Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Vodafone’s new CEO made early sweeping job cuts, the U.S. is getting a second professional women’s soccer league, and Glossier’s new CEO is shifting the beauty brand away from the business model that powered its early years. Happy Wednesday!
– Direct to Sephora. Glossier has entered a new era. The direct-to-consumer beauty brand whose no-makeup aesthetic and millennial pink branding attracted a cult following is nearly 10 years old. The unicorn weathered a COVID-era downturn; it’s without founder Emily Weiss as CEO for the first time (she’s still executive chairwoman); and it’s now leaning into post-pandemic consumer behavior that’s steering it away from its DTC roots.
CEO Kyle Leahy is at the helm of Glossier as it embarks on this new phase, and the Cole Haan and Nike alum, who became chief executive last year, spoke with our own Emma Hinchliffe at Fortune MPW Next Gen conference yesterday about the transition.
One seismic change is how Glossier now thinks about the direct-to-consumer model. Leahy admits there was a time in which Glossier and peer brands “felt that [the model] was our value proposition and it certainly was disruptive.”
That’s not the case anymore. “DTC isn’t our value proposition. It’s a channel,” she said.
Glossier came to that realization as it regrouped from a pandemic slump, product misfires, and Black store employees’ complaints of racist experiences (for which the company apologized). In short, it listened to its customers, who were saying loud and clear that they wanted to interact with Glossier products, Leahy says. As it turns out, Sephora’s online search data said the same thing; its analytics showed that Glossier was a top-searched brand at Sephora, Leahy said.
Glossier had opened retail stores in New York and Los Angeles, but it was clear customers wanted more.
So in February 2023, Glossier products became available at Sephora for the first time, a launch that Leahy said “significantly [exceeded] our expectations.”
Leahy says that the DTC model isn’t entirely dead. After all, it helped Glossier break into the beauty industry with a unique “come as you are” beauty approach.
“I think Glossier was one of the pioneers of bringing beauty online. It set a new paradigm for this generation and generations to come that you can buy beauty products online,” she said.
Day 2 of MPW Next Gen will feature the head of Meta’s global business group, Nicola Mendelsohn, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, actress and Pattern Beauty founder Tracee Ellis Ross, and more. You can watch the mainstage livestream here starting at 9:30 a.m. PST.
Kinsey Crowley (she/her)
kinsey.crowley@fortune.com
@kinseycrowley
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Veto override. North Carolina Republicans on Tuesday used their supermajority to pass new abortion restrictions after Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the measure. The law bans abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, down from 20 and further strips the U.S. South of access to the procedure. New York Times
- 1 in 100. Cherelle Parker won the Democratic nomination for Philadelphia mayor on Tuesday, making her all but certain to be the next leader of the city that leans heavily Democratic. If she wins the general election, Parker, 50, will be the city's 100th mayor and the first woman to hold the job. Philadelphia Inquirer
- Historic cuts. Vodafone's new CEO Margherita Della Valle announced Tuesday the biggest round of job cuts in the company's history. Vodafone employs 90,000 people across Europe and Africa, and will cut 11,000 jobs over the next three years. Della Valle took over a month ago to try to turn around the underperforming company. Reuters
- Not aligned. CVS, led by CEO Karen Lynch, is shuttering its clinical trials division just two years after launch without much explanation beyond a lack of alignment with "long-term strategic priorities." Rivals Walgreens and Walmart also launched clinical trial businesses in 2022. Fierce Healthcare
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Cowbell is bringing on Andrea Collins as its first CMO. Lauren Antonoff will be the next COO at Life360.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Regulate A.I. Former JPMorgan exec and founding partner at Motive Partners Blythe Masters says that A.I. will transform the financial industry but warns that it could reinforce existing biases if it grows too quickly and goes unregulated. She is known for her role in creating the credit-default swap derivative that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Bloomberg
- New league in town. The United Soccer League announced it will start a women's soccer professional league in the U.S., pitting it against the existing National Women's Soccer League. USL Super League President Amanda Vandervort said the league is capitalizing on the growing interest in women's soccer from fans and corporations. Wall Street Journal
- Disproportionate detransition. Transgender people who decide later to detransition have been disproportionally cited by conservative media and lawmakers, according to an analysis by the New York Times. There are few studies on people who revert back to their sex assigned at birth, but they likely only make up 2% to 13% of the trans community. New York Times
ON MY RADAR
At the real embassy, Netflix’s Diplomat draws a diplomatic response New York Times
Succession’s own it girl Harper's Bazaar
Yes, Janelle Monae is gorgeous but she's a boss first Essence
As a woman of color, how can I navigate a “frat-like” subculture? Harvard Business Review
PARTING WORDS
"Every day isn't 100%, but I wanna go out and make my team proud and my family proud."
—Las Vegas Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan talking to Emma Hinchliffe at MPW Next Gen about balancing her family and her job
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