Senior Account Manager, Kate Spade International

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always been colorful, bold, and optimistic. Today, it is a global lifestyle brand that designs extraordinary things for the everyday, delivering seasonal collections of handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, home décor, and more. Known for its rich heritage and unique brand DNA, Kate Spade New York offers a distinctive point of view and celebrates communities of women around the globe who live their perfectly imperfect lifestyles. 

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands committed to stretching what’s possible.

A member of the Tapestry family, we are part of a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive.

Crisp color, graphic prints and playful sophistication are the hallmarks of kate spade new york. From handbags to clothing and décor, our exuberant approach to the everyday encourages personal style with a dash of incandescent charm. We call it living colorfully. 

A member of the Tapestry family, we are part of a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive. 

Primary Purpose:

The Senior Account Manager will be responsible for driving sales, support business development, retail presentation, training and brand building activities of Kate Spade New York in SEA International. He/she is a strategic thinker who is able to solve problems with an analytical approach, provide recommendations and take decisions. He/she is able to gather and challenge information from different sources to make clear and impactful decisions in a timely manner. This role requires a hands on individual and will develop strong business relationships externally and internally to gain support and cooperation to drive the business forward.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Account Management to...

1. Own and drive the business

• Responsible for achieving sales: Retail comp and total sales; wholesale shipments and for delivering on business development objectives
• Act as market expert. Report on all key market developments including overall consumer and regional market trends and partner with Consumer Research and distributors on any consumer research activities
• Own and Drive accounts orientation as well as continued learning and education
• Build & nurture relationship with distributors, landlords, travel retail operators and airport authorities and influence them so that they understand and further embrace the Kate Spade brand vision
• Manage Distributor Relationships for accounts. Day-to-day liaison between Kate Spade and the Distributor to ensure alignment of Kate Spade brand objectives.
• Own in-store execution: Product Assortment, Visual Merchandising in partnership with Regional VM, Environment, and Staff Knowledge
• Own monthly and quarterly business reviews
• Own ensuring self and direct report has knowledge of product and all Kate Spade standards
• Manage execution of key strategies (new introductions, product category initiatives, sales promotion, VM enhancements)
• Collaborate to Develop multi-year business strategy for regions

2. Sales and Marketing

• Develop seasonal sales strategies, initiatives around key holidays to drive incremental business
• Partner with Finance to develop annual plans, monthly estimates and OTB as well as risks & opportunities.
• Partner with Buying Teal to optimize product offer
• Identify and champion communication to Brand Director, Buying Team and Global Merchandising of large product development opportunities
• Drive Seasonal Markets:

• Communicate Kate Spade strategy, initiatives and goals
• Ensure alignment with distributors

• Guarantee receipt of purchase orders within established time frames
• Manage inventory levels by continuously monitoring delete schedules and sell-through. Negotiate with accounts optimal inventory levels. Provide recommendation.
• Support the Regional Marketing team building & implementing Marketing strategy & budget with each partner in alignment with the Kate Spade Global Campaign & contractual agreements aiming to maximizing sales results and driving Kate Spade Brand Building
• Support the Marketing team to drive CRM programs including partnering with distributors to develop systematic name capture and leverage databases to drive Sales and Customer loyalty

3. Business Development

• Support Regional Director & GM in business development activities and processes, Partner with Architecture, Construction and VM on development and execution of New Doors as well as renewal/expansion of existing doors
• Monitor development/expansion of the competition in respective markets with Architecture, Construction team and Partners.

4. Business Management

• Participate in Project team meetings, coordinate execution and implementation cross functionally
• Manage issues on the ground and drive resolution with the Distributor.
• Frequent travel to key markets to support retail execution, training and to build distributors relationships

The accomplished individual will possess...

• 7+ years’ work experience with International Wholesale and Retail business
• Ability to Travel 50% of the time to different countries in SEA
• Ability to successfully work with multiple stakeholders
• Strong communication and influencing skills
• Proven ability to drive business initiatives and dynamic business models
• Experience developing and leading a high performance team
• English and Mandarin fluency is required
• Strong collaborator and team player 

Our Competencies for All Employees

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.
• Developing Direct Reports and Others: Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in their 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.

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 the 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.