AVON
By: Denise Cope, Dylan Stender, Faith Gilbertsen & Kyle Langland
PROBLEM:
 Current CEO not turning a profit.
 Lowest sales in Avon History under Andrea Jung.
 Avon hires a new CEO in 2012.
PROBLEM:
 The team’s three questions are:
 How does the difference in leadership styles directly affect
the leadership of Avon representatives?
 What are some of the global implication that Avon may
face with the leadership change?
 How will the change in new leadership style improve Avon
Corporation compared to the previous leadership?
BACKGROUND:
 David H. McConnell created Avon in 1886. (Avon Company,
2014.)
 Created for a source of income for house wives.
 Became the World’s largest direct selling cosmetics
company.
DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS:
 Sales plummeted under Andrea Jung from 2010-2012.
 Andrea Jung uses the Path Goal Theory approach. (Robbins &
Judge, 2009)
 Allowed representatives to make their own decisions. (Duke, 2013)
 Representatives formed their own conclusions. (Sahgal & Pathak, 2007)
DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS:
 Andrea Jung started in 1999 and sales increased.
 From 1999-2000, sales went from 5 billion to
nearly 6 billion. (Ozmorali, 2014.)
 In 2005, Avon sales increased close to 8.1 billion
dollars. (Ozmorali, 2014.)
*Graph: http://www.worldofdirectselling.com/avon-in-numbers/
DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS:
 Between 2010 to 2013, sales have
dramatically decreased.
 Avon lost its #1 ranking of a direct
selling company. (Ozmorali, 2014.)
 Andrea Jung’s leadership was no
longer effective within sales.
*Graph: http://www.worldofdirectselling.com/avon-in-numbers/
DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS:
 In 2012, Avon introduced a new CEO, Sherilyn McCoy.
 McCoy took over a company that lacked infrastructure and a
decreasing sales problem. (Protess, 2012)
 Sherilyn McCoy utilizes the Vroom-Yetton model as her leadership
style. (Robbins & Judge, 2009)
 Currently, McCoy achieved over 10 billion in sales and a 7% increase
in beauty sales. (Avon Company, 2014)
RECOMMENDATION:
 The newest form of leadership style that Sherilyn McCoy
presents is benefiting Avon.
 The old leadership style of Andrea Jung’s was no longer
beneficial or rendering a profit.
 The leadership styles prove to be effective with what economic
times present to Avon.
CONCLUSION:
 The Path Goal Theory of leadership works great in stable
economic times, but proved to be ineffective during the recession.
 The conclusion to why Avon sales decreased so much were from
lack of change in leadership by Andrea Jung.
 Andrea Jun failed to focus on the global market of cosmetics.
 Andrea Jung utilized the Path Goal Theory and proved to be very
successful for several years.
CONCLUSION:
 Andrea Jung let her employees make their own decisions and
structure.
 Andrea Jung would not cut any markets.

 Current CEO, Sherilyn McCoy, established structure and discipline
to Avon employees.
 Sherilyn McCoy noticed some markets were not turning a profit,
and therefore, they cut that particular market.
REFERENCES:
 Avon Company. (2014). Investors and Annual Reports. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from Avon
http://investor.avoncompany.com/Cache/1001185342.PDF?Y=&O=PDF&D=&fid=1001185342&T=&iid=3009091
 Barsh , J., Mogelof , J. & Webb, C. (2010, March 1). How centered leaders achieve extraordinary results McKinsely
Quaterly , 4(3), 1-11.
 Chandler, D. (2011). What women bring to the exercise of leadership. Journal of Strategic Leadership , 3(2), 1-12.

 Duke, J. (2013). An examination of the business strategy and transformational leadership . International Journal of
Business and Social Research , 3(12), 1-17. extraordinary results McKinsely Quarterly , 4(3), 1-11.

 Goudreau, J. (2013). New Avon CEO Vows To Restore The 126-Year-Old Beauty Company To Former Glory. Forbes.
Retrieved from
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2013/02/27/new-avon-ceo-vows-to-restore-126-year-old-beautycompany-to-former-glory/
REFERENCES:
 Martin, Andrew (2012). Avon Chairwomen to Quit Earlier Than Expected. B1 of the New
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/06/business/avon-chairwoman-to-stepdown.html?_r=0
 Mary Kay. (2014). Executive Bios. Retrieved Novemeber 13, 2014, from About Mary Kay http://www.marykay.com/en-us/aboutmary-kay/companyfounder/pages/executive-bios.aspx
 Mohan, D. (2013, March 7). Vroom-Yetten Contingency Model
 Ozmorali , H. (2014, October 27). Avon in numbers . Retrieved from http://www.worldofdirectselling.com/avon-in-numbers/
 Protess. B. (2012) Avon Appoints New Chief Executive. Revolving Door. Retrieved by
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/avon-appoints-new-chief-executive/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
 Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2009). Basic Approaches to Leadership. In Organizational Behavior (13th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 1-599). Upper
Saddle River: Pearson.
 Sahgal , P., & Pathak, A. (2007 ). Transformational leaders . International Journal of Leadership Studies , 2(3), 263-279.