All-round flair for fashion

By MARK STORY

Over-the-counter sales experience, says Di Humphries, Hallenstein Glassons' product and marketing director, is the incubator for any enduring career in fashion retail.

Through her well-honed eye for talent, new Hallenstein Glassons board appointee Di Humphries can identify the "high-flyers" destined for management trainee programmes within their first six months.

After learning everything there is to know about fashion retail, she should know talent when she sees it.

But raw talent alone, warns Humphries is not enough. She says those with career aspirations can't expect to become high-flyers within fashion retail unless they're prepared to roll-up their sleeves and work the front counter.

The first woman invited to take a seat at the testosterone-filled Hallenstein Glassons board (for some time), Humphries is almost typecast to play the "don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover" character Elle Woods of Legally Blonde fame.

A former women's Canterbury rugby representative - who once played in the 1986 curtain-raiser to the "Baby Blacks" test against France - a high school maths and physics whiz, and a former part-time model - Humphries is a curious amalgam of brains and beauty.

One of six kids single-handedly raised by her mother in the working-class Christchurch suburb of Aranui, Humphries fantasised more over leaving town than tertiary study.

Not surprisingly, she decided to by-pass a university education for some overseas travel. After returning from an OE stint in the late 1980s she drifted into the fashion industry as an accounts clerk with a Palmerston North-based fashion chain.

It was while running a Glassons Palmerston North store two years later that Humphries first set her sites on running a large fashion retail operation.

Recognising that she needed much broader experience to carve her way to the top, she decided to become a trainee buyer with mail-order fashion company, Ezibuy.

What convinced Glassons founder, Tim Glasson to attract Humphries back within his fold as manager of the rapidly expanding Australian operation was the experience she acquired as a product merchandiser and head buyer with Ezibuy and Auckland-based Pumpkin Patch.

As well as managing recruitment, merchandising, product development, and setting up the infrastructure and distribution for Australia, Humphries was also responsible for regular trips to Asia, the US, Europe, and India to source new products.

After two and a-half years running the 12-store Australian operation, Glasson put Humphries back into the home market as the NZ product manager. Ironically, her appointment to Glassons Christchurch head office would mark a return to the home-town she couldn't wait to exit many years earlier. Not that her family would see any more of her than they used to when she lived in Australia.

Depending on the season, a lot of Glassons garments are NZ made. But as head buyer Humphries can still spend up to four months of any year travelling around the East, India, Britain, Australia, the US and Europe sourcing product, materials, marketing concepts and technology needed to satisfy volume demand through both the local and Australian operations.

What is it she likes about being a buyer? The sheer volume of travel can be demanding on family life. But with no kids and an understanding partner, she says it's still proving enjoyable.

What still gives Humphries a buzz is watching what she's sourced, developed, coloured, and fitted - now walking on the streets - and seeing the successes of her developments. She still loves the negotiating side of buying and the satisfaction in sealing good deals.

"When you're on the road, you're pretty much alone - so it's important to be an independent operator. I can remember being daunted as a 21-year-old buyer flying to LA for the first time, renting a car and having to go out and find garments. I also have fond memories of eating snake, turtle and a worm omelette all in the same night while securing a deal in China."

When she's not travelling, her typical 12-hour days are spent planning and tracking stock, developing stores and product ranges, understanding category trends, buying analysis, promotional planning, budgeting, and costings.

But as head buyer Humphries has a huge responsibility to source the right garments for the right markets at the right price. So how does she know what to buy? Much of her buyer's intuition - knowing what will work - comes from staying in touch with customers.

Not surprisingly, she can be seen ringing-up the till on any given weekend at any one of Glassons' 29 stores nation-wide, and she insists her management team do likewise.

She believes there's more to be learned about buying trends and competitor activities from half a day working over the counter than hours poring over charts and research.

But can people really learn the skills on the sales floor that will allow them to run a company?

Humphries claims rising from bottom-rung to senior management ranks is as achievable now as it was when she started with neither qualifications nor experience almost 20 years ago. In fact, the present general manager of Hallenstein Glasson subsidiary, HBK started out as a head office receptionist.

Meantime, an employee Humphries plucked from the shop floor is now being trained as an admin/buyer assistant. "Running a Glassons store means successfully handling any number of business disciplines simultaneously, just like any other small-to-medium-sized company."

What Humphries lacked in formal training, she says she's more than made up for as an industry all-rounder. But while choosing not to go to university after leaving high school, she did complete a fashion design certificate during her Palmerston North days as a trainee buyer.

Years later, during her stint running the Australian operation, she was to learn about running global businesses while attending an executive management course at Darden University, Virginia.

"No matter what level you start at within this industry, I can't stress how important it is to take a rounded approach," says Humphries. "Having a depth and breadth of knowledge, spanning all aspects of the fashion retail industry gives you the ability to communicate across many levels within this business."

How does Humphries identify the future Glassons high-flyers who start on the shop floor? Part of being an all-rounder, she advises, means being determined, having an extremely good attitude, initiative and a flair for dealing with other people in a service role.

"Instead of just enduring the front counter, sales people have to really enjoy what they do," she explains.

"Many companies, like us, promote from within wherever possible. So trainees need to realise that the time they spend on the ground should ultimately provide them with the right foundation for career development."

Humphries claims the track she's cut to the top from the bottom rung, proves there is no glass ceiling within this industry for women with the right determination and attitude.

"But it's important to hook up with a progressive, training-based company - that after assessing your strengths and weaknesses - will offer you internal and external upskilling opportunities leading to long-term career advancement."