Jane's top stuff
Take a moment to reflect on every rule of business you've ever been taught. Conventional things like the importance of strict financial management, extended stock runs, market research, target appropriate advertising and landing that all important bottom line.
Now, consider the revised version by Jane Shepherdson - a bizz whiz who was once described as the most "influential woman in British retail".
For starters, the former brand director of UK fashion chain Topshop never ever asks "how much will it cost?" but instead "will the customer love it?". She'd give top-selling products the flick if they contributed to the "lot of people out there with really bad taste" and has been known to produce sell-out collections with only a week's cover. That, and she vigorously shrugs off the idea of cost-cutting.
Absurd (and amusing) as that may all seem, this business-101-lesson is doled out by a woman who transformed a $20 million a year operation into a $250 million a year powerhouse. An operational guru who, many say "miraculously", brought in 7000 separate product lines into stores each season from a distribution base flung across both the Asian and European market.
So what's Miss Shepherdson's big secret? How did she manage to transform a daggy retail chain frequented by "tweens and teens" into the fashion giant it is today?
"You have to have a vision, you have to know where your going," she revealed at the recent L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival business seminar. "You wouldn't start building a house if you didn't know what the finished product was going to be, would you? Our brand vision, when we started, was to become the world's fashion authority."
Enter Lesson One ? brand differentiation. The way Shepherdson first broke into the over-saturated UK market was by overhauling the company's product lines. Even today, in an environment where middle-market retailers slavishly copy and borrow one another's ideas, Shepherdson said this idea of the "niche" and "distinct" still holds substance, if not more.
"There's a huge amount of competition out there and certainly the market here seems to be quite similar to the UK. I'm not saying you have to stay doing exactly the same thing but there must be something recognisable about the product in your stores."
Lesson Two - the people factor. That is, be prepared to employ the very best staff at every level of the business at any cost.
"I can remember we once left a position open for six months because we couldn't find the absolutely best person for that role," Shepherdson said. You have to look everywhere and pay as high as you can go for them."
Putting core employees aside, Shepherdson has never been immune to recruiting fresh talent either. Throughout her nine year tenure with the company, the brand director invested millions of dollars into sponsoring student fashion shows and recruiting the best to work on limited edition collections. Today, Shepherdson still describes students and new-generation designers as a cesspool of the "freshest, newest ideas".
"Don't work in a vacuum," she warns. "You need input, external stimuli shooting in and out again. Keep it moving, from the outside as well as the inside."
The same idea applies to Shepherdson's approach to product. From new categories such as made-to-measure dresses, vintagewear, fully-fledged catwalk collections and in-store market stalls, she was never afraid to experiment with new ideas ? even if they flopped. Which, she readily admits, they sometimes did.
"We once tried made-to-measure dresses for the mass market and we thought how fabulous is that? We had a waiting list for six months. Well we thought it was fabulous until we realised people were coming to us for bridesmaids dresses, all the same and all really horrible."
Anarchic as all these schemes may seem - and there were lots more of them - Shepherdson said they were not impossible to co-ordinate. Which brings her to another key lesson ? don't ever focus on the bottom line.
"If you always ask 'what will it cost' then you won't end up doing anything because it's always too expensive. I mean you can manage anything, its just going to cost you. You always have to think : will people love what I'm doing?"
Jane's top tips
Have a vision ? "You have to know what it's going to look like and it has to be your vision not someone else's."
Create a differential ? "There's a lot of competition in the middle market so you have to become really different."
Execute your vision to the very highest standard ? "You really have to have the best people for every possible function ? whatever it costs you."
The right product ? "You need to identify a house style."
Always try new things ? "Keep moving forward, you cant for one minute stop and thing you?re a really good retailer."
Don?t work in a vacuum ? "Bring in freelance trend and colour experts, consultants, students."
Don't be afraid of creating demand ? "You should never be afraid of running out of things. There's nothing more fantastic than creating demand."