Angela took over as CEO just before the pandemic but had worked for Avon for 25 years starting her career in Romania. Growing up in a communist country meant that life was quite predictable, equality was standardised and the right to self expression was non existent. This set of experiences helped shape the leader that Angela was to become. Avon as a company was founded in and the business model from the very beginning was for women to share the products within their own micro communities direct selling which in turn would share wealth creation amongst many.
The products and the model for selling were both breakthrough at the time and all focused on empowering women. Avon's strong legacy was actually a burden, hampering its ability to be agile in a fast changing world. At one point Avon had approximately 6. It was the ultimate social selling machine.
This all changed during the pandemic and cost cutting was at the heart of the race to survive. Avon changed three CEO's over 12 years as the strategic dilemma was to decide if Avon was a brand or a channel and a number of mistakes were made as different executives tried to find the answer.
Angela was always of the view that their millions of women sellers were brand equity creators and they needed to be empowered and leveraged across the world. When Angela took over, Avon was tipping on the edge of its own demise, until Natura decided to acquire Avon.
Angela did not even apply for the role of CEO in and she was surprised to be summoned to Sao Paulo, the HQ of Natura and invited to apply, to which she initially said no. Natura knew that they needed someone with significant insight and experience of the business to drive the transformation that was necessary in order to survive and thrive.
