Thread regarding Fossil Inc. layoffs

Thanks for the thoughtful comments - i actUally agree that being part of a large multinational may habe helped save the boat, although i dont think any European conglomerate would have ever lined up for Fossil, the portfolio being too low end for them, noting that even the Swatch Group has dropped the license / fashion business recently ( Calvin Klein ). The only logic I could see is with a partner with the Japanese, most likely Citizen or Casio or driving consolidation among the US peer such as Movado and/or Timex to at least have more scale advantage and not cannibalize each other in a declining market. I wonder though if these options would have been available even if management realized that it was the right thing to do....you need two to tango.

What seems pretty clear to me however is that, simply, in a much more challenging and rapidly changing market there were many, too many, execution mistakes and just poor product decisions.

Well, very few use a horse drawn wagon so where’s the money in that? The company is Fossilized. They aren’t even set up properly so employees can work from home. I’ve worked at plenty of corporate offices and Fossil by far is the most antiquated.

Would like to point out that horse and wagon is still used and effective.

We failed to innovate the brand, the product and how we operate.
The global strategies Had only small impact on my job as they had to pass by too many people. Or does Fossil have too many strategies? I did not feel as we really lived any of these strategies.
Becoming a leaner company will save the Fossil short team. A fresh management team will save the company long term.

Anony,
Perhaps the mistake has been fossil trying to maintain itself as an independent company. If they saw the writing on the wall 10 years ago, knowing a digital boom from technology companies affecting all aspects of life - including fashion and accessories - maybe it would have been smarter to not just take their crumbs (rely on their software platform as licensee) and instead been acquired by them. Be part of the eco system rather than a loose affiliation, becoming their “fashion brand”. Or acquired by one of the competitor watch brands with a stronger luxury segment. Again, capitulate to the stronger financial structure and accept being part of a new family.
However being bought/ acquired/ merged would have its own struggles like turnover and layoffs as control changes hands. But we’ve had that already trying to operate independently. Part of business survival.
I’m sure after running 25+ years at that point, the idea of selling out to a mega corporation would be hard on the ego, culture, and heart it was founded with. Long timers may leave, but again - that has happened already. The leadership team of baby boomers has been standing their ground, digging heels in and insisting that doing things themselves (I guess American exceptionalism at work?) was fine.

But it would have opened the gate into vastly more resources, dedicated development, supply chains, brand exposure and marketing, etc.
Staying independent has probably held fossil back, forced it to make expensive risky acquisitions itself that didn’t propel it back to leading the market segment. We know how that story has played out.
I can only speculate and ‘What If’ this depressing slow motion car crash. That’s my idea for a key pivotal change that had big potential to change the game. Radical? Maybe, but in another universe maybe everything is better.

Thanks for for the comment , I agree the key is investing in the future but wouldnt you say that we tried to do just that... by partnering in theory with the only company that could pick a fight with Apple, ie Google, by trying to get into smart watches through a promising brand/team as Misfit and by at least not being in denial about e-commerce and digital... now, I agree the results have been totally underwhelming if not disastrous but at least we tried and it takes time and budget... it is important to consider that we are in the most challenging segment in the market from both price point and channel perspective... that is structural and has always been ... another question would be: which of OUR competitor has done it better? Movado, Timex?? Even Fitbit has not been able to make any money and had to sell out.. we are not a Swiss brand , nor a tech giant and my point is that ultimately the strategy was appropriate for where the market has been going and our starting point. A different discussion can be had on execution on this strategy which has been inconsistent, sloppy and not fast enough ... what am I seeing wrong ?

You ask “how can fossil stay relevant?”
Everything has a specific timeframe of usefulness. Technology evolves as people’s lifestyle and cultural changes do.
May as well be lamenting everything that has declined, outdated, expired, retired, become defunct, or had been pushed over when something newer and better INEVITABLY comes along. The smart companies invest heavily in the future, Therefore control their destiny. Everybody else will fade to obsolescence.

Refer to:
The telegraph, gramophone, horse and wagon, steam train, propeller airplanes, wood sail tall ships, typewriter, record player, Cassette tapes, compact discs, VHS tapes, laserdisc, VCR players, HD DVD, pagers, Fax machines, blackberry phones, Car phones, film camcorders, slide projectors, movie reel projectors, TiVo recorders, newspapers, print magazines, incandescent lightbulb, boom box stereo, 56k dial up Internet, MS-DOS computers, floppy disk drives, CD-ROM drives, Atari game console, Sega genesis console, Nintendo Game boy, Super Nintendo.

They hired another VP and it sounds like expense reduction measures put in place with everyone else will be made permanent.

Please share what the announcement said and it seems like not all of us got it or heard it?

What announcement?

Smaller teams, smaller pay, smaller promotions, smaller career path. More work.

new executive? likely there to help kk make decisions to lay off more, cut severances, and close the doors. its been fun fossil fam. sad way for such fun environment to go. thanks to the suits and corporate mentality. wish the loyal fossil fam the best.

Today’s announcement makes it pretty obvious. No.
By cutting nearly all newness or replenishment makes me feel like we don’t care about our stores OR our retail partners. No product. No pathway.

Well, they’ve hired another executive and they can’t even make payroll and the cuts will be permanent. I can’t see how things will turn around.

going back to its roots = no more smart watches.