What L’Oréal Seeks In MBA Hires

If an MBA was weighing an offer from L’Oréal and another firm, what would give you the edge?

That’s a great question and it’s exactly what we’re living every single day. In a nutshell, L’Oréal is the place to be because we are on the cutting edge of technology and we are living and breathing the consumer at the incredible pace of change that the consumer is also living. It’s a dynamic, high touch, consumer environment that allows an individual to have exposure to technology, product, consumer, and retail across all channels of distribution with exploding eCommerce and have a really unique customized career.

Could you give us an overview of your MBA recruiting, interview, and onboarding process? What are the steps that students should expect? How can they make a good impression and stay on your radar?

That process is both an In-person process and high touch, digitally connected process. Even before going on campus, we’re going to reach out to the university and the students. We’re going to connect with the clubs. We’re going to find out where some of the students are who we may be interested in (and who may be more interested in us as well). We’ll start making some of those connections digitally.

On campus, it goes beyond your traditional campus presentations and information sessions. It’s also about hosting meet the recruiter luncheons and talking to some of our senior executives and more junior talents on campus because we want to make sure we have a mix. We want students to meet people who’ve been here longer and are working in general manager positions. We also want them to get to know people who are like them and more recently graduated with their MBAs. So we also involve what we call L’Oréal ambassadors in that process.

Then, it’s really about encouraging the best-of-the-best to apply. As we screen through those applications, we’ll decide who the finalists are and then bring them to our beautiful offices here in Hudson Yards. We’ll have an assessment day where they get exposure to some of the leaders and the HR team so they understand more about our culture and go through that process with us. That way, they can get a better sense of what’s the job, the culture, and what it’s like to work here.

That process that I just described is over the period of many, many months. In our fall, we’re recruiting for our summer internship program, which is the pool of talent that we’re converting to full-time positions once people graduate. Last summer, we brought in between 15-25 MBA interns across all of the functions: marketing, finance, and supply chain, for example. Our target is to generally convert between 50%-60% of that summer internship class.

What types of onboarding, training and ongoing support do you provide to incoming MBAs?

From that very first moment, there is a personalized integration program that we call FIT, which stands for Follow Up and Integration Track. That personalized integration program includes new employees meeting with cross functional teams, senior leadership, and peers in order to build their network and gain an understanding of the company. Complementary to that, we have an amazing program called Discovery that all new employees go through. It is three days of what you’d call immersion into L’Oréal. It includes everything from a visit to one of our manufacturing and distribution centers to presentations from various senior leaders. It’s a great overview of the organization, while giving new hires visibility to new leadership very quickly. It gives them a chance to ask questions about current and future business strategies.

So you have FIT and Discovery in the very beginning. To complement these, you have the Marketing U program that I mentioned. Then, we expect you, as an MBA, to have an accelerated career. We expect you to contribute and grow and develop very quickly. With that MBA, graduates would have an HR or talent person working with them through their career as high potential talent. They’re coaching them and giving them guidance along the way. They’re there to bounce ideas off of them as well. So that’s built into process, without being the process. They take the journey with the MBAs in their roles.

As far as ongoing, some of our divisions have more formal mentoring programs. We have a really cool mentoring program called reverse mentoring for digital, which means a senior executive receives digital mentoring from a more junior digital profile. I’ve had a similar mentoring experience myself and it’s fascinating. It’s a great way for the culture to open itself up and say, “You know, our senior executives need to be upskilled a little differently and we have junior talents coming in who know this information and we can give them exposure and visibility.”

When it comes to L’Oréal, what are some of the biggest misconceptions that students may have about your organization (and your industry)?

I think it goes back to the business of beauty. We are #1 in the world. Our growth has been through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisition. I want people to know about the financial stability, incredible leadership, innovation, and the pace of this beauty consumer and what that means for the dynamic and energizing work environment. The consumer is always changing. His or her needs are always changing. L’Oréal is a great place for people who are looking for the entrepreneurialism, speed and impact with the #1 beauty brand in the world. I want people to understand what it takes to be the #1 beauty company in the world. Why is our culture anti-complacent? In this day, you have to work even harder.

The beauty and personal care consumer wants the product, service, and experience when they want it – not only when we want to give it to them. We’ve got to be able to provide an exceptional customer experience. We need to be in the channel wherever the consumer is when they want that product. They may be shopping in the store, but they may also be home online. If they’re online, they want that product immediately. So that means looking at our supply chain and distribution channels to identify ways to get the product out the door more quickly. It means developing new partnerships at retail. It means the consumer may require a particular shade. So how are we looking at the trends for shade so that we have what they may need before they even need it? Our consumers are incredibly well-educated. People know what they want and we’ve got to be able to get it to them when they want it.

Let me go back to the customer experience point. It’s the service. It’s the haircut. It’s the hair color. When you go to a salon, the experience is built on human service: the context, the process, and the hair color in salon. That’s not an automated process. As much as we talk about digital, we’ve always got to bring it back to the consumer-centricity. This consumer still needs a human touch and a human experience that is complemented by a digital approach.

What are your expectations for entry level MBAs? What are your most successful new hires doing to hit the ground running and quickly add value?

Some of what I’ll share is related to the culture piece we talked about earlier. We’re going to convert these amazing summer interns. With those interns, we expect them to come in and network. They are distinguishing themselves because they are working colleagues across divisions and functions. We want to see them collaborate and partner with those cross-functional teams. They’re not out there working on their own, but they’re really part of a bigger team.

I would say that self-starters who can learn to navigate culture and build relationships do well. They may not be able to figure out everything on their own, but they can leverage this network. They’re going to work with the different relationships they have. They’re going to ask questions. That’s how they set themselves apart.

We want people who share their opinions. The successful new hires are helping us to understand the next generation of consumers. I’ll say to them, “That’s why you’re here – because you know that consumer and understand the diversity of that consumer.

My expectation for the new MBA hire is that they’re going to bring their ideas, input, and their innovation and they’re going to make a difference here.

What excites you personally about working for L’Oréal?

I get to do something special every day. No day is ever the same. It’s the people, innovation, and the opportunity. We’ve been around for 108 years now and we still have the spirit of a startup. I love the fact that I get to make a difference –every single day. I’m entrusted to run my business every day and I work with people all around me who are entrusted to run their business every day and make a difference. We do this with that spirit of anti-complacency that is incredibly powerful and incredibly motivating. I leave here at night Excited about what that next day is going to bring. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

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