HGA GROUP - Our Relevance in 2020.
With a seismic shift in the highly competitive industries of fashion, beauty and retail over recent years, brought on by globalisation, technological advancements and changes in consumer demand, industry dynamics are rapidly changing and evolving and businesses need to keep moving to survive. The UK retail industry is facing a prolonged period of difficulty, with ongoing political and economic uncertainty. 2019 was definitely a year of ‘awakening’, and there is an undeniable demand to move from intention to action - a ‘now or never’ scenario. We have developed a 2020 strategy to remain “relevant today and tomorrow”, we champion 4 pillars as below:
Global Recruitment, Career Mentoring, Business Development and The Sustainability Hub.
HGA Group is a boutique global Recruitment Consultancy with almost 20 years history and a proven reputation, specialising exclusively in the niche sectors of fashion, beauty and retail. We focus on recruitment at mid-level management through to C-suite and board level positions, with the majority of our work being secured by personal recommendation, and repeat business being a mainstay of our success. Based in London, we operate a number of international offices in Italy, India, Turkey and South Africa - working in both established and emerging regions, ensuring our global people reach is highly developed. We work in a nimble manner, partnering with corporate, small and mid-sized organisations, who are transforming, growing or scaling. Our processes are completely personalised and founded on relationship building, working hard to actively maintain our strong relationships developed over many years. We ensure exclusivity and individualised services for our clients and candidates.
When we are not matching talent with opportunities, we are finding solutions to help businesses reach their next level. Our “marriage brokering skills” within talent have led us to develop our portfolio of services, namely Business Development: helping organisations to grow commercially; Career Mentoring: assisting both individuals and employees to develop the skills and methodology to secure their next ‘best fit’ role; and our newly launched Sustainability Hub: championing talent acquisition, the development of team structures, and the hosting industry discussions to drive sustainability within fashion, beauty and retail.
We are ‘purists’ and believe that our own extensive industry experience, coupled with the experience of working within international markets, and striving to remain ‘relevant today, and tomorrow’ helps define and drive our success. Our five major personal attributes of commitment, integrity, honesty, passion and consistency form the foundation for our functional expertise, namely our:
BESPOKE APPROACH : We believe “one size does not fit all” - the seismic pace of business change calls for our flexible approach
GLOBAL PRACTICE: Over 50% of our revenue is driven by the international markets, bolstered by our offices in London, Italy, India, South Africa and Turkey
EXTENSIVE EXPERTISE: Gained over 20 years, within fashion, retail and beauty
COMMERCIAL SKILLS: Our team have enjoyed successful careers within fashion and / or beauty or retail
ETHICS AND VALUES: Our personal work ethic and values ensure that our reputation drives our success
As a boutique operator, we are flexible in our approach and able to offer the most personalised service, developing a deep understanding and quality connection with our clients, candidates and business partners. We work in partnership, working closely to help deliver an organisations’ business vision and develop a collaborative and positive culture. We partner with new clients, but are very proud of our long lasting relationships with both candidates and clients – many have thrived well over 15 years. We take nothing for granted and strive hard every day to further develop. We not only assist established businesses, but are keen to partner with smaller growing organisations to help them achieve their goals. The businesses we work with may be at different stages in their evolution.
We are very conscious that global business is changing rapidly through technological and consumer transformation, we work very hard at ensuring that our knowledge is up to date. Our aim is to be relevant today, and tomorrow. Networking is a daily task and we invest in time with clients, candidates and business partners globally. We attend and participate at conferences and panel discussions. We host various business seminars and events to add value to the debate within the fashion, beauty and retail sectors. Our clients and candidates are facing many challenges – and opportunities, and it is critical that we are well informed and can add the most value.
GLOBAL RECRUITMENT
We partner with our clients to secure the best fit talent across all functions within fashion, beauty and retail. We of course operate a database, but every assignment is unique and some candidates are not actively looking to secure their next position, so our methodology is founded on headhunting, networking and referrals. We work in a nimble manner, partnering with corporate, small and mid-sized organisations, who are transforming, growing or scaling, our processes are completely personalised and founded on relationship building, ensuring exclusivity and individualised services for our clients and candidates. No two assignments are the same, we offer the experience, maturity, flexibility and desire to understand the commercial vision and cultural DNA by investing significant time within a business.
Our team members at HGA Group have “walked the walk” and demonstrated significant success in senior roles within global fashion and consumer retailers and brands. As a result, our candidates not only look to us to secure their “best fit” role, but also enjoy engaging and adding to the debate within the sectors we serve, either by attending the business events we host (see business developments), or in active debate with our team. A significant service is our daily career advice and our career mentoring service.
We focus on mid-management roles, through to C-suite and board level positions within these functions:
DIGITAL, TRADING, BUYING, MARKETING, RETAIL, CATEGORY MANAGEMENT, MERCHANDISING/PLANNING, OMNI-CHANNEL, DESIGN, PRODUCTION, IT, SUPPLY CHAIN, WHOLESALE, SOURCING, HUMAN RESOURCES, AND FINANCE
CAREER MENTORING
The functions that we focus on – fashion, beauty and retail are developing at a pace. Dynamic, hugely influenced by technology, changing consumer patterns and other social factors such as sustainability, we recognise that candidates looking for their next opportunity may require assistance in how they prepare, plan and manage their search. We launched our Career Mentoring service in 2017, and have worked with a number of individuals to secure their next roles and or develop their business consultancies. We have further developed this service to assist organisations to help employees who no longer fit the business structure to develop the skills and methodology to secure their next ‘best fit’ role.
Securing your next role can be an overwhelming, daunting task, especially if you have left an organisation after many years, or if the function you are involved in, is undergoing significant change. Our MD, Harveen Gill offers a completely bespoke, ‘one to one’ service where your efforts to date are evaluated and a daily and weekly task plan is created focusing on expanding your business knowledge, developing your networking activity and securing the right approach to reach out to those individuals and organisations that may be of interest to you. We also help to develop your thinking so that you are open to identifying and acting on opportunities that exist in the new consumer world. Naturally, Harveen also opens her “black book” to introduce her own connections, to add to your networking portfolio.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Our clients tell us that they wish to partner with an organisation that can meaningfully connect them to 20 – 30 target individuals or organisations (as oppose to trying to connect with larger numbers), in order to commercially develop their business. A number of technology businesses looking to develop their reach in fashion and beauty, have engaged us to enter and develop new markets. We also develop and manage strategic commercial growth programmes. We partner with organisations who wish to showcase their concepts to noteworthy organisations and retailers within the fashion, beauty and retail sectors to commence or further develop their commercial relationships. Our extensive, long standing relationships within our chosen sectors create these connections. We have supported fashion technology organisations, leadership consultancies, international governments and food and beverage consortiums to host events in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada.
THE SUSTAINABILITY HUB
The global fashion industry is amongst the most wasteful and polluting sectors. We have seen some modest progress but believe that fashion players are not taking their responsibilities seriously enough – by sustainability we mean planet, people and profit. There are solutions and alternatives to mitigate these problems. The first step lies in building awareness and willingness to change.
From 2020 onwards, fashion players will need to swap their lukewarm initiatives for meaningful action and regulatory compliance, while facing up to consumer demand for transformational change. We at HGA Group are keen to play a small part in this huge journey, our ‘Sustainability Hub’ champions talent acquisition, the development of team structures and hosts business events that discusses and informs as to how best to adopt and drive sustainability within fashion, beauty and retail.
Our focus is on:
The championing and identification of talent within the sustainability function of organisations
The creation of sustainability team structures within organisations
The development of best practice for sustainability trams as they operate within an organisation
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
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