How to Build a Billion-Dollar Business

CHAPTER 6THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

I joined Swisse in March 2005 as Operations Manager. The company had 30 employees and an annual turnover of $15 million, 90 per cent of which came from two flagship products: Ultivite for Men and Ultivite for Women. I was excited to be there and keen to get started, yet from the moment I walked in, it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

For a start, we had to delete SBS1, a topical crème for people with eczema and psoriasis. Despite popular belief, this product was not named after our multicultural TV broadcaster (SBS stood for ‘sensitive beautiful skin’), and was one of our best-selling products. Customers raved about it. They wrote letters to us, letting us know how effective these crèmes were in reducing their pain and suffering and how much it had changed their lives. Reading these testimonials was a powerful reminder of why I transitioned from Village to Swisse. These products made a real difference and helped people lead happier and healthier lives.

The issues with SBS1 started when the health regulator instructed us to remove the therapeutic claims for eczema and psoriasis from the label. This was a major setback for us. These claims were crucial to its success. They explained the product's benefits to customers, and played a vital role in the marketing of the product. We'd conducted extensive clinical trials with scientists from Southern Cross University to prove these claims but, unfortunately, as the sample size used ...