Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands.

At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

As a part of Ralph Lauren’s Next Generation Transformation (NGT), the core operating systems of the company (SAP, Island Pacific and Microsoft D365) will be replaced with a common Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution enabling the Ralph Lauren team to continue delivering competitive advantages in our next great chapter and beyond. Today, Ralph Lauren is forming the Program Initiation Team to begin creating the transformation plan, defining how the company will operate going forward and how the implementation of the new systems will lead to a common way of working globally across the company. This new way of working impacts almost all the business including Planning, Sourcing and Buying, Retail and Wholesale, Logistics and Distribution and Finance. Therefore, we are looking for the initial team to start to create the future way of working and help shape the next 20 years.

The Project Manager will join a small team of business function process leads, IT domain leaders and the ERP vendor representatives known as the Program Initiation Team who will work together to take the first steps in this journey. The team will work closely together to achieve a set of the common objectives below ultimately leading to the initiation of the global program and the creation of all the articles needed to launch the project in 2025. This first, necessary step will ensure Ralph Lauren understands the key phases, impact, business resources and timeline required to begin the program. This is an opportunity to join one of the largest investments that the company will be making over the next decade, and we seek talent that is excited to help shape the future, being part of the journey and eventually taking this knowledge back into the business.

Position Overview

The Project Manager will bring a mixture of business process / solutions understanding and a project management competence and experience within RL to the team. This role will take responsibility for activities defined below.

The role will focus on creating a project plan that achieves the objective of presenting the investment and business case for the NGT ERP Program. This is the first phase of the program and will create the basis for the project management of the program going forward within RL.

The role will manage the activities of the team as they capture the artefacts required. It will also be responsible for setting up the program management processes and standards across the team, working closely with the technology and consulting partners to ensure consistency across the program.

The task of the team initially is to create a detailed understanding of the current AS-IS business processes / solutions before working closely with the RL project team and the ERP application vendor to help map out the future high level TO-BE processes. This is ahead of the detailed design phase that will be initiated in 2025.

The mapping of the AS-IS and TO-BE processes / solutions, must be coordinated, with a. common approach agreed with the chosen technology provider. This role will ensure that the information captured can be created into a plan for the design, build, testing and deployment phases of the project, with a focus on the Design phase which will be initiated in Q4 FY25.

The NGT ERP project will implement the transformation across RL by region. One of the key activities will be the identification of the impact on the respective business function and associated process areas to define specific interim operations requirements including reporting, special processing or other requirements to support multiple cut overs while the ERP is implemented into RL. This interim state and cut over process requires an agreed approach to be defined and approved, which will be the responsibility of the Project Manager to ensure is completed.

The role may involve some travel and will require working with colleagues of the same function in other regions. This is a truly global program, so collaborating in the Ralph Lauren way is required.

Program Initiation Team objectives

a. Create a detailed and documented understanding of the current RL AS-IS business processes across all 3 regions.

b. Create a detailed and documented understanding of the TO-BE business processes together with the ERP /Edge vendors’ experts identifying any gaps, compared to the AS-IS business process, for resolution during the design phase.

c. Identify any specific interim operations requirements considering the implementation plan will require multiple transition steps over regions and time before the new ERP is fully deployed.

d. Create detailed RL Project team structure ensuring the headcount and budget requirements required to support the project are included in the project budget. This includes a plan to on-board / off-board RL Project Team members at the right moments during the project’s lifecycle.

e. Create inventory of skills and training pathways for upskilling soft and hard skills required for RL Project Team members and RL business users. This includes a plan for training and budgetary requirements as well as proposing a plan for on-going training to support the RL business after the project.

The role will work very closely with the application teams and the business leads to ensure that they are prepared for the collection of the information required. This specific role will ensure that as the teas responsible for leading the collection of the required information are coordinated and working closely with its business and IT counterparts to achieve the agreed outputs in a consistent manner.

Initially, the role will focus on defining the program plan and framework to manage the program and on how to collate the information and agreeing this framework with the rest of the immediate project team. It will be the team’s responsibility to roll this out to the technology and business process functions to collect the required information. This role will provide support to plan and collate the information, ensuring the information collected is in the right structure within the agreed strategic framework for the program going forward.

The role will ensure that there are formal project management standards in place and formal gates defined through the process so that the team is aware and brought into the approach. The project manager will also be seen as an evangelist for the program, helping to educate, raise awareness and grow confidence in those around them. This is an exciting opportunity to grow your skills, expand your knowledge of the business and be part of a team that is helping to shape and then deliver the future.

This program is scheduled to run for at least 4 years and this role is expected to manage all phases of the program through the global deployment across all regions.

There are 6 stream of program activity that this role will manage teams across, whose scope is outlined below:

1. Governance – Ensure that the program is correctly defined and planned ensuring the right controls are in place. This will involve creating:

a. The business case.

b. The framework for the program plan capturing the phases of deployment (regions, systems, business units), interim and cutover stages, and project team structure.

c. The detailed plan, working closely with the preferred vendor, third parties and RL internal teams at a detailed domain and business function level, identifying activities to maintain an interim state whilst actively transitioning to the new platform.

d. stablish management framework for the project to capture requirements, documentation, process flows in an efficient manner enabling an agile approach going forward.

2. ERP Solution - This stream is focused on the technical solution and the integration and implementation. The implementation also covers the continual migration or cut over that will exist as the new systems are gradually turned on and the existing systems retired. In addition, the identification of the TO-BE state and how the system will be managed going forward, is also in scope for this stream.

3. RL project team – The initial team will be appointed to come together to deliver the initial business case, but at the same time plan for the later phases and identification and onboard the required resources. This will also include ensuring that the training plans are in place to educate the team members.

4. Business verification – Creating the associated business processes for the current, future and interim operations is a key deliverable. This team will move forward to the design phase as having a detailed understanding.

5. Organization Model – Understanding the impacts of the NGT ERP on RL. Understanding the change and ensure that a plan, resources and budget is in place to manage the change. This includes communications as well.

6. Systems integrators – Several external partners will be required to support the program. This activity is focused on identifying and onboarding these partners.

7.

Responsibilities include

• Work with all the necessary teams across IT, business and vendor to ensure the scope is in alignment, roles and responsibilities are clear, a plan exists, and everyone is aware of their milestones.

• Ensure that the project celebrates success.

• Create a program management framework that can be adopted to ensure that the program objectives are met. This will include agreed review points for all activities.

• Ensure that processes exist for the reporting of the project activities, budget, risks, issues and that this is coordinated across the teams and meets the expectations of all stakeholders.

• Foster an open approach to reporting, ensuring that the status is clear, the tools are easy to use and there is an open culture to report on the project status.

• Align program management techniques and reporting across all the external parties that will be part of the program, with the intent to create a common reporting approach. Ensure that a program PMO exists that coordinates all reporting across all parties.

• Provide timely escalation of issues and risks to ensure that appropriate remediation can take place.

• Ensure that any external reporting required for operating committees, steering committees and financial reporting are completed to the agreed schedule.

• Maintain the budget of the program, ensuring that this is aligned with the RL finance teams and that all streams are aware of any additional responsibilities as a result.

• Ensure that the correct documentation controls are in place, in the correct repository and that this enables an easy method of sharing information and enables communication to be effective and timely.

• Ensure that the ownership (business and IT) is clear across the various business and system areas and that an approach for the creation of an interim state is clear as well as the migration and ongoing cutover. This will all be factored into the plan.

• Prepare the various teams as much as possible for the upcoming phases. Use the engagement to educate, but also to listen and absorb and represent back the findings of the teams.

• Assist in identifying training needs to facilitate knowledge required by the teams.

• Develop and maintain the overall integrated project plans, including scope, objectives and milestones, deliverables, risks and issues. The creation of the plan must include the additional phases post the financial approval of the program, enabling the design phase to be ready to start in Q4 FY25.

• Agree an overall approach for the capturing of business requirements, documentation, testing criteria in an efficient manner that will allow for a more agile approach to managing change going forward.