Adore Beauty’s Sacha Laing talks omnichannel retailing

To kick-start the new year, Inside FMCG asked Sacha Laing, Adore Beauty CEO, three questions on leadership, legacy and how he’s finding the shift from fashion retailing to beauty.Here, Laing’s answers give insight as to how his career expertise will drive the transformation of the pureplay beauty retailer into an omnichannel one. This month Adore Beauty will enter its bricks-and-mortar store era after over two decades as a pureplay online retailer.Inside FMCG: How would you describe your leadership style? And how has this been shaped by your career journey?Sacha Laing: I’m a big believer in providing teams with autonomy to be able to get on and do the job, and that they want to do that job and contribute to the business. In order to do that, people need to have a very clear understanding of where we’re going, why we’re going there, and that they believe in it and subscribe to it.It’s also important for individuals to understand what things they’re being measured on and how to best measure their own performance so that you’re not having to construct these really firm guard rails where you’ve constantly got people having to ask for permission to do the next thing.If we’re all clear about where we’re going, why we’re going there, what we need to contribute, and what performance indicators we’re being measured against, that’s when true autonomy really starts to take hold.You’ll harness the energy of a lot of really smart people in the business when you’ve got a whole organisation clear about the role they play in contributing to the success of the journey, as individuals and as a total collective.We’ve got really smart people in the business, and there’s a lot of positive energy about taking the business forward. What I need to do, and what I’m doing, is making sure that everybody’s very clear about their contribution; and the role they play in this journey.To ensure that at each point in time, we know that we’re all moving together forward at the same time.What is the career legacy you want to have?What a great question. I’ve always believed in leaving a positive.Leaving whatever I’ve been doing, whether it be in an organisation, whether it be people that I’ve worked with, I like to be able to leave something in a better place than when I arrived. And if that means we’ve transformed the business, and we’ve grown the business, and it’s now this fantastic omnichannel, beauty authority that’s got a national footprint of stores, a fully integrated online and omni experience, and our customers are loving that. To me, that would be a fantastic outcome at the end of the journey with Adore.That being said, I also very much pride myself on investing in people. Throughout my career, I’ve invested heavily in others to enable them to develop their careers. Within the Adore environment, we are reshaping the team to provide existing team members with the opportunity to learn how an omnichannel ecosystem works.Providing individuals with a deep experience in pureplay e-commerce environment the opportunity to expand and grow their skillset, by joining the store development project team that’s building this first store.I’ve always believed in making a positive contribution and leaving things in a better place than when you first found them. And that’s certainly an ambition I have for Adore as well.You’ve come from a very fashion-heavy retail background, into beauty. How are you finding that?Look, so many of the principles are so aligned. And to be honest, the consumer is the same. The principles of the right product, experience, value proposition and the right team with the right training engaged to deliver this apply equally across the different retail sectors.As do the disciplines of running a business, but I think deeply understanding your customer, whatever industry you’re in, and “what they want” is imperative to delivering the right value proposition.The same principles apply, whether you’re in the beauty or the fashion industry.The other thing that I’ve found and really enjoyed is there’s a lot of positive, great energy in the beauty category. Retail is fast-paced and fashion retailing is no exception. The beauty industry steps that up one more notch.