Pearl Academy &

London College of Fashion

UK-India Education Research Initiative

(UKIERI)

Global Fashion Skills Collaborative Networks:

Re-skilling/Up-skilling for Future Business Growth

The Project Proposal

Background Managing supply chains in the complex global environment requires highly

skilled professional teams

To respond to the competitive pressures through agility, lean and flexible business practices.

The skills needed to compete under these conditions require knowledge and understanding of the key drivers of change

There is a need for new business processes and practices:

Collaboration

Networking and clustering

Professional communication techniques.

To achieve these goals, there is a need for a holistic approach

Together with Employers, Industrial Bodies and Training/Education

This would create an impact and will sustain the national and local strategic challenges.

Partners & Associates

UK Commission

for Employment and Skills

UK Fashion Skills Sector Council

Pearl Academy

London College Of Fashion

National Development

Council for Skills India

UK Employers

India Employers

British Council UK

British Council New Delhi

Global Fashion

Skills

Framework

Future Drivers and Skills Demands for:

Fashion and Textiles in UK and India.

The Project Aim

Long Term Impact of the project

Greater knowledge of the market positioning of the India and UK

retailer/supplier relationship to enable competitive advantage

New networks and collaborative agreements and partnerships that

can support new business opportunities and encourage new

business models

Sustain employment opportunities for both India and UK

Employees

Develop new skills frameworks that allows access to employment

for fashion professionals and forms new workforce development

activities

The key objectives of this project are as

follows: To develop infrastructures to manage professional skills development

awards and programmes to enhance employer and education

engagement (Year 1)

To develop a set of competences and curriculum tools that meet the

changing nature of the global fashion industry in relationship to supply

chain processes and international collaborative management and

business models (Year 2)

To develop a set of guidelines and/or handbooks that capture the

knowledge and understanding for dissemination to other training

providers in the UK and India (Year 3)

Plan -Year - 1

1. LCF-Delivered workshops on developing

brand concepts.

2. PA- Delivered workshop for MA -

Entrepreneurship

3. Developed - Competitor Analysis, brand

and market positioning / International

perspective

4. PA-Researched 3 Successful Indian retail

Brands :FAB India ,Wills Lifestyle ,AND.

5. PA to present skills gap mapping report

prior to visit LCF March 2013.

6. Presentation of research in London

7. LCF- Researched 3 Successful British

brands :White Stuff, Superdry, Burberry.

8. A template has been set for the research

for consistency across both partners -

intro / company profile / brand history

and answer to 6 questions.

9. LCF- 3 staff visited PA ,in Sept 2012

10. LCF/PA- to write project brief for

students and the Ist unit of the handbook

by Feb /March 2013

11. PA – Feb/March 2013- 3 staff & 3 students

visit to LCF would cover workshops on

student project delivery.

12. Developed Drop box / wiki / blog

Plan -Year -2

1. Student project to be Integrated w/

Masters &PG programmes-Fashion

Business During Jan/Feb/Mar 2013

2. Students selection : Subject to project

presentation

3. LCF -Funding for 2 staff &3 students

to India .

4. To develop a set of competences and

curriculum tools that meet the

changing nature of the global fashion

industry in relationship to supply

chain processes and international

collaborative management and

business models.

5. Access to Mintel – for understanding

market - data monitor

Plan -Year -3

1. Plan -Training for industry –

manuals / guidelines CPD(Continuing

professional development ) short

courses.

1. PA visit LCF March 2014 - industry round

table.

2. Consolidate data and possibly

write CPD programmes to fit need. Indian

consumer / Indian market

1. LCF to provide training and

dissemination event in India - final visit

to be more about teacher training and

industry.

2. Invitation extends to teachers, industry

entrepreneurs outside Pearl & Lcf,

present briefing pack on the project

3. LCF- 3 staff visit PA ,in Sept 2014

4. Publication of Hand book &

Dissemination

Year 1 Infrastructure to bring together the skills partners to create dialogue

and actions

Conducting a skills gap analysis to identify shortages and barriers to skills development between the UK and India, and produce a feasibility study to explore the market need for skills training frameworks and qualifications.

Conducting 3 UK and 3 India case studies to examine market leadership for global fashion supply chains, and produce a best practice employer skills publication.

Establish a Global Fashion Skills Steering Committee/Network

Creating dialogue, inform actions, and present back to the respective stakeholders or decision makers

Created cloud technology tool to work collaboratively and share the project documentation

From September 2012 to February 2013 – prepare skill gap report and 6 case studies –in process

PA&LCF @ London in Feb. 2012

Visit by Nandita Abraham/Anuradha Modak/Sunita Gupta

AM

PM

Monday 27th Feb 2012 •Steering committee meeting UKIERI -

2

•Sally Bains/student

Lipi Begum

•Retail Visit/Lifestyle Analysis

Carnaby Street

Dover Street Market

Tuesday 28th Feb 2012 •Managing Fashion brand Observations

•Marketing and Retailing

•Meeting with Andrew /Rosemary

Varley

Karinna Nobbs&Edwin

• Pei Chin UAL SEE

Wednesday 29thFeb 2012 •MA Fashion Entrepreneurship session

with Chitra Buckley

•Brainstorming with Chitra JPS

Thursday 1st March2012 •PA delivers a lecture to IMSC group-

29 students

•Understanding the Indian Luxury

Consumer Behaviour-Workshop, for

MA-Entrepreneurship .

By- Anuradha Modak

•Steering Committee – Actions for

next steps

•Speaker programme at HH

Mind Map of the project

& India

Feb. 2012, Outcome

PA & LCF @ London

Analysed and compared existing key successful factors in developing branding concepts & expected Area of solution: Brand Identity, USP, Brand Promise/Equity, and Brand Values.

Best Practice Competitive Advantage and Segmentation, Target and Positioning Why is competitiveness and STP important to grow successful business? Expected Area of Solution: Porters/Value Chain

Creative Brand Communication strategies, How do brands differentiate themselves through creative promotion and communication strategies?

Market Entry into India, the barriers and enablers to enter the Indian Market. Expected Area of Solution : Pestel, Swot,Macro Business Environments

Understanding the Indian Consumer and Markets, Can UK Brands reach the Indian consumer more effectively? Expected Area of Solution: Market Intelligence, Consumer Behaviour Buying Process

Merchandising and Range Architecture for India. Do UK retailers need to adapt ranges to India markets?

Apart from the previous discussion following points were added in the next meeting :

Pearl to produce skills gap mapping report prior to visit LCF March 2013

Suggested brands for case study by LCF : Levels of consumer need to be explored - one in each sector ,one luxury / one middle / one value, : Burberry, White Stuff, Superdry

Suggested brands for case study by PA: AND, Lifestyle, Fabindia Wills Lifestyle

LCF&PA@ New Delhi September 2012

Visit by Lynne Hammond, Karina Nobbs ,Edwin Phiri

AM PM Monday

10thsept •Meeting at PA

•Steering committee and update meeting.

•Tour of Academy

•Visit to Retail Malls:

•Ambience,Promenade & Emporio

@ Vasant Vihar

Tuesday

11thSept •Visit factory/manufacturing: Pearl Global limited •Visit Retail outlets: Fabindia, AND,

Wills lifestyle

Wednesday

12th

Sept

•LCF present lectures to students and staff

•Karinna Nobbs– Visual Merchandising

•Lynne Hammond- Market Intelligence

•Edwin Phiri – Globalisation and Emerging

Economies

•Attended by Fashion Business students- MA, PG &

UG-L-3

•Industry Forum/Roundtable to

discuss skills gaps.

•Presentation by students: case

studies of brands investigated i.e

Fabindia, AND, Wills lifestyle

•Discussions & Observations

Thursday

13thSept •Steering committee and action

planning/developing the project brief

•Writing the Skills Gap report – Joint

Developing a grid based on joint analysis of case

studies & retail visits

September 2012,Outcome

LCF &PA@ New Delhi

Discussion & Exchange of progress till date :

LCF – Three Brands selected for case study : Superdry, White Stuff , Burberry & completed the secondary data analysis of the report.

PA- Three Brands selected for case study: AND, Fabindia &Wills lifestyle completed the secondary data analysis, some portion of primary data analysis of

the report.

The areas to investigate :

India & UK trade relationship, why & how to improve the business environment. Entry strategy to Indian market. Study of the 3 levels of Indian market.

UK luxury brands in the Indian market – Indentify skills gap on both sides. Strategies for Indian Luxury brands to enter the UK market. List of questions – level of standardization – adaptation- product alignment – luxury reports-map the trends & consumers.

From September 2012 to February 2013 – prepare skill gap report and 6 case studies

Industry Forum/Roundtable to discuss skills

gaps The aims of the industry roundtable was to discuss with a group of Fashion retailers &

associated companies to explore in more detail the skills gaps that are being faced in the current changing scenario.

The future challenges -that need to be addressed.

These discussions will support and help designing the curriculum and future employability skills.

Attended by:

Industry experts :Ms Mukul Rastogi – Head of HR Wills Lifestyle,

Mr Sartaj Mehta – Product Head Wills Lifestyle,Ms Molshri Pachauri – Entrepreneur and Retail Advisory,Ms Mona- HR Manager Genesis Colors,Mr Jagjeev COO Tarum Tahiliani,Mr Rohit Sabhanwal – Integra Data Services Pvt Ltd.

PA&LCF Faculty:Dr.Shanbagh,Dr Tarun Panwar,Dr Bhavna Chadha,

Mr Tarun Pandey,Ms Priya Mary Mathews,Dr Sunita Gupta,

Ms Sharmila Katre,Ms Nandita Abraham,Ms Anuradha Modhak,

Ms Rekha Dar, Dr. Lynne Hammond,Ms. Karinna Nobbs ,Mr. Edwin Phiri

Industry Forum/Roundtable to discuss skills

gaps...continued.. Proceedings: Lynne Hammond: Opened the Roundtable by

introducing herself, the team and what is UKIERI?

How this UKIERI project will helps the Fashion industry and the

Education Industry.

Round of self introduction by the participants. Rekha Dar:

Introduced the purpose of the round table & the process till date.

Followed by Question Answer session & Open discussion to understand

industry point of views to add to our findings and further deliberations

Outcome

Industry interaction

An effective tool towards achieving the goals set for this project

Bringing together employers, industrial bodies and training /education to create impact and to sustain the national and local strategic challenges in the retail sector

Issues addressed & discussed were :

Customer Engagement and customer experiences

Market intelligence to create distinct identity & able to sell right consumer

Emotional connection has to be developed with brand, this is a skill gap

Visual merchandising – the skill to approach this scientifically

Conversion rate in the store

Profile of the consumers for some brands was not clear.

Specific Identification of need gap in the retail store front end and back end of the brands were discussed

Attrition is an issue

Trainings can be standardized & self centred

SWOT analysis is required to understand the brands further

Supply chain management- focus on Inventory management, product& ethical manufacturing

Brain storming

Brain storming :review of the case studies

Grid :Review of the 6 case studies

Skill gap

History / Vision and values Finances Org SCM Design/PD IT Retail/VM Brand CSR

Customer Experiences

Wills Lifestyle 12-15 + postive

Positive ,motivation

Positive , integrated

Negative , no new product Postive

Negative ,Poor VM,Poor product innovation

negative ,lack of branding negative

postive 55% of loyal custmer 5/10=50%

AND 7 years, postive postive

Positive ,responsible 15 days training

Positive , Control

Positive , niche, merch.mix

Postive ,bio,mobile

negative ,Poor VM,display postive,ad

Postive , ethical values ,cause realted

negative ,feedback forms 8/10=80%

Fab India 40years ,postive postive

family, postive

postive ,cooperative

Negative ,no new product

Positive ,integrated

negative ,Vm

negative ,narration of brand,no loyalty

Postive , core values

postive 85% of loyal custmer 8/10=80%

WhiteStuff 25 years postive

negative, falling sales

postive , best employer

positive ,long term establishment

Negative ,no new product innovation

negative,order fullfillment

positive ,high customer experience,VM

Postive,storng id

postive ,incorporate values

Postive loyal niche 7/10=70%

Burberry 150 years postive

postive,strong growth

postive , strong control,mission,vision

postive,long term,made in uk

postive , design team,frequent

postive,integral

negative,store experience,inconsistent

Postive promotion negative

positive,awareness 8/10=80%

Superdry 20years postive

negative, falling sales

negative, change of SMT

Positive, broad base

Negative,product innovation

negative,poor IT integaration

positive ,high VM

postive,strong consistency

negative,min

negative,feedback customer experience 4/10=40%

Work in progress- year -1 We are working on the skills gap analysis

Our first attempt has helped us arrive at 5 skills gaps based on the UK & India case studies data and evidence.

Supply Chain Management &CSR

Product

Design /PD

Visual merchandising

Customer Experiences

Work in progress...

Analysis, reflection and write ....

Though on time have yet to complete ..

Plan to be on time.

Work in progress- year -1 conti.. The findings & the industry forum :

Indicates that retail fashion brands are looking at the specialized studies to fulfill their needs for competent and knowledgeable staff.

Availability of such a workforce is limited it results in high levels of attrition rate.

Thus as planned short term refresher programmes will be added into the curriculum to fill this gap.

The fashion product being dynamic, a system of CPD training and up-gradation of skills is the final plan in the SSC.

A step further: The next roundtable in

UK .

Plan to have a conference/forum with breakaway groups

working on different strategies.

Workshops with the industry

Training for the latest business strategies followed by the

brands.

Best practices

NEXT SLIDE

PROPOSED COVER PAGE FOR THE

HAND BOOK

From the

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