Speaker 1: My parents left for the US so I could have
Speaker 1: a bigger opportunity. They always felt that America was full
Speaker 1: of opportunities, but particularly for women. And I think what
Speaker 1: my parents instilled is always dream big, define your own destiny.
Speaker 1: That was an a Young Scrivener. As a child, she
Speaker 1: came to the United States from China and grew up
Speaker 1: to embody the American dream. Her career has included jobs
Speaker 1: with famous companies like Starbucks, Pepsi, and Godiva, and today
Speaker 1: she is CEO of well A Company, a global leader
Speaker 1: in the one hundred billion dollar beauty industry. I'm a
Speaker 1: land Drevere and this is senecas one women to hear.
Speaker 1: We are bringing you one hundred of the world's most
Speaker 1: inspiring and history making women you need to hear. Annie
Speaker 1: Young Scrivener has been CEO of well A Company since December,
Speaker 1: the first with expertise and hair, nails and digital tech
Speaker 1: styling tools. Well A Company includes well known brands like
Speaker 1: well A Professionals, O p I, ni Oxen, and clar All.
Speaker 1: As a CEO, Annie is something of a rarity. Although
Speaker 1: we think of the beauty business as focused on women,
Speaker 1: Annie is just one of seven women's CEOs in that industry.
Speaker 1: Prior to joining Wella, Annie was CEO of Goodiva Chocolates.
Speaker 1: Listen and learn why Annie Young Scrivener is one of
Speaker 1: Seneca's One Women to Hear. I'm speaking today to an
Speaker 1: exceptional corporate leader, Annie Young Scrivener. Annie, I'm so excited
Speaker 1: about this conversation. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Milan,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be with you. Well you just
Speaker 1: have an amazing and inspirational life story. It's really the
Speaker 1: American dream story. I remember when I first heard about
Speaker 1: how as a child you moved from China going on
Speaker 1: to a remarkable career at some of the top companies Pepsi, Starbucks,
Speaker 1: Goodiva and now CEO of the Wellness Company. Can you
Speaker 1: tell our audience, our listeners about your journey? How did
Speaker 1: you get where you are today? Did you imagine that
Speaker 1: one day you'd be heading a global beauty company. First
Speaker 1: of all, again, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: You know, growing up, I have been very fortunate. My
Speaker 1: parents left for the US so I could have a
Speaker 1: bigger opportunity. They always felt that America was full of opportunities,
Speaker 1: but particularly for women, and I remember landing in Seattle seven,
Speaker 1: I would look at myself and I knew I was
Speaker 1: just a little different than everybody else. But I think
Speaker 1: what my parents instilled is always dream big, define your
Speaker 1: own destiny. And through my early childhood I always had
Speaker 1: a fascination with fashion and beauty. I worked early in
Speaker 1: my career in retail, and one of the unknown facts
Speaker 1: is I did people's hair at home. I used to.
Speaker 1: I used to cut my friend's hair. Now I never
Speaker 1: made any money, but I had returning customers, and back
Speaker 1: in back in the seventies, I did perms. I had
Speaker 1: my own perm rods. If I close my eyes, I
Speaker 1: could still see them. And I've always felt that beauty
Speaker 1: was transformative. It was so but not just about the external,
Speaker 1: but it was also about the internal. When you can
Speaker 1: match the two, I think you become really powerful. And
Speaker 1: so I've had very good teachers and mentors through my
Speaker 1: career and growing up. I've always worked really hard. I
Speaker 1: started work when I was fifteen, and I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, America allows you to define your destiny and
Speaker 1: then you get to find a whole bunch of people
Speaker 1: that help you along the way. And so I feel
Speaker 1: really privileged to be in the beauty industry, particularly what
Speaker 1: we do on the Professional five. Yeah, so fascinating and
Speaker 1: really an inspirational story, no matter how you define it.
Speaker 1: I want to come back to how things are going
Speaker 1: at the well A Company a little later. But since
Speaker 1: you talked a little bit about your American dream journey
Speaker 1: and you did mention mentors, I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about those who inspired you along the way championed you.
Speaker 1: What kinds of lessons did you learn and how have
Speaker 1: they impacted your leadership style because we know that mentors
Speaker 1: and those who inspire others can make such a difference
Speaker 1: in one's life. They can and I think you know
Speaker 1: mentors are able to see things that you don't see
Speaker 1: and they could help guide you. When I was going
Speaker 1: through undergrad I had a professor and she told me, Hey,
Speaker 1: you're putting yourself through school working in retail, but you
Speaker 1: should really get an internship with a fortune fifty company
Speaker 1: and here's who you should go interview for. And that
Speaker 1: was PepsiCo, and I ended up having a twenty year career.
Speaker 1: Had she not gradle me and shared with me an
Speaker 1: alternative plan on how I could grow myself, it would
Speaker 1: never have happened and her name was Judith Edwards. And
Speaker 1: through my career, I've had amazing mentors and I think
Speaker 1: of you as one of them, just teaching me the
Speaker 1: global landscape, helping me how to navigate. Equally, there were
Speaker 1: leaders like Inernui, who was a previous chair person and
Speaker 1: CEO of PepsiCo, Power Schultz, who was instrumental on teaching
Speaker 1: me about the importance of community and owning people's hearts,
Speaker 1: and Craig weather Up who was on the board of
Speaker 1: Starbucks and help guide me. I think my parents have
Speaker 1: played an incredible role on teaching me values and teaching
Speaker 1: me hard work and being humble as well. And I
Speaker 1: think that learning from adversity. You know, my first job
Speaker 1: at PepsiCo when I graduated, it was in the management
Speaker 1: training program, and my first job was to drive a truck.
Speaker 1: I had to load the truck myself deliver products to
Speaker 1: the store. And what I learned was the intention to detail,
Speaker 1: understanding everybody's role and the importance of teamwork. And that
Speaker 1: has taught me so many lessons that I've continue to
Speaker 1: gain benefits from. And those are such important lessons. I
Speaker 1: think for all of us that no job is too
Speaker 1: small that you can't learn from it, and especially the
Speaker 1: importance of working and collaboration, because I know those have
Speaker 1: stayed with you throughout your exceptional career. Now you're also
Speaker 1: just one of seven women's CEOs in your industry. You've
Speaker 1: been a role model as an Asian American leader, and
Speaker 1: I know you are deeply committed to diversity, equity and
Speaker 1: inclusion as an important business imperative. You've always manifested that
Speaker 1: and especially to see more diversity at the top. So
Speaker 1: how are you incorporating those principles which you've always held
Speaker 1: dear and have mattered to you so greatly. How are
Speaker 1: you doing that now at the well of company. That's
Speaker 1: a great question. You know, it's so important because I
Speaker 1: think that we all want to create a culture where
Speaker 1: people could bring their best self to work, and in
Speaker 1: order to create that culture, the importance of diversity and
Speaker 1: inclusion has to be there for businesses. It's not just
Speaker 1: a nice to do, it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: Businesses that are more diverse ethnically have outperformed their competition.
Speaker 1: I think there was a Mackenzie study and the percentage
Speaker 1: was like thirty six percent better performance. I think for me, personally.
Speaker 1: When you look at the beauty industry, eight of the
Speaker 1: workforce is men. When you look at the leadership at
Speaker 1: the top, it's very different. For the well A company,
Speaker 1: We've been very focused on making sure that we hire
Speaker 1: the bus candidate, but our slate has to be diverse,
Speaker 1: and our slate and our population should represent that of
Speaker 1: the consumers that we serve, which are mostly women. Our
Speaker 1: total organization we're proud to share is over fifty. Our
Speaker 1: directors and above are pretty close to that. Do we
Speaker 1: have more opportunities? Absolutely, We're very focused on ensuring that
Speaker 1: every position lawn that we hire is with a diverse slate,
Speaker 1: and then we will always hire the best candidate. No
Speaker 1: one wants to get higher because of their gender or
Speaker 1: because of their race. And I think one of the
Speaker 1: most important things is also, and we lead a global company,
Speaker 1: we're in a hundred country across the globe, is leadership
Speaker 1: style differences to recognize that. And I think that there's
Speaker 1: not a perfect person. Everybody has your strength, everybody has
Speaker 1: their opportunities, but when you create a team, you could
Speaker 1: create that perfect person. So having people that are different
Speaker 1: in style and the way that they think is critically important.
Speaker 1: To any success for us. You know, we're less than
Speaker 1: two years old, although we have one forty years of
Speaker 1: history at the well At Company. We're very proud that
Speaker 1: we signed on to the U N Compact, which is
Speaker 1: not only about sustainability, but it's about diversity, equity, inclusion
Speaker 1: and also belonging. And we are focus with goals and
Speaker 1: metrics and also ensuring that we unlock potential of everyone
Speaker 1: to be involved. Yeah, and and you mentioned that you
Speaker 1: took over the helmet, Well, it just two years ago.
Speaker 1: But for as long as I've known you any and
Speaker 1: that's been over many years, you have been so committed
Speaker 1: to accelerating women in the economy as part of what
Speaker 1: you do, what you've done, and what you continue to do,
Speaker 1: really recognizing both what a force they are for growing
Speaker 1: our economies and creating jobs, but also to what they
Speaker 1: are entitled in the difference they make. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about that, because I think it's one of the really
Speaker 1: magnificent unique features of your leadership. We're very focused on
Speaker 1: equity and pay very focus on specifically the key leadership
Speaker 1: role to ensure that there's gender balance. Sometimes I'll here
Speaker 1: on boards, you know, we're doing a search and it
Speaker 1: should be maybe not a diversely, there's no debate, and
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of many of the public board words
Speaker 1: that I've sat on, whether it's Macy's we had a
Speaker 1: fifty fifty gender diversity, Tiffany and Company was fifty fifty
Speaker 1: by the time it was at the end, and Young
Speaker 1: Brands um. Since joining, we've also added more women leaders
Speaker 1: onto the board. I think that's critically important because I
Speaker 1: think that if you don't have role models, it's hard
Speaker 1: for people to also see how they could do it.
Speaker 1: And the reality is, as women, even if you have
Speaker 1: a spouse that works, we're still responsible for more of
Speaker 1: the activities at home, and so making sure that we
Speaker 1: could balance everything is also a fine art. It's certainly
Speaker 1: a fine art, and it's one always to be mindful
Speaker 1: of senecas one hundred women to hear will be back
Speaker 1: after a short break. Now, we we all frequent our
Speaker 1: wonderful hairstylists unsure, and I wonder if you could give
Speaker 1: us a sense of women in the industry overall. Now,
Speaker 1: what kinds of economic challenges do they face in the
Speaker 1: salon industry? How are you helping them meet those challenges?
Speaker 1: You mentioned some of the issues you're dealing with, But
Speaker 1: can you expand on that, because I think it's important
Speaker 1: for us to know, sir. You know, we are in
Speaker 1: about hundred country across the globe and we support five
Speaker 1: hundred thousand small businesses. Some of these small businesses could
Speaker 1: have two thousand salon chains, or you could be an
Speaker 1: individual salon owner, or you could be renting a chair somewhere.
Speaker 1: And it's so critically important because the industry is flexible
Speaker 1: in that it's a great career. You could call your
Speaker 1: own hours, and you can monetize in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1: But during COVID, if you'll go back a couple of
Speaker 1: years back in parts of the world were completely shut down,
Speaker 1: which meant if you're in the industry, you could be
Speaker 1: regulated inability to open and your entrepreneur. So some of
Speaker 1: the things that we did were making sure that we
Speaker 1: had protective gear for folks. We extended terms on loans
Speaker 1: and payments, but more importantly, we invested in technology and
Speaker 1: also education to up level the skill set of the
Speaker 1: beauty professional so that when the industry opened, it would
Speaker 1: do so much better. So give you specific example April,
Speaker 1: when the industry was still wonky, somewhere closed, somewhere open.
Speaker 1: We took the best of the best across the globe
Speaker 1: and made a digital training program and gave access to
Speaker 1: everyone for free. We would usually charge three hundred euros
Speaker 1: percession and we waive that enabling everybody to up level
Speaker 1: their skill set, donating back over thirty million back to
Speaker 1: the industry, and when the industry reopened a couple of
Speaker 1: months later, it was huge. That's the livelihood. I would say.
Speaker 1: The challenge that we're seeing not just in our industry
Speaker 1: but everywhere is labor. How do we ensure that we
Speaker 1: really paint the picture of how you can invest in yourself,
Speaker 1: you could grow and you can make a very very
Speaker 1: healthy living in the industry if I travel across the globe.
Speaker 1: It's one of the biggest pieces right now that the
Speaker 1: salon industry is facing is making sure that they have
Speaker 1: the right people coming in. And then, particularly if you're
Speaker 1: in Europe, you have the energy crisis that's happening right now,
Speaker 1: so people are seeing energy costs rise much higher than
Speaker 1: what we're experiencing in the US, and so helping them
Speaker 1: think through a greener footprint on energy usage, on water usage.
Speaker 1: Salon operation is also something that we're invested in as well.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so interesting because I think we rarely
Speaker 1: are aware of all of those environmental speaking more broadly
Speaker 1: about the environment in which a salon industry leader works,
Speaker 1: how all of those come to play. And it's so
Speaker 1: interesting to Annie to hear about how you invested during
Speaker 1: the lockdown in ways that really helped to upgrade the
Speaker 1: folks in the industry. Just really terrific stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: we never have enough time for these conversations, but I
Speaker 1: want to end by asking you about your life at
Speaker 1: the well A company, because it must be inspiring to
Speaker 1: work at a company where many of the brands were
Speaker 1: founded by women. You know, it's exceptional. It's pioneering in
Speaker 1: many ways. And I know what kind of person you
Speaker 1: are and how conscious you've always been about accelerating women's
Speaker 1: progress as well. How has that shaped your thinking and
Speaker 1: vision that you are at the company you're at with
Speaker 1: the history it has, you know, I feel so inspired,
Speaker 1: and I also feel such responsibility to ensure that we're
Speaker 1: developing the brands in the right way. And fortunately, like
Speaker 1: I have such an amazing leadership team um making sure
Speaker 1: that we're galvanizing the organization. But let me just share
Speaker 1: a couple of stories of these founders. We have the
Speaker 1: ni ox And brand, which is founded by Eva Graham.
Speaker 1: She started that business inn with five dollars in her
Speaker 1: pocket and she developed the scalp category for hair lost
Speaker 1: treatment with the ni ox And brand. Her father was
Speaker 1: losing his hair. She just had her first child, and
Speaker 1: we we've all got through that. We know what happens
Speaker 1: after you give um your your baby, you kind of
Speaker 1: lose your hair as well. So she was very dedicated
Speaker 1: into the science and what was in the product. She
Speaker 1: would go door to door to salons to do training
Speaker 1: and she said to me, Annie, I thought I made
Speaker 1: it when I was training two people instead of one.
Speaker 1: And what she said, I love this quote. She said,
Speaker 1: I think I faced every challenge someone in the industry
Speaker 1: has faced, but I didn't see them as challenges. I
Speaker 1: saw them as opportunities, as new beginning. And I think
Speaker 1: as an entrepreneur, you have to know that these obstacles
Speaker 1: you overcome and it's just a lesson and they make
Speaker 1: you stronger. O P I our male brand. It's the
Speaker 1: number one professional brand. It was founded by Susie Wise
Speaker 1: Fleshman and she is amazing. You know. They started the
Speaker 1: business as something very different. It became O p I
Speaker 1: and she was the person that's the inspiration behind each
Speaker 1: of the names Big Apple Read and she is still
Speaker 1: a part at the well A Company today. Our most
Speaker 1: recent acquisition is Briaggio Nancy Twine. It was the largest
Speaker 1: African American owned independent upscale beauty company and we purchased
Speaker 1: her company because of the great formulation that she has
Speaker 1: on etho ethical, sustainable, clean beauty and her story is fabulous.
Speaker 1: Her mom was a chemist and instead of baking, they
Speaker 1: used to make soap and emulsions and she unfortunately lost
Speaker 1: her mother to an accident and just to get comfort,
Speaker 1: she went back to making soap and shampoo and founded
Speaker 1: the Brioggio company and it is such amazing products. So
Speaker 1: each of our founders has story on brand doing something
Speaker 1: great not only for the industry, but also for society.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what or after we want to
Speaker 1: do great things for the beauty industry. We want to
Speaker 1: make sure that the small businesses and the big businesses
Speaker 1: that we impact, we also do it in a positive way.
Speaker 1: And we feel like the way that we look at
Speaker 1: our ingredients, the way that we look at our footprint
Speaker 1: is also going to be better for the earth. We're
Speaker 1: very focused on our CEO two, our water footprint and
Speaker 1: plastic and fiber and man, we're going to make a
Speaker 1: big difference on d E and I as well. Just
Speaker 1: terrific to hear all of this an a young scrivener.
Speaker 1: You're not only a model of corporate leadership, Anny, but
Speaker 1: you're a true inspiration. Thank you so much for being
Speaker 1: with us today. I adore you. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for this opportunity. There is so much to learn from
Speaker 1: any young Scrivener, from her life and her outlook. Here
Speaker 1: are three things I took from that conversation. First, Annie
Speaker 1: shows us that every job matters. Her first job after
Speaker 1: graduation was at PepsiCo. She had to load a truck
Speaker 1: and deliver the products. She learned about the importance of
Speaker 1: attention to detail, understanding everybody's role, and of teamwork. Second, diversity,
Speaker 1: equality and inclusion are good for people and for businesses.
Speaker 1: It's not just a nice thing to do, says Annie,
Speaker 1: it's the right thing to do. Finally, Annie reminds us
Speaker 1: that women's representation and leadership can have a big impact
Speaker 1: on companies and industries. Mentorship is also important for women. Mentors,
Speaker 1: says Annie, are able to see things that you don't see,
Speaker 1: and they can help guide you. Tune in next time
Speaker 1: to hear about our next featured woman and discus over
Speaker 1: why she's one of Seneca's one Women to Hear. Seneca's
Speaker 1: one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between the
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support
Speaker 1: from founding partner PNG Have a Great Day.