Sr. Manager, Retail Training & Development

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. Visit Our People page to learn more about Tapestry's commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.
Title: Senior Manager, Retail Training and Development (RT&D)
Reports to: Dual report to Head of Customer Experience (CX) and Head of HR, Kate Spade Japan
Location: Tokyo
People mgmt: Manage 1 team member (1 RT&D Manager) and have dotted line report from 3-4 field trainers
Key Objectives:

• Strengthen store field capability & skill building for consumer centricity to drive a business
• Navigate both manager and sales associates (Stylist) in store to be a brand embodiment at the closest customer touchpoint, with deeper understanding of brand right service and store experience.
• Work closely with retail and outlet field team with giving overview and objective sights on training needs based on ongoing business trend then turn that into training deliverables.

Key Responsibilities:

• Planning/delivering relevant training programs that matches the fast-paced changes in the business situation and any other developmental solutions to enhance store field organizational capabilities in close partnership with retail field leaders (Retail and Outlet Heads, Regional leaders, and GMs (Area Managers) are the primary stakeholders).
• Evolve and develop a team including dotted report line to the next level to become a true retail business enabler function to contribute to KSJ Retail business KPIs and NPS KPIs through attaining business KPIs and increasing customer engagement.
• Lead and act as a retail business partner with keep updating training and team capability for training effectiveness, to develop and execute the training solutions required to support business objective of increasing sales, market share, profitability and customer experience.
• Conduct regular store needs assessments from both qualitative and quantitative POV, identifying skill, behavior and knowledge gap then turn that into training development to improve retail skill more than selling skills.
  • Retail Business KPIs such as sales performance/productivity improvement
  • NPS Score and customer experience improvement
  • Mystery Shopper scores improvement
  • Employee Engagement rating improvement
  • Turnover improvement in quantity & quality
  • Best practice includes competitor and market trend analysis
• Lead, inspire, and engage retail field employees to become self-reliant proactive thinkers through relevant coaching method with encouraging brand purpose ("Joy Colors Life") lead attitude.
• Closely work with Buying, VMD and CX team to deliver effective contents and seasonal workshop with hearing retail needs to make the most of the effort for seasonal sales.
• Lead RT&D global and local projects to enhance customer services and customer experience.
• Contribute to accelerating brand transformation by enhancing fashion and lifestyle acumen throughout the organization.
• Encourage and build more open and inclusive communication and environment with retail and outlet field as being a good listener to appreciate every one of new ideas for updating their self-development skills through Co-active coaching and communication approach incl. career and personal value conversations and any other developmental solutions to be delivered most effectively through TTT to retail and outlet field leaders, and/or effective tools or materials for retail and outlet leaders in partnership with HR.
• Contacts:
  • Internal - retail and outlet (channel heads, regional leaders and GMs (area manager), store managers), HRBP, Customer Experience, Buying, VMD, Tapestry HR GPOD, Global Customer Experience
  • External - Training Vendors, external venue

Education/Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required
• Training planning and execution experience in Fashion/Luxury industries
• More than 5 years' experience as Area Manager, Store Manager or same level in fashion/apparel brands with an ability to deliver training
• Low business-English communication skill for both writing & reading, verbal is a plus
• Fluent Japanese communication skill for verbal, writing & reading is a Must
• Working experience in fast moving US company or culture is a plus
• Passion for people development is a plus
• Hands-on, self-starter, energetic with a positive attitude and strong work ethic
• Creative and strategic problem solver with solid execution and implementation skills
• Ability to develop solid relationships with internal and external business partners
• Must be results-oriented and be willing to influence performance on a regular basis

We welcome candidates who:

• has strong customer oriented with flexibility
• has worked as freelance trainer with fashion and consumer retail related clients
• has people management experiences
• has experience in management training i.e. Situational Leadership, Coaching Training

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 .