Esquel is a vertically integrated textiles and apparel company that operates across 9 countries. In 2011, Esquel began using Yammer to connect its dispersed operations and varied businesses. Yammer quickly grew to connect hundreds of employees and became an important communication tool. It helped unite different geographies and business units while providing transparency. Esquel values the insights it gains from employees on Yammer and acts on their feedback and ideas, helping drive productivity gains estimated at $2 million annually.

1. Social Technology Weaves an Enterprise Together
The Hong Kong-based Esquel Group is a vertically integrated supplier of cotton textiles
and apparel. “Our supply chain extends from cotton farming and spinning to garment
making and then on to labels and trims,” says Chief Financial Officer Wilkie Wong.
Esquel has retail operations as well, but the core of its business is making cotton tops
for companies such as Ralph Lauren, Nike, and Lacoste. “If you’re wearing a cotton shirt,
there’s a good chance it came from Esquel,” Wong points out.
The company began using Yammer to connect its far-flung operations and varied
businesses in 2011. “The network quickly grew from a sharing platform for a few dozen
people in the IT department to a few hundred people across the enterprise,” Wong says.
“As people posted questions, answers, and ideas, Yammer became an important internal
communication tool. We use it for everything from morale boosting to problem solving.”
One reason for Esquel’s embrace of enterprise social networking is its desire to unite
different geographies and lines of business. “It’s easy to invest in systems and processes,
but it’s difficult to find ones that help you build a company culture,” says Edgar Tung,
Managing Director of Human Resources and Group Organizational Development. “But
Yammer does just that.”
Esquel’s enterprise social network mirrors and reinforces the company’s commitment to
accessibility and transparency. “We want people who’ve joined us fresh out of college to
have access to senior management,” Wong says. “A platform like Yammer is perfect for
us, since a new employee can post something on Yammer and it shows up on our CEO’s
screen.”
Listening to the Workforce
“The moment a new employee starts posting on Yammer, they become part of the
Esquel community,” Tung says. “People from different functions and countries say hello
and welcome their new colleague. And things build from there when the new hire sees
all these very constructive discussions going on. It’s an excellent way to learn about—and
Success Story | Textile and Apparel
Textile and apparel giant Esquel deploys Yammer, SharePoint, and Office 365 to bring
modern vitality to a traditional business sector. Benefits:
>> A more unified, transparent, and dynamic organization
>> Improved morale—from smoother onboarding to longer staff retention
>> Productivity gains that add up to an estimated $2 million a year
Industry
Textile and Apparel
Employees
59,000
Founded
1978
Region
Asia

2. Success Story | Textile and Apparel
get involved in—different parts of our company.”
He adds, “You might say Yammer is doing HR’s job. We don’t have to worry as
much about new employees, because now we have help from everybody else in
the organization.” The network also helps Tung and the rest of the HR team gauge
employee satisfaction. “In the past, we used questionnaires, but they’re not really all that
illuminating,” he says. “A social network is a much more accurate and immediate way to
know what people are thinking.”
Since Esquel’s workforce communicates in an array of languages, Yammer’s translation
capabilities come into play. “We operate in nine countries,” Wong points out. “It’s been
immensely helpful to have a platform like Yammer connect us all together, no matter
where we are or what language we speak.”
The connectivity Yammer brings to Esquel doesn’t just support a cohesive company
culture, it makes the most of both institutional and individual knowledge—which gives
the company a competitive edge. “A lot of great ideas come from the bottom up, and in
an industry like garment manufacturing, most of the crucial activity takes place on the
production floor, not in headquarters,” Tung says.
Esquel management not only values the insight it gets by listening to updates from its
production facilities, it acts on that feedback. “When people post complaints on the
network, we’re afforded the chance to turn those complaints into innovation,” observes
Andrew Ling, Group Director of Information Technology. “That ability to listen to our
workforce—and act in response—is a key benefit of the network. It makes us a far more
adaptable organization.”
One of those opportunities to listen and innovate arose just a few months after the
company began using Yammer. A worker in Esquel’s garment operation posted on the
network, pointing out that she and her colleagues had to wait in a long line to recharge
the staff cards used for buying meals in the company canteen. Yammer didn’t just
identify the problem, it helped solve it. “Within two weeks, employees suggested more
than 40 different great ideas,” Ling says.
A Yammer group was set up to decide which suggestion would work best, and four
months later, a solution was in place: a kiosk that instantly transferred funds from payroll
to the cafeteria card. “We closed the loop by inviting the colleague who made the initial
complaint to be the first to reload her card at the kiosk,” Wong recalls.
Yammer has become a major change agent for Esquel. “The network helps us facilitate
and manage change, because we can reach out to a lot of users in many different
places all at once,” Ling says. “When we’re promoting an internal initiative or introducing
Wilkie Wong
Chief Financial Officer,
Esquel Group
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3. Success Story | Textile and Apparel
technology, we post on Yammer. Not only does that get the word out, we get valuable
feedback, too.”
Adapting to the Pace of the 21st Century
“I’ve read that by 2020, knowing how to use internal social media is going to be a key
management skill,” Wong says. Clearly, he and other members of Esquel’s leadership
haven’t waited for that date, since the company’s far-reaching Yammer network is three
years old.
“Typically in industries like ours, when labor becomes more expensive in one country,
the response is to move to another one with lower labor costs,” Wong observes. “Our
philosophy at Esquel is quite different. We don’t believe in moving when labor gets
more expensive. Instead, we try to improve productivity to offset labor-cost inflation.
Higher productivity justifies the increased cost of labor, and everyone benefits.”
The company’s enterprise social network has been a prime mover in that drive for
productivity. It not only enables efficiencies, it helps replicate them across the company.
“One of the challenges we’ve had is that an innovation adopted in one site often isn’t
rolled out in others,” Wong says. “Yammer helps us avoid wasting time and money
reinventing the wheel.”
Another way Yammer boosts productivity is through staff retention. “The textile and
apparel business is labor intensive, so reducing turnover significantly enhances our
productivity,” Wong says. “By keeping our workforce connected and engaged, Yammer
improves staff retention.”
Growing the Network—and Opportunity
Esquel is moving to a cloud-based mobile model that will hold all of the company’s
core applications and information. “Office 365 solutions like Yammer, Lync, and
SharePoint allow people to work together in new ways—and prevent information
from falling though the cracks,” Ling observes. “People will open their laptop, tablet, or
whatever device they’re using and everything they need will be in a single window.”
He adds, “The major benefits we see from Office 365 are mobility and collaboration.
Both of those are key to increasing the productivity that makes us more competitive
and defines success in our industry. Not only will we gain a lot in terms of efficiency,
we’ll have considerable savings: approximately $2 million a year.”
The company’s Yammer network supports its ambitious Office 365 rollout. “One of our
biggest groups is devoted to Office 365,” Ling says. “We started by inviting more than
100 end users to act as ambassadors. They try out features, post tips, and act as change
Andrew Ling
Group Director of Information
Technology, Esquel Group
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4. Success Story | Textile and Apparel
agents within their departments. That kind of peer-to-peer education is very effective—and alleviates our IT team’s workload.”
The technology will be intuitive and the focus will be on Esquel’s core resource: its people. “By working like a network, we break
down functional and geographical silos so that staff and management are aware of what others are working on—and how they can
help one another,” Wong says.
Tung cites the example of using Yammer to brainstorm about the perfect white shirt. “Staff in the fabric mill can post their ideas on
the ideal material, people from manufacturing then add perspective on the perfect cut, and so on,” he says. “The more that people
exchange ideas and subject expertise, the more successful we are as a company.”
A case in point involves Esquel’s quality-control process. Instead of doing things the old-fashioned way—using measuring tape
to ensure that sleeves, collars, and the like match specifications—an employee in the quality control department used Yammer to
float the notion of an electronic ruler. The idea, which has been refined by discussion on Yammer, is currently under development.
“Instead of taking measurements with a tape and writing numbers down, staff could capture measurements electronically, which
would be faster, easier, and more accurate,” Wong explains.
Wong sums things up this way: “Esquel is proud to be a non-traditional company in a traditional industry. Office 365 fits our vision
since it promotes collaboration and innovation. That allows us to move forward, driving productivity, competitive advantage, and
customer satisfaction.”
THE RESULTS
>> Corporate culture that unites a dispersed workforce. Yammer forges connections across geographical, language, and functional
boundaries.
>> A place to listen. Staff and management concerns are shared on the network—and solutions are developed and replicated.
>> Greater productivity. Employees work more efficiently and effectively, with expected savings of $2 million a year.
>> A platform for adaptation and growth. Yammer allows personnel to ask questions and pose tips on everything from production
techniques to making the most of IT tools.
>> A forum for innovation. Yammer groups facilitate discussion and file sharing so people can crowdsource ideas and work together to
make Esquel the best it can be.
This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
ABOUT YAMMER
Yammer (www.about.yammer.com) is a best-in-class Enterprise Social Network used by more than 200,000
organisations worldwide – including 85 percent of the Fortune 500 – to foster team collaboration, empower
employees, drive business agility and promote organisational connectedness. Yammer’s freemium business model
lets customers see the value of Yammer before upgrading to the premium offering. Founded in 2008, Yammer is
now part of the Microsoft Office Division.
For more information about Esquel: http://www.esquel.com/en For more information about Yammer: www.about.yammer.com