Winning attire

During the eight years Wilson Cheung Chi was chief financial officer of clothing firm Win Hanverky (3322), he helped fashion some major changes, from engineering a flotation in 2006 to assisting in acquisitions and disposals .迷你倉 But as he embarked on putting his stamp on the company, Cheung was in turn influenced by its culture. After acquiring niche street-fashion label D-mop in 2011, Cheung did something that is rarely done by executives of listed firms. He gave up his formal attire - ties and laundry-pressed shirts - and turned himself into a moving advert for D-mop's products, even while meeting investors. Cheung spoke with passion about his Y-3 sneakers, Evisu jeans and Blues Heroes shirt that he was wearing. Win Hanverky, which distributes Evisu and Y-3, is a cross between Adidas and Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto. It also owns the Blues Heroes brand. It did take some time for Cheung to dress down from his usual jacket and tie. At first, he felt physically uncomfortable wearing slim or even skinny cuts that are so characteristic of trendy clothes. But he was fortunate as his first investor meeting, dressed in the niche street fashion, got off to a flying start. They said: "Wilson, you look fabulous!". After that he felt obliged to wear such clothes. Now, his wardrobe comprises of mostly stylish items and gone are the staid ties and suits. Cheung said he did not have a stylist to help him pick the right pieces, but has since acquired a taste for trendy dressing by observing his employees and business partners. "We often co-operate with stylists and people in the showbiz industry who are at the top of the fashion pyramid," he said. Cheung said Win will soon be working with a star stylist on a mainland singer's image. "So as I work, I pick up a sense of fashion, bit-by-bit, and learn how to match clothes." In the past, Cheung tended to dress casual when he was not at work. "I could walk on the street and be perfectly comfortable with flip-flops, tee-shirt and shorts." Now, even when he's off from work, he still dresses up in limited edition items and niche clothing. "I'm in the process of assimilating fashion ... but it takes time. Some have suggested that I dye my hair in bright colors. I told them I'll have to try and get used to it before I really do something like that." The general trend is, he said, that the financial industry is becoming less formal about what they wear. "Some fund managers no longer wear ties. So I don't actually feel that odd." People do not mind if you look casual, but care more about how you deliver results, he added. Cheung also pays a lot of attention on how his staff dresses. "I will rebuke them if they do not wear the company's products. I want them to stand by the company's image and ideas. Of course, we give them an allowance to buy clothes," he said. Physically immersing himself into a part of the label's operation can be attributed to Cheung's devotion to his work. "When you are leading a project, it is not possible to get your team 100 percent behind you if you don't feel it that way," he said. When our staff deal with customers, wearing your product is a great way to promote your brand, so why waste the chance, he adds. The dress rule that Cheung enforces may not be uncommon in brand-heavy enterprises. But what he is looking at is how ideas are being communicated to customers and also among staff. Cheung said that in his entire business career he was always learning and practicing different forms of communications. He has previously儲存倉worked with ZF Machinery, private firm eBIS and an unit of China Mobile. "In the German firm [ZF]], I learnt to make five-year plans and draw up a detailed division of labor. At my next job, an IT private enterprise, things moved very fast, and you had to get your intelligence spot on." When he was chief financial officer of Aspire Holdings, an unit of state- owned China Mobile, all decisions had to have the support of almost every department involved and the parent firm . "Even China Mobile's top management have to abide by these rules when they want to launch a new policy. It's a good place to learn about lobbying." Cheung said the working pace is faster in local enterprises than in larger organizations, and there are times when decisions with the boss can be made over the phone. In any case, you still have to learn how to "communicate your ideas in a 360-degree fashion," Cheung said. First, it is with the boss, then to whoever you will be working with. "It's important for people to follow your ideas [so that] they can help you deliver what you want to achieve." Cheung believes the message from Win Hanverky is simply the D-mop spirit. "Bring in less well-known designers onto the stage and act as a venture- capitalist in the fashion industry." Win Hanverky made a bold move when it decided to walk away from its traditional sportswear manufacturing business, whose clients included Adidas and Reebok, and also stopped distributing labels such as Umbro and Diadora. "It isn't easy to sell second-tier sports labels, especially in China," Cheung explained. In the sportswear industry, there are two dominating brands - Adidas and Nike - with Puma, a distant third. But the world of fashion is much bigger, he said. "Admittedly there are some fast fashion outfits that are running big, but they belong to the mass segment. There are plenty of segments in fashion, and they are not very much interchangeable, he said, adding, they target avant garde customers and those who insist on taste. "Those who wear Yamamoto probably wouldn't go to Zara or H&M." Although Cheung insists that fast fashion brands are not competing with his company, there are some ideas which he likes to borrow from them. For instance, supply chain management. The idea of making two season's lines a year no longer works, he said. "We aim to have at least four to six fashion lines for each brand every year in order to cope with ever-changing fads. We produce small orders each time in order to reduce the chances of stocking unsold clothes." This also helps to promote the idea of limited edition which serves two purposes, he added. "First, for customers to get a sense of uniqueness, and, second, to keep inventories low." In a fast-changing market and where rents are high, the cost of making mistakes, say, in wrongly selecting the season's products, is very high, Cheung said. Since Win Hanverky took over a majority stake in D-mop from the financially troubled Shine Gold in 2011, it underwent a year-long restructuring. One of the most radical moves was to shut all D-mop outlets in the mainland, he said. "We wanted to get right all the details of doing business in the mainland, including store decoration, the music being played in shops and how store assistants talked to customers." After an intense round of restructuring plans are afoot to re-open the first flagship store this month in TaiKoo Hui mall in Guangzhou. "We want to make sure all stores reflect the D-mop spirit that we hold." victor.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com 迷你倉價錢