Sue Y. Nabi on How Being Different Is a Superpower

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the latest episode of The BoF Podcast, Coty CEO Sue Y. Nabi shares how embracing identity in the workplace can lead to better business outcomes.

Background:

As one of the industry’s most visible transgender leaders, Sue Y. Nabi, chief executive of beauty conglomerate Coty, is well-versed in the transformative power of identity. In 2020, she was named the company’s fifth CEO in five years and was tasked with leading its turnaround. Then, the Kylie Cosmetics and Covergirl owner was plagued with debt and inefficiencies.

Since Nabi took the reins, however, sales have started to climb back up steadily: full-year revenue was up 14 percent year-over-year in 2022. Nabi laid the groundwork for growth by doubling down on prestige and expansion in China — focusing especially on excavating the strengths and purposes of each brand in the conglomerate’s portfolio.

“When you look at others, you forget where you are and you make all the mistakes… The world is full of copycats. Difference is not only a chance, but in business, it's an asset,” said Nabi.

This week on The BoF Podcast, Nabi joins Mory Fontanez, founder of consultancy 822 Group, to share how embracing identity in the workplace and aligning personal and professional values can strengthen a business.

Key Insights:

Nabi’s father, a painter, helped inform her understanding of beauty. “There is the conventional, classical beauty, and there is the different one — the one that also speaks to us a lot,” said Nabi.
Being unique in business is a tangible asset that can create new opportunities, according to Nabi. As well, staying in touch with your intuition — not just data points — can help leaders make intelligent decisions.
In both personal and professional spheres, Nabi’s definition of transformation centres on addition, rather than subtraction or erasure.
In a fast-paced world, people can feel pressure to make decisions quickly, but having patience and conversations is the way to finding enduring solutions to problems of all kinds.

Additional Resources:

BoF VOICES 2022: Live Your Best Life: In the final session of BoF’s annual gathering, speakers from model Dennis Okwera and Coty chief Sue Y. Nabi to Nike’s Larry Miller and activist Malala Yousafzai reflected on their personal histories and inner powers.
How to Create an Inclusive Workplace: Employees who feel comfortable and engaged make for a more productive and innovative workforce. Here’s how to make meaningful change in your company.

Discover more careers advice and content from leading fashion professionals on BoF Careers, and explore the 2,700+ global jobs available in fashion and beauty today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion. Welcome to the
0:09.6	Bof podcast. It's Friday, March 3rd. On this week's episode, I'm pleased to share a conversation
0:15.6	with Sue Nabi, whose appointment as the CEO of Cote made her the first woman to take the helm of a major global beauty conglomerate.
0:24.3	The appointment represented a defining moment in the wider beauty business, not least because Sue is a transgender woman.
0:31.7	In her work at Cote, she has directly championed and strived for diversity and inclusion across age, race, and gender, both
0:40.3	internally and in relation to creative output. So here's Sue Nabi in conversation with
0:47.0	Maury Fontenaz from B.OF Voices 2022. Sue? Yes. So nice to have you here to be in conversation. There's so many questions I want to ask you. I hope I can
1:00.4	represent the questions that the audience has as well. I think the biggest thing that comes to mind is to
1:06.2	think about you being at the helm of Cote's transformation over the last two years, one of the most impressive in the beauty industry.
1:16.1	And as I thought about that, I thought that had to come with some challenging, daunting moments, I'm sure.
1:21.9	So I'm curious mostly, what were some of your personal motivations and values that really helped you get through the
1:30.6	harder times of the last two years? You know, at the end of the day, what I try to do in everything
1:37.2	I do is to focus on what matters, what's important in fact. We are surrounded by so many things,
1:43.3	so many people telling you what you should do,
1:45.0	what you shouldn't do, et cetera. At the end of the day, my job is to create great products
1:50.0	that people use every day in the bathroom, wherever they are. And I focused on this when I started
1:56.6	at Cote, you know, I said, okay, let's look at this company. Do they have the right brands? Yes.
2:02.7	Do they have the right R&D, science people, marketing guys, et cetera? Yes. There is no region.
2:09.9	This company is not, you know, the fastest growing company in the beauty industry, which it is today.
2:15.2	So I focused on this. I spent time talking to people in laboratories,
2:19.7	talking to people about what went wrong for some brands. You know, if you think about
2:23.8	one of the key brands of the company, which is Cover Girl, I was working at La Real
	...

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