Dinnigan hoovers her way into new future
At least, that's the way womenswear aficionado Collette Dinnigan likens her search for a general manager.
"[I need] someone who can keep up with my ideas, take them all in, organise them, decompartmentalise them and then come back to me with the suggested route and what angle we should take."
Citing growing administrative responsibilities and family commitments as key reasons for the decision, Dinnigan said she would continue to retain creative control but wanted someone to oversee the day-to-day running of her business. This included financial, administrative and staff management duties.
The designer - who currently produces seasonal children's, resort, ready-to-wear, bridal and eveningwear collections - said she would like to dedicate more time to marketing, design and product development.
"If I could just create for three months, that would be wonderful but I'm so interrupted in other areas."
Currently exporting to major department stores and boutiques throughout the Middle East, America, Canada, Europe and the UK, Dinnigan continues to broach into new markets with a homewares venture reportedly on the cards.
Unlike other major designers in the northern hemisphere, many of which are part of corporate fashion empires such as LVMH and the Gucci Group in Europe, Dinnigan said she did not have the luxury of extensive back-end support and infrastructure.
"Australia has a lot of owner-operated businesses. It's not necessarily the person, there's more support from the business as a group [in Europe]. That's also quite unique about what we do here."
While no additional recruits are to come onboard in the near future, Dinnigan said she has no plans to entirely back away from her multi-million dollar operation.
"I think that's something I need to retain because that's what my business has been built on for 20 years.
"I'm a good ideas person."