In the last decade, corporate digital strategy has been mostly focused on digitization, but there has been no real urgency for digital transformation. In the last two years, this transformation has been forced upon companies due to the pandemic and lockdown. They had to quickly redesign their internal and external processes to keep up.
Gen Z is another driver of this development. As Gen Z becomes more important to retail, businesses need to listen and consider how best to meet young audiences’ expectations for better, more consistent shopping experiences, seamless customer service, and control over their personal information. Businesses need to make better use of technology to make their business more resilient.
According to the International Data Corporation, global spending on the digital transformation of business practices, products and organizations is expected to reach $2.8 trillion by 2025. That’s more than double the amount spent in 2020. Companies must therefore adopt a digital strategy for their entire business that includes people, processes, technology and data. This sudden market development is forcing fashion companies to rethink their teams. Digital transformation requires a new team composition with new ways of thinking and a new mix of knowledge and skills.
We brought together people with expertise in education and industry to gather their experiences and insights into the fundamental questions. Here’s how to build a winning fashion team for digital transformation.
This article is a collaboration between Digital Fashion Group Academy and FashionUnited, written by Leslie Holden, co-founder of Digital Fashion Group Academy.
Focus on people, not technology
“It’s about the people,” says Anne-Christine Polet, director of Stitch and Hatch. Stitch and Hatch is a start-up born within fashion company PVH. It has driven digitization within PVH, working closely with the designers and sales staff in Tommy and Calvin Klein stores.
Polet believes that one problem with building a team these days is that people tend to focus on technology: “It’s human nature to take the path of least resistance to change, and it often is it’s almost wishful thinking that the software you procure can solve all your problems. In reality, the solution lies in the people and the processes. When you change the way you do things, the technology should come second.” She also believes that for the team of the future, not only the ability to deal with rapid changes is important, but also the mentality. “You need people who understand that making the change is going to be a little painful, but who also have the creativity to find new ways. And no matter where you are in the company, it’s that kind of mentality that makes the difference in a big change project.” Polet goes on to say that another important point for the new team is that they break down the silos and create a Community that communicates and understands how everyone fits together in this new world to create a better process and value chain of the future.
Cooperation between industry and education is important to develop the digital team
The cornerstone of teamwork is recognizing that each team is unique in the way it thinks, works and gets things done. Design teams have one way of working, production teams have another, and merchandising and marketing teams have another. Much of this stems from behavioral preferences, but leaders also need to consider each team’s digital background. Some teams are comfortable with digital technologies, while others are not.
Anita Mitchell is Head of Digital at the Manchester Fashion Institute. She points out that “not all fashion companies have made the digital transformation move” and many companies find it “disheartening, especially when it comes to upskilling the current team (digitally). There is often a lack of time, budget and freedom,” says the expert.
Manchester Fashion Institute makes employability a key aim of its educational offering and has developed an internship program to help students find employment in the digital field after graduation. At the same time, they want to help industry to understand the potential of digitization. As Mitchell explains, “Students with the appropriate knowledge and digital skills will be matched with companies for internships to help companies more quickly understand the benefits of technology without having to commit to permanent employment.” The learning benefits of this program for both the student and the company is obvious, but it also gives students the opportunity “to return to these companies as part of the team after they graduate.”
Another example of collaboration between fashion schools and industry to develop a new team is offered by the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dtech Lab. Michael Ferraro, the leader, explains that it is not only about interdisciplinary but also about transdisciplinary teams. “To achieve this, FIT’s DTTech Lab was established with the aim of engaging faculty and students to solve industry problems with design and technology. A bridge between industry and academia, harnessing the talents and ideas of students and guided by experienced faculty.”
These collaborations not only teach the entrants to work in teams, but also, similar to Manchester, help the industry to conduct research in a different environment with time to experiment and learn. Ferraro believes this reduces the risk that innovation poses for the industry.
Digital innovation must coexist with the traditional
Digital transformation is innovative by its very nature – we are seeing new technologies, new ways of thinking and new opportunities for fashion companies. To a certain extent, the new often means that the old is challenged. So-called legacy technologies can hinder rather than help a business, and it’s not always easy to identify what they are or how to replace them.
David Clementoni is the President and Founder of Italian Artisan, the largest Made in Italy online fashion manufacturing platform. Italian Artisan works with 700 manufacturing companies to support the digital transformation of their processes and their teams. Clementoni points out that, as a company focused on numbers and digital, from the beginning they had to take into account the traditional approaches of the companies they work with in order to understand the way in which they develop the teams to be able to help. “We had to develop an approach that evolves. You can compare it to a tree. You look at the roots, and they come first. The leaves and fruits come after that. The next generation and the (new) fashion team must still be very connected to the roots, respect the traditional heritage of manufacture and try to develop it rather than destroy it. We all need to be connected to the roots to get more energy for further growth.”
On-demand manufacturing will change team structures in the fashion value chain
One of the biggest challenges for the traditional value chain in fashion is that it is huge and works with many disjointed teams. There is a strong case for bringing all these diverse activities together as closely as possible in a local, on-demand manufacturing structure supported by digitalization, creating a single technological ecosystem. Ram Sareen, CEO and founder of Tukatech, a Los Angeles-based provider of fashion technology solutions for pattern making, design and manufacturing, emphasizes: “Young people today see things very differently (than previous generations), they see what they want to achieve and how technology can help them do that.” He finds that the traditional fashion system is fixated on doing everything a certain way, which is very unsustainable and time-consuming – like passing a design back and forth between designer, pattern maker and pattern maker will be sent until it is correct. “People are absolutely in each other’s way. I’ve often heard from fashion professionals: ‘If I digitize this, what should I do?’ For them, that means they could lose their jobs. Teams are reluctant to adopt technology, but the pandemic has changed everything.”
In 2000, his company Tukatech developed Tukacentres, a company providing services to small and medium-sized fashion companies. It has now evolved into fast-growing micro-factories. Sareen emphasizes: “In the future, we will make what we previously sold ourselves.”
Clearly, when a company strives for seamless digital transformation, it comes down to its teams. Some basic guidelines became clear in this webinar.
Info box:
- 1. The industry must first focus on people, not technology.
- 2. In the process of transformation, the industry can benefit in many ways from the support of educational institutions. The two institutions discussed here train digitally qualified students and university graduates. These can help the industry understand the benefits of the technology, in return for a “safe” environment to experiment and research without fear of failure.
- 3. The concept of community was strong, both in terms of communication and local manufacturing. The sense of community will be a guarantee that digitization will be used for sustainable benefit.
- 4. Traditional values must still be respected in any team. Digital innovation must go hand-in-hand with and build on traditional manual skills. The roots of the team will feed the fruits of innovation.
This article is based on the webinar ‘Digital Design: The New Team’ hosted by Digital Fashion Group Academy. You can preview the discussion below and watch the full webinar on TDFGA’s website.
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ