can be spontaneous and it can also be strategic, or a combination of both. I used a combined strategic and spontaneous inspirational approach I call “Hallway Management” for gaining approval to relaunch White Rain Shampoo at Gillette. What's that, you may ask? Well, whenever I saw my boss, the VP, or the president of the division at the water cooler in the hall, I'd tell them about all the letters I received asking to bring back the original White Rain Shampoo. It was a casual, excited, but determined and purposeful way of inspiring them to see the potential in bringing back that product. Finally, after several hallway encounters and additional mentions in more formal meetings, I was given the green light. I was told I could launch the product with the following parameters: I had a six‐month timetable and no increase in my budget. I had inspired a “yes.” Next, I had to inspire the team to make it happen.
I had assisted on new product launches at Gillette while climbing the ladder, but those were well supported with major budgets and long planning times. This was very different—I was now the project lead with a super short planning window. I knew it was a major career risk, and we had to make it a success. Knowing I had to light others up with the idea, I called a meeting of everyone who would be involved to jump‐start the project—Manufacturing, R&D, Packaging, Sales, Market Research, Advertising, and Art Design. When we were all in the room, I told them, “Congratulations! I've been getting a ton of letters from customers asking to bring back the clear White Rain Shampoo. Management has just given us the green light to relaunch it! I'm not sure how to do it. But I know you all do. I want to hear from each of your areas how we can do it fast and profitably. We only have six months to get it out the door on and on the shelves. So, let's get started!”
The team sat in stunned silence at first. Marketing had never called a new products meeting like that before. Usually, Marketing came to the subject matter experts with a concept fully planned out, and their job was to execute it. They were not in on the initial planning stages. Well, let me tell you. Within minutes, that team came forth with incredible ideas. “We have a shampoo bottle that works with the line that's already tooled, and production line approved,” said Manufacturing. “We have a wonderful clear shampoo formula and fragrance that beats Suave, and has been sitting on the shelf for a while,” said R&D. “We can turn the hair spray graphics into shampoo graphics that will fit that bottle,” said Art Design and Packaging after they huddled together. “I think we can do a tag on our regional advertising media flight,” Advertising chimed in and Market Research agreed they'd look into that also. After a while, I had to slow everyone down so my assistant product manager and I could capture all the notes! It was just amazing and taught me very valuable lessons about Finding Your Purpose and using it. I knew I could inspire people, but respecting others, being transparent, vulnerable, and authentic in the process is what can galvanize and motivate people to take action. Being perfect is not important. Being real is.
White Rain Shampoo was relaunched in six months with much success and went on to help grow the White Rain franchise from $25 million to a $100 million business. I was asked to write up the launch process we used. The New Products Development process at Gillette was changed: starting with bringing the subject expert teams together at the beginning of the process instead of much later on. In addition, the work of my team to get this done was chronicled in a case study for the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
My 10 years at Gillette were a pivotal time for me and provided incredible opportunities to use Finding My Purpose as I developed in my assignments there. I say this because people often think that you need to be working in your purpose as the total sum of your job or career. For some, that is possible. But as long as you can use your purpose consistently within your endeavors, it can still provide major satisfaction, and steer you as you pivot forward. This worked for me at Gillette.
Coming from Detroit I saw Black entrepreneurs all around me—all with Purpose—including Berry Gordy, who built the Motown music empire within walking distance of my home. I grew up with a profound respect for Black entrepreneurship and Black representation in business. I saw firsthand what it took to be successful, including watching the Supremes in green sequined evening gowns singing their No. 1 hit at the Michigan State Fair while the pigs oinked loudly in the background. Nothing stopped them! As a teenager I saw my mother cut up her Saks Fifth Avenue credit card (I begged her not to do it) and send it with a letter to the President of Saks saying she would no longer shop there until they put Black models in their catalog—and he wrote her back saying they would! So, when I got to Gillette and saw that there was no advertising in Black magazines like Ebony, Jet, and Essence, I decided I would raise the question as to why not every chance I respectfully could. I brought it up in meetings with management and the advertising agencies. I would ask, “We use shampoo, hairspray, and deodorant. These magazines reach millions of consumers and they have billions of dollars to spend. Why aren't we going after their business?” My goal for using my Purpose of inspiring others was clear and strategic. Over time, Gillette's Personal Care Division started advertising in Black magazines on a regular basis. I was deeply satisfied when the cofounder of Essence magazine thanked me personally for one of the ad spreads from Gillette that helped him during a challenging time for his business.
This advocacy led me to a career pivot I never envisioned. By Finding and using my Purpose to inspire others, I was instrumental in helping Gillette recognize that the Black hair care market was exploding, and they didn't have a piece of it. A couple of years later, they asked me to be a part of the acquisition team to acquire a Black hair care company. Although I took a finance course at Harvard Business School and liked it, I was not schooled in acquisitions. But the next thing I knew, I was flying all over the country asking the premier owners of Black hair care companies if they wanted to sell to Gillette. In many cases, it was just me. And them. Over lunch or in meetings in their offices. Or in one case, at the Lustrasilk Corporation, over dinner with the owners, and then during a tour of their state‐of‐the‐art manufacturing plant while it was closed so the employees would not know of our discussions.
It was a heady time, working with my mentor and boss, Linda Keene, on the team when Gillette ultimately acquired the Lustrasilk Corporation. Interestingly, Lustrasilk was never owned by Black entrepreneurs, but by a German former piano salesman and a Mexican former chemist from 3M who developed a product that would straighten sheep's hair. They figured there were a lot of people in the world with woolly type hair and built a $50 million business on that idea with products to service them. From my work on that project, I was promoted to Director of Marketing for Lustrasilk and moved with my family to Minneapolis.
While the Lustrasilk plant was state of the art, the bookkeeping and sales data were not. The books were kept by hand, as was the sales data. I literally spent weeks inputting sales data unit by unit into a computer so I could track trends and begin making future plans. In the meantime, Gillette was pressing for new products to boost sales. There was no brand management team, just the loyal team at Lustrasilk. We had to move fast to get things going with new products. Based on what I learned from the White Rain Shampoo experience, I leveraged Finding My Purpose and called a meeting with all the subject matter experts and asked them what we could launch quickly. A similar process happened. The head of R&D had a product he was convinced would beat the most popular oil moisturizer on the market. He'd been working on it for years, but the owners didn't see it as a priority. The manufacturing and packaging teams could produce it with no problems. I came up with a name on a flight back from Boston and legal cleared it. The advertising agency knew the power of radio and came up with a brilliant creative strategy to drive distribution. The team was inspired to make it happen and happen it did. When the radio ads broke all over the country, they were so successful that consumers were in stores begging for “Moisture Max.” We met our sales and distribution goals, and Gillette was pleased. I was super proud of the Lustrasilk team and, importantly, they were proud of themselves. Finding and using my Purpose was a unique way of inspiring others, and it was transferable. It was another important lesson. Fingerprints are indelible—something else to remember.
Align Your Purpose with Your Values and What You Enjoy
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