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Arbonne Beyond Bankruptcy
Arbonne International LLC chief executive officer Kay Napier wants the direct-sales skin care and cosmetics company's journey into and out of bankruptcy to be a success story worthy of a Harvard Business School case study.
The case study could begin with Napier being named ceo in August after a yearlong interim ceo stint by restructuring specialist Stan Springel. She was promptly handed a tough dual challenge: ingratiate herself to a field of independent consultants constituting the backbone of Arbonne's business although never having been in direct sales and simultaneously be the bearer of bad news about an upcoming bankruptcy.
This would be the mother of all p.r. crises I would have to deal with, so I thought of it as an opportunity, said Napier, who spent 23 years at Procter & Gamble and almost four at McDonald's prior to joining Irvine, Calif.-based Arbonne. We started this whole process of transparency.
Transparency meant a lot of talking. Napier phoned Arbonne's top consultants to warn them of the storm approaching. In person, she addressed the concerns of Arbonne's national vice presidents,...