Nicole Toh

My career journey

In the past few years with Van Cleef & Arpels, I have had the opportunity to explore a wide range of retail topics from operations to performance to store openings, visual merchandising and most recently CRM. The discussion to switch to a boutique role at some point in my career has been an ongoing conversation with my manager, so it was not a decision that happened overnight. It seemed like a natural evolution to bring together all I’ve learnt and understand first-hand how they impact our clients and teams. It was refreshing to look at the boutique through different lenses and think about what I would do if I were managing the team and business. I think I bring with me a familiarity of the team, a good understanding of the retail environment in Singapore, and the strategic ambition to create the client experience of tomorrow. I would also like to think that it is because I am not afraid to challenge the norm! 

I joined the group in November 2014 as Retail Executive for Van Cleef & Arpels, South East Asia. At that time, we had only a handful of boutiques in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and a very small office team! This meant I was able to be exposed to many different retail topics, including creating the CRM strategy for a Patrimonial Exhibition in Singapore in 2016.  As the team expanded, I chose to focus on developing my expertise in CRM, managing a portfolio consisting of four very different cultures and client profiles across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. The pace and complexity of working with such diverse teams and the ambition to elevate CRM in the region meant I was learning something new all the time.