Concepts of Opportunity
By: Steve Tanner, Arylessence
Posted: August 11, 2009, from the August 2009 issue of GCI Magazine.
- Success depends on the success of clients.
- Solutions must be provided at every level.
- Involving key individuals in leadership and decision-making not only makes teams stronger and self-reliant, but also generates positive momentum, improves business outcomes and creates extraordinary efficiencies.
- One of the responsibilities of leadership is to ask questions.
Wherever I travel, I’m asked: “How do you find time to fit in everything you do? How do you lead your people, manage your company and, at the same time, serve on industry committees?” I have one answer: Doing all these things is the same job. In our business, success depends on the success of our clients. Any time I am serving my clients’ interests, I am doing the right job, no matter what that job is.
Balancing these responsibilities is important, but putting a priority on one task over another is impossible. Not only is everything we do for our clients important, but clients have multiple objectives. It’s natural for them to want all their objectives met now, rather than later. Since they have chosen us to be a creative partner in providing fragrance solutions, we must also provide solutions at every level—creative, marketing, technology, safety, regulatory, quality, sustainability … and on.
Clearly, our perfumers, evaluators, application scientists and marketing experts address these factors, as do our regulatory affairs people, and challenging industry-wide issues are tackled in industry meetings. All are critical and cannot be ignored. But what really helps our teams provide leadership for our clients is that we believe in the concept of opportunity.
There is always opportunity to be developed in any business situation—to be first, to be innovative, to be competitive, to be cost-effective. If you believe that opportunity exists, you will you find it fast and you will lead your client directly to it. That’s always our goal. This philosophy guides everything we do—as fragrance creators, as a company, and as an active participant in industry affairs.
Fragrance Leadership