business as if it was their own. A partner
can’t run the day-to-day business. They have
to plan for the following year and I have to
think about years three to five. That’s how
we divide our roles in our organisation.”
But for Raymond, it is not enough for
his leadership team to simply enforce a new
company plan. “We came up with a strategy
we call ‘sustainable shared success through
reinvention’. With anything that we do right
now, we ask ourselves: ‘Is it going to be
sustainable?’, ‘Are we able to share this asset
with our five key partners – shareholders,
customers, suppliers, our people and our
community?’,” he observes. “We are focused
on quality, speed, flexibility and cost. This is
what we take into consideration with every
investment we make. We can no longer just
have an investment proposal and say that this
is for a return on investment. We have to
submit the proposal and ask: ‘Is it going to
improve the speed?’ Not just the speed for
manufacturing, but speed for the supply
chain. Can we further improve the quality?
Can we reduce the cost? Can we provide
flexibility in terms of style change, or
minimum order quantity?”
Raymond believes that with the internet
connecting the entire world, the
manufacturing industry – regardless of
whether it is apparel, motoring or electronics- is going to end up with one market. “In
the past, we used to service brands that were
leaders in the whole market. For example,
Gap, Levi’s and Ralph Lauren Polo were
really strong in the US while Uniqlo was
very strong in Japan,” Raymond says.
“We have now moved away from serving
customers in mainly one destination. The
brands have become more international and
so I believe that the world has become the
country of origin and simultaneously, the
country of destination.”
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