The Chamber • Services
Our insights from this year's Made in Asia: What your company needs to know
We're hot off the heels of another stellar edition of our annual sourcing symposium, Made in Asia. Some of the world’s biggest brands were present to tackle the tricky subject of transparency and how it can be embraced to positively impact your business.
If you missed out, don’t worry! We’ve got the full rundown of what our speakers had to say. You can also find all the photos from the day here.
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Anne-Laure Descours – Global Director, Sourcing and Development, Apparel and Accessories, PUMA SE
How the need for transparency forces the sourcing industry to change
For many years we used to hide in the way we do business
Bad press on social media travels exceptionally fast
When something goes wrong, if you don’t have transparency you won’t know what to say to the press
Fundamentals of doing business have not changed, but conditions have
More robust legislation is more and more present in all countries
We’re moving from “need to know” to “knowing everything”
Remove silos for agility and speed
Material suppliers are the most reluctant to change and adapt
Truly strategic collaboration requires fewer but stronger partners with closer integration
Embrace change, it’s fun!
Pascal Brun, Head of Sustainability - Global Production, H&M Group
Why transparency is important for the customer
View the presentation | Watch the video
One t-shirt = 2,000 litres of water
We still have lots of work to do on transparency
Ambition for being transparent has to be set by the very top management
Transparency is different to sustainability
Ultimately, customers vote with their wallets; they want to spend their money on a company they can be proud of
Sustainability index will change the way consumers decide
You need to have an equal partnership with your supplier
58% of consumers say that sustainability is a key concern
73% millennials are willing to spend more on sustainable brands
Brands are starting to put supplier list online
People within the company sometimes fear transparency
The more we’re transparent the more consumers will respond to it
Sharon Lim, CEO, Browzwear
Rethinking the supply chain digitally
View the presentation | Watch the video
Digitalising transparency connects consumers to what they wouldn’t be able to do before
People decide hotels via ratings – can’t do it without digitalising. This changed how we buy products and services
Supply chain in fashion industry is imperfect
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Speed is the big word on managers’ desks – but speed to what?
It’s not just about going faster; it’s about changing the way you work
Open sharing + connectivity = new business opportunities
It’s not just about data exchange; it’s about digitalising your transparency
Visualisation enables different departments to work together better and be connected
Don’t fear change!
Karen Ho, Head of Corporate and Community Sustainability, WWF
Transparency and its importance in terms of driving impact
View the presentation | Watch the video
We are living beyond the planet’s boundaries; it takes 1.7 earths to support humanity’s demand on nature; must increase biocapacity
Reduce energy and resources consumption through enhanced efficiency, dematerialisation and a circular economy
Increase biological productive area to generate ongoing supply of renewable resources and to absorb wastage
Most likely global risks: 1. Extreme weather events, 2. Natural disasters
Transparency fosters brand loyalty
Top priorities for G250 companies 1. Climate action, 2. Responsible consumption and production
Support from top leadership team is a must
Sourcing companies can play a leading role beyond compliance and beyond risk management
Archana Kotecha, Head of Legal, Liberty Asia
New legal imperatives
View the presentation | Watch the video
Human rights movement is far behind the environmental movement
As a worker going to court to protect your rights it’s very difficult to see it through
40.3 million people in modern slavery globally – 24.9 million of them in Asia
Legal risks for businesses are increasing including parent liability and cross-border claims
Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act US changes the game for global accountability
Could it mean banks financing company aware of abuse taking place is liable?
Parent liability: Duty of Vigilance law goes beyond disclosure obligations of other countries
It means parent company is liable for actions of its subsidiary or contractor further down the supply chain
Aggrieved third party can bring a case in France against French parent company, doesn’t matter where the abuse happens
Enhanced transparency is often very reactive
Risk to people is the ultimate risk to business
Catherine Chiu, General Manager, Corporate Quality and Sustainability, Crystal International Group Limited
Risk management and risk crisis
View the presentation | Watch the video
Customers want good price, quick, quality, safe products, on time, IP – trouble free & assurance
If we want that – we need a harmonised factory with a harmonised workforce
Clients hate their name being negatively mentioned by media, contributing to bad reputation / image
Good employee communication enhances transparency
Need to communicate digitally with workers via WeChat and other platforms
Positive communication: drive productivity, reduce cost & potential issues, workers’ satisfaction index, worker retention, employer branding
Being transparent = customer assurance and build trust, reduce business risk to create a long term partnership
Edwin Keh, Chief Executive Officer, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel
The sourcing office of the future
View the presentation | Watch the video
Non-traditional global companies are taking market share
Consumers want purpose, authenticity, transparency
They want clothes that make sense for them
In the future we’ll neeed partnerships more than anything else – no longer jumping from 3rd-world-country to 3rd-world-country
We’re hiring people who aren’t equipped to do the job we’re asking them to
Identify the ‘people problem’
Our beliefs are the most stubborn things we hold on to, it’s the last thing we change
There’s a tsunami of data coming at us – we need to work out what to do with it
Trying to solve a training challenge with a recruitment solution doesn’t work
Top skill in 2020 = Complex problem solving, which is not teachable
Why are we still hiring people for the skillset and not for the things we can’t teach them?
Petra Carlberg, Deputy Global Purchasing and Logistics Area Manager – Asia, IKEA
A supply chain I trust - Compliance: A base for doing good business
We don’t buy products, we buy capacity
Form, low-price, function, quality, sustainability are the five key elements of product
We control full supply / value chain as we design everything
The foundation is built on “a supply chain I trust”
Compliance – a base for doing good business
Need to have 100% traceability in our value chain to have a sustained impact
Reducing number of working hours (not the pay) to improve efficiency
Next step is to improve the conditions of families of migrant co-workers
Sometimes you discover things you don’t want to discover
When you trace the whole value you chain, it helps you to understand how to better spend along the chain and reduce costs
We have traceability from the actual tree to final wood products
Michael Moriarty, Managing Director, Hasbro Far East and Senior Vice President of Global Sourcing, Hasbro
Quality / safety legislation and guidelines: How they force manufacturing to change
View the presentation | Watch the video
The consumer never been more powerful than today
Consumers are saying ‘no’ before legislators have a chance to consider things
Volatility on how demand is created
Omni-channel world – but online isn’t our business avenue
$1T cross-border online sales
Over half of consumers engage in purchases from outside their own country
Accountability for cross-border sales is tricky
Legislation is unable to keep up with changes
The world is getting smaller, forcing manufacturing to get bigger
Consumers value socially compliant companies and have more information than ever before
Duncan Wong, Founder and CEO, CryptoBLK
Blockchain is here
View the presentation | Watch the video
Can’t talk about blockchain without bitcoin
Blockchain is the underpinning technology of bitcoin and almost all other cryptocurrencies
Blockchain = database duplicated over numerous computers on the internet
Data cannot be changed or deleted once written, it’s read mjltple times with data source preservation – multiple parties can read and write
It can be used for supply chain, food wine, diamond, luxury goods, electronics, garments, or any asset with a serial number
Many companies consider supply chain visibility as a high priority for improvement
Everything can be very transparent and then, afterwards, you can choose exactly the subset of information that your client sees
Rebecca Chan, Regional Sourcing Manager, Kingfisher Asia Limited
Gregory Le Coent, Vice-President, Wirquin
Moderator: Kieran Cash, Communications Manager, French Chamber
How to get a right product at a right price
What is new: Kingfisher changed from an organisation where each buyer in each country had a say, to a central office where the buyer designs a complete product
From 100+ SKUs to 14 SKUs for 11 countries
Change in Organisation, Product Design, Sourcing, Supply Chain
Aim: Design a product fit for all countries
Work on internal organization and ideally start from white paper
Optimisation is done through the expertise of the manufacturer
First time for Wirquin having this level of collaboration and dialogue – transparency is key
Training is step 0
Product design is the new way of sourcing
Lily Bao, Sales Director of Europe Market, Midea Group
Digitalisation and automation, a solution to reduce costs and prices
Intelligent manufacturing: automation, information & intelligence
If you’re running a factory, you suffer the cost increase from raw materials fluctuating
Midea strategy = Productive + high efficiency + global operation
Constant innovations, partnering with more than 20 research centres and universities around the world, building co-op labs, applying research results to manufacturing
Intelligent manufacturing – pull through value chain
Industry 4.0 vision establishes a hyper-connectivity that goes beyond the factory walls
Anson Bailey, Master of Ceremony, Head of Consumer Markets, Hong Kong, KPMG China
Wrap-up: Industry 4.0 – innovate or die
Must upskill our people
The ability to digitally print is changing the fashion industry
Which technology is the right technology?
800 million workers will lose their jobs by 2030
How are we going to compete with platforms? (Like Amazon)
Will drones impact our supply chain?
JD.com is already looking at a deal that will send drones servicing 200 distribution points in rural china
How are we going to deal with all the millennials?
Retail dismissed Amazon – now: 6,500 retail outlets closed down in UK alone
