Leadership Summary: Andrea Jung Andrea

Leadership Summary: Andrea Jung

Andrea Jung is one of the most powerful female executives in the United States, making a study of her leadership style necessary, not only for women who aspire to executive positions, but for all people who aspire to executive positions. Jung was the child of two highly-educated, first-generation immigrants from China who moved to the United States in order to provide their children with better educational opportunities (Andrea Jung, 2008). Her parents instilled a strong work ethic in her children, which Jung embraced at an early age, earning high marks throughout her early education and going on to graduate with a BA from Princeton University in 1979 (Andrea Jung, 2008). From there, she began a remarkable career in management.

Jung started as a management trainee for Bloomingdale's, and by her late 20s she had become the second in command at I. Magnin & Company. By the age of 32, she was in charge of all women's apparel from Neiman Marcus. In 1994, she left Neiman Marcus to join Avon, where she became head of global marketing by the time she was 37. In 1998, Jung was promoted to COO of Avon, and in November 1999, Jung was named the president and CEO of Avon enterprises. Along the way, Jung became one of the most respected and powerful women in America.

Before studying Jung's leadership style in the corporate setting, it is important to understand how Jung used her free time to ensure success in the business world. All of her management positions have been in the fashion industry, and Jung began to mingle with the powerful people in the fashion world as quickly as possible. She became friends with fashion notables like Donna Karan and Anne Sutherland Fuchs, who was the publisher of Vogue (Andrea Jung, 2008). While it is doubtful that she based her decision solely on business reasons, she married Michael Gould, who was the CEO of Bloomingdale's. Together, they became a part of New York's society scene, which helped promote Jung's image in the world of fashion. More importantly, this showed her ability to harness her charisma, that intangible quality that is so necessary to a good leader, and use it to further her business goals. She would later use this same charisma after being promoted to COO of Avon in 1998; her promotion was opposed by one of the senior managers, because he believed that she would never be accepted overseas. However, she earned wonderful reviews after a visit to Latin America, showing that she had the charisma to be in a global leadership position (Andrea Jung, 2008).

Of course, Jung's meteoric rise was not only attributable to her wise decision to socialize with the leaders of her industry; she also made very wise business decisions. Her ability to make bold decisions became evident when she went to work for Avon. Joining Avon in 1994, Jung was not afraid to tackle the establishment. When Jung started with Avon, it had several different regional brands, which made a national marketing campaign impossible. Jung got rid of the regional brands and repackaged them as global lines (Andrea Jung, 2008). She also fired Avon's ad agency, developing new advertisement and more appealing product packaging. By doing this, she demonstrated a willingness to completely abandon strategies that were not working in favor of trying new strategies. Such open-mindedness may not be unusual for an executive entering into a corporate environment, but her commitment to retaining an open mind certainly was. Although Avon had seen consistent improvements under Jung's management, it faced serious financial challenges in 2005. Instead of entrenching herself in the successful changes that she had made, Jung used that opportunity to restructure the company, bringing it into the 21st century (George, 2007). While this ability to abandon what has worked in the past may eventually be a weakness, so far it has only been an asset for Jung.

To understand the changes Jung made in 2005, one must first understand the pressure that she was facing. Avon had experienced five years of double-digit growth and was suddenly confronted with almost stagnant growth, flat earnings, and a falling stock price (George, 2007). Critics began to hound Jung and to make demands about the changes she should bring to Avon. Rather than catering to those demands, Jung held on to her vision of what type of company Avon should be. She immediately went after management, which was not a surprising move; given that her vision of Avon was a company built on the success of its army of small business owners. In fact, "she eliminated eight levels of management and cut costs by $300 million" (George, 2007).

While cutting costs and eliminating management positions was hardly a revolutionary position for an executive faced with falling sales and stagnant growth, Jung's next move was significant. Rather than concentrate on increasing profits in her established markets, Jung took Avon into the Chinese market. In retrospect, every current market leader would suggest entering the Chinese market, but it was actually a visionary position in 2005, when not all industries were willing to try their hands in China. That move proved very successful; the Chinese market has become a large part of Avon's business. By 2007, Avon was once again experiencing double-digit sales growth and its stock price had rebounded from its 2005 low (George, 2007).

One of the most innovative things that Jung did was to adopt a new vision for Avon. As a cosmetics company, Avon had long been driven by a female customer base. Moreover, because its sales format was largely an at-home entrepreneurial business with women small business owners, Avon was always a female-friendly company. Jung did not try to reimagine Avon as something different or try to reach out to an underserved male audience. On the contrary, Jung capitalized on Avon's image as a company for women and officially called on Avon to become "The Company for Women" (George, 2007). She stressed that Avon was a way for women to achieve economic freedom. Of course, by the time Jung was pushing this vision of Avon, women had had years of economic opportunities, but Jung offered something different. With Avon, women could achieve economic freedom, and they could do it without having to enter into a traditional 9 to 5 work environment with all of its hindrances for working mothers. In this way, Jung became a wonderful leader for the rank-and-file in Avon, by supporting their efforts at self-sufficiency. She strengthened this position when she eliminated management positions when faced with a financial crisis, rather than making decisions that would have weakened the financial positions of the sales reps.