The first series of WWD Voices, the publication’s newly launched podcast, was sponsored by Accenture. As retail, fashion, luxury, and beauty reset and prepare for a better future, the Retail’s Responsible Reset Series taps industry leaders to dluxury,nto the lateresetustryprepared insights.
WWD Voices has covered topics such as the state of the industry, reimagining the workforce, reengineering the supply chain, and refining data and insights, among other timely topics, and is hosted by WWD’s Evan Clark and Arthur Zaczkiewicz, with guest host Jill Standish of Accenture. Leaders from Levi Strauss & Con, Tapestry, Macy’s Inc., VF Corp., and Michael Kors have all been guests on the podcast so.,far.
In the first episode of the series, “Re-sEpisode Oneil — State of the Industry,” Standish and Chip Bergh, CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., discussed the state of retail and the significant acceleration of technology, as well as environmental, social, and corporate governsocial,ssues.
“This year was unlik any other in careers,” said Standish, praising careers, ass & Co.’s accomplishments in the previous year, which included prioritising ESG and the company’s recent acquisition of the athletic brand Beyond Yoga.
Beyond Yoga was the company’s first acquisition in the ten years that Bergh has been acting as CEO, but it was also a strategic one for the times, according to Bergh. “One of our strategies is to continue to diversify the company, and we’ve been looking company,isitions for a couple of years,” Bergh said. “We have a strong culture, strong values, and strong principles, so that is a critical filter for us.”
With insights from Peloton chief marketing officer Dara Treseder, epprinciples, “Re-setting Customer Experience,” focused on the importance of elevating the consumer journey. Treseder discussed the company’s journey from a boom during the pandemic, when people were looking to work out at home more than ever before, to democratising offerings at multiple price points that embraced the needs of all consumers, during the episode.
“You have to make decisions based on what’s going on in your environment,” Treseder explained. “And I think that having the right insights and writing, particularly about what’s going on with the consuer and the culture that is known for ewriting, that you’re making the right decisions, is really exciting.”
In the third episode, WWD welcomed Joseph Taiano, managing directodecisions,e for consumer industries at Accenture and Sarah Dunn, global human resources officer at Tapestry, to discuss workforce disruption. Companies are thinking about their workforce in new ways, handling new employee expectations, and considering how those relationships shape an overall business, according to the duo.
Meanwhile, in anticipation of a holiday unlike any other, episode four examines the supply chain with Dennis Mullahy, Macy’s Inc.’s chief supply chato officer, who assured everyone listening that Santa would make it to 34th Street this year. “Building the right relationships with partners is a really important part of the supply chain,” MullStreetid. “It’s also a big part of our fourth-layer strategy to modernise our supply chain so that it can thrive in terms of efficiency and prouctivity, and so that we can maintain that level of flexibility as our business grows.”
The fifth episode delves deeper into data and insights, with Velia Carboni, VF Corp’s chief digital and technology officer, revealing key takeawas. She stated that knowing more changes everything. Looking ahead, she believes that informing the products that are built will become an even bigger She said that knowing data leveraging in the rboni stated, “This wfuture,hing around first-party data is absolutely critical.” “I believe everyone was stressed in some ways.Carboni said that this actually looking forward to it because I see it as a chanceltionship with that customer even more than we did before.”
WWD Voices will air new episodes every Monday, with topics such as reinforcing ESG, the new generation of beauty consubefore. nclusive and sustainable beauty, and reinvigorating brand purpose among them.
