“Can I touch your hair?,” asked Annie Young-Scrivner, glancing up and down the long, highlighted blonde strands before she made a rapid assessment of the products I ought to be using.

Wella’s energetic and interesting chief executive officer is definitely hands on, deeply knowledgeable and obsessed with the hair industry despite the incontrovertible fact that until the COVID-19 pandemic, she spent most of her profession within the food and beverage sector. Along with three years as CEO at Godiva, she spent seven years in a variety of senior positions at Starbucks and started her profession at PepsiCo where she held senior leadership roles in sales, marketing and general management during her 19-year tenure with the business.

Nevertheless, beauty, especially hair, has long been a favourite pastime of hers. “Though I wasn’t in the wonder industry, I used to be a beauty fanatic, ever since I used to be little,” she recalled. “At 13, I used to chop people’s hair at home. And when perms were in, I used to perm people’s hair and I had my very own perm rods. I’ve all the time been fascinated with the wonder industry after which I put myself through school working in a department store, and the wonder department was all the time one in every of my favorites.”

So it was only fitting when, in October 2020, KKR, fresh from acquiring 60 percent of Wella from Coty Inc., named her CEO of the brand new stand-alone business, whose brands include Wella Professionals, Clairol, OPI, Nioxin, and GHD.

Since then, she has used her strengths in brand, digital and talent development to assist Wella navigate a worldwide pandemic, which affected its salons globally, and recently oversaw the acquisition of Briogeo, the natural hair care brand founded by Nancy Twine in 2013, for an undisclosed sum. As reported by WWD, Briogeo was said to achieve a sales volume exceeding $100 million, per industry sources.

Here, Young-Scrivner talks to Beauty Inc. about her profession and plans for Wella.

What attracted you to hitch the wonder industry and this job?
Annie Young-Scrivner: Beauty is transformative. It is just not just the skin, it’s also the within, it’s how people feel and you then can match every part together. I really like that. Second, I really like the professional and the retail piece and this job has each. On the professional side, we service over 500,000 customers. A few of these customers could have 2,000 salons, some are independent — they’re small businesses — so what an incredible solution to help industry.

By way of this job, what are the most important similarities and differences with the opposite positions you’ve held?
A.Y.-S.: The similarities are that in every business, it’s all about specializing in delighting the consumers and customers we serve. The true distinctive element of the wonder business is in its ability to be truly transformative. To achieve success, it’s all in regards to the talent of the people because you possibly can have great strategies and types, but in case you don’t have individuals who really understand what you should do and feel obsessed with it, you then don’t win.

The second piece that’s also similar is innovation. The hair industry is so interesting, since it’s going through that evolution of where skincare was 15 years ago. This whole skinification of hair is occurring straight away. Teaching consumers on the way to care for your hair identical to your skin. The difference is hair doesn’t regenerate so it needs just a little bit more, like oils at night for the ends, different masks and coverings.

The opposite part that’s similar is it is a global business. We’re in 100 countries across the globe. It’s also an omnichannel play. We’ve pro, we now have retail and we now have digital. What’s different is that this business has been sold multiple times. It’s been sold to Procter and Gamble. It’s been sold to Coty. Now we’re finally stand-alone again. And so it’s the power to say we will create our own culture, we’re not a portion of another person and we will really define our own destiny.

Howard Schultz is one in every of your key mentors. What are the important thing business lessons you learned from him?
A.Y.-S.: Howard is amazing and the people piece is something that I feel often about from him. There’s so many great things that he has taught me and I’m very fortunate to produce other amazing mentors like Rose Marie Bravo, who was the CEO of Burberry. She was on the board with me at Tiffany’s. She has got such a terrific eye on ensuring the product is true, the visual is true and he or she is a improbable people leader as well. After which Indra Nooyi, who was the past CEO and chairman of PepsiCo. She’s so dynamic, she’s traveled around the globe, she all the time has time for people and he or she has among the finest financial minds. I feel very fortunate.

Can you think that of any formative profession moments that actually impacted you?
A.Y.-S.: It was my first job and I used to be within the PepsiCo management training program. As a management trainee, my first role was to be a salesman, but what it meant is I drove an 18-foot truck. I needed to load it with products — like tons of of cases — and deliver it to the shop. Physically, it was incredibly taxing. I’m not a muscular person, but what it taught me is admittedly understanding the business from the bottom up and that has stuck with me perpetually. I do listening tours today with the front line to know what are the opportunities, what could we do higher. You may have to have really have big ears and listen.

How would you define your leadership style?
A.Y.-S.: I feel in regards to the strategy — where should we go and why? I’m very focused on ensuring that we now have the fitting talent and nurturing them. I feel in regards to the transformation that the majority businesses should make, which is the digital side. How can we instill the digital element and why? I prefer to get into the small print of the business, too. And I prefer to have a good time.

Talking about strategy, when it comes to Wella what’s your vision?
A.Y.-S.: We play on this $100 billion beauty category of hair and nails. Today, we’re still relatively small and so we now have a variety of room to grow. When you take a look at hair, we’re very dominant on color, each retail and pro, and I feel our opportunity is on the care segment, especially with this amplification of consumers wanting to learn more on how they might look after their hair. We will accomplish that way more in that area. On the nail side, we’re learning the way to take our innovation from hair into nails because each have keratin.

Tell us more about your acquisition of Briogeo.
A.Y.-S.: Nancy Twine has incredible clean formulations. She’s built a cult following because people understand how good her product is. We feel that that area goes to proceed to grow. She’s in premium retail today. She’s not within the skilled segment. There’s a variety of opportunity. We also produce other sustainable products inside our portfolio, like Wella Skilled Elements and OPI Nature Strong, and I feel she’ll also help us amplify that.

Do you’ve got big international expansion plans for Briogeo?
A.Y.-S.: Nancy and her team are developing that footprint. We do lots with Sephora so one in every of the entries into among the international market is partnering with Sephora.

On the hair color side, clean hair dye is gaining traction. Are you working on that area in any respect?
A.Y.-S.: It’s so interesting because I used to be reading another labels and I went to our scientists they usually said what about ours? We’re cleaner than the bulk on the market. So we’re actually now beginning to discuss the way it’s vegan and about how we now have a patented formulation that enables it to be less allergenic.

Where are you seeing essentially the most potential in hair?
A.Y.-S.: Self-expression is occurring and I feel that individuals want a metamorphosis, but they could not need a everlasting transformation. We’ve a product that’s called Color Fresh Masks. Your hair could possibly be pink after which it could go straight back to your natural color and you may go blue. Self-expression and personalization goes to proceed. People at the moment are understanding they will try this with their hair. The second piece is the care regimen on what are the masks that I should use. Loads of consumers don’t know. You could possibly use a unique shampoo in your roots than the remainder of your hair, because most individuals want more volume. I just got here back from a visit to Japan to see one in every of our greatest salon partners they usually were showing me their nine-step regimen that they use with Wella skilled products….it was amazing. So I feel we’re on the early stages, just learning.

How do you intend to harness growth in prestige?
A.Y.-S.: Briogeo is a giant piece of that and likewise GHD after which constructing out Nioxin. Certainly one of the negative effects of COVID[-19] is hair loss. And so hair retainment and regrowth is a large segment. Eva Graham, who’s the unique founding father of Nioxin, began that company with $500 in her pocket and that business has continued to fuel and grow.

What are the important thing challenges, opportunities and priorities for Wella straight away?
A.Y.-S.: Certainly one of the important thing challenges for us is focus because we now have so many growth opportunities. Also, we’re not resistant to the inflationary pressures that everyone is experiencing. I recently did a listening tour externally with global leaders who had experienced inflation before, back within the ’70s and ’80s. They were super helpful on what are the things that you’ve got to be really mindful of, and I feel agility continues to be one in every of them. After I joined Wella, we were in COVID[-19]. We got here out of COVID[-19]. That ability to maneuver fast goes to be something that we proceed to hold on. The flexibility to obviously communicate what’s happening because things are going to fluctuate. After which we now have to be sure that we proceed to take a position in our brands, and likewise help our customers understand where they might take pricing, the services and the way they might create more value for themselves.

What’s your strategy with M&A?
A.Y.-S.: We’re so pleased with Briogeo. Our number-one focus is to make sure our recent acquisition is successful….But I’d say that we’re all the time open to strategic suits and I feel that they might should grow faster than we’re they usually should be more profitable so I feel it’s going to take one other very special company like Briogeo.

How concerned are you in regards to the macroeconomic environment?
A.Y.-S.: Everybody ought to be concerned and I feel that everyone ought to be very thoughtful of their moves. For us because we’re a growth company we don’t need to stop the lever on our growth potential because there’s a lot, but we now have to be really thoughtful of where we invest for that growth, in order that we will be sure that we’re driving profitable growth.