Race For a Luxury Talent

The race for best talents will sculpture the future for the luxury and fashion industries. The whole system of HR's practices is going to be inevitably defined from several important perspectives if a luxury enterprise wants to stay competitive and be prepared for a move from a marketplace to market space.

Today, consumers are not defined by only one segment, their behaviours and aspirations change constantly. To raise the understanding of consumer's need it is crucial to understand their motivations —and then customize relationships and specific market strategies, which also have to be rethought. Strategies will be defined within the geographical hubs or smaller clusters - no one needs anymore globalisation, cities rather than countries provide the most valuable perspective through which to view consumers.

High-end luxury firms will have to become less risk-averse in terms of brand communications. More experiments, unexpected partnerships and alliances, customer entertainment rather than traditions' maintenance —is a good way to keep the conversation further theatrical and memorable. Moreover, increasing importance of omnichannel consumers will push the industry to find the ways to treat online and offline customer interactions as a one holistic experience. 

All these above will not only become major strategic challenges for luxury firms; acquiring and holding onto the required talent will get much more difficult. It will become a crucial concern for high-end luxury brands to attract professionals with analytical and creative skills set; retail, product, and brand expertise; digital and international experience. As what observed at the moment is, the industry’s business leaders are boxed into one function, location, or industry subsector. 

* Based on BCG-BOF study "Minding the Talent Gap".