00:00Isn't that funny? Everything is cyclical. I think back to when I was 13, 14 and going to the mall
00:05and I'm dropping my daughter off at the mall. And I remember a few years ago thinking,
00:08is that ever going to happen again? And it is, and it's happening in a big way.
00:15Welcome to Leadership Next, the podcast about the changing rules of business leadership.
00:20I'm Michal Avram and I'm Diane Brady.
00:23Listeners will be familiar with the Sephora brand, but they may not be familiar with you.
00:28So I want to start by actually asking you to tell us a little bit about you.
00:31I was born in Iran. So I immigrated to the US in 1979 when I was seven years old. And
00:39at that time I didn't actually speak any English. It was very difficult for my family and I.
00:46And then my mom went back to Iran and unfortunately this was during the Iranian hostage crisis. So
00:52she got stuck there and my father wasn't able to take care of me. So I ended up moving into
00:57a group home and then grew up with foster parents since I was 10 years old.
01:01And so I really think that very much shaped who I am, not just as a person, but as a leader.
01:08And especially as you think about, you know, the world of beauty and historically
01:13how, you know, there was one definition of beauty, especially when I was growing up
01:17in the eighties and I certainly did not fit that mold. So it has really, really guided
01:24how I think about beauty, how I think about belonging. And I think that that's always
01:30sort of been my North, my North star. Obviously Sephora is an incredibly strong
01:36brand. I have 12 and 14 year old girls, so I live it. But I'm curious, like, how would you
01:43characterize this moment in time in which you stepped into this role? What are the, you know,
01:49there's been so much, uh, very fast evolution in the retail space and the e-commerce space with
01:55tech over the last few years and different, you know, consumer trends that seem to be evolving
01:59so quickly. So how would you characterize where things are today for Sephora?
02:03Yeah. I mean, I have a 13 year old girl, so, so I feel you. Um, you know, I would say what's,
02:08what's incredible about beauty is, uh, it's always had this, this tactile, um, feeling of,
02:15you know, connection and belonging and being able to try new things. I think the inherent
02:22love of beauty among every generation, um, across all ages has always been there.
02:30Obviously what has evolved is access and social media. And I do think this idea and understanding
02:36of, of specifically skincare, uh, I, I know that I probably did not take the best care of my skin
02:43when I was younger and I see my daughter packing up her super group in her backpack and, you know,
02:49that's, that's exciting. And, but that's because of, you know, Tik TOK and, um, other forms in
02:54YouTube and other forms of social media. Um, and, and the speed at which things come to light is,
03:01is just, you know, it's, it's mind boggling. And I have been at Sephora for 18 years. So I've seen
03:08different evolutions of this. Certainly. I remember when Instagram first launched and I
03:12remember contouring, it was just like, I was thinking to myself, how many contour kits do
03:17people need? Right. And, and so we've, we've seen it before. It's not new in that sense,
03:22but it is in terms of the speed and the democratization of it all. And just the
03:27access to all the information, especially around ingredients and a deep understanding
03:33of what people are putting on their skin, on their hair, on their body.
03:36Sticking with the topic of, of kids shopping in Sephora, there has been some concern over what
03:42young girls are putting on their faces. Like, do they really need retinol? Do they really need some
03:47of the stronger products or anti-aging stuff like that? What do you, what's Sephora's response to
03:53that? And what do you see as your responsibility for educating younger shoppers? Well, I believe
03:58we have a huge responsibility as well as our hundreds of brands to educate the consumer on
04:04what is right for their skin, regardless of their age. And where I think that we have a competitive
04:10advantage is our beauty advisors. We have 25,000 incredibly well-trained, unbiased, non-commissioned
04:17beauty advisors. So it's actually been a really easy pivot for us to focus those educational
04:23moments of which we have many, specifically on skincare and skincare ingredients. So that is
04:29where we are seeing, you know, a lot of the chatter and the noise and making sure that they
04:34know, yes, you need, you know, at a certain age, you need to wash your face, you need sunscreen, and you
04:38need some moisturizer, but no, you don't need retinol. And making sure that, that we share that
04:43information. You know, at the end of the day, there's only so much, you know, a salesperson can
04:49do. We can educate. And then beyond that, it really is the responsibility of the consumer. But I feel
04:55that we are very well-poised to at least be able to share our knowledge on that and make sure that
05:00they understand what they're buying. What kind of technology do you think has really moved the
05:05needle in the stores to create a better shopping experience? One of the core tenants of everything
05:11we always do from a tech perspective is that it has to enhance the consumer experience. So I'll
05:16give you an example of that is our proprietary skin scan, where we do almost 100,000 scans a week
05:23with a 70% conversion rate. So what happens is a consumer can come in and we have this proprietary
05:29tool, and it essentially looks at the skin and it will make a foundation match. At the same time,
05:35it also goes through a skin diagnostic and tells you whether your skin is oily or dry and makes
05:39product recommendations. So that is not something a consumer will do on their own. That is a
05:44conversation starter between our beauty advisor and the client. And that to us is what is really
05:50exciting about technology. So that's how we really think about it. How do you enhance the
05:55consumer experience? How do you make it easier for our beauty advisors to have those conversations
06:01and create that really human connection? So it's digital for the sake of human,
06:05is the way I sort of think about it.
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