Page 4 - April 2023 #180

WHO’S RLI MEETS

WHO
IN RETAIL

Drew Green

CEO & PRESIDENT - INDOCHINO

What are the company’s key objectives for the next 12-18 Do you feel that CEOs and company leaders can continue to
months? be transformational in the new retail landscape and will this
As we move through 2023, three things stand out to me. Number actually be more important than ever now?
one is to continue to maximise profitability for the company. We literally Absolutely and I do believe the next 10 to 20 years are going to be
have dozens of levers to pull within the business to continue growth. even more transformational than the past couple of decades. Back in
The second is the full omni-channel launch of our women’s made-to- 2015, when I was touring the world, talking about the brand, searching
measure line, which has been in the works now for a year. We believe for the right partners and the right investors, my statement was that one
we will be the first in the world to offer women’s made-to-measure day, everything that we buy will be custom and everything will be made
through e-commerce and we will be replicating the expertise and for us and I think that is starting to happen.
experience we have for men’s made-to-measure online. Then the third
thing is really to look at our retail footprint and just maximising every What do you make of social media and its importance in the
opportunity. There are always dozens of other smaller initiatives going world of retail and how prominent is e-commerce and online
on, but those are really the three biggest ones. activities within the business?
It is a very prominent factor as social media has become an
Would you say events around the world in the last few years incredible channel to tell stories. The best marketing and the best
have affected the business at all and has it had any effects on sales are when you tell great stories so we have really embraced
future plans? social media, both in channel and out of channel. What I mean by
More than let it affect the business, we instead adjusted and out of channel is, the echoing effects of partnerships with celebrities,
adapted and I think that is what Indochino has proven in the last sports teams, athletes, hotels etc.
three years, that it is a company that will be around for the next
100 or 200 years. The resilience of our team, of the offering and the Taking a step back from right now, what would you consider
value we drive to customers was proven through Covid. The world your career highlights to be?
has changed in the last few years and people’s behaviours, consumer My career highlights are that we have been able to create as a family,
behaviours, the way they work, the way they live, the way they take billions of dollars’ worth of shareholder value. I’ve raised billions of
care of themselves, the importance of family time and health, all dollars and have grown companies throughout the years that have
these things have changed and you need to be flexible and adaptable sold billions of dollars. But all while that happened, maintaining being a
to these ongoing changes. father front and centre, I’ve got two beautiful sons that are extremely
successful in what they’re pursuing.
What key leadership skills do you feel are the most important
in the current retail climate? With everything that has happened in recent times, how are
First and foremost you need to listen to your employees, your you feeling about the 12-18 months that lie ahead?
customers, your stakeholders and your board shareholders to really I am excited, although we are going to face some other things that
understand the best path forward and do not be afraid to ask a lot of we don’t know about but what I feel really excited about is how well
questions. Number two is empathy, which is something I’ve always the company is prepared to be resilient through the changes that
taken a lot of pride in, but I think is now even more important than ever. will come. I just feel like we’re in this amazing position to withstand
Finally, just being decisive is important. When faced with some of the anything and maximise opportunities as they come. So that gives me
challenges that we were faced with, you really have to be decisive and a lot of that gives me a lot of confidence as well as excitement for the
confident in the choice you make. next 12, 18 months.
As a leader who makes key strategic decisions, do you If we look at the retail industry as a whole, do you have any
prefer to rely on facts and figures, your natural instinct, or a words of warning for the industry of advice from your own
combination of the two? experiences?
We are very data focused as an organisation, we always have been and I do feel that global supply chains need to change and that the retail
this is just improving as we go and become a larger company. I use data community needs to look at the supply chain at large. Can we have less
to point out the different options but intuition also needs to be used and waste, how can we become more efficient and can we not over produce
I feel based on my experience that I have pretty good intuition on where while still serving the customer in a way they prefer to be served. I’d
we might need to go, based on data. However you have to show caution like to see the industry as a whole innovate the supply chain as there
because, especially in the last three years, if you think about data, it has has been so much innovation on the front end, e-commerce, mobile
sometimes been a mirage because of these long periods of disruption commerce, social media etc. all the way through, but I think it is the back
that people were not accustomed to. end where we need to innovate.

04 RETAIL & LEISURE INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2023