Meet Ryoji – He was been working for the Group since 2008. Since he started in Cartier, he has become an expert in the high-jewellery business in Japan and now brings his success and learning to Taiwan.
How my journey started…
I worked more than 7 years in the luxury fashion industry. I wanted to challenge myself and this led me to apply for a Merchandising Planner role at Cartier Japan. During the interview process, I felt a lot of positive energy from the employees. They were very open to my experience and my ideas on how to challenge the company. This is what inspired me to join the Group. So in May of 2008. I joined the merchandising position. I was able to use my skills in merchandising, but for a different category of products at different price points. It was a good opportunity for me to enrich my skills.
My Career path…
The objective of the Merchandising Planner role was to optimise the stocks and increase the sales. After 2 years, I had a great learning of the bridal jewellery business. I was then promoted to Jewellery Marketing Chief and then to become Manager. I was focused on the bridal jewellery in the beginning, but the scope grew to all jewellery. Then I asked Cartier to be in-charge of the high-jewellery business, because I was very interested in this category due to the unique business and beautiful creations. I became responsible for the high-jewellery and we had a lot of success! I attribute a big part of this success to the amazing collaboration with the team. After 4 years of growing the business, I started to think about what I could do next. I wanted to bring this experience to another market. The Group helped me to look for an opportunity outside of Japan and this is how I came to Taiwan!
My biggest learning…
Whatever position I had, I learned the importance of teamwork. Without the collaborative team spirit, we would not have been able to achieve our amazing results. Also, learning from the others is quite important and can help you develop yourself further. You can learn from everyone!
What surprised me…
Amazing and talented people surround us everywhere in the Group! In particular, in the high-jewellery business, so many people are talented and strongly passionate about the beauty of the creations. I really enjoyed being a part of this and this shared passion.
My favorite memory…
If I had to pick one key moment, it would be the high jewellery event in 2016 in Tokyo. It was the biggest high-jewellery event ever in Japan. It was not only the business success, but the unique and fantastic opportunity to collaborate with the international team. As Japan team, we were the host of international clients from all over the market. It was very impressive and memorable. Everybody from the international markets had a good discovery of Japan. It was very hard work, but I got so much encouragement and gratitude from our guests that it was so rewarding! Japan was not the center of the high-jewellery business, but we put it on the map!
Wise words that I live by…
継続は力なり
This means continuity is the father of success, which is similar to the English expression "Rome was not build in a day".