[Music]
Hi everyone,
welcome to this episode of
The Roads Less Travelled.
I’m joined today here with my co-host
Richard Trevisan, Brand Director of Genesis Motors Canada
and our guest today is Ian Rosen
Executive Vice President of Digital and Strategy at Harry Rosen.
Ian why don't you take a moment to
introduce yourself.
Thank you Lance.
Thank you Richard.
My name is Ian Rosen, I oversee corporate
strategy and digital at Harry Rosen
and Harry is my grandfather.
He started our business 67 years ago
in a small 500 square foot shop
in Toronto.
Today I oversee
our digital business which is digitizing
each step of the customer journey
along with our online business and I
oversee corporate strategy
for the company.
Great why don't you tell us a little bit
about what's new at Harry Rosen and
what's coming down the pipeline?
What are we excited about
our business has gone through a profound
change over the last few years and
we've been focused on speaking to a
younger more modern customer.
And we're doing that with a relaunch of
our brand into the market with the
campaign moniker Set the Tone.
And we think
that captures the essence of what we do best.
Which is no matter what your day is in
front of you, we help men
set the tone personally, professionally.
Doesn't matter if they're wearing a
great blue suit like yourself or a
professional looking sweater.
We want them to go out and feel
confident in what they're doing.
Another thing that we're up to is we're
undergoing a rapid digital
transformation and what that means is
we're giving customers new ways to
engage with and interact with our brand digitally.
We for years had a great in-store experience and we're
just on a mission to bring that level of
service that level of personalization to
the online world.
And now talking a little bit about your
personal journey.
In your experience how have you embodied
the concept
of taking the road less travelled?
Harry Rosen is a family business.
There's a prescribed path that starts to
happen once you're in the third generation.
Of when you join the business
you'll become a merchant then maybe
you'll run a few stores and
and that's what was really proposed to
me when I was considering joining the
business and I said,
well where do we want to go as a
business. And really
the first second and third answer was we
want to digitize. So I said well
why don't I learn all these great things
learn more about our heritage and
involve myself in them
but why don't I take charge of what this
digital transformation is going to mean
for Harry Rosen.
So I’ve been overseeing our digital
transformation I’ve been overseeing our
e-commerce, our fast-growing e-commerce business
and it's helped me establish that
future-looking point of view about not
what Harry Rosen is
but what Harry Rosen will be, borrowing
from that heritage that has done us and
served us so well for 67 years.
And I think that was really where I
charted my path on that road less travelled.
Obviously there's been
a lot of change
and our business culture is evolving
and pivoting to uh market changes
so in a time where
social distancing has become
so much a part of our culture
my question for both of you is
how can we foster and
cultivate long-term
relationships with clients
in this current climate?
Richard.
Yeah let me let me start with saying full respect to the consumer of
your client that's,
that's essential especially during a
pandemic situation where
respect means safety distance
following the safety protocol
and making the consumer feel comfortable
and how do we do that?
We go to the consumer we say
We Come to You.
We bring a test drive to your home
office or cottage.
For a test drive we follow the protocol.
And this makes the consumer feel safe
comfortable and in control because then
it's on demand so it's very important to
to build this relationship
go to the consumer.
I think we've taken almost the exact
same approach. Which is
how do you want to shop with us?
Is that online with
one day overnight shipping?
Is that digitally with a
clothing advisor?
Is that over Facetime with a
clothing advisor?
Is that booking an appointment and coming into the store?
These are all options that
we've made available
to the client.
And to respect them you have to put them
in control and make
you know and service each journey.
Another emerging trend for us is we're
doing a lot of visits outside of the
store with our clothing advisors at
clients home
in the safety of their own environment
and people are really enjoying
what that experience is looking like.
Right so communication and convenience
seem to be
two overlapping factors to common
denominators between your industries.
And so for the layperson the
Automotive sector
and the luxury retail sector may seem
like very different communities and industries but there is
a lot of overlap.
In your experience for both of you where
do you see the similarities
coming across?
Very different businesses, but customers
are customers so
my opinion is to be progressive.
Progressive, not just following trends
But understanding the trends.
Understanding what consumers start
looking. Like we said before if the
consumer wants safety and comfort
you have to provide that to your
clients I think
correct me if I’m wrong
[Ian] No
that could be a commonality that we have.
And I think picking up on that a big trend that we're seeing is
a trend towards customization. The client
wants to feel like this is their
suit, their sports jacket even their shoe,
their pair of jeans. And we're seeing
a huge trend towards customization.
We're trying to
introduce it into new categories.
We launched custom-made shoes last year.
We just launched custom-made denim.
We're launching custom-made overcoats.
This is something that I think you see
in the car industry is people want to choose their trim
the color of their dash and people are
just you know they
want to feel like it's theirs.
And I think we're both
rising that occasion it definitely
complicates the supply chain, but
uh that's what makes us better.
Yeah I guess
when you say you know when you say
customization it's also
when we look at the consumer behavior.
It's a tradition for a consumer
to look at details especially in the
luxury industries.
Details are important so by offering the
capability for the consumer to select
their own details,
customization you're actually
extending what
we at Genesis say, this relationship based
brand. That we for example, Genesis we are
a relationship-based brand and
we want to really offer to the consumer
and build a relationship in the
ownership cycle of their
of their experience.
Yeah and we want people to walk out
understanding what they just bought into.
Where are all the secret pockets?
Sometimes we let the customer figure
that out themselves because there's a
little bit of fun to it.
But, you know what type of tailoring was done
was it hand-stitched if there.
Are there surgeon cuffs?
How should they
be wearing them?
That makes the client feel a lot more comfortable.
It also
builds a more lasting relationship
and positions you, as you know that
trusted advisor for
whatever their needs might be.
Well as we wrap up,
what would you say is your
advice to other entrepreneurs,
other businesses, other leaders
about developing
a digital strategy and
embracing digital innovation?
Two pieces of advice, the first is don't
start unless you have
full executive buy-in to the idea of
what it means and
what you'll need to invest
to transform your company to be you know
physical to digital or omnichannel
whatever your
north star might be. If the executives
aren't buying
or bought in you're really not going to
gain that much traction. Once you've
gotten that executive buy-in I think
it's really important not to nest this
digital team this digital organization
underneath your traditional organization.
Empower them,
keep them off to the side and give them
specific key performance
indicators and deadlines and milestones
that you want them to hit.
But don't put them ... make them subject to the traditional,
I guess, inertia of your organization.
Empower them to
keep pace with the market because
digital is moving fast.
You can undergo a digital transformation
and be two years behind at the end of it.
So it's really important to empower that
team to keep
pace with the industry.
Right so it's
about being
autonomous embracing the spirit of
exploration
and empowering your teams to be able to
explore that.
So with that in mind
thank you so much for this enlightening
conversation Richard and Ian.
And thank you so much for tuning
in and joining us for this episode of
The Roads Less Travelled.
If you are interested in learning more
about the Genesis product lineup or how
to reserve your own Genesis experience
head over to Genesis.ca.
Thanks again for joining us and we'll
see you in the next episode.