F
FRONT OF HOUSE
“We’ve become obsessed
with solving consumer and
customer problems”
wa n te d to
welcome new
opportunities,
n ew p e o p l e, n ew
representatives, new technology.
Then it was about injecting fresh
talent: people with new thinking.
We’ve got a legacy business with
legacy talent, and we wanted
to modernise.
The first question to ask is: “do we
have the systems to cope with this?”
If the answer’s “no”, you need to
develop the tools and technologies.
We didn’t have the engineers to
do this so we’re partnering with
many different companies to help.
We don’t have to do everything
ourselves anymore.
How do you manage six million
independent sales representatives
around the world?
You ‘eat the elephant in pieces’.
We know you cannot talk to
six million people in one sweep.
One of the big things in our
strategy has been segmentation;
one-on-one marketing.
We weren’t doing that very well.
We were treating all our customers
the same way, but we have different
types of people; some just want to
buy a few products and in the old-
fashioned way. It’s about segmenting
the representatives we have in
different countries to create support
and training mechanisms that help
them become more successful. One
of my big words is ‘de-average’.
Average is awful.
What can a large, established
business such as Avon learn
from small organisations and
vice versa?
People are saying “small brands are
more successful than big brands”.
I don’t agree. It’s about relevant
brands and irrelevant brands.
Some big businesses have become
irrelevant because they’ve lost touch
with their consumer base.
We’ve adopted a small-company
mindset in that we’ve become
obsessed with solving consumer
and customer problems. One of the
things I hope you would find at Avon
is that there’s a new boss – and that
isn’t me. It’s our six million beauty
consultants and the 100 million
people who use the products.
The second point is the different
ways of operating. Big companies are
linear; small companies are iterative.
They work in multifunctional teams
at a higher speed, develop quick
prototypes, test them and refine
them. However, a big company
can scale those ideas. We have
the infrastructure, the network
and the funds. You can create the
‘hallelujah moment’ if you have a
large organisation with the mindset
of a start-up.
What would your advice be to
other CEOs leading through a
period of digital transformation?
You have to be really conscious and
aware of what’s going on in the world.
You have a real responsibility to try
to keep up, which means reading,
learning, sensing what’s going on.
Leaders need to be curious.
You will get bombarded with
ideas. You really need to understand
your business. So the trick is to
understand what’s going on, what
makes your business unique, and
what technology is out there that
can help unlock your potential. FT
March – May 2019
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