Manager, Buying

Job Title:                     Manager, Buying, Kate Spade Greater China

Department:                Buying

Reports to:                    Director, Buying

Location:                     Shanghai

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always stood for optimistic femininity. Today, the brand is a global life and style house with handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, gifts, home décor and more. Polished ease, thoughtful details and a modern, sophisticated use of color—Kate Spade New York’s founding principles define a unique style synonymous with joy.

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands powered by optimism, innovation, and inclusivity.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Buying to...

• Drive the review of the previous season and capture lessons learned.
• Drive the strategy for the department and present.
• Quarterly plan at Category/Season level with the team to submit a plan on the System that reflects the best possible mix of product to deliver the KPI's.
• Be responsible for the pushing of the business forward through proposing new ways of working and planning and be the driving force in implementing.
• Review the budget in terms of sales & inventory on month basis with planning/allocation partner.
• Responsible for product mix and assortment planning in accordance with respective buying strategies set by operation head for retail stores.
• Conduct the seasonal buying based on product analysis and forecast.
• Analyze sales performance.
• Provide product training and fashion trend information to the front-line associates, collaborate with store team to refine knowledge of customer needs.
• Report business analysis to merchandising head based on weekly, monthly and seasonally.
• Product analysis by week, month, season & year & forecast for order.
• Be partner with VM team in order to make sure the seasonal presentation in stores are aligned with buying strategy to drive the business.
• Be partner with planning/allocation team to receive right product on time.
• Be partner with planning/allocation team to make sure inventory control is in the right level by store, by regions.
• Be one of the leaders of the buying team while managing one direct report.

The accomplished individual will possess...

• Demonstrates excellent management skills with the ability to promote a strong team spirit.
• Can demonstrate strong negotiating, communication and influencing skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English and Mandarin
• Analytical and numerical talent in a business environment
• Excellent time management and communication skills
• People Management Skills
• Advance PC skill

An outstanding professional will have...

• Bachelor degree and above. More than 8 years relevant experiences fashion retail or premium brands.
• Strong sense in fashion/premium luxury trend
• Leather Good buying experience is preferred
• Self-drive and motivation
• Creative aesthetic sense
• Flexible mind & team work
• International Fashion brand buying experience is required.

Our Competencies for All Employees

• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
• Perseverance: Pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; seldom gives up before finishing, especially in the face of resistance or setbacks.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.

Our Competencies for All People Managers

• Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale
  and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
• Managerial Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.

Kate Spade is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com.