Lorraine

Lorraine joined Elina’s teams (Strategy & Development Director) in 2017 after several years in a prestigious consulting firm, the Boston Consulting Group. She shares with us: “At SMCP you do not stop at the recommendation, you go further, you engage with the teams in the implementation of the project and the long-term follow-up, and you see the concrete result! That’s what I liked about the job.”

What does the strategy team do?

“We are working in project mode on different topics: either we identify them within the team, or the Business Units challenge us with issues. Our team is requested for its ability to analyze, create action plans and to accompany change. ”

Lorraine says: “For example, we did a study on the French retail park to optimize it. First, we analyzed the performance of the stores and their locations in relation to the competition. Then, we talked with the Brands Retail Directors and the Development team to get their field vision on the stores. From these two inputs we defined with the development team a plan over 3 years to renovate and optimize the mesh of our park. Once the action plan is completed by the entire project team, we present to the CEOs and Artistic Directors who have the last word “.

More specifically within the team, Lorraine focuses on Retail & Innovation topics to improve the in-store sales experience. From the identification of the need to the implementation of the solution, Lorraine collaborates with the Retail and IT teams in order to improve the tools available to the sales teams in the stores.

The best example is certainly the Dashboard project led by Lorraine and the IT team, which affects all of our stores around the world. “This project was really initiated and driven by our team” says Lorraine. “Following our field visits and speaking with the teams, we realized that the teams needed performance indicators to help them better manage their performance. Something more modern and richer. ”

Lorraine thus defined with the Retail Directors the KPIs and the vision that they wanted to give to this tool. Subsequently, the project launched with the IT teams, the Shop Managers and Retail Coordinators, culminating a few months later in a nice dashboard that will continue to evolve and that serves our teams around the world!

The second part of her missions and beyond projects, Lorraine also plays a role of strategic leadership within the Group. She works with each BU as part of the QBR (Quarterly Business Reviews), BP (Busines Plan) launches or Strategy seminars. “We are looking to offer a time when management teams get out of their day-to-day to share market trends and benchmarks, giving them time to think about new issues: to test a clothing rental activity? to launch perfume?” Explains Lorraine.

The ideas for participating in the Group’s continuous improvement come from the field, from the outside or from the exchanges with the teams. These different levels of interaction give her a wealth of reflection and allow her to acquire the global vision she needs to remain a source of ideas and initiative.

She says: “I prefer to go to the brands, their headquarters are so nice, phone calls are a bit austere, but it’s not an option with North America and Asia. Popping by in the office when you go to a meeting creates a link that helps to identify things to improve together, to have support when launching a project.” The important thing for her is to recall the nature of the exchanges with the BUs: a partnership role where there is challenge, trust and mutual enrichment. “Sometimes we are the ones who guide them, and sometimes they are the ones who guide us” she concludes.