Think Tank. Failure isn’t a Dirty Word. Retail leaders need to create a culture of innovation and manage the business for the future, not just on a quarterly basis.

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Think Tank | Failure isn’t a Dirty Word 

An excerpt from a WGSN report by PETAH MARIAN senior Editor at WGSN Here

Failure isn’t a dirty word. The tech industry has rebranded it, and openly ‘fails’ in order to keep reinventing the wheel and staying ahead of the game, fashion take note. Petah Marian writes: "One thing I’ve noticed a lot recently is how smart fashion brands are increasingly taking tips from the tech and startup industry on how to evolve, particularly around e-commerce, mobile and the means by which they get their product to the customer." 

But almost as important, is taking on the mindset of these companies. Start-ups pivot, design iteratively, they test and learn, and when things do not work, it’s not failure, it’s just one option that has now been ruled out. 

Failure is scary and the prospect of it can be paralysing, but as fashion cycles continue to gather pace and technology rapidly evolves, embracing failure as part of the development cycle is going to be central to keeping up. 

In design, some brands across the fashion industry are doing this. For example, Zara designs iteratively across the course of a season, evolving (rather than repeating) its successes to create a sense of newness in store, creating smaller runs and more frequent drops. 

But for this sort of strategy to be successful on a broader business basis, retail leaders need to create a culture of innovation, and manage the business for the future, not just on a quarterly basis. 

That means accepting that lots of projects will have zero return for a number of years, but that the future of your business depends on it. As we look this week at the collapse of a number of UK high street stalwarts, this kind of thinking has never been more essential."

See the full article Here