After over a decade of focusing on consolidation, brands are now moving to diversify their sourcing amongst more countries and more vendors.

 

Developing a strategy that hedges risk while also meeting other brand criteria such as speed, price, and flexibility is keeping many sourcing execs awake at night.

 

Lawrence Chan will share with us what he's learned and the opportunities he's seeing in key apparel producing nations.

 

About Lawrence Chan

Lawrence Chan is a veteran in Global Sourcing and Product Development. He was Vice President of Global Sourcing and Product Development from 1980 to 1996 for May Department Stores/Venture Stores in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

He was relocated back to HK as Vice President and Managing Director running their Hong Kong and China offices in 1996. He joined Target Stores in 1997 as Vice President and Managing Director setting up their Global operation responsible for Global Sourcing and Product Development until 2006.

 

He built 3 sourcing hubs, namely Hong Kong covering Asia, Florence covering Europe, Middle East and subcontinent and Mexico covering Mexican and Central American markets. He also set up the E-Auction and Competitive Line Review processes for Target driving cost and speed efficiency back in the 90’s.

 

He later on worked for Liz Claiborne, Toys R Us/Babies R Us and spent the last 4 years at Gap Inc running global sourcing, opened Vietnam market, sourcing strategy development and developing Central America for speed and duty free benefits until he retired last year.

 

Lawrence received his Master Degree in Business from Saint Louis University of St. Louis, Missouri.

 

He is now working as a consultant to clients in Strategies for Global Sourcing, Market Development & Investment, Risk Management and Organizational Process Development.