Private talk with Claire Brugnago CEO Schwarzkopf France

We had the opportunity to meet the elegant Claire Brugnago CEO Schwarzkopf France during the 10th anniversary of the Hairdressing Awards celebrated in March 2015 at the cité de la Mode et du Design in Paris. We were totally seduced by the charm of that charismatic woman and we wanted to know about her during an interview in the offices of the company Henkel.
 

Liloo Sevan

Claire Brugnago has been the CEO of Schwarzkopf France since 2013 succeeding Frédéric Bonifacy. Regarding her career, we noted that she is a graduate of the business school (ESC) in Reims and she entered in the group Henkel in 2000. She had several positions within the group : administrative controller, marketing department beauty care France, strategic marketing Fa Düsseldorf, group leader in France, then Director General for the Maghreb countries, last position with direction of Schwarzkopf in France.
 

Claire Brugnago, as a CEO of Schwarzkopf France, could you define the values of the brand ?

The Brand Schwarzkopf has been supporting the hairdresser for 117 years ! The conveyed values have always been faithful to the vision of Hans Schwarzkopf : Innovative products focused on the client ! Our role, nowadays, is always to work closely with our partners to accompany them in the development of their business. We are not only providers and sellers of products. Our duty is really to coach the hairdressers on the business, technical, training and artistic level.

We are actors having the role of dynamising the hairdressing market in the field. More precisely, the French values of the brand are related to a very high proximity and to the presence of a commercial team which evolves in the hairdressing field throughout its career. And when I am talking about proximity, we are lucky to have a structure which enables a short decision process. This agility leads us to a great reactivity to bring solutions to the clients.
 

What are the areas of training you offer to your partner hairdressers ?

We offer them an inspiring training with five main elements :

• The Business seminaries to better understand its exploitation, its potential in terms of management.
• The Consultation seminaries to optimize its turnover thanks to the commercial services.
• The Creativity line to settle the technical bases and to develop its creativity.
• The creation of collections with the tendencies Essential Looks.
• The last line is Knowledge to improve on different themes.

We also complete our offer with new modules related to the leadership, the time management, the know-how and finally the communication including the social reds.

And for all of that, what's the organization ?

Our offers is for any level and meet any expectation. From a logistic point of view, our technical team covers the whole territory and works in our three academies and our five studios. To that, we can add the free-lance trainers and our digital proposition.
The latter enable the hairdressers to develop their knowledge and their know-how 24h/24 et 7/7 thanks to the gallery of the Schwarzkopf’s Applications and our videos. We also have a dynamic blog, real source of information.

Do your teams of national and international ambassadors Schwarzkopf have an essential role at the level of the artistic inspiration for the hairdressers ?

Indeed, our three international actors are specialized in their field : Creation, hair color and business. Then our national artists inspire, motivate and stimulate our hairdressers during their interpretations of the Essential Looks collections.

What about the innovation, have you planned some important launches for 2015 ?

Of course, we have launches for September but you will discover them at the right time. I can at least talk about our other key products :

The specific range for colored hair which does work very well : the BC Color Freeze with the star product, multi-action, the CC cream ! Our two care mists rich in precious oils and the whole range BC OIL MIRACLE for any type of hair. And also our two latest hairdressing products of the range Osis + Session Label.

I would like to finish with a question more about your position as a CEO woman. Is there a gender policy at Henkel ?

The parity sounds perfect to me. I will not hide from you the fact that during our professional career, we must be more flexible, braver and do more and more. And unlike men, we still ask ourselves if we are capable of. As far as I am concerned, I grasp the opportunities and when I accepted the position of Director General in Tunisia with a team with 65% men, I wasn't worried. Furthermore, communication with men is easier because more direct without too much emotions...with women you must be careful ! But I can summarize my thoughts referring to the famous sentence of Françoise Giraud who said :
“Women would be completely equal to men the day when, for an important position, an incompetent woman would be appointed."