Abstract

Avon was one of the prominent direct sales companies in the beauty products industry. Started in the late 1800s by David McConnell, the company sold a wide variety of beauty-related products to homemakers through its direct sales agents. However, by the 1980s, the company had lost its luster and performance began to falter. A failed diversification strategy made it the target of several takeover attempts. Turnaround efforts were initiated in the 1990s under then CEO James Preston and continued by his successor Charles Perrin, however, they failed to make a significant impact. Performance began to improve only after Andrea Jung became the CEO of the company in 1999. This case discusses the revival of Avon under Andrea Jung. Jung was a retail industry veteran, who joined Avon as the head of US marketing in 1994. She was reportedly attracted to Avon’s women-oriented culture. She grew rapidly within the company and was eventually made the CEO. When she became the CEO of Avon in 1999, the company was in a bad condition. Jung then took a head-on approach to reviving the company’s businesses. This case details Jung’s game plan for turning around Avon and explores the various steps she took towards this end including, changing the company’s product strategy, reviving its sales representatives, exploring new channels of sales, aggressive global expansion, cost-cutting initiatives and an image makeover. By 2004, Avon’s performance was a vast improvement from the 1990s and Jung was widely credited with the company’s turnaround.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Career of a successful woman CEO
• Strategy adopted by a woman CEO in turning around a large, global beauty products company
• and Challenges faced by women business leaders in their rise to the top.

Keywords

Andrea Jung, Avon Products Inc., Women in Business, Woman CEO, Leadership, Duracell, Avon Lady, Turnaround Management, Jack Welch, General Electric, Product Development, beComing, S&P Equity Group, Avon Beauty Center, JC Penney, E-Tailing, Supply Chain Restructuring