That led to my first line position as a general manager in Avon Italy. After about a year I was fluent in the language and had my legs underneath me, and moved the company’s bottom line to its highest profitability in the history of the company, and from there that just created other opportunities. I would continue to say “yes” to these opportunities even if they were challenging, because I believed in each instance that there was something there that had not been surfaced yet. I believed the same thing when I was contacted by the board of directors and they started telling me about Nature’s Sunshine. Again, you had a company with an incredible history, outstanding capabilities in manufacturing and R&D and an in-depth network of distributors. We had a global footprint, but not any significant branding or marketing collateral. The company had not focused on the field fundamentals and did not have a digital presence whatsoever. They had not leveraged a strong footprint to be relevant in the market. We also were not telling the story of our amazing manufacturing capabilities in an industry where 85% of the other companies out there do not manufacture their own products – they get them from third-party manufacturers who are not as good as us. As an incoming CEO, you want to identify two or three potential growth vectors that you can exploit, and in Nature’s Sunshine I was looking at six different ways to drive significant growth in the company. Potential on top of potential. That is why, now that we have put new strategies in place to deliver on our capabilities, we have been able to deliver six consecutive historic quarters of growth, breaking all kinds of records and reaching new heights that our founders could never have imagined. What new experience and insights have you gained since taking up your leadership position? Every day is an opportunity to learn something. If you are trying to get into the digital space, you had better be learning every day as well! I was the one in Avon who took over our eCommerce business back in the early 2000s and grew our beauty website to be the largest in America, so I had a thoroughly extensive experience of working digitally. But coming here, with how we are trying to reimagine our business and reinvent what we do, it is opening new doors and providing new learning opportunities in all dimensions. Whether that is how we use data, how we use digital tools to build our affiliate relationships, or even getting into more sophisticated things like using data to build personal health regimens for people, there is a tremendous amount of learning there as well. There are not many companies out there doing what we are doing, the way we are trying to do it. If you had to settle on one thing that you would say is the most interesting aspect of your role, what would it be? That is like asking me which is my favourite child! Part of my role is operational, and as the CEO of a public company, the other huge part of my role is managing investor relations, and also managing the team and the organisation 39 www. ceotodaymagazine . com USA A lot of my career growth came by simply saying “yes” when opportunities presented themselves.
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