ManishBhagat: Successfully Thriving In The Beauty Industry With Unparalleled Expertise
Manish Bhagat
General Manager
In an exclusive interaction with CEO Insights, Manish walks us through his professional journey and his unique play in the Beauty and Personal Care industry.
Give a gist of your professional back ground. What inspired you to pursue a career in the Cosmetics industry?
I started my post-graduate career in 2007 with P&G in Sales and worked extensively across North and East of India. I worked across frontline sales, route to market design, large and complex distributor management, and sales force productivity improvement projects impacting the company’s business. After witnessing the impact beauty products had on consumers' lives and confidence I recognized it as an inner calling and was determined to learn and grow with the beauty category. That's when I joined as National Trade Marketing Head for P & G Salon professionals. The category dynamics provided excellent learning opportuni ties, and with low penetration, the business was poised for exponential development.
The impact on Hairdressers and Consumers made me realize how we can contribute to society and improve lives. Later, I moved on as Commercial Leader handling Consumer and Trade Marketing for two years. In 2016, P&G opted to divest the business to COTY and I moved in as Marketing Director for India, which was an incredible
challenge of growing the Probusiness and setting up consumer business for COTY. To broaden my knowledge, I moved back as Sales and Education leader for COTY Pro India. We also started businesses in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. In August 2018, I was promoted to GM South Asia COTY Professionals Business after successfully moving the business through GST and demonetization adjustments. COTY chose to spin out the Pro business as an independent company to KKR in 2019, and I moved in as GM-India and South Asia for Wella Company. The inspiration to improve lives of Hair Stylist and consumers continues to get deeper and has navigated me through the last seven years in the Beauty industry.
How would you define Wella Company and its position in the industry? What are the unique propositions offered to the customers?
Wella Profesional is the pioneer in the Hairdressing industry with roots going back 140+ years. The impact on the Hairdressing industry has been remarkable globally. Our mission is to make our brands the most trusted by stylists and the most beloved by consumers. We are confident in our capability to do this with brands such as Wella Professional, OPI, WeDo, Sebastian Professionals, and System Professionals. Wella provides a one-of-a-kind offering of high quality, globally trusted brands, allowing for highimpact results in the Hair and Nail category.It also offers unique uptiering/ premiumising opportunities for our partners and consumers while providing a superior experience.
As they say, Hair is the Crown that consumers never remove. Ensuring that the crown is reflecting the person's glory is our job together with stylists. Wella company ensures that we provide the best products, education, and service to ensure we are seen as a trusted partner.
You are currently leading Indian Sub Continent business for the company, how were you able to cope with the market during the pandemic?
COVID-19 was a once in a lifetime event for the living generations. Given the high contact nature of the industry, the impact was more acute
Hair is the Crown which consumers never remove ensuring that the crown is reflecting the person's glory is our job together with stylists
How would you define Wella Company and its position in the industry? What are the unique propositions offered to the customers?
Wella Profesional is the pioneer in the Hairdressing industry with roots going back 140+ years. The impact on the Hairdressing industry has been remarkable globally. Our mission is to make our brands the most trusted by stylists and the most beloved by consumers. We are confident in our capability to do this with brands such as Wella Professional, OPI, WeDo, Sebastian Professionals, and System Professionals. Wella provides a one-of-a-kind offering of high quality, globally trusted brands, allowing for highimpact results in the Hair and Nail category.It also offers unique uptiering/ premiumising opportunities for our partners and consumers while providing a superior experience.
As they say, Hair is the Crown that consumers never remove. Ensuring that the crown is reflecting the person's glory is our job together with stylists. Wella company ensures that we provide the best products, education, and service to ensure we are seen as a trusted partner.
You are currently leading Indian Sub Continent business for the company, how were you able to cope with the market during the pandemic?
COVID-19 was a once in a lifetime event for the living generations. Given the high contact nature of the industry, the impact was more acute
compared to many other industries. To ensure that our partners were supported, Well a performed enormous online certifi cation sessions and seminars on COVID hygiene as to how to bring consumers back to salons, and more in the first wave. The same ensured that thousands of Salon partners and Hair dressers understand and adhere to the best practices for providing a safe salon environment for customers.
During the 2nd wave, we converted Wella India's premises into temporary vacci nation centers for our hairdressers, salon owners, and families and held numerous complimentary vaccination camps. We undertook the vaccine across five cities, vaccinating thousands of stakeholders in order to restore normalcy to the industry. We also provided free products to smaller salons to help them get through the challenging period. It is a responsibi lity that we are incredibly proud to have fulfilled.
In your professional journey so far, what are the milestones that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction?
It's been an exciting journey. It was tremendously fulfilling at P& G to manage the go-to-market strategy and execution in record time while working with teams across the country. Leading from the front, developing capabilities, aligning multiple stakeholders, and witnessing the results was an adrenaline rush, but a worthwhile task. In Wella, transforming the business structure including taking business omnichannel, foraying into new countries, launching in new categories like Nail in India, transforming the GTM strategy, and making the India business one of the most sought after countries within Wella Company was an extremely proud moment.
What are your plans for the company on the way forward?
India is a priority market for Wella Company. Our strategy will continue to be focused on creating value for professionals and consumers through our unique portfolio across hair and nail categories. We will lay our emphasis on omnichannel growth and reaching out to more professionals and consumers. We will continue to focus on our portfolio and GTM strategy, which has proven to be effective.
Hobbies: Reading, Playing Badminton
Favorite Cuisine: Italian
Favourite Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Favourite Travel Destination: London
Awards & Recognition:
Multiple awards within P&G, COTY and Wella.
During the 2nd wave, we converted Wella India's premises into temporary vacci nation centers for our hairdressers, salon owners, and families and held numerous complimentary vaccination camps. We undertook the vaccine across five cities, vaccinating thousands of stakeholders in order to restore normalcy to the industry. We also provided free products to smaller salons to help them get through the challenging period. It is a responsibi lity that we are incredibly proud to have fulfilled.
In your professional journey so far, what are the milestones that have bestowed you with utmost satisfaction?
It's been an exciting journey. It was tremendously fulfilling at P& G to manage the go-to-market strategy and execution in record time while working with teams across the country. Leading from the front, developing capabilities, aligning multiple stakeholders, and witnessing the results was an adrenaline rush, but a worthwhile task. In Wella, transforming the business structure including taking business omnichannel, foraying into new countries, launching in new categories like Nail in India, transforming the GTM strategy, and making the India business one of the most sought after countries within Wella Company was an extremely proud moment.
What are your plans for the company on the way forward?
India is a priority market for Wella Company. Our strategy will continue to be focused on creating value for professionals and consumers through our unique portfolio across hair and nail categories. We will lay our emphasis on omnichannel growth and reaching out to more professionals and consumers. We will continue to focus on our portfolio and GTM strategy, which has proven to be effective.
Hobbies: Reading, Playing Badminton
Favorite Cuisine: Italian
Favourite Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Favourite Travel Destination: London
Awards & Recognition:
Multiple awards within P&G, COTY and Wella.