It's planning and budgeting time around the Mary Kay office right now. That means we're all thinking about our most important initiatives for 2010, our revenue forecasts for all of our markets around the world, and what we think we'll be spending to accomplish our goals. It's a process that goes on for a few months each year. We each begin at the individual department level, but eventually all have to come together to make sure that our goals are in sync overall and that our company-wide budget is reasonable. No one particularly enjoys the process, but everyone understands how important it is to plan. As I was thinking about this, I was reminded about two things: (1) Mary Kay Ash always said that one should " plan your work, and work your plan ", and (2) that many young women these days don't have a plan for their life, but wish they did (as we learned from our 2009 What Women Want research study). It occurred to me that as individuals, we don't often take...

In our recent conversations with women around the globe, we learned the "10 Things Women Want Now", which I've shared in previous posts. Mary Kay also wanted to hear what they were thinking specifically about beauty. When it comes to what women want in beauty, the list is short and simple. 1. Women Want . . . Natural Beauty Women believe that "true" natural beauty is about enhancing what you already have; that the way you "make yourself up" should be complementary to your assets or features, and not overshadow them. For some, natural beauty is associated with youth and staying young (notice that I didn't say "looking young"), and many admit that it does become increasingly more difficult to achieve as you age. In many ways, this aspect of beauty has little or nothing to do with makeup, and is more about acknowledging what is already naturally beautiful in themselves. (But don't think that means women don't want to wear makeup. See...

I bet you're wondering where I've been for the last several days, since I haven't posted anything new since last Thursday. Well, I've been out of the office, and as Murphy would have it, couldn't get the wireless device on my laptop to work. Thank goodness for the super folks back at corporate who quickly ordered me another wireless card and had it overnighted. I got it last night, so we're back in business! When we set out to learn from women around the world what they wanted out of life today, one of the topics that we knew we wanted to explore with them was the role of technology in their lives. In every single case, no matter which country we were in, the women brought up the topic long before we planned to start talking about it. Very early in the conversations, the women were eager to talk about how they used the Internet and technology to manage the social aspects of their lives, as an enhancement to their face-to-face relationships with family and friends...

Well, we've finally arrived at the piece of this on-going discussion that I've been looking forward to, and at the same time dreading. Not because it's bad in any way, in fact I think it's really good that women are comfortable talking about this subject. For our male readers, let me just say, don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger. When Mary Kay asked women around the world what they wanted in their lives today, they told us. In fact, there were ten consistencies that surfaced, regardless of what culture or region of the world the women were from. One of those ten things was MEN. . . sometimes ! The "sometimes" here is the critical factor. It seems that women today have a yin/yang relationship with the men in their lives. For single women, they definitely still have romantic notions, but many feel that husbands can become obstacles to some of the other desires they have in their lives, like their career. In Europe, women cited that being loved by a man...

Mary Kay Inc. was interested in finding out what women want in today's world, so we took a few months to learn from women in several countries around the world. They weren't shy and they held nothing back. We've been exploring these things over the last several posts, and we've reached #5. In addition to completeness, strength and independence, family + choice, and a fulfilling career, women around the world are longing for a connection and sisterhood with other women. For some, "girls night out" has become a never-to-be-missed weekly ritual. These female escapes provide carefree times, to get away, however briefly, from the everyday stressors of life. It can be as simple as meeting for tea or coffee, or involve pampering in the form of manicures/pedicures, or even full-blown weekend long retreats. Our girlfriends, in many ways, are our family. They provide a source of strength and security. They assist us when we need the help. They validate who we are and what...

We've reached #3 in our series exploring what Mary Kay has recently learned in our research with women around the world. One of the 10 things that women want today is family choices . We find that, while family IS very important to women from all cultures, what that family looks like and how women feel about it can be quite different than the traditional family models of the past. Even as divorce rates in Mexico rise dramatically, family is still strong. Our Mexican sisters, much like women in the US, spend a great deal of time and energy working to provide a better life for their children. They work hard to keep the family the center of their lives because they believe that the downfall of other countries is caused by the decline of the family unit. In China, many grandparents have the responsibility of child-rearing while the moms work to make their dreams a reality. This multi-generational approach to raising children is a growing trend in the US, too, as families hit by tough economic...

In Mary Kay's on-going quest to provide the products, services and business opportunities that women around the world are looking for now and for the near future, we just completed a major global research project that we called "WWW" or "What Women Want". We had learning sessions in 7 countries across the globe: the United States (we also met specifically with Latina women in the US), Mexico, China, Russia, Brazil, Korea and Ukraine. Women were randomly selected from among a larger group who met the age, lifestyle and other factors that we were interested in, and each woman selected was asked to invite a good friend to attend the session with her. It was great fun getting to know these women and their friends, and hear all about their lives, their careers, how they used technology and their feelings about beauty. Over the course of the next several posts, I'm going to delve into the lives of these women and share the insights we gleaned from them. At the end...