CHRO — Global Luxury practice (based China)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Luxury Goods & Services on a senior CHRO leadership mandate anchored in China. The remit explicitly spans Singapore, Continental Europe, Africa.

This is a country CEO / MD-class mandate with board- and headquarters-facing accountability for strategy execution, regulatory relationships, and brand in-market.

The organisation is looking for pattern recognition: someone who has seen similar complexity before and knows which levers matter first.

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Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Digital luxury and omnichannel — building leadership that understands how to present and sell luxury through digital channels, social commerce, and virtual clienteling without cheapening the category
• Geographic spine: Primary hub China with explicit corridor responsibility across Singapore, Continental Europe, Africa.
• Organisation stage: Recent leadership turnover created ambiguity on priorities; you will need to re-establish a crisp enterprise storyline.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: Regional and HNI relationship management — leading sales organisations that rely on deep personal networks across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata HNI communities

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The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Culture diagnostics: Replace annual surveys with pulse and qualitative insight tied to business outcomes.
2. Role clarity: Clean up overlapping mandates between functions — reduce “everyone owns everything” ambiguity.
3. Internal mobility: Make moves across units easier; reduce hoarding of high potentials inside silos.
4. Alumni & boomerang: Professional offboarding and selective re-hire paths where brand and IP protection allow.
5. HR tech debt: Rationalise HRIS / ATS stack; improve self-service so HRBP time shifts to strategic work.
6. Board people reporting: Succession, diversity, and conduct themes with substance — not compliance theatre.

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Responsibilities (representative)

• Upgrade manager capability — especially feedback, coaching, and performance management at scale.
• Simplify rewards; reduce exception culture that undermines internal equity.
• Own employee listening and action planning tied to retention drivers.
• Partner with legal on investigations, policies, and regulatory people topics.
• Build HR analytics that support board and audit committee oversight.

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Leadership profile

• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Business partnership: HR seen as a strategic function, not only policy and service delivery.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from China with regular engagement across Singapore, Continental Europe.

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Team & culture

The organisation runs hot — ambitious targets and thin buffers. You need to channel energy into sustainable rhythms: predictable planning, honest risk surfacing, and recovery time for teams after major pushes.

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Success measures (examples)

• Financial: Revenue and margin vs. plan; cash conversion; capital efficiency.
• Strategic: Share in priority segments; customer retention in anchor accounts; milestone delivery on transformation.
• People: Engagement trends; regrettable attrition in critical roles; diversity of succession slate.
• Risk: Audit and regulatory outcomes; conduct events; operational resilience metrics.

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First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Shadow key customer journeys or operations — paper over slides where reality diverges.
• Days 30–60: Cut or pause low-value projects freeing capacity for strategic work.
• Days 60–90: Publish first integrated forecast or plan under your ownership — even if directional.
• Build trust with risk, legal, and audit through transparency — surprises erode licence to move fast.
• Pick one cultural signal (e.g. meeting hygiene, promotion criteria) and model it relentlessly.

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Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Matrix of global product houses and local P&L; tension is normal — your role is to broker trade-offs with data.
• External: Customers who influence reference deals; government or industry bodies in regulated sectors.
• Capital providers: Banks, sponsors, or minority investors — each needs a slightly different narrative on risk.

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Travel & mobility

Multi-hub rhythm — plan for weekly or bi-weekly cross-border travel during integration or transformation peaks.

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Compensation

Competitive CHRO compensation for Luxury Goods & Services leadership: cash, incentive, benefits, and potential equity or carry (case-dependent). Discussed with finalists only.

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Application process

Gladwin International is managing this search confidentially. Shortlisted candidates will engage in structured conversations with the firm’s partners before client introduction. Please apply through the careers portal with a concise note on why this geography, sector, and remit fit your trajectory.

We review every submission personally; unsolicited outreach to the end client is discouraged and may disqualify candidacy.

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Reference: luxury-goods-services · CHRO · China · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors