Duty Free Shops (DFS) offers opportunities in careers that focus on the procurement of luxury items for customers and to live and travel in new and exciting places. Three alums, Yumi Yamagiwa, Malissa Iannone and Shelly Guidera tell us how their careers have changed with new challenges.
In addition, the newest RMI alum to hold an executive position with DFS is Michael Osorio '84. He too, tells about how he made the decision to enter retailing, and why he chose the career path he has today (see Mike Osorio).
Cynthia Gamage
|
RMI Alumni Malissa Iannone, Shelly Guidera and Yumi Yamagiwa in Odaiba, Tokyo. All three alums were promoted to assignments in Singapore with DFS.
|
|
Malissa Iannone graduated from SCU/RMI in 1999 and joined DFS in September of that year. After completing the Management Trainee Program in San Francisco, she began her international retailing career as an assistant merchandise manager. Over the subsequent four years, Malissa was promoted to associate merchandise manager and eventually to the merchandise manager position in December of 2003.
Since 2004, she has been the merchandise manager for food and candy, Destinations department, based in Singapore. She was responsible for the development and execution of the department strategy, building and refining the assortments, driving promotions of key brands and initiatives, developing pricing strategies, building and maintaining strong vendor relations, negotiating costs, and developing product.
Malissa exclaims, “Working in the world of food and candy, the merchandise manager role is truly entrepreneurial! It has been an incredible experience to be able to interpret the trends in the market, source the product, and package it in either a co-branded way (i.e., DFS Exclusive Godiva Souvenir Biscuits) or work with our very talented in-house Design Studio to create packaging under one of the DFS proprietary brands (i.e., Kampong Asia Delights Chocolate Covered Potato Chips).” Being in food and candy also gave her the opportunity to learn how to work with a luxury food brand, partner with them on the DFS vision and tactics for growing their mutual businesses, and ultimately create a brand that is now considered “key” for DFS worldwide.
DFS is exceptionally good at merchandising and presenting luxury brands, and the stores are some of the most beautiful in the world. "The newest Galleria—Okinawa Galleria—is stunning, and does an exemplary job at presenting the best brands in the world in the most impacted and powerful ways," says Malissa about the new store.
Malissa will begin her new role back in San Francisco. “I am excited to start my new role at DFS, merchandise manager for emerging leather brands. In this role, I will be responsible for the development and growth of emerging brands that we either have in our brand portfolio today and believe will be quite large one day, or brands emerging in the marketplace that have strong brand recognition among our core customers and that we would like to test in our key locations.”
Yumi Yamagiwa graduated from SCU/RMI in 1999. She too joined DFS to be a part of the management trainee program in San Francisco. She began her international retailing career as an assistant planner for fragrances. Over the subsequent three years, she moved to the distribution team as a distributor then distribution manager for their Mid-Pacific division, which encompassed Guam, Saipan, Palau and Okinawa.
“I was presented with a great opportunity in 2003 to become a part of the store opening project team for Okinawa as the business development manager and relocated to Singapore. The Okinawa Galleria store opening project was and still is considered the pioneer of the new DFS vision to create the most luxurious shopping experience in the world. In this planning process, I had the opportunity to learn from the beginning to the end of store-opening procedure including architectural, operational and logistical planning. One of the tasks I had was to coordinate and manage the logistics and merchandise process, which involved putting together a team of people from around the DFS world (San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore) to ultimately ensure that the opening merchandise is on the selling floor on time for the opening! It was the best experience of my career thus far and needless to say the most rewarding,” states Yumi.
Yumi is now in Okinawa as the assistant divisional merchandise manager for cosmetics and fragrances, responsible for the building and execution of strategies and vendor relationships to effectively manage sales and inventory. Being the first duty free operator in Okinawa and the first DFS location in Japan (not to mention a brand new division for DFS) has brought many challenges every day. Yumi utilizes her background and past experiences to help contribute and solve these challenges. “Having been a part of our Okinawa store history has given me much pride in our company and the complexity of the business we run so successfully.”
Shelly Guidera graduated from SCU in 1999 and joined DFS as part of the management trainee program in September of that year. “My first position after the program was as an assistant planner in the sunglass department. Over the subsequent years I was promoted to Distributor for our North America division and then to distribution manager of the Mid-Pacific division which encompasses Guam, Saipan, and Palau.”
“In 2003 I had the opportunity to relocate to Singapore for a planner position on the Asia Destinations team. As a planner, I am responsible for leading our seasonal planning process, managing inventory for all of our brands, and preparing and executing our Open To Buy (the tool we use to link and manage our strategies to our financial plans). Working in the division the last two years has been one of the most rewarding experiences because I've been able to collaborate first hand with the stores and our local buyers in other countries.” states Shelly.
A unique aspect of the Destinations department is that each division (and sometimes even location) has a completely different market, assortment, and customer demographic. What works in one area of the world may not translate or be a success in another. “Since our souvenir products are so specific to each destination, we have more opportunity to be creative with product development and the promotional structures we implement.”
“My latest transition has been to relocate to Hawaii as the worldwide planner of food and candy. I now am responsible for all 10 of our divisions across the world and managing inventory for over 55 percent of the Destinations total. I have been extremely fortunate for the opportunities DFS has given me to work in so many departments with different teams in various positions across the company. The complexities and ever changing environment of DFS continue to challenge me and broaden my experience.” |
RMI Newsletter
