ADRIENNE MA

By Loyal Decree

TEXT / VIVIENNE TANG

FASHION SIMPLY RUNS in her blood. With a family background that’s steeped in the retail business and as the youngest daughter of Joyce and Walter Ma, founders of Joyce Boutique, Adrienne Ma has been exposed to the fashion industry since she was a girl. She cut her teeth at Joyce as the communications manager and then went on to publishing positions with the boutique’s own magazine before becoming the managing director and then president of the fashion department store.

Ma has won numerous awards over the years for her achievements as one of the most successful women in Hong Kong. But in November 2007, she left to launch her company, Amma Holdings. The business is made up of three arms: Amma Retail, the retail partner for brands including Moncler and Y’s Mandarina; Amma Consulting, offering clients – such as the Regent Galleria Shopping Mall in Taipei – brand identity and positioning strategies; and Amma Connect, which recently launched Shouke.com, an online retail business she founded with Paul Teague and Richard Chen.

Although extremely busy with her latest venture, Ma tries to make time for her other passions, such as car racing and collecting.

You’ve recently set up Shouke.com. It’s very different from what you did previously.
The Chinese meaning of it is “loyal customers,” which means that I can recognise you by the name and the face.

Why did you decide to go into online?
I was not consciously seeking out opportunities, but Paul [Teague] approached me. I love technology. I really love gadgets, so much that I’ve been called the gadget queen. I’ve been buying online for several years on worldwide websites. Hong Kong doesn’t really have an e-commerce culture, but if you look at China, there are huge opportunities there. They are already some of the biggest Internet users.

I met Paul last year in September, and he told me about the business model. I saw the opportunity. So we decided to join hands and go into partnership. Richard was introduced to us by another mutual friend. We met him early this year, and it all came together. Now we have the perfect trio. We have technology, we have e-commerce strategy and finance, and I come from the brand side. Put the three of us together, doing such a platform for Hong Kong and China, I think that’s a very good combination.

So you’re focusing more on the mainland as opposed to Hong Kong?
If Hong Kong doesn’t have e-commerce, it doesn’t mean that Hong Kong can’t have e-commerce. We’re happily starting the first platform. Basically the business model is an online private e-commerce shopping sale for three days. So we don’t sell every day. We only sell during sale events, which members are informed of. If we do current season [merchandise], I don’t think there is space for us to grow.

The general impression is that Hong Kong is a very small space. You don’t need e-commerce. Everything is 10 to 30 minutes away, at your fingertips. I totally agree. But for what we’re doing…because it’s private sale, it’s off-season and off-priced merchandise.

In Hong Kong you have Horizon Plaza in Ap Lei Chau and Citygate for people who work, for people who have families. Taking the time out to shop in these districts, you need planning, otherwise you wait for the end-of-the-season sales twice a year. But what we do is we present it to your fingertips, at your home. We try to work with inventory and merchandise that are not even in the outlet stores. So there is that rarity aspect there, that is another level of enticement. You have comfort, you have the great shopping discounts, and you have pieces that are not widely available. So with these three things put together, I think we can knock that “Hong Kong is small, and you don’t need e-commerce, etc.”

We could be a little bit early for China, not because we’re e-commerce, but more because of the products that we host and also the price points. We’re not H&M, we’re designer wear. And we branch out into other categories as well – wine, jewellery, shoes, bags, whatever. We also want to slowly bring in cosmetics and homeware. And it could even go into eateries. The options are quite infinite. China is a budding market. We hope to be the first in our field to lead the luxury market.

Can you name any of the brands that you have lined up for Shouke?
They prefer to be subtle. What appeals to the brands and why they like us is that we’re discreet. Discretion is quite the game here. We style the products properly. All ready-to-wear is put on models and photographed. Each page or each event is mono brand. They’re comfortable with us, because essentially Shouke is like Joyce. It’s a multi-label environment. We need to differentiate ourselves, and we need to create a brand of our own. We need to have our own personality. Considering my background, my history and my connections, those are the people I would naturally gravitate to first.

What was the last gadget you bought?
The MacBook Air. I’m waiting for it. And the next thing I’m waiting for is the BlackBerry Torch. And there’s another one called BlackBerry Style, which is like a clam. This is the thing, you see, I really want the Torch and then I also want the Style, and by the end of the day, I’ll probably get both. That’s my gadget world.

What about the fashion world? You started in 1989. Do you ever grow tired of it?
I broke my mother’s heart by telling her that I’m not a merchandiser, because in 1997/98 when the Asian economic crisis came down on us, we took the business back into family hands, and I became the managing director. So my mother was saying, “You have to be a merchandiser to do your job well.” So she used to drag me endlessly from one showroom to another. But this is what she’s best at. She’s truly in her element. She flies and she shines. I’m not so like that. I like the business side of things. So she used to drag me and drag me, until one day I talked to her and said, “Look, I’m sorry. I’ll never be the merchandiser that you want me to be. But I’m really fascinated with the business side of it. I’ll build you a commercial platform that you can dream with all the brands.” So we compromised. But it rubs off. Whenever she was in London or Paris, I would visit her. That was when she first started the Joyce magazine. Since I was six it’s been the business. I suppose I’ve learnt a thing or two, not that she would agree with me [laughs].

You’ve received numerous awards over the years. What has been your biggest achievement so far? What are you most proud of?
[The most] life-changing was when I innocently said, “Sure, I’ll be the managing director of Joyce.” It was fun. I learnt a hell of a lot during those 10 years. That was a good choice on my part. I may not fully know what I got myself into, but I enjoyed that period a lot. And I suppose being invited to all the prestigious speaking opportunities. I thought those were an endorsement of – I suppose – something that I’ve done right!

What sort of advice would you pass on to others?
Start from the bottom. Roll up your sleeves and learn. Get your hands dirty. And make your colleagues – no matter how high up you will be one day – your comrades. That’s very helpful. Those are the people who will make you float, shine and fly. It’s true, really. You can’t do it alone.

Any new businesses or projects?
The biggest plan is to launch China in the first quarter next year. Shouke is quite a mouthful for now. I don’t want to spread myself too thin. There’s no point. By the end of the day you get ultra anxious about everything, but I always feel that when the right time comes, God will give you what you need to work on.

You make it sound easy. What are your challenges?
There’s a lot of hard work behind it. I’m a jolly person. It doesn’t stick on me. I learnt from my father about switching off. But it gets harder and harder to do that. You get more and more hands-on. It’s really my own business now. There’s no more passing-on-the-buck. It gets a little bit more stressful than before, I admit, big time [laughs]. Just take things with a grain of salt. Learn to enjoy the process. If things don’t work out this way, find another way.

Is there anything specific that your mother taught you?
My mother taught me a lot, basically everything I’m doing now. She’s my personal encyclopaedia and consultant. I’m very happy with that. She would tell me what the world trend is – not that she knows. She’s not a techie person. It was actually very funny the other day. She called and said, “You know, my friends ask me what you’re doing. And I told them that you’re doing eBay.” And I said, “Mom! I’m not doing eBay, OK? Never ever tell people that I’m doing eBay. I’m doing luxury e-commerce. Repeat after me, I’m doing luxury e-commerce.” So she repeated it a few times. And at the end she just managed to remember [laughs]. She’s very cute. Now she looks out for websites I have to visit and look at.

I admire my mother a lot. The way she styles is really amazing. Her eye to pick out beautiful things is really incredible.