Hugo Boss AG is a fashion brand headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany that sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and fragrances under the brands BOSS and HUGO. With 16,930 employees and EUR 3.6 billion in sales in 2022, the company is one of the largest German clothing companies.

Driven by changes in young consumer demands and the related rapid emergence of new verticals and D2C competitors, HUGO BOSS realized that it had to digitalize the HUGO brand’s entire operating model to remain competitive. The task for the newly established HUGO Transformation project team: an end-to-end transformation of the brand – from digital product creation and supply chains to new digital distribution channels and ways of engaging with the customer – all in an agile way of working.

Kilian joined the HUGO Transformation core team upon its inception. With only the Transformation Director and one assistant on board at this point, the first task of the team consisted of defining the target operating model that would enable the brand to become more agile and relevant for the young customer groups. Over the next 3 months, the core team worked closely with important stakeholders from various business units to identify weaknesses in the existing and to develop three alternative operating models. During this period, Kilian defined and developed new business ideas and concepts and determined key growth drivers. Following the decision on the most promising operating model, the core team staffed and kick-started six pilot projects to rapidly test the underlying core hypotheses of the new operating model.

Within a year, HUGO managed to define and test a new operating model. The learnings helped the brand to refine its approach and set the brand up for continuous success.