Leading purposeful enterprise in turbulent times with David Boynton
In Tuesday’s xChange we welcomed the former global CEO of The Body Shop, David Boynton to MarketingKind.
Paul Skinner interviewed David to explore his perspective on The Body Shop's journey and the leadership challenges of growing a purposeful business in a crisis-prone environment.
We discussed the process of creating the 'fight for a fairer, more beautiful world' purpose statement and how it was implicitly used as the glue in tough times and the decision-making tool in growing the business.
This was both exit interview and fascinating exploration of how purposeful enterprise can prevail in our turbulent times. It also happened to take place on the day The Body Shop changed hands from Brazilian B corp Natura to global private equity group Aurelius.
The full xChange video is available below.
Afterwards members commented:
‘Anyone interested in leadership, in brand management, in how to tell an organisational story and how world events impact on business should enjoy watching this video. Congratulations to MarketingKind on another event full of insight and learning.’
‘It was a super insightful session, and it was great to hear David's very candid assessment of his own career and The Body Shop's journey.’
‘This was an excellent discussion illustrating drive as a key leadership quality.’
In addition to his leadership at The Body Shop David previously held senior positions at a number of major high-street retailers and most recently was CEO of menswear company Charles Tyrwhitt. Prior to that he spent ten years at French beauty brand L’Occitane, where he was based in the US and part of a small global leadership group that took the company from 200m to over 1.2bn euro during that period. He has also held a number of senior management roles with A.S. Watson in Asia and supermarket group Safeway Plc in the UK.
He is known for creating challenging but supportive environments where talent can develop and flourish and for being a thought leader on sustainable brands and a keynote speaker at other major conferences around the world.