According to the report of "The World Company" of Economic Voice, the former well-known fashion brand E-SPRIT is now facing a survival predicament. According to the annual report of E-SPRIT's parent company, Esprit Holdings Limited in Hong Kong, the company has experienced profit declines for three consecutive years. The latest annual financial report is even more unbearable to look at, with only 79 million Hong Kong dollars, compared to last year's 4.23 billion Hong Kong dollars, resulting in a decrease of 98%. Consequently, the share price shrank by 4.1 billion Hong Kong dollars within one day. In order to save itself, E-SPRIT ultimately chose to change its leader. Recently, E-SPRIT announced that it had invited Li Guanyi, Vice President of Adidas, to serve as the new President of China Region. This new leader who led Adidas' North Region business from 700 million yuan to 3.3 billion yuan is entrusted with great expectations. Can her experience in operating sports brands enable E-SPRIT to make a comeback? To answer this question, we might as well understand the current situation of E-SPRIT. Ever since 2006, when Hong Kong businessman Xing Liyuan (his second wife is Brigitte Lin) resigned from his positions as Chairman and CEO of the board of directors of E-SPRIT's parent company, Global Esprit Group, E-SPRIT began to decline. In the view of Zhou Ting, Executive Director of the Luxury Goods Research Center of University of International Business and Economics, there are two reasons for the decline of E-SPRIT. Zhou Ting: If we talk about external factors, E-SPRIT faces a very big impact from European and American fashion brands or fast fashion brands. In recent years, ZARA and H&M, Uniqlo have been opening stores in China at a very fast pace, and with their designs, business models, and capital support, they have shown a very strong development trend in the Chinese market. Compared to these European and American fast fashion brands, E-SPRIT is relatively weaker. From the perspective of internal factors, the most important issue is the instability of the internal team. After Xing Liyuan exited the shareholder structure, its internal management was constantly changing, leading to unstable marketing strategies, methods, and internal management. For fashion brands, whether the style and tone of the clothing meet the preferences of consumers is an extremely important standard. Fashion matching expert Kang Lanxin carefully studied the clothing styles of E-SPRIT. She believes that E-SPRIT used to do well, but unfortunately, E-SPRIT has not kept up with the times and is already outdated. Kang Lanxin: There has been no significant change or progress in design in recent years. A few years ago, so-called casualness and casual wear culture were still widely accepted, but the current trend in casual wear also combines with fashion wear. Several well-performing brands in fashionable casual wear are doing exactly that - fashionable casual wear looks relaxed and leisurely, but not overly so, combined with some fashion elements. Therefore, its styles mostly lean towards basic styles, but the network advantage and price advantage of basic styles cannot compete with other brands. Vancl and Uniqlo also offer many basic styles, while E-SPRIT does not have any particular advantages in offering basic styles, and the prices are not cheap either. I think many consumers will not choose it for these reasons. Facing the continuously eroded market share, E-SPRIT also tried to reverse the situation by hiring an outstanding executive from Adidas, Li Guanyi, to come and save the situation urgently. The new official announced upon taking office that in the next four years, 18.5 billion Hong Kong dollars would be invested to save the Esprit brand. The goal is to double its sales in the mainland China market within the next five years, increasing its operational sales outlets from the existing 1000 to approximately 1900. However, the sweeping reforms did not win recognition from industry experts. Fashion matching expert Kang Lanxin believed that the biggest problem E-SPRIT is currently facing is not a scale issue, but a clothing positioning issue. Kang Lanxin: I think expanding stores is not the right direction because the urgent task is to adjust the brand positioning and target audience, and to clarify which series the future products should focus on. Since the customer group is not yet clear or well understood, the location selection may be vague. It would be a better approach to work hard to improve the performance of individual stores at the existing locations. Moreover, this way carries lower risks, avoiding the situation where everything changes all at once, with the number of stores increasing and the clothes being adjusted, leading to all elements being changed chaotically. Zhou Ting, Executive Director of the Luxury Goods Research Center of University of International Business and Economics, also felt that E-SPRIT's rescue plan was somewhat misplaced. Increasing sales channels is not the best timing for E-SPRIT right now. Zhou Ting: Because there is no change at all, blindly increasing the number of store expansions means continuing to increase costs. The products still follow a low-end route, leaving the brand without any image or value, leading to losses the more stores are opened, thus creating a vicious cycle that consumes all the capital. Using this method to prove one's strength is incorrect. Zhou Ting believed that Li Guanyi coming from Adidas to E-SPRIT might face more challenges than opportunities, and for the current E-SPRIT, there isn't much time left to waste. Zhou Ting: Do not expect any career manager to be the savior of a brand or a company. Whether the career and management experience of Adidas' career managers are suitable for E-SPRIT is worth discussing. Although Adidas and E-SPRIT have some similarities, they are actually completely different in terms of company philosophy and control systems. Chinese entrepreneurs have not reached the level where they can fully shape the sustainable development of a company through personal ability alone. Often, when an entrepreneur leaves, the company follows by closing down. Therefore, the personal experiences of Chinese entrepreneurs raise many questions regarding their support for corporate spirit, meaning that Mr. Li actually faces more challenges than opportunities. 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