This interview was originally posted by Industry Beauty, Full Article Linked Here
In this exclusive monthly interview series in partnership with CEW, we’ll feature one of CEW UK’s board members, Oriele Frank, to gain insights into their careers and views on what being a business leader in today’s beauty industry means to them.
Elemis was founded by entrepreneur and investor Linda Steiner, who’s vision was to create a skincare range as close to nature as possible. She was joined by co-founding trio Noella Gabriel, Sean Harrington and Oriele Frank, each with a different speciality, who have evolved the brand to where it is today and remain actively involved.
As a global British skincare brand with over 30 years of research and development, Elemis is still very much committed to unlocking the secrets of skin longevity, empowering consumers with the knowledge and products to achieve collagen health, and thus skin health. All of its products are also developed at an Elemis Innovation Hub in London and manufactured in England, with a commitment to sustainability led by Co-founder and Chief Product & Sustainability Officer Oriele Frank.
In this exclusive interview with TheIndustry.beauty, Frank speaks about how she feels about the brand’s progression, her role as Chief Product & Sustainability Officer, the biggest opportunities and challenges in the beauty sector today, and more.
Have you always had an interest in the beauty industry? Why does it appeal to you and why did you want to work within it?
From a very early age, I was fascinated by both plants and human biology. My grandfather created new varieties of flowers in Holland, whilst the rest of the family were engineers and medics. After completing a Business Degree, I studied Anatomy, Physiology, Reiki, Aromatherapy and Thai Massage. This allowed me to come into the beauty industry from more of a health and wellness perspective, combined with a love of creative marketing, brand and product development.
My first job was working in a high-profile salon in Mayfair, followed by marketing management of two French professional beauty brands that were distributed in the UK, and then on to co-founding Elemis. Working alongside Linda Steiner, Sean Harrington and Noella Gabriel, it really was a dream job, a British professional beauty brand, that focused on face and body treatment therapies, with formulations as ‘near to nature as possible’. It combined all my loves of creative, formulating product, treatments, packaging and branding.
CEW UK promotes the British beauty industry, why is this important? What do you think sets the British beauty industry apart from other markets worldwide?
We only need to look at the stats and data to see the importance of the beauty industry to the UK economy. According to The Value of Beauty report by The British Beauty Council, the personal care industry contributed £24.5 billion to the UK economy in 2022, £12.3 billion was generated by the industry itself, representing 0.5% of the nation’s GDP. £4,9 billion of economic activity was contributed by the industry’s domestic supply chain purchases, £7.3 billion through wage payments to industry workers and £6.8 billion tax contributions to the UK treasury. 550,000 individuals were employed across the industry: 379,000 through the industry itself, and 209,000 through hair and beauty services.
The British Beauty industry is set apart from other global markets by its world-renowned research, innovation and trendsetting, alongside our British heritage, renowned quality, ethics and strong regulatory standards. The UK beauty industry is an exciting community of start-ups, independent brands and global icons, that always brings fresh perspectives and unique products to the market. In addition, the British beauty market has made significant strides in inclusivity, with brands offering a wider range of products to cater to diverse skin tones and types, reflecting the multi-cultural demographic of the UK. There is also a growing representation in the UK with marketing campaigns that embrace all genders, ages and ethnicities, contributing to a dynamic and forward-thinking market that continues to influence global beauty trends and a launch pad for challenger brands.
Why did you join CEW UK? Do you have any highlight moments from being part of this?
In my start-up years at Elemis over 30 years ago, CEW was this phenomenal female-led organisation. It was aspirational, spearheaded by the one and only Caroline Neville and now of course the brilliant Sallie Berkerey. When you are co-founding a brand, it can be quite intense, insular and certainly challenging, so CEW was a wonderful way to get inspiration, help build a network, get support and learn from other experts.
I have so many highlights from the earlier CEW years when we were fortunate to meet some global icons of beauty and hear their stories such as Isabella Rossellini, Elle Macpherson, Twiggy, Lulu and Liz Hurley. Attending the Young Executive sessions was always fascinating, learning from successful entrepreneurs. I vividly remember listening to Marcia Kilgore and hearing about her journey with Bliss and then Fitflop.
More recently, the CEW Beauty Tech Summits and Industry Trend information sessions were standout events for the Elemis teams, packed full of invaluable information that you could immediately apply to your business when you got back to your desk the next day. As a brand, we have also always enjoyed the CEW Demonstration and Beauty Awards when all the brands come together to showcase their products.
Finally, what I am most proud of was receiving a CEW Achiever Award in 2019 and taking part in my first formal Two-Way Mentoring Scheme, which I plan to do again this year. It was so rewarding and satisfying to share over 30 years of experience with an individual who needs guidance, mentoring and advice in their role, who also went on to be a mentor herself.
What do you think are the biggest opportunities and challenges in the beauty sector today?
The beauty sector is a unique model, with evolving multi-channel opportunities. The traditional model with professional salons and spas offering treatments, and retail beauty selling products in department stores has hugely diversified over the years. Tech, e-commerce, shopping TV and digital social media platforms have completely changed the landscape for selling products directly to consumers. This has broadened the opportunities in terms of jobs within the beauty sector and has offered the consumer so many more ways of buying and engaging with beauty. This can also be challenging for brands, as multi-channel requires so many different skillsets in terms of employee resources and cost. Businesses need to be nimble, learn and pivot quickly as these opportunities evolve.
The marketing and sales strategy has also evolved dramatically with communication and creative embracing digital diversification and having to capture the audience’s attention in second. The consumer is bombarded with messaging and video content via multiple formats, they must try and navigate to understand whether a company is truly an authentic, quality product that is efficacious and delivers what the consumer wants, or whether they are just greenwashing. It’s overwhelming walking a beauty department floor and finding the right products or cosmetics for your skin type, hair and complexion today. We are seeing more skin diagnostic imagery both online and instore to help the consumer with their decisions, as well as mini-retail treatments providing more of an experiential environment for the consumer in retail stores. In addition, we have seen a surge in at-home tech too, for consumers to treat themselves like LED, laser or electrical stimulation.
Consumers are also getting more educated in sustainability; every brand is having to focus on this in the future with new legislations and regulations leading the change in packaging and formulations. It is a pivotal time of change, but also hugely challenging with not enough PCR materials, increased costs and operational challenges. The way forward must be that business is a force for good, that puts people and the planet alongside profit. It’s a fine balance, but it’s possible, and the whole industry must work together to make those changes. This is why I sit as the pillar president on CEW for sustainability, also co-chair for the Sustainable Beauty Coalition at The British Beauty Council and the steering committee for the B Corp Beauty Coalition. It’s so inspiring to see how the beauty industry is uniting and something I am extremely passionate about. As an industry, we know we must reduce the 120 billion units produced a year of packaging, reduce waste that goes into landfill or incineration and focus on a more circular economy.
It’s an exciting time in the UK beauty industry and we have many UK success stories, but it’s also important to understand the challenges for startups and brands going global, you must know your target audience, you must understand how to market regionally and above all you must be flexible to pivot as the world changes constantly.
What key skills do you need to have as a leader today, in general and in beauty?
The greatest skill in a leader today is someone who can listen, mentor, inspire and ensure their team keeps a healthy work-life balance, showing empathy when needed. During the pandemic there was increased pressure, higher stress levels and mental health issues that have continued post pandemic, whilst businesses rebuilt and recovered from the huge disruption. The ability to pivot and adapt to the changing world and consumer habits is critical as a leader. As business has got tougher and more competitive it’s important to ensure that employees have the space to think more creatively, be ambitious, take risks and feel empowered learning about what success looks like as well as evaluating when something hasn’t work and learning from that.
I also feel it’s important to ensure leaders allow their teams to attend thought provoking talks, events and really encourage more of a collaborative and inspiring environment. Through partnership with the B Corp Beauty Coalition, CEW and Sustainable Beauty Coalition so many doors have been opened for Elemis that have broadened our thinking and introduced us to interesting collaborations. Finally, encouraging and earning respect, caring and nurturing your team when needed leads to increased loyalty, retention and long-term business relationships.
Why is it important that people pursue entrepreneurship or senior leadership roles in their careers?
Senior leadership and entrepreneurship are important for people who are striving for that in their career and want to climb the ladder to the top! As your business scales up, your skillset also needs to evolve, moving from a start-up mentality to more of a global mindset where global processes are put in place.
These roles are not for everyone, and thankfully the beauty industry has many roles that are integral to the senior leadership team. Whether it’s in CRM, data analytics and management, operations, sustainability, finance and HR, many of these roles are incredibly important support functions to successful entrepreneurship and senior leadership teams. It’s about a good balance of functions and roles, with a clear vision that can evolve and change, but always ensuring that communication is clear and frequent.
How can people be encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship or senior leadership roles in their careers?
I think there’s still a lot of work to put the beauty industry on the map for young people as a fulfilling and exciting career that also can open up incredible global roles as businesses expand.
CEW events, their Young Executive Programme and Two-Way Mentoring Programme encourage the next generation to closely network and collaborate, inspiring those that do want to take the next step into senior leadership and entrepreneurship alongside some of the leading global talent in the world. CEW really helped give Elemis a step up in the early years, when we had very little budget. We loved to learn from partners like Google, Amazon, Circana, TikTok as well as press contacts such as TheIndustry.beauty providing invaluable knowledge and insight from around the world.
In addition, the British Beauty Council had tried to capture the hearts of young students to enter this industry through their Future Talent Programme. We have a lot of work to do to ensure this industry is taken seriously and promoted to young people as a positive career in secondary school.
As a co-founder of Elemis, how do you feel about the brand’s progression over the years and what do you think are the key factors that have contributed to its success so far?
I’m very proud of Elemis’ progression over the years. We never take the support of the industry for granted and we are humbled that the British beauty industry and CEW’s incredible support over the years has been unwavering and loyal. It has been 34 years now, a lifetime of learning about being a start-up British brand with very limited budgets, to a global brand distributed in over 110 countries. With four different owners, we have learned what it’s like to be privately owned, a US-listed NASDAQ business, a private equity-owned business, and now one of the brands in Groupe L’Occitane, alongside other incredible brands such as L’Occitane en Provence, Sol De Janeiro and Erborian.
The co-founders at Elemis have remained steadfast and dedicated to the growth of the company, never standing still. I think the success has been to ensure the brand never waivers in its vision to create incredible product formulations that have strong clinical efficacy, as well as being a sensorial experience with incredible aromatics and textures.
Can you tell me about your role as Chief Product & Sustainability Officer? What are you proud to have achieved since taking on the role and what are your ambitions/goals for the future?
This is a relatively new role for me. Not even four years in, having previously been Managing Director for the UK, and always working across global brand, NPD and marketing roles. It came about when our owners requested that someone at board level should champion change in the Elemis business and drive sustainability, ensuring that we were a business as a force for good. In fact, I remember attending a CEW event that L’Occitane showcased in London and thinking what an incredible company with huge ethics and good will to try and do business in a better way. Little did I know then that ELEMIS would become part of this wonderful group.
Achieving B Corp certification last year was a major milestone for Elemis, and as a team, we are very proud that we’re always working to improve its business across the five pillars of B Corp – workers, customers, community, environment and governance. It has helped us really focus on being a better business whilst we drive the successful growth we enjoy today.
We have a very strong sustainability goal and vision, as well as philanthropic aims to donate 1% of our revenue by 2030 to social and environmental causes. We have encouraged our staff to do over 550 hours of volunteering already this year, and we are supporting some incredible charities like Look Good Feel Better, The Eve Appeal, Mind, Beauty Banks, InKind Direct, Marine Conservation Society, and we were thrilled to win the Rising Star Award from The Prince’s Trust. We have a new programme taking on young people being helped by the Princes Trust into our Elemis head office and helping give them a taste of the opportunities that exist in the industry.
In addition, I was very excited to announce at COP28 in Dubai the beauty industry’s first partnership with the RSPB to restore an area of Peatlands in Scotland. 3% of the world is peatland and they sequester more carbon than all the forests of the world, so they are very important. We have sponsored a project to restore an area in Scotland that has become majorly depleted and ensure that this land captures carbon successfully. A 60-year project, it shows that Elemis is a business that is looking at how we help the next generation.
My ambition is over the next 12-18 months to help the teams to reimagine Elemis as the most premium, sustainable British brand in the industry. We need to lead by example and show the global beauty industry that sustainability is possible at a premium level. Watch this space!
