Enterprise Performance-Cadence Reset Leader

The mandate

The group performance chief resigned after a product-season post-mortem showed that 47 weekly, monthly and seasonal forums reviewed similar information while key buy, markdown, replenishment and supplier decisions arrived late. Brand, region and channel teams attend meetings to protect alignment, then resolve choices through smaller side conversations. Creative milestones and sourcing clocks do not meet in one calendar. A temporary executive must restore decision rhythm before the next two seasonal gates.

The leader must start within three weeks for seven months while a permanent performance-office search runs. The first 30 days observe and classify every forum, protect imminent seasonal decisions and close meetings with no distinct purpose. Months two through five run a redesigned weekly-to-seasonal cadence through two major gates; the closing period resolves exceptions, measures decision latency and inducts the successor through a complete operating cycle.

Handover is achieved when each retained forum has a unique decision purpose, required evidence, attendees, clock, escalation path and cancellation rule; at least 40 percent of meeting hours are removed; two seasonal gates close on time; and critical choices are recorded without side-channel reapproval. The permanent executive must inherit the integrated calendar, forum charters, open decisions, exception logic and evidence from two cycles.

The interim may cancel or combine management forums, set performance-office standards, require decision logs, direct the central team and escalate missed seasonal choices to the CEO. Product line, creative direction, merchandise buys above delegation, supplier awards, capital, markdown and executive remuneration remain with existing owners. The incumbent cannot change metric definitions unilaterally, redesign incentives or determine permanent brand and regional accountabilities.

Planning-system replacement, broad organisation restructuring, product strategy and permanent calendar technology are outside scope. The leader will define requirements and expose ownership conflicts but will not become systems implementer or chief merchant. This is a recovery of executive cadence and decision timing, not a mandate to centralise commercial judgement or impose uniform creativity across brands.

Why this seat is open

An abrupt resignation occurred after the annual operating calendar had already begun and before two irreversible merchandise gates. The CEO cannot wait for permanent recruitment while overloaded forums consume the time required to make those choices. The board expects a temporary office holder to leave an operating rhythm that survives personality and season.

What you will own

• Inventory and classify all 47 forums by decision purpose, evidence, participants, timing, dependency and actual recent output.
• Cancel, combine or redesign meetings whose purpose duplicates another forum or ends only in information sharing and side decisions.
• Protect two seasonal gates by aligning creative, merchandise, demand, sourcing, inventory, channel and financial decision clocks.
• Establish decision logs that capture owner, evidence, dissent, commitment, expiry, escalation and any later change in one place.
• Reduce executive meeting hours while monitoring decision latency, attendance quality, rework and operational consequence.
• Resolve brand, region and function cadence exceptions without absorbing the underlying commercial or creative authority.
• Induct the permanent leader through one complete cycle, retained forum charters, open decisions and the integrated calendar.

Candidate qualifications

• Ran enterprise performance cadence in premium apparel, luxury, consumer products or another seasonal portfolio business.
• Has removed a large share of executive meetings while improving the timing and traceability of consequential decisions.
• Understands creative, buy, sourcing, replenishment, markdown, channel and financial calendars and their irreversible points.
• Can distinguish forum design from metric definition, accountability design and the commercial judgement exercised inside it.
• Challenged brand and regional presidents whose side channels undermined formal commitments without over-centralising decisions.
• Completed a permanent handover after proving a revised operating rhythm through at least two seasonal gates.

Non-negotiables

• Available in Hong Kong within three weeks and able to complete four market or sourcing-hub reviews.
• Brings direct seasonal operating-cadence authority; meeting facilitation or PMO administration alone is insufficient.
• Accepts no creative, merchandise, supplier, capital, markdown, remuneration or permanent organisation authority.
• Will disclose fashion, retail, sourcing, technology and portfolio-company interests before appointment.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe the largest meeting-hour reduction you achieved without slowing a seasonal decision.
2. 49 words maximum. Confirm your Hong Kong start date and the product calendars you have personally governed.
3. 49 words maximum. Which evidence proves a forum was eliminated rather than recreated through side conversations?