Reference no: EM133147504

Eunjung Hong Wu was at the top of her game in Hong Kong in 2008, being courted by Barneys New York and the French department store Printemps, when she got the offer to return to Thailand to fix Central Chidlom. Central Chidlom has become old-fashioned now and unfocused. After accepting the job, she said in an interview, "My main interest is the challenge of change, and the challenge of taking on projects that aren't for the faint of heart."

In retail circles, she is regarded as visionary. Her recent promotion from president to vice-chair of Central Chidlom, effective March 2020, reporting directly to Tos Boonsri, Central Group of Companies chairman and chief executive officer, has allowed her to set aside what she calls the heavy lifting of running a retail empire to focus on strategic initiatives. There has been speculation that Brooks is being groomed to preside over another acquisition - perhaps Zen.

She has a lot of experience in different sectors of the retail industry. She held senior positions at Robinson's before moving to Hong Kong, where she brought in designers including Jimmy Cobonpue and brands including Abercrombie and Fitch. She was appointed president of Sogo Hong Kong in 2003. She spent 11 years in Asia.

To meet Wu is to understand her influence. She is deeply charismatic and acutely attuned to her environment, from the single blue thread she plucks from her dress in the peaceful white-and-glass confines of her office to the shoes in the background of a video shot in the new, largest-in-Bangkok shoe department on the main floor of the flagship store.

"When she talks to you, she talks to you like there's no one else in the world and that's something that draws people to her and engages them to be on her team," said advertising industry executive Tutiya Disphananurat, of MulleLowe, who has known Wu since her early days. "She's very dynamic, very quick. When I speak with her, I can't finish most of mysentences, she jumps in and finishes it to get there quicker, quicker, quicker. She's laser-focused. She thinks big."

Wu saw an opportunity: To bring in new brands and designers and make Central Chidlom a destination shop, coaxing designers into the store, inviting Coach and Burberry to open stores within stores at Central Chidlom, and most recently, Hugo Boss.

"Not everyone on the management team agreed with me. It's lonely out on a limb, it can be very lonely in management circles out on a limb," said Wu. "The key is being enthusiastic, painting a picture that people can grasp and understand and generating enough excitement, motivation. Once the senior management team got behind the concept of our reinvention, I think my surprise was actually the speed with which we made the transformation."

"That is really our formula, our mandate is to be headquarters for the brand we carry in all of our department stores and all of our shopping centres." Leadership expert George Minakakis, a former CEO with experience in the Asian Liamet, said Wu brought some key strategies from her time in Hong Kong to Thailand - including the store-within-a-store concept.

Wu called for developing a corporate culture that encourages and rewards honest feedback. "You reinforce the behaviours that you reward," she explained. "If you reward candor, you'll get it." She was famous for constantly motivating her teams and instilling confidence. Wu insisted that effective leaders must possess the "generosity gene." These are leaders who love to give praise, want people to grow, and never take credit for other's ideas.

Using the concepts and theories found in chapter nine, exhibit 9.2, in Lussier, R. & Achua, C. (2015). Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development, 6th Edition, discuss how Wu used the Transformation Process to transform Central Chidlom.