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 (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  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 , sales went from 5 billion to nearly 6 billion. (Ozmorali, 2014.)  In 2005, Avon sales increased close to 8.1 billion dollars. (Ozmorali, 2014.)

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.

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  Barsh, J., Mogelof, J. & Webb, C. (2010, March 1). How centered leaders achieve extraordinary results McKinsely Quaterly, 4(3),  Chandler, D. (2011). What women bring to the exercise of leadership. Journal of Strategic Leadership, 3(2),   Duke, J. (2013). An examination of the business strategy and transformational leadership. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 3(12), extraordinary results McKinsely Quarterly, 4(3),   Goudreau, J. (2013).  Goudreau, J. (2013). New Avon CEO Vows To Restore The 126-Year-Old Beauty Company To Former Glory. Forbes. Retrieved from  company-to-former-glory/

REFERENCES:  Martin, Andrew (2012). Avon Chairwomen to Quit Earlier Than Expected. B1 of the New down.html?_r=0  Mary Kay. (2014). Executive Bios. Retrieved Novemeber 13, 2014, from About Mary Kay mary-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  Protess. B. (2012) Avon Appoints New Chief Executive. Revolving Door. Retrieved by  Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2009). Basic Approaches to Leadership. In Organizational Behavior (13th ed., Vol. 1, pp ). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.  Sahgal, P., & Pathak, A. (2007 ). Transformational leaders. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 2(3),