Consumer, Retail & Leisure

Transforming a Beauty Business Beyond Skin Deep: Angela Cretu, Former CEO, Avon

7 min read

In the first of our new ‘Transforming Legacy Brands’ CEO series, hosted by Odgers Berndtson’s Global Consumer & Retail Practice, we were delighted to welcome Angela Cretu. She shared her journey of transforming one of the world’s most recognised beauty brands in a live webinar attended by a global audience of senior leaders from the consumer and retail sectors.

Founded in 1886 by David H. McConnell, Avon aimed to empower women to achieve financial independence by selling beauty products locally. The company championed wellbeing and women's rights long before the United Nations declarations on equal rights and 34 years before women in the U.S. were granted the right to vote.

A radical rethink

Angela joined Avon 25 years ago as an area manager and was subsequently promoted to a country manager. Rising through the ranks, she was appointed CEO in Jan 2020 when Avon was predicted to be bankrupt, having had 10 years of year-on-year revenue decline. Avon faced several other challenges, including outdated technology, an overly complex product portfolio, and a costly organisational structure.

It is the ‘sisterhood’ approach to sales which separates Avon from its competitors but also what motivated Angela. She took on a turnaround job at a very difficult time, but her drive was the belief in Avon’s unique position and responsibility to help women.  

With the global market evolving and customer preferences shifting, Avon’s board recognised the need for a renewed approach. Economic instability, currency devaluation, and geopolitical shifts further necessitated a reassessment of Avon’s value proposition.

The transformation journey

In 2020, Avon was acquired by Natura, & Co, the listed Brazilian multi-national beauty company and of the world’s largest B-Corp. Angela was tasked with rejuvenating the Avon brand. She explained:

“Avon’s leadership had to transform themselves first to drive a company-wide transformation. I had two weeks to select my new ELT. My first decision was to redefine our roles to be enablers rather than executives. The board then gave me one month to submit my plan to reinvigorate the company. I knew our ‘spaghetti box’ and the complexity of our structure, but even between ourselves, we couldn't agree on the strategic solution with many internal debates on whether Avon was a channel or a brand. The more I thought about it, the more I understood why the company was established in the first place - to empower women to democratise beauty - was ultimately the uniting factor in Avon’s new chapter”.

Workshops were swiftly implemented across the organisation, shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to a flat, fast, and focused partnership model.

“It took purpose, humility and boldness to challenge our beliefs to allow us to change the paradigm. It was vital to retain everyone's unique, high quality, affordable beauty products but avoid a binary channel brand. By incorporating both, we extended our reach beyond direct selling, embracing new channels to access our consumers. Such a shift was once unthinkable - we saw that a modernised multi-channel approach would expand Avon's impact and support representatives worldwide”, added Angela.

Tech transformation

Addressing Avon’s obsolete systems was a priority. Without the option to replace them with off-the-shelf solutions, Angela forged strategic alliances with top-tier technology providers. This leap allowed Avon to become an early adopter of AI, optimising demand forecasting, improving working capital, and releasing cash from investments, positioning Avon for the future.

Rebranded with omni-channel access

A key aspect of Avon’s transformation was establishing omni-channel access, integrating customers and stakeholders to create a seamless shopping and selling experience. This approach attracted new generations of representatives through brand affiliates.

Angela and her board overhauled Avon’s image with a comprehensive rebrand, including reimagined packaging, carbon negative product formulas, and support for starts-ups.

Lessons of the transformation

For aspiring leaders, Angela believes leadership nowadays must be about creating other leaders rather than looking to identify and retain followers.

“In truth, transformation is not a one-time thing, it’s an endless evolution. Together with my partners, I had to learn in a painful way to never become comfortable with having a plan which is prescriptive. The world changes at a dynamic pace and crises are the regular dish in every leaders’ menu and keeping our people passionate and pointing in the same direction during so much change required a co-creating mentality. I learned quickly that kind leadership takes guts and heart - you’ve got to be the player and the captain, the cheerleader and the challenger, balancing service to your people with driving real results. Keeping regular communication open with our tens of thousands of associates was also vital in our transition.”

“In the future, I see Avon continuing to be a source for good, furthering our commitment to our communities and the planet. I will always advocate and support Avon, which has been such a rewarding and meaningful professional and life experience for me”, concluded Angela.

Odgers Berndtson's industry-specific expertise and global reach supports businesses to identify transformative talent to navigate change and market adversity. We would like to thank Angela Cretu warmly for her participation in the webinar and for her engagement in the question and answer session during the discussion.

_______________________________________________________

Get in touch. Follow the links below to discover more or contact our dedicated leadership experts from your local Odgers Berndtson office here. 