From Designer To CEO, What Should Wang Daren Do?

According to the world clothing and shoe net, Wang Daren has been smiling and running to the audience at his last Balenciaga conference. AlexanderWang has bowed to the audience for over a year.

After three years as a creative director of Balenciaga, Wang Daren, who returned to New York, was once again full of energy.

He is the most respected and noblest in the industry.

The experience gained from brand work is applied in the same name enterprise. Today, the brand is in its own words a "American brand with Asian origin and trained in Europe".

In June, the company announced that it was originally a brand.

Wang Daren will replace her sister-in-law with her mother as CEO and chairman.

Today, the business of AlexanderWang brand is said to have reached about $150 million, and employs more than 300 employees in New York, Paris and Hongkong.

The company declined detailed actual sales data, but said its business grew by double-digit percentage per year.

And accessories make up half of the revenue contribution.

But in 2016, after the worst performance of the fashion industry after the financial crisis in 2008, even experienced business executives would find it difficult to develop their fashionable business.

What measures has Wang Daren taken and how he will promote and shape his new role in the market? He has exclusively shared the journey of returning to New York, the balance between CEO and creative director, and the first 100 days of being a brand CEO.

AW= Wang Daren

Reporter: what is the biggest motivation to encourage you to become CEO?

AW: before, my sister-in-law has always been in charge of this position. Later, as we grow and expand, we have recruited managers who specialize in sales, display and so on.

And in Paris, it is completely different.

It's not good or bad. It's all quiet together. Everything is very different.

The sales team only discussed with their own people, and the creative team was talking to himself.

But I never work like this. My work is always focused on pparency, communication and communication. I always want to figure out what each person's expectations and goals are.

So when I returned to New York, I had a totally different view of how I wanted to take part in company affairs.

My conversation with my sister-in-law has been going on for some time. She needs to accompany two children, and I am growing up, hoping to shoulder more responsibilities.

So in the end, we made the decision.

I always have an inner intuition about business.

This is also a profile that I have always been interested in.

It's not enough for me to just be creative.

In essence, if you are creative, you are a dreamer; if you do business, then you have to focus on how to execute it.

If the execution is not good, dreams will never come true.

Reporter: so you are a creative executor.

AW: I hope so.

I like to do things well, like to see the results of hard work, and to think creatively in business, and always consider the business level when making creative decisions.

If I can become the two major functional bridges in the organization, the more I will be proud of what we have achieved as a team.

The way a team works is basically that you don't have to know what everyone is busy with, but you have to understand their intentions.

If you are a designer, you must understand why your marketing team wants to see. You must know why your news and PR team ask you these things.

You don't need to know exactly what it is, so listen to it.

Reporter: if a company decides to appoint a new CEO, I have the chance to talk with some candidates for the first time. I may ask what they want to bring to the company, what they will do in the first 100 days after their inauguration, and what vision they will create for the company.

AW: when I first came back, the first thing I said to my team was that this year our focus is not to expand.

Our focus is on our internal functions. We have to look at our inventory level and sales strategy to see how we work inside.

This is what I really want to strengthen, especially now that stores do not have a big purchase budget.

Your focus must be very clear and strategic in terms of what you are creating and what you bring to the market.

Once we have locked up, we will talk about what our next step is.

I think we have done an incredible job already...

I see so many changes taking place in a year for us. I am just very excited about what the next few years will be like.

Reporter: then, what is the most significant change you have implemented?

AW: clear the company's responsibilities and improve efficiency.

I think that in the past, our development was too fast and too organic. Many times our long-term employees did not know what their responsibilities were in the team.

For example, if someone does not do this now, where do I begin to take over?

It sounds boring, but it is just like the establishment of RACI model, that is, Responsible (Accountable) - Accountable (Informed) model.

By the end of the year, people will receive year-end awards, and they will wonder why some people can win prizes, others can not.

It's like you have to have the appropriate information to support these claims.

It is not simple to establish such accountability structure.

Interviewer: This is very interesting, because sometimes you may simplify others' duties and expand your responsibilities.

AW: you have to know what you are good at and what you are not good at. People will have different opinions on what issues - and then you have to listen.

Just because I am the CEO and I have a lot of responsibilities now, it doesn't mean that I have to execute every item in the plan.

It's important to know where you need to recruit and recruit new people and then give them permission.

I can say that designing my time and meeting structure and putting time in my view that I can entrust another person with more creative functions or less business functions is a matter for me and every team member to sit down and speak clearly every week.

AlexanderWang2017 spring summer fashion series

Interviewer: so you almost have to spend less time on creativity and spend more time in business than before.

AW: Yes, but I'm more efficient when I'm creative.

Now, if I want to open a creative meeting, they already know that we will do things according to the delivery and the price. We have already talked with the marketing people there.

So I'm not just sitting there talking about paper.

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Because we used to be organic growth, so the most dangerous thing is that when you have a very low qualification, it will be dangerous to operate an automatic cruise mode even if you are not qualified.

That is to say, you don't ask enough questions every day.

If you don't take risks, you can't advance.

If you dare not take risks because you do not want to make mistakes, you will enter this "automatic cruise" mode to do what others have told you to do and what you have done in the past.

Especially in this industry with such dramatic changes every day, you have to be willing to take risks and change and question the way you do things every day.

Reporter: talk about brand. Your brand building and extension process are impressive. How would you describe your brand to others?

AW: some people will ask me what I hope the brand will change in 10 years. Are we still an American lifestyle brand? Well, yes, our headquarters in New York, our international business is bigger than our domestic business, and all the branches we do are equally stable.

As an American lifestyle brand, our clothing and accessories business is equal. We are proud of our TbyAlexanderWang and all the brand pillars.

But I have to go back to my emotional description of the brand...

Reporter: it's you, right?

AW: it's me.

Reporter: so how do you describe yourself?

AW: I hope it is interesting and mysterious.

Efforts are always celebrated.

Always encouraged.

You know what? There's always encouragement.

I'm fascinated by things that feel like cross contexts.

Use something very dull to make it interesting, or to counteract this feeling with something very precious or very good.

I almost do anything like this.

From product to advertisement to press conference to store design.

Everything is like this.

How do we disrupt the ingredients we already know, and make these things very direct and bring out some prominent points.

Those that give meaning and value.

Our goal is to become the best digital lifestyle brand and redefine our generation's concept of "everyday luxury".

This is what we have been trying to do. We have done one series after another, and want to clearly tell our own vocabulary.

Hybrid is a very important part of my design, whether it is related to creative thinking or not.

The concept of luxury not to be seen in the market...

It is to think about how we can talk about luxuries in a more profound way. These series, these concepts about "entity" are not only the concept of tooling, but a subversion of substance.

The concept of everyday, but with a sharp thing in it.

Put it in context by way of doing it every day.

Interviewer: do you think the brand will change with your change?

AW: of course.

I think so too.

This is a very difficult balance, because you want to make it an independent brand.

I am not a teenager. I am no longer more than 20 years old. Now I am 32 years old.

What kind of life do I have? And, what do I feel that I can constantly peel myself away? That's why I have registered two Instagram accounts.

One is the company, the other is my own.

This is very important. In my life, everything is not suitable for passing through the AlexanderWang brand.

Besides the brand, there is Wang Daren, right? I think it's important to separate them.

Reporter: I just want to talk about positioning.

You have successfully made high-end and low-end product lines under the same brand.

In my opinion, at some stages, you have taken some measures to bring the sub line brand to a higher price.

I think you have solved many problems.

What do you think? How far do you think this stretch can go?

AW: I never liked to define the brand with the price.

I think this is our code of conduct from the first day.

Young American designer brands are defined by wholesale customers.

This is part of the basic system. I also strive to evolve on such a basis.

Foreign stores or foreign partners can understand us better, see what brands they put on us, see how they know their customers' shopping and so on.

This is already highly mobile, and everyone is doing this.

My view on this matter is that because we are not designer luxury brands, we are not the so-called contemporary price brands. It does not mean that we can not design a embroidery dress priced at 5000 US dollars or 10000 dollars to go out for sale.

We did that, and the skirt could sell.

This is only a return to brand and product value.

Our customers, our audience, everyone knows.

They know how much it costs to make these clothes.

Is it made by hand or machine embroidery? What material is it produced?

If we go to a product at a price, the price reflects that.

We seldom hesitate at the price, do not say "ah, the price we can not sell, we do not do this".

The key is to understand how to achieve balance.

Especially accessories.

Reporter: let's talk about accessories. This is your new business focus.

AW: at least for us, if we want to slightly adjust our business view, we need to see not only the top line and the bottom line.

We will regard each individual business as an independent one.

So when we go to see how shoes or handbags are doing, we do not want to "see how AlexanderWang is doing here," but "see which brand is stronger in shoes".

So our ultimate goal is to set up a president in every category.

AlexanderWang classic cut heel boots

Interviewer: is this an example? Proving that AlexanderWang as an independent business will affect your creativity.

AW: take our incision and heel shoes.

We have been doing it since 2009, and we always do well.

We will come out of every series.

I can say that in the past year and a half, this boot has really become a bomb.

Our reaction at that time was "why is it?" I wonder if this is the classic moment of our brand. Everyone really is buying it.

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Interviewer: I also want to talk about growth with you.

AW: luckily, we are privately owned businesses. There is no need to respond to too many expectations.

As long as it feels appropriate, we can manage our growth according to our own ideas.

As I said before, we have no big plans to grow this year.

We have also increased double-digit growth, but this is not our priority.

What I really want to make sure is that we understand what ways to tell, what exactly our products represent and how we should adapt to the market.

In the next stage, we are fortunate that our retail sales are actually flexible.

We have three direct stores and the rest are partners' shops.

We don't need to worry about shutting down shops that are not performing well.

Our focus is on digitization.

That's why we want to rebuild our platform and test new things in the way of consumers.

This is what we see as buying.

This is what we have been talking about.

Does this mean anything? What can our resources provide? What else can we do?

Reporter: what happened to these tests?

AW: let me dismantle it.

We deliberately take out three parts of the brand: the embroidered dress of spring summer series is priced almost between 3000 and 4000 dollars; the cowboy capsule series is basically in the range of 300 to 400 dollars; and there is a joint venture with Adidas.

After that, we realized that customers would not buy some products because they bought them, especially those at certain prices.

Basically, they buy a coat and buy a $4000 handbag every season, no matter what style of dress they usually wear, this is basically the price point.

The products that people are willing to buy because they are "watching and buying" are things they feel they must have at that moment, things that they feel are very easy to get and feel satisfied.

Reporter: finally, I want to know that your business is privately owned, but I know that some investors are interested now. You often say that you are open-minded about investing, but you always say it is blurred.

AW: I'll explain it more clearly.

I talked to at least five people from different fields of investment.

Private equity investors, sovereign wealth funds, strategies, and so on.

My feeling is that some strategic investment is not to help you achieve business growth.

Just to keep your business.

For them, this will give young people a certification board and return to their families. When they shake Qian Shu's strength, they will have talent to support.

But $20 million or $30 million can buy this advantage? I can only say, well, this is not what I want.

Private funds are very short-sighted, basically depending on you three to five years, lucky seven years.

After squeezing, it was discarded.

It's not what I want.

Sovereign investment funds? If I want to do so, I want to work with people who are equally strong in business to make this cooperation as successful as our brand's success story.

I want to be the main Qian Shu.

What I want is someone we can work with together: have enough interest, make us proud, cooperate meaningful, do not engage in petty action, that is why I say I am open, but at present, there is no perfect match.

Interviewer: can you feel the perfect match?

AW: the ideal state is that some people can bring strategic advantages, and we can become the sole focus of their investment.

This is ideal.

We have been fortunate enough to achieve profitability and we need to achieve sustainable development.

But we still want to do more experiments when we are creative, try different things and do what we feel right.

I am really not in a hurry to join this trend, but if the right time comes, I will try to distinguish it from my eyes.

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