Andrea Jung graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature, and took a job at Bloomingdale’s, participating in its management-training program. After distinguishing herself at Bloomingdale’s, she eventually took executive positions at I. Magnin and then Neiman Marcus. But in 1993, Avon “came calling,” asking Jung to work as a marketing consultant. Within a year she was made head of Avon’s product marketing division, with a primary mission—to help modernize the company.
Avon had been a successful, profitable company since it had been started in 1887, but by the early 1990s, the cosmetics company had badly slipped in the marketplace. Company research ...
