Customer Obsessed

4Rethinking Employee Engagement

Unifying a Diverse Team

It seems self-evident that diversity is good for beauty companies given that they want to sell hair coloring, skin care, and other beauty aids to women of every ethnic makeup. To that end, one of Bluewolf's recent clients (anonymized for privacy) issued its first diversity report at the end of 2015 noting inclusion of people with disabilities and, most important, inclusion of people of diverse social and ethnic origins. In the report, the company's chairman and CEO declared that the “management of diversity is a strategic lever for us. A diverse workforce in all functions and levels of a company enhances our creativity and our understanding of consumers, thus allowing us to develop and market products that are relevant to their expectations.”

When it comes to diversity, this beauty industry company is actually looking beyond its direct staff. It is cultivating a cadre of independent hairstylists and colorists who will teach customers and others the techniques and use of their products. Once women all over the world understand how best to use hair coloring and makeup and other beauty aids for their skin, hair color, and personal tastes, they will be more likely to not only buy this company's products but buy the right products and be more satisfied with the results.

To me, this sounded like a great strategy. There was only one catch: the company needed tools that would help this large and diverse workforce, not all of whom ...