After close to three years I've left Bestseller after agreement with the CEO and owner Anders Holch Povlsen.
After a brand decision of integrating the online organization into every brand, the need for me driving and developing the business has minimized.
Good luck to the teams - I'm sure you're facing some interesting challenges. And a very special thank you to all of my, close to sixty people, in Bestseller Online. It been a pleasure to work with all of you - as mentioned in my speech.
Kim
About Bestseller:
Bestseller’s clothes and accessories are sold to young women and men, teenagers, and children under the brand names: name it, Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, VILA, ONLY, SELECTED FEMME/HOMME, Pieces accessories, Object Collectors Item, mama•licious, and OUTFITTERS NATION.
In 2007/8 Bestseller’s turnover was € 1.45 billion (DKK 10.8 billion). This does not include turnover and earnings for China as well as partner related retail turnover.
Postscript:
This is a normal development in many organizations - decentralizing into business units or brands. I've talked, and read about, several large danish and larger international companies, and the state from centralised with a knowledge based organization, into decentralized, normally last below 1½ year - and then topmanagement centralises again. The re-centralizing empowers the development and speed up processes, and re-make the online business unit agile and into possible throught leadership.
Online business is business that require knowledge - believe me I will never start to design fashion :)
