Companies news
HongKongEcho: What it takes
There’s no such thing as a typical day, says Christophe Roussel, Head of Global Sourcing for Gap Inc.
“The job of a sourcing director is becoming increasingly strategic. What this period has highlighted is that companies will compete with one another on supply chains. It’s no longer simply product versus product.”
“I got into the industry completely by accident,” admits Christophe Roussel. The exceedingly tall Frenchman at the helm of Gap Inc.’s global sourcing operations recounts his humble beginnings with typical candour.
“I had been based in China during my military service, and I simply wanted to go back. I never found the right job there, but I landed in Hong Kong and a sourcing office gave me an opportunity,” he says.
The 30-year-industry-veteran has only just started to return to the office – when necessary, he says – after two years leading sourcing for the multi-billion-dollar fashion giant from a quiet home office. “Every morning we had been having a global video call where we look at the current situation. Which factories are in lockdown? Can we make last-minute changes to a shipment if we have to move production suddenly?”
Mornings and nights are regularly occupied with calls to the United States, where Gap Inc.’s headquarters are located, while the rest of the day is interspersed with reaching out to on-the-ground factory operators and team members across the globe for early indicators of the next supply chain headache.
“You have to be able to slip into four main roles. An architect, an orchestrator, an innovator, and a firefighter,” he says. An architect of a network, an orchestrator of solutions, an innovator on products and processes, and a firefighter for the inevitable crises.
“The job of a sourcing director is becoming increasingly strategic. What this period has highlighted is that companies will compete with one another on supply chains. It’s no longer simply product versus product.” Never has the “back office,” as Roussel explains it, been considered a competitive advantage in such a way.
“Those who have done well during this crisis have been able to be agile because they have precisely these kinds of strong relationships. It’s not too late to start, but you have to be willing to knock on doors and offer to work strategically together. Then you may be chosen.”
That strategic function likewise translates to his interactions with suppliers. “Now we work with fewer vendors but on much deeper level than before. You can no longer just be a great price negotiator,” he says.
He spends more time than ever on planning future investments in partner factories and forging closer relationships with suppliers. One recent example, he says, is a water treatment facility built in partnership with one of Gap Inc.’s Indian vendors which eliminates the use of freshwater saving upwards of 2.5 billion litres of water per year. “This kind of co-investment approach is very new in the industry. Last year we achieved our goal of saving 10 billion litres through our manufacturing partners.”
By creating these strategic partnerships, you also prevent your competitors from tapping into the same resources. “In fashion, there are very few new high-quality vendors, so finding the right partners will only become increasingly important,” he says.
Negotiating with vendors on collaborations for multiple years to come is a major differentiating factor, replacing the previous short-sighted approach that focused primarily on price.
“Those who have done well during this crisis have been able to be agile because they have precisely these kinds of strong relationships. It’s not too late to start, but you have to be willing to knock on doors and offer to work strategically together. Then you may be chosen.”
