Danish Fashion Going Global - Spandet And Partners

DANISH FASHION GOING GLOBAL 51
The small- to medium-sized companies are unable to exploit the opportunities further
especially within exports and get from Tier 4 or 3 due to lack of the following:
• capital to grow the business within market and product development
• management and committed leadership
• international business skills
• network and strategic alliances (cooperations)
• more than one business idea
• critical mass (no shared back-end functions)
• proper sales and distribution capabilities
• proper supply chain management—delivery, quality, purchase power, control
• retail understanding
• specialization within sourcing, logistics, design, sales, service, PR, etc.
The need for specialization increases if the companies are within the design
segment, where the company also needs specialized designers and often also
pattern technicians. Within children’s wear the collections are more generic and the
number of annual collections fewer. This leads to a lower need for product
development and the ability to operate with lower costs/fewer staff. The alternative to
all these challenges is a stand still. Since the competitors usually do not allow a
standstill the question is what do you want, how much risk do you want to take and
where do you want to go?
Some of the complex issues any fashion company has to consider within the value
chain are the following:
Brand Manual/DNA, Design, Assortment Governance, Sales Management, Supplier
Management, Sourcing, code of conduct, Sales Management, Internationalization,
agent search, Warehouse and logistics, Processes description, Company calendar,
Campaigns, Acquisition, Retention marketing programs.
Without a strong platform and being a small set-up it becomes next to impossible to
handle all these tasks. One of the ways to obtain economy of scale and consolidation
is through cooperations/a brand platform which is about beating the numbers and
creating a 1+1 = 3 solution.
A brand platform will strengthen and ensure:
• the core competencies of the owner/s and designer/s through specialization
• management and leadership competencies
• experienced fashion management
• specialized supply chain, sales, marketing and design organization
• solve part of the issues increased requirement of minimum production