Daniel shares what he does to assist the launch of a new business initiative, Denim Centre of Excellence (DCOE), in his job placement at Supply Chain Solutions 3.

The ever-changing business landscape requires companies to continuously assess their business models and innovate to stay relevant and thrive amidst intense competition. As a supply chain orchestrator for many well-known apparel brands in the world, Li & Fung has developed a core competency in sourcing across many apparel categories but the same can be said about its competitors.

In order to provide a point of differentiation from existing competitors, our business took a strategic move to set up DCOE, a department focusing on providing end-to-end supply chain solution for denim products. The size and potential growth of the denim market, coupled with our wealth of experience in handling the category, are the main reasons as to why we chose denim as a key category to double down our effort on.

DCOE aims to provide existing and potential customers with services in the form of R&D support, sourcing strategy and sustainable production practices. We are also partnering with Li & Fung's Digital Solutions Group to introduce various digital tools which they have developed in-house to allow customers to upscale and digitize their operations. As one of the very first few members of DCOE, I have been given the dream opportunity to work on all these different services.

A piece of work I find most interesting is customer acquisition. We approach customer acquisition strategically, sizing up potential customers' business and conducting research on their strategies and product offerings before devising an approach to engage them. I have been heavily involved in the process, and was also given the chance to come up with a pitch deck to showcase our services to customers. Knowing that my work can impact the top line keeps me motivated.

As the world moves toward a period of great uncertainty, companies which will prosper are those cognizant of their strengths and not afraid to explore new business models. Li & Fung is one of those companies and I'm excited to be a part of the transformational endeavor.

Kilian details how collaboration manifests itself among the PMD community, and between business units to make changes happen.

When one of our platinum category customers expressed the need to shorten their fashion calendar, our Supply Chain Solutions 2 (SCS2) teamed up with the Fung Academy to re-assess their supply chain process. Prior to the customer meeting, I worked with two other Management Associates to make sure I understood the needs as well as the constraints of the customer. We worked closely together, and such teamwork made the actual meeting very smooth and successful.

In the meeting, the SCS2 team, the Fung Academy team and the customer worked closely as one team. We innovated: starting with a zero base to get rid of the legacy and building upon what made the most sense for the process, we revisited some processes we have adopted for a long time. Our teams asked questions to review the status quo, and from there, many productive and intelligent conversations were triggered.

I was super impressed by the level of technical knowledge and understanding of our customer's business our SCS2 team has, which really enabled them to make very sensible and appropriate judgement and recommendations. I could see our company regards customer needs as our prime consideration, and exercises expertise and flexibility when recommending solutions. That made me really proud as I witnessed change happening through collaborative efforts.

Coming to think about it, I realise what has made the collaboration so seamless - the PMD network that filled me in with nuances I needed to build the outcome, and the trust and rapport manifested through working together. Our connection enabled our collaboration to be open and straight to the point - without such high level of trust, one could have never achieved it in such a short time.

In the end, the fashion calendar was reduced from 40 to 24 weeks, and the SCS2 team is already working on the next steps to execute this plan with the customer. On a personal level, it is really rewarding to have the opportunity to witness not only transformation in business through collaboration, but also a win-win situation.

Richard talks about reinventing the way we work with customers as well as in the supply chain.

Dramatic changes in technology and spending habits have transformed the retail industry. These changes reverberate across the supply chain, and have created various retail and e-commerce business models deemed as demand chains.

The implications of these changes have a direct impact on our business. As Senior Vice President - Operations, one of my key responsibilities is to work with the business teams to re-think the traditional supply chain, and re-imagine ways of working with our existing and new customers during these tumultuous times.

A project I have been involved in was working with a fast-growing sportswear customer and supporting their extension into a completely new line. In their core business, we work through a typical agency model, providing services such as product sourcing, vendor management, product development support, quality assurance and production monitoring. Although successful, this model was not providing the flexibility in services a "start-up" line would need.

I worked closely with our internal teams and the external customer teams to break down the supply chain. With the customer's goals in mind to bring a steady stream of fresh products, we re-invented the supply chain to become way more agile, and the development-to-delivery cycle much shorter. By breaking down the process and changing our perspectives on roles, responsibilities and incentives, we were able to create a model that is flexible and able to scale quickly. This unique opportunity is what keeps Li & Fung Trading Group (LF) at the forefront of our industry.

A major challenge was changing the mindsets of the stakeholders involved. We worked hard to explain the process and rationale, and eventually gained the buy-in from our management teams. As a team, we worked through the challenges and executed with great success through our merchandising and supply chain experts. We are moving this stream of business forward with this operations model, and such new way of working continues to evolve each and every day.

At a strategic level, the evolution of this operating model has created multiple opportunities for our businesses. Not only are we working full speed on formalizing our digital services, but we are also working with customers to re-align our partnerships to enable them to thrive in the new economy. At LF, we have a unique perspective on the supply chain. We are in an exciting position to re-create a traditional industry for the success of supply chain partners. I am enthused at the opportunities that lie ahead, and looking forward to continuing to create the future in this dynamic company.

Sandeep shares his experience in the project that changes the way we work in the Fung Group.

Being able to rapidly respond to an ever-changing market is what makes us an industry leader. WoW - Ways of Working - is a company-wide initiative to change our work environment to help accelerate the speed of decision making, increase productivity and adopt newer technologies and innovation. WoW spaces are meant to encourage interaction and collaboration within and between teams.

I was involved in the project from the start. It is a two-stage approach - stage one was to pull together a cross-functional team to design a set of WoW guiding principles while stage two is implementing WoW in our offices.

Change Management is my primary responsibility. I am involved with promoting and communicating WoW strategy and vision as well as creating frameworks and developing tools to help our colleagues transition into an open office environment. Engaging the staff on multiple levels and bringing them on the WoW journey is the key factor for a successful implementation of WoW.

We are currently executing projects in Hong Kong, New Delhi, Seoul and Singapore. Each of these locations has its own set of challenges with change management. It has been an amazing and an unforgettable experience to understand how the local cultures and subtleties impact the work environment.

The fact that my contributions will make fundamental and lasting changes to the way we work at LF as WoW culture takes root is my principal motivation.