How to lose friends: What happened to the cosmetic company Deciem
Text: Roxana Kiseleva, author of the telegram channel godblesstheconcealer
Could a programmer from Canada suggest that his company can become a real competitor of the L'Oréal Group in just five years? Deciem didn’t get any better before the recent events: total sales of the concern’s brands this year reached $ 300 million, and last summer Estée Lauder became the minority shareholder of the company. This month, Deciem seems to be spoken about more than ever, but the cause of the noise was not the launch of The Ordinary serum, but the drama around the company and its founder Brandon Truax.
Chronicle of scandals
On October 9, Brandon posted a video in instagram account Deciem, in which he announced the suspension of the company's activities until clarification of the circumstances. In addition, Truax accused his subordinates (and a hundred more people and brands) of "economic crimes": "Almost all Deciem employees were involved in large-scale criminal activities, in particular financial fraud and much more." The video has already been deleted, but the full text of the monologue can be found here. The list of “criminals” also included blogger Caroline Hayrons, corporations Estée Lauder and Inditex, actors Ben Affleck and George Clooney, another whole crowd of people, and even the London restaurant Dishoom. In what way they were guilty, Truax did not explain, but the loud statements looked like an emotional reaction to the avalanche of unpleasant news that struck the beauty mogul.
The fact that his relations with colleagues do not add up, it became clear even in winter. On February 6, Truax announced the exclusion of the Esho brand from the company's portfolio. “We say to you bye-bye because we are too busy to continue to love your brand,” so Truax said goodbye to former business partner Tizhon Esho in a corporate instagram. By the way, Esho did not receive a separate notice and found out about his dismissal from the same post. And Interviewing for Esho Nicola Kilner (by the way, the co-founder of Deciem), Truax simply fired.
Complaints about Truax’s methods from insiders can be easily found on the Internet. If you believe the reviews from the site glassdor.ca (an analogue of our orabote.biz), the founder of Deciem allowed himself insulting remarks against women and African Americans, and preferred to resolve business issues with a cry - in general, he behaved at work extremely incorrectly. The history of the former employee of the New York store The Ordinary added fuel to the fire: he said that the store did not observe basic sanitary conditions, and the management from the Canadian side did not respond to the letters. The conflict ended in a wave of layoffs: Truax cut the entire American team. The list of scandals involving Brandon would stretch across several pages - you can read about it here, but in order to master everything, you will need a whole evening.
Why is it serious
Concern with a multi-million dollar turnover can not be closed even because of a series of scandals. While The Ordinary (the most profitable project of Deciem) was offering unique products, the company's reputation could not be destroyed even by Truax’s accusations of racism and sexual harassment. But maintaining the status of an innovator with such an abundant market is quite difficult: today, a similar ten brands can offer you a similar concept, whose owners do not call their employees "monkeys" - and people prefer to assign their money to them. Ambiguous business decisions, ignoring the rules of subordination and the odious manner of managing corporate social networks, if not destroyed, then significantly spoiled the reputation of Deciem. Bloggers wrote public posts full of hatred for Truax, and people burned concern products in protest against its founder.
The nail in the coffin was the very video. It was because of him that on October 11, Estée Lauder corporation filed a lawsuit against Truax. "The scandal with Deciem moved from instagram to courtrooms," commented WWD.com on this event. On October 12, the court decided to satisfy the group’s demands completely, namely, to remove Truaks from the management of the company, appoint Nicola Kilner as CEO, and also prohibit Brandon from communicating with employees and social networks on behalf of Deciem.
The new manager, Nicola Kilner, once close friend of Brandon Truax and co-founder of Deciem. In April 2018, Killer, dismissed with the motivation “because of differences in views on the future of the company,” gave a great interview in which she revealed details of the company's work and Brandon’s personality. She called the behavior of Truax senseless "madness", and her dismissal - baseless. Brandon himself at this time did not hesitate in a passive-aggressive manner to speak out against Nikola, so when Kilner returned to Deciem on July 3, everyone was surprised. As gossipers say with Reddit, it happened at the insistence of Estée Lauder. And this makes sense: Kilner was loved by subordinates, she has an impeccable reputation, she is a responsible and, most importantly, calm manager. In general, what is needed when the company falls apart on the eyes because of the incorrect behavior of its owner.
What will happen next
The crisis in Deciem has become an instructive story for large corporations who want to invest in promising young projects, and for these very projects that want to maintain their independence at any cost. What can be said right now - Deciem is not going to close. Stories are known for a million cases where the founders of beauty brands spoiled their reputation with their actions or sayings and, as a result, selling their brands, but in 99% of cases, good crisis management saved the situation. Jeffree Star Cosmetics, Lime Crime, Z Palette - these brands continue to exist and be sold, despite the cloud of scandals around them. Deciem is definitely waiting for a change. At a minimum, they will have a more correct szemeshchik. But there is no reason to stock up for the future with serum with niacinamide and zinc (bestseller The Ordinary).