to face the changing world.

Reference:

Burnes, B. (2009). Reflections: Ethics and Organizational Change – Time for a Return to Lewinian Values. Journal of Change Management, 9(4), pp.359-381.

Mullins, L. and Christy, G. (2016). Management and organisational behaviour. 11th ed. Pearson Education Limited.

Kotter.J.P (2012, 1996). Leading change. Harvard Business Press.

Expert Program Management. (2018). Expert Program Management. [online] Available at: https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2018/02/adkar-model-of-change/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].

Pearson, S. (2018). What’s the ADKAR Model and How to Use It – Tallyfy. [online] Tallyfy. Available at: https://tallyfy.com/adkar-model/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].

Vogue Business. (2019). Will Brexit break British fashion?. [online] Available at: https://www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/impact-brexit-fashion-textile-industry-no-deal [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].

Lewin’s Change Model PowerPoint Template – SlideModel. [online] SlideModel. Available at: https://slidemodel.com/templates/lewins-change-model-powerpoint-template/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].

Mulberry.com. (2019). Mulberry | Mulberry.com Official Homepage. [online] Available at: https://www.mulberry.com/dk/ [Accessed 13 Jul. 2019].

‘I have a dream.’ This famous sentence reminds us the speech of Martin Luther King,Jr. His speech attracted 250 thousands people followers. What his speech did – the force that still reverberates today – was to win the hearts and minds of the public. For those who aspire to be leaders, his speech is an insightful textbook. In my opinion, no matter in politics or economy area, a successful leader must win peoples heart deeply, and their thoughts will be followed by more people. Some misconceptions holds that a successful leader must gain benefits for their employees or followers. This seems to make a point. But throughout history, those leaders who has an impact with far-reaching, followers are undoubtedly attracted by their powerful spiritual forces. As Reagan said in 1988: ‘To grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence of successful leadership – not only on the movie set where I learned it, but everywhere.’ On the other hand, timely self-management and reflection are also the capabilities that good leaders need. The force of example as a leader for a team is an important point. If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?(Reagan,1967) In this blog, I will mainly share some vision and values about my leadership brand and the opinions how to become a great leader in the further. 

When I finished the first year of my college, I had an internship which gave me a great learning experience. Although it is a small real estate consulting company, the boss’s long-term insight and self-control enabled the company to grow rapidly within a year. I was an assistant to the general manager, mainly to help the general manager to give the work tasks, coordinate and communicate the work among various departments, and give feedback and recommendations to the general manager. Through this experience, developed my communication leadership skills. My lady boss often listen to my opinions very carefully and give some affirmation, which make me feel confidence on my work. This enables me to lay a foundation for how to cooperate with employees effectively and jointly when starting my own business. When I had the internship, I found the Adair’s action-centred leadership theory always stay with my leader and me. Also it is a part of my leadership brand.The frame explains how a professional leader should do by 3 steps: understand the goal, and then working with teams and individuals. As a leader, it’s especially important to have clear goals. Fulfill your team’s goals, allocate resources, and organize responsibilities, all of which are under task requirements. In addition, the needs of the team and individuals are particularly important, focusing on and resolving their conflicts (Adair, 1976).

Through feedback from team members, I learned that I had a positive attitude toward team collaboration that include attend and finish homework on time. At the same time, some of my shortcomings need to be improved. I like communicating with team members, but when I need to be a team leader and assign tasks, sometimes I will be afraid that other members are dissatisfied with me which is not a professional leader’s performance. In addition, I need to adjust the specific relationship between the character and the person as needed and specifically. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1970) the leadership style adopted is reflected in a leader’s pattern of behavior in influencing others. Hershey and Blanchard  situation-based leadership theory is a great choose to study. 

The frame above from Hersey and Blanchard situation leadership can helped me to understand  that leaders deal with varying levels of followers readiness by adjusting their relative emphasis on task and relationship behaviors. According to this theory, there are four leadership style styles: selling style, telling style, participating style and delegating style. Leaders should be able to emphasize tasks and relationships with subordinates to varying degrees, as needed and specifically.

The Kouzes & Posner’s 5 Practices could gives insights from the leader himself and people working with him in my future’s work life. I would like to use this frame to help me to be a professional leader. To effectively model behavior the expect, leaders should must first clear their guiding principle (Kouze 2011). Inspire a shared vision is a practice that make leader apart from other credible people. And challenge is the crucible for greatness. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion could make them confident to complete the work. Celebrate the values and visions by effective community and encourage them to be better. 

I believe that through continuous learning and application of leadership, it will lay a solid foundation for my future work. And I believe I will become a qualified and responsible leader who will make my own contribution to society. My father has always taught me that a person who only want to does things for himself will never succeed, must does it for other people, for groups, and for the community.

Reference:

Adair, J.E. (1976), “Action-Centred Leadership”. McGraw-Hill, London

Kouzes, J. and Posner, B. (2011). The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Hoboken: Wiley.

Hoffman, L., Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. (1970). Management of Organizational Behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15(2), p.264.

Leadershipnow.com. (2019). Ronald Reagan on Leadership | Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog. [online] Available at: https://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2011/02/ronald_reagan_on_leadership.html [Accessed 17 Jul. 2019].

Development, O. and Posner, T. (2019). The Leadership Practices Inventory – LPI – by Jym Kouzes and Barry Posner – Anne-Cécile Graber. [online] Anne-Cécile Graber. Available at: https://acgraber.com/the-leadership-practices-inventory-lpi-by-jym-kouzes-and-barry-posner/ [Accessed 16 Jul. 2019].