Overview

Andrea Jung, the glamorous former head of Avon, was arguably the world's most charismatic and effective CEO, credited with the astonishing turnaround of the venerable brand. Jung seemed incapable of making a wrong move, until, amid declining sales, an investigation by the SEC, and a brand in crisis, she stepped down in late 2012. In Beauty Queen, former Avon VP Deborrah Himsel uses Jung's story as a case study for two timeless leadership questions: What makes great leaders great? And what makes them fail? She explores both Jung's early years of success as well as the combination of missteps that led to her downfall, including her failure to nurture Avon's direct selling channel, the erosion of trust that occurred as a result of frequent decision reversals, and her ignorance of operational details, including how her people secured a license to conduct door-to-door sales in China, which led to a federal investigation. Through interviews with other CEOs, Avon executives past and present, and leadership experts, she explores the unique challenges Jung faced as a female Fortune 500 CEO; the thin line between pride and hubris; and the danger of the so-called ""halo effect"" in our high-stakes times.

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9781663753663

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Deborrah Himsel is a recognized expert in leadership development, a change agent, a thought leader, an educator, and an executive coach. She is a sought-after speaker for conferences and workshops. She combines consulting to clients such as ExxonMobil, Essilor, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, and NBC with real world leadership experience at Pfizer, Deutsche Bank, and Avon Products. Frustrated by academic and theoretical leadership books that made leadership seem bigger than life and unobtainable, she wrote her first book, Leadership Sopranos Style. Her most recent book, Beauty Queen: Inside the Reign of Avon's Andrea Jung, was written as part biography and part broader leadership lessons learned. Katie Billings is a trained opera singer turned voice actor and has lent her voice to hundreds of projects. Most of her audiobook work can be found on the app Pocket FM, for whom she's narrated stories the last three years. Outside the booth, she can be found in the garden or gaming with her husband.

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