CASE: Capri Holdings / Michael Kors
VP Global Retail and Wholesale Systems
The Situation
Capri Holdings Limited is a global fashion luxury group, consisting of iconic brands that are industry leaders in design, style and craftsmanship. The luxury fashion conglomerate was renamed Capri Holdings in 2019 after bringing Versace and Jimmy Choo into its arsenal in 2018 and 2017 respectively. Michael Kors’ CEO celebrated this investment as a milestone for the American brand and it has been marked as decision that will seal its position within the global luxury market.
Our CEO, Bryan MacDonald was approached to recruit a new VP of Global Retail and Wholesale Systems by Capri’s CIO. Bryan had an established relationship with the CIO, having placed him in another organisation several years ago.
Capri’s CIO had been appointed 9 months earlier to help lead Capri’s digital transformation. An ambitious restructuring of the IT department had subsequently been planned to move IT utilities: technology services, hosting, cloud, computers and storage services to one IT organization. The highly-respected incumbent VP Retail & Wholesale Systems was set to leave the organisation and it was imperative that a high-calibre replacement could be found to help to drive these changes.
The Opportunity
Capri was looking to bring onboard a Vice President of Global Retail and Wholesale Systems responsible for global strategy, design, implementation, and support of Store Systems technology, including fixed POS workstations, mobile devices, windows workstations, and other retail store technology. In this position, the candidate needed to provide technology vision and leadership in the development and implementation of global, cross-brand Retail and Wholesale systems.
The incumbent held a dual role, holding the responsibilities outlined above in addition to representing IT on the Michael Kors EMEA board. Capri wanted the new VP of Retail & Wholesale Systems to continue to sit on this board, so the successful candidate would also need to have the gravitas and executive presence to contribute in this arena.
On a personal level, the client were seeking a candidate with the ability to gather information rapidly and work efficiently in a fast-paced environment. The ideal candidate would be results-oriented with a track record of delivering cost-effective solutions to meet business objectives
What made this interesting?
This was our first search with Capri, so we spent a lot of time in the early stages getting to know the complex Matrix structure that the business operates under.
It was exciting to work with a young and ambitious group, with an impressive portfolio of companies and the drive and determination to make a major impact in its sector and facilitate substantial growth in the process.
What made this challenging?
When we were approached by Capri, the business was in the process of consolidating after COVID had affected revenue. The retail industry as a whole was hit hard after store closures but Capri had leveraged digital channels impressively to adapt to the situation. Now that closures were lifting, the organisation had plans to increase store counts and each brand’s global footprint. Therefore, this individual was set to be at the centre stage of keeping the momentum of Capri’s post-COVID recovery, increasing the pressure on identifying the right candidate.
This search was also a challenge as we were tasked with replacing an incumbent who had worked tirelessly for Capri and was highly respected throughout the organisation. We had to find an equally impressive candidate with a specific blend of skills: the specialist knowledge related to the global retail & wholesale systems in addition to the gravitas and influencing skills needed to sit on and contribute to the Michael Kors EMEA board.
The Digital Board Process
At the beginning of this search, we worked closely with Capri’s CIO and their HR team to understand the organisation’s structure and how the role would fit in that structure. We also worked with incumbent to understand what the candidate would be expected to do and what the organisation was looking for in terms of a replacement. In this search, our leadership consultant was also present for these calls as she had previously worked with Capri’s CIO. After we had been briefed, we worked with our research team to find a target list of potential candidates. For this list, our research team had three main criteria to prioritise:
Significant retail experience: The candidate needed familiarity with store systems and industry trends to help to define and enhance the in-Store technology experience.
Global remit: Our research teams had to find candidates with experience of working at a global level, with the ability to develop a strategic vision for the next generation of platforms and solutions for Retail and Wholesale for all Capri brands.
Boardroom operator: The role holder would also have to be someone who could hold their own on the Michael Kors EMEA board.
We developed a list of candidates that related to this brief and our research team carried out introductory calls to assess each potential candidate on their interest in the role, their fit to the brief, their achievements in their past roles and culture alignment.
For this search, we slightly altered our usual process. Our leadership consultant worked on the assessment of each candidate and interviewed 11 candidates. From this 11, we shortlisted 6 candidates who were interviewed by the client.
As always, our research team continued to work on identifying new candidates throughout the process, just in case anything went wrong with the shortlist.
Success Story
The successful candidate fit the brief entirely. They are a well-rounded IT leader who had already worked in a large global organisation, operating in a global IT delivery model comparable to the one that Capri was building.
During their time in their last role they were responsible for delivering one of the largest ever SAP transformations. From the beginning we recognised them as an impressive candidate with excellent business partnering skills and the ability to acknowledge and empathise with multiple stakeholders.
The candidate was also known to the CIO, so we knew they could gel with the leadership team at Capri.