Want to know what it’s like to be the CEO of a global beauty conglomerate? Then this episode is for you!
In Ep. 157 of Earned, Conor sits down with Vasiliki Petrou, formerly the CEO of Unilever Prestige.
To start, we dive into Vasiliki’s extraordinary journey as a leader in the luxury brand sector. Vasiliki shares how she transformed brand management at Unilever Prestige by nurturing founders as integral co-pilots and aligning brand values with the evolving demands of luxury consumers. Her leadership has not only anticipated market trends but also established enduring value within the high-growth premium segment. We then discuss her ascent from associate brand manager to CEO, the importance of diverse skills and collaborative leadership, and fostering an environment where expertise and friendship thrive. Switching gears, we discuss Vasiliki’s focus on consumer health, longevity, and wellness, identifying promising opportunities for growth. To close the show, Vasiliki advocates for those in power to strive for a passion-driven, human-centric leadership approach that enhances performance and team satisfaction.
Check out highlights from the episode below, or or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
Conor Begley: I'm curious how you incentivize the founders [of brands now under the Unilever Prestige umbrella to stick with their brands]. Obviously there's earnouts and such, but for a lot of these founders, they've already made a lot of money. So money can rarely be like a sole motivator. To see someone like Carisa still at Hourglass, still working hard, is crazy. How did you keep them engaged? And honestly, if you can be as tactical as you can, like, what were the levers that you used? You know, outside of, say, an earn out?
Vasiliki Petrou: To be honest with you, it starts way before the acquisition because, in principle, I wasn't interested in working with founders that wanted to exit at the time of the acquisition.
I very much believe in founders that want to be part of the journey, build the next chapter, with you. That was part of my selecting process, you know finding the partners who want to be there for the long term. But I truly think it's part of the business model we created, because we wanted to keep the companies authentic. I worked very much with a bespoke model of where the founder truly wanted to be involved. Some wanted to own the creative process, some the innovation process, some wanted to run the business. So I didn't have a cookie cutter approach. This is the role of the founder and this is how we're going to run things. This really helped to leverage people in ways that were inspirational to them, and if a founder is inspired, the company will benefit, no matter what.
Conor Begley: There's something about having a founder involved that both one from an external perspective gives the brand a history right and gives them, you know, a soul and a face. And then separately, there's some level of intuition or caring that exists from a founder that's just hard to replicate from somebody who didn't found something. I think it's unique how much emphasis you placed there.
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