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HENNES & MAURITZ AB H&M’s Strategy and Entry into the Chinese Market Exam: 48 Hour Individual Home Assignment 280394-4132 Bsc. International Business Number of Pages: 10 Number of Characters: 23.386
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Page 1: HENNES & MAURITZ AB

HENNES & MAURITZ AB

H&M’s Strategy and Entry into the Chinese Market

Exam: 48 Hour Individual Home Assignment

280394-4132

Bsc. International Business Number of Pages: 10

Number of Characters: 23.386

Page 2: HENNES & MAURITZ AB

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1.1 Introduction

This paper aims to give an overview of the H&M Group as a whole, assess its core

competencies, as well as evaluate the different aspects of H&M’s expansion to China. First, a

brief introduction to the H&M firm will be given before going into an evaluation of its mode

of operations within the Chinese market, thus concluding whether this mode is the most

effective for the expansion strategy. This shall be accomplished by utilizing Dunning’s eclectic

paradigm. The eclectic paradigm will be focused on the retail store, not production, aspect in

the Chinese market, and will evaluate as well as determine which type of foreign activity

engagement H&M should partake in based the ownership- and locational-advantages. Finally,

H&M’s organizational architecture will be discussed and subsequently analyzed in order to

determine whether this firm structure is the best fit.

1.2 Company Overview & Mode of Operations

Hennes & Mauritz AB, otherwise known as the H&M Group, is a multinational clothing retailer

company that was founded in 1947 by Erling Persson in Västerås, Sweden and has since then

been a family-run business, with its current CEO Karl-Johan Persson being the grandson of the

founder. H&M is a publicly traded company and is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm, where its

headquarters are located, with the majority of the shares being owned by the Persson

founding family (H&M Group, 2016). The H&M Group has a total of 4,133 stores, and not only

includes its namesake brand ‘H&M’, but also incorporates six other brands under its umbrella;

these brands include COS, Weekday, Monki, Cheap Monday, &Other Stories, and Arket.

The H&M Group’s primary and largest label, H&M was present in 64 countries as of 2016, with

35 of these countries having an online shop (Loesche, 2017). The H&M label sells clothing for

men, women, and children at an affordable price point, which corresponds with the

company’s mission statement of providing “fashion and quality at the best price in a

sustainable way” (H&M Group, 2017). The business of fast-fashion itself is contingent upon

providing the customer with an ever-changing assortment of stock, in which the retailer offers

a trendy “new look that can be worn for the moment” (Loeb, 2015) and discarded quickly

thereafter due to its relatively low price point.

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As of August 2017, The H&M Group has opened 490 stores in China as well as an online shop,

making it their second biggest market, only to be surpassed by the 511 stores in the United

States (H&M, 2017). The H&M group first entered the Chinese market in 2007 by opening

their H&M label flagship store in Hong Kong, which was closely followed by another store

opening in Shanghai in that same year.

H&M’s strategy for expansion is largely location-based and focused on establishing a strong

customer following. Both flagship stores were opened with the optimal location in mind,

namely the first flagships were placed in major shopping areas that had large amounts of foot-

traffic and many tourists. H&M chose to rent their store spaces via lease agreements rather

than buying real estate in order to allow for flexibility in the ever-changing business

environment of retail, as evident by the steep increase in rent prices which forced H&M out

of its Hong Kong flagship five years after its opening (Chen, 2012). Staying consistent with their

expansion strategy H&M engaged in foreign direct investment by establishing their wholly-

owned subsidiaries in China, and set up its Chinese headquarters in Hong Kong. The main

objective for expanding into the Chinese market was to increase the company’s global growth

by 10-15% annually, and this goal is best supported by the opportunities the Chinese market

brings, with over a billion potential customers, this market is comparable to H&M’s main

market, Europe, which accounts for the majority of the company’s sales (Hellstrom, 2007).

2.0 The eclectic paradigm theory: the OLI Framework

The OLI framework, also known as the eclectic paradigm, establishes a framework that

determines the extent of foreign activities, as well postulates that multinationals are driven

by three sets of advantages (ownership, location, internalization) which determine whether

or not a company will be encouraged or discouraged to engage in foreign direct investment

(FDI), thus internationalizing and becoming a multinational enterprise. (Dunning, 1979).

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2.1 Ownership Advantages

H&M’s competitive advantages lie within its core competencies that differentiate them from

other market competitors. The multinational’s over seventy years of experience in the retail

industry as well as its sheer size of over 4,000 global retail locations, all of which are wholly-

owned subsidiaries, thus giving the company total control over each out of its stores and a

major ownership advantage. Due to its aforementioned vast quantity of stores around the

world, H&M must produce a vast amount of output, which in turn reduces the cost of

production as the company is able to leverage its bargaining power within their supplier

network, due its centralized buying unit in Stockholm, supplying a large volume of over 4,000

stores. By doing so, H&M has a definitive ownership advantage, namely economies of scale.

Inbound logistics, a primary activity, is a key ownership advantage for H&M as the fast-fashion

business is inherently dependent on reducing the lead time between designing a product and

having it in stores. While the clothes are designed in-house by a group of 150 designers, the

production is outsourced to approximately 800 independent global suppliers, most of which

are located in Europe and Asia, from which the 100 employee strong buying department in

Stockholm buys from.

To coordinate this key activity, H&M has a highly effective inbound logistics system that not

only incorporates an efficient supply chain, but also has a follow-up system designed to track

orders as well as promote a swift product turnover in their retail locations (H&M, 2014). Their

finely honed system allows H&M to reduce their average product lead time to as little as six

weeks, allowing them to replenish their stock regularly and respond quickly to new trends,

which keeps customers coming back to the store. As a complementarity, their sales and

marketing is another primary activity that raises H&M above the rest. H&M’s collaboration

with big name designers (e.g. Karl Lagerfeld, Versace, Balmain) raise brand visibility, coupled

with their scrupulous trend analyses that help predict future customer demands, are both

aspects of a primary activity which has made the Swedish fast-fashion retailer a market leader

(Sherman, 2015).

A key supporting activity of H&M’s global value chain would be its technology development.

In order to support their expansive retail operations, H&M developed its very own in-house

IT- Platform that is identical in each retail location, which in turn allows H&M to manage their

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inventory efficiently by maintaining an updated overview sales and stock (H&M 2014). Their

administrative infrastructure is also vital supporting activity, as its Scandinavian based

ownership could be viewed as a competitive advantage, where the informal management

style is goal-oriented rather than preoccupied with taking orders, as well as being

decentralized henceforth focusing on cooperation throughout the entire company (Karlsson).

2.2 Location Advantages

In order to better understand the macro-factors that would affect H&M’s external business

environment in China and further assess H&M’s competitive analysis, a PESTLE analysis will

be conducted on the factors that are relevant to the retail aspect of H&M’s expansion into the

Chinese market. The PESTLE analysis, an external analysis tool, takes the political, economic,

social, technological, legal, and environmental factors of a country into account in order gain

a comprehensive and strategic understanding of the business environment in a host country.

Political-Legal Factors

In 2001, China shifted to a market- economy thanks to its Premier, Zhu Rongji (WTO, 2001),

settling a deal to became part of global trade by entering into the World Trade Organization

(WTO). As part of this shift in policy, China amended or eradicated over 3000 administrative

regulations and laws, including tariffs, quotas, or other trade barriers (WTO, 2011). As a result

of these political and legal changes, foreign investment has soared in China. Still, it is

important to note that the Transitional Safeguard Mechanism (WTO, 2001), which is in effect

for 12 years after accession, is no longer in effect as of 2014. Although it is unlikely that China

might leave the WTO, due to China’s success in garnering foreign investments which

significantly boosted their GDP as a result of their 2001 entry, it is still a possibility that must

be considered when entering the Chinese market.

When H&M first entered the Chinese market in 2007, it was a time of little societal unrest and

relative political stability, hence being a locational advantage. This political stability was due

in part to the nature of the Chinese political system itself. Being one-party state that holds no

public elections for parliament, the political power in China remains static and concentrated

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within the government’s key representatives, which allowed the country to shift towards a

more market-based economy with relative ease and little opposition.

However, China’s political stability is still much lower than that of H&M’s home country,

Sweden. At 27 and 82 percentile ranks in political stability respectively, China lags far behind.

Similarly, China ranked a low 46 on the rule of law whereas Sweden achieved a 100 percentile

rank in the same category. Although these two rankings (World Bank, 2016) may not be

detrimental or deterring from doing business in China, it is of paramount importance to keep

these political and legal factors in mind while conducting business in host country, as politics

and legalities have a higher likelihood of changing in the host country than compared to

H&M’s home country of Sweden, perhaps resulting in a shift in a more unfavorable business

environment.

Economic Factors

At $11.199 Trillion GDP, China is the world’s second largest economy, only to be surpassed by

the United States whose $18.569 Trillion GDP places it in the top spot (World Bank, 2016).

China’s steady GDP growth from its 2001 WTO inception to H&M’s 2007 market entry, rising

from 8.3% to 14.2% respectively indicated a strong upwards trend for the country’s economy,

and made for a favorable factor when deciding to engage in foreign direct investment of a

new market, especially one with a potential as large as China due to its sheer size of over 1

billion in population alone (World Bank, 2016). While the GDP of China is substantial, the GDP

per capita or purchasing power parity, is relatively low in comparison. While the United States

is in 20th place on a global level with $54,700 GDP per capita, China is in 106th place with

$15,400 GDP per capita (CIA, 2016). To circumvent the potential disadvantage of a low

purchasing power parity, H&M analyzed its four main consumer segments (poor, mass middle

class, upper middle class, affluent) and chose to focus on the middle class due to its rapid

growth, with McKinsey forecasting its ability to rise to 550 million people or make up 75% of

urban households by 2022 (China Power, 2017). To target the increasing middle class, H&M

initially chose to expand to first-tier cities (e.g. Shanghai) and second-tier cities (e.g.

Hangzhou) and therefore capture their target audience.

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Yet with the geographic center of middle class growth shifting towards inland China and

therefore third- and fourth-tier cities (Barton, Chen, & Jin, 2013) this offers unique expansion

opportunities. H&M has responded and expanded its retail stores to not only cater to these

burgeoning areas but also respond to the increasingly competitive Chinese retail market. CEO

Karl-John Persson has noted that H&M has “tested second tier-cities and third-tier cities in

China and found the concept is working well” (Fickling & Lin, 2014).

Social

Despite its move from a planned economy to market economy by entering the WTO, the

Chinese economy is still not completely motivated by market factors, but also by relations or

guanxi. Guanxi and the importance of maintaining face and trust in relationships, such as

when negotiating contracts with government officials, is crucial while doing business in China

(Goh & Sullivan, 2011). In terms of demographics, the rise of the middle class is an important

social factor, as well as its sub-unit generation ‘G2’ or those born after the mid-1980s, the

latter of which will comprise 35% percent of urban consumer demand (Barton, Chen, & Jin,

2013). One can also use Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory (Hofstede, 2013) to gain insight

into a society’s culture and values. Of these six dimensions, the masculinity vs. femininity and

individualistic vs. collectivistic indexes will be addressed. China is masculine society, which is

characterized as being driven by achievement, competition, and material rewards for success.

China’s religious roots contain a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism which lay

the groundwork for a collectivistic society. China’s highly collectivistic culture means people

act in the interest of the group, rather than the individual. This translates into personal

relationships taking precedence over the organization, thus often giving preferential

treatment to those within a close group, as is described by the principle of guanxi.

Technology

While the technology factor traditionally encompasses R&D and technological innovation,

and the how technologically developed a country is overall, the main factor of analysis will

be internet usage and how this relates to e-commerce activities. As of 2017, China has 731

million internet users, which translates into over 53% of China’s entire population being

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active online (Millward, 2017); 95% (695 million) of the internet users are accessing it via

mobile (Russell, 2017). Deloitte reported that “Over 60 percent of consumers think Internet

is the main way for them to learn products, prices and brands” (Deloitte, 2016). In the

context of H&M’s Chinese market, it’s online store and corresponding mobile shopping app

are of critical importance in order to reach customers and grow sales.

Environmental Regulations

For nearly a decade since H&M’s market entry, environmental regulations remained lax until

the National People’s Congress 2016 decision to promulgate the Environmental Protection

Tax (EPT) Law, which will come into effect on January 1, 2018. The EPT Law targets all

operators engaged in business activities, not individuals or non-business operations like

government institutions, and specifies air, water, waste, and noise pollutants as taxable (Hu,

2017) While environmental restrictions were not stringent during H&M’s 2007 market entry,

the advent of the EPT Law means that H&M’s retail locations could be adversely affected or

restricted in some capacity in future.

2.3 Internalization Advantages

As previously mentioned, H&M sought to proactively expand its global operations by 10-15%

annually and satisfy shareholders by consequently engaging in market-seeking FDI, therefore

expanding its global market by entering China in 2007. H&M’s mode of entry in China was

establishing wholly-owned subsidiaries, an approach the company uses for the majority of its

foreign markets. The locational advantages of entering the Chinese market include its relative

political stability due to its one-party system and low barriers to entry since it became a WTO

member; should this not be the case in the near future, franchising might be an option to

mitigate risk. The growth of China’s middle class is a key economic factor; with an increasing

number of the population in the middle class, which is H&M’s target consumer, H&M’s

potential market expands, thus fulfilling their market-seeking FDI approach. While the social

environment of China differs from H&M’s home country of Sweden and could cause a rift

between leadership styles, the advantages of a masculine society include the possibility of

incentivizing employees to realize goals and further boost sales with the prospect of a

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monetary reward or promotion. China’s internet penetration is a further locational advantage,

as H&M’s entry into the Chinese market consists not only of physical stores, but also of an

online store, thus allowing H&M to reach a wider audience of customers who may not be able

to visit its retail locations in person.

All factors being considered, I would argue that having full control of their Chinese operations

via wholly-owned subsidiaries instead of engaging in a joint venture entry mode that could

offer lower cost benefits (which arguably might not hold much weight due to H&M’s

economies of scale) yet pose the risk of opportunistic behavior of partners, was the best

choice for H&M. H&M’s extensive experience and know-how in the retail industry as well as

their expertise in coordinating inbound logistics and advanced in-house IT framework is a key

competitive advantage. Sharing their tacit knowledge or handing over responsibility to a local

firm in a joint venture could disrupt the advanced and highly complex system that comprises

their core competencies. In summation, due to H&M’s ownership advantages and motivation

to continue expanding globally, opening up shop in China was a natural progression in

consideration of the country’s locational advantages that outweigh the country’s locational

disadvantages, thus making foreign direct investment the ideal option.

3.0 Firm Organizational Structure

The organizational architecture of the H&M Group is best described as having a global matrix

structure (see Appendix A) and is pursuing an international strategy. In terms of the H&M

Group’s vertical differentiation, the decision-making power is mostly decentralized, wherein

the CEO focuses on daily management and appoints members of the executive management

team, which includes the CFO and 9 other members, who are in charge of group-wide

functions that include: production, sustainability, expansion, communications, HR, business

development & logistics, as well as the person responsible for the H&M brand and the person

responsible for new business (H&M, 2016). The company’s horizontal differentiation is divided

into sub-units which consists of joint group functions that apply to each brand sub-unit. The

brand sub-unit is divided into H&M and ‘new business’, which includes the H&M Group’s other

labels. The H&M brand is divided into three sub-units, design/buying and PR/Marketing which

are both centralized, with the country sub-units being decentralized and acting mostly

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autonomously in their group functions. In order to coordinate these sub-units within H&M’s

decentralized structure, and in order to transfer core competencies between the units, there

is a need for both formal and informal integrating mechanisms that can help achieve

coordination in the large MNE.

Due to the large nature of the firm, formal integrating mechanisms, such as direct contact to

mangers and teams, are divided into each country’s individual unit. As a part of H&M’s

decentralized global strategy, country managers have responsibility over sales, profitability,

and all departments in their country. This would allow local employees of the host nation to

directly speak to a superior of relevance who is familiar with the current business

environment. H&M also utilizes informal integrating mechanisms such as knowledge networks

to coordinate activities. In the case of H&M’s retail stores, this knowledge network would

include H&M’s own advanced IT system and infrastructure that allows data (e.g. sales, SKU

stock) to be accessed and this give insight on both a national and global scale.

H&M’s decentralized matrix structure offers many benefits for conducting business on an

international level. It allows top management to focus on key issues thus giving individual

freedoms to the sub-unit hierarchies. It also provides more flexibility and therefore boosts

local responsiveness, which allows the business to adapt more quickly to a changing

environment. Better decisions are reached as the relevant country managers have the

autonomy to implement change and have more knowledge of the host country due to their

proximity and know-how. Another benefit would be increasing control by having self-

contained sub-units, wherein the local country managers are held responsible for their

market’s overall performance, ergo holding them accountable and reducing excuses.

It would make little sense if H&M were to switch their global matrix structure to that of a

worldwide product divisional structure, as H&M’s product range is not diverse, due to their

mass production of one type of product (clothing), the production activity of which is not even

done in-house, but by external suppliers. Similarly, a worldwide area could be a somewhat

suitable fit as it focuses on global sub-units that are largely autonomous, yet these five area

sub-units are too simplified in comparison to H&M’s presence in over 60 countries, thus

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potentially not allowing for the possibility of local responsiveness. In terms of the Chinese

market specifically, the only dimensions that H&M might consider changing would be

incentivizing the lowest hierarchy group (sales floor retail) with monetary or promotion

awards, due to their masculine society, to monitor customer reactions and feedback. This

would help boost local responsiveness at the most basic level, and would emulate the

approach the global market leader and H&M’s main competitor, Inditex, has taken in order to

reduce lead time, predict customer trends, and boost sales as a whole (Hansen, 2012). Overall,

their current use of the matrix structure is the best fit for H&M’s internationalization strategy,

as it provides “a good combination of central and local perspectives on leadership and

entrepreneurship” (H&M, 2014).

4.0 Conclusion

A pioneer in the fast-fashion field, the H&M Group is the second largest global clothing retailer

in the world (Fast Retailing, 2017). They expanded into China in 2007, entering onto the

market via wholly-owned subsidiaries and have grown China to become their second largest

market globally within ten years. Through their extensive managerial experience and

excellence in managing inbound logistics, H&M was able to exploit the locational advantages

that China had to offer. China’s locational advantages included a growing middle class with

increasing purchasing power and a political climate that promoted tariff-jumping, both factors

were extremely favorable for engaging in FDI. Consequently, H&M continued its core

globalization strategy by establishing itself as a wholly owned company in China. This allowed

H&M flexibility in its expansion strategy so it could control what cities to expand to and the

timing for each city’s expansion. H&M’s organizational matrix structure balances its O-

advantages as well as allowing space for local responsiveness and future international growth.

Based on its global expansion current activities, H&M’s continued future as a market leader in

the fast-fashion industry seems certain.

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AUDITING

COMMITTEE

BOARD OF

DIRECTORS

ACCOUNTING

IT

SECURITY

Appendix A

Matrix organisation of the H&M group

BRANDS JOINT GROUP FUNCTIONS**

* New Business has overall responsibility for producing, refining and supporting the group’s newer brands. ** In alphabetical order.

SUSTAINABILITY

LEGAL

EXPANSION

CONTROLLING

COMMUNICATIONS

CEO

CFO

NEW BUSINESS*

Country 1 PR/ Country 2 Marketing Country 3

etc.

Design/ Buying

H& M HOME

CHEAP MONDAY

Design/ Wholesale Country 1 PR/ Buying Country 2 Marketing

Country 1 PR/ Country 2 Marketing Country 3

etc.

Design/ Buying

WEEKDAY

Country 1 PR/ Country 2 Marketing Country 3

etc.

Design/ Buying

MONKI

Country 1 PR/ Country 2 Marketing Country 3

etc.

Design/ Buying

& OTHER STORIES

Country 1 PR/ Country 2 Marketing Country 3

etc.

Design/ Buying

COS

Country 1 PR/ Country 2 Marketing Country 3

etc.

Design/ Buying

H& M

PRODUCTION

LOGISTICS

HR

BU

SIN

ES

S D

EV

EL

OP

ME

NT