DSA
Overwhelmingly female in the field, many direct selling companies still mostly male in C-Suite
By Jennifer Osborne
“Women need to ask for more than we do; women as a whole, not just executives, need to step up in every department, in every shape, in every form across the board and ask for more.”
— Laura Brandt, President, IDLife
The most recent Forbes’ 100 Most Innovative Leaders list includes only one woman. This number has raised many questions and debate about inclusion and diversity across the business community.
Current effort would enshrine Dynamex standards into state law
By Teresa Craighead
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has defined sexual harassment in its guidelines as the following: unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
- Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or
- Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or
- Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
Oriflame Co-Founder Jonas af Jochnick Passes Away
Jonas af Jochnick, co-founder of Swedish beauty firm Oriflame Cosmetics, died suddenly May 17. The 81-year-old Swedish entrepreneur, who founded Stockholm-based Oriflame with his brother Robert in 1967, passed away in his sleep. He had been active in various positions in the company and stepped down from the company’s board in 2018.
Dell Brown, doTERRA
DoTERRA has hired Dell Brown as the chief operating officer of Prime Meridian Health Clinics, doTERRA’s healthcare initiative. Brown has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare consulting industry and will lead Prime Meridian in strategy and logistics. Prior to doTERRA, Brown co-founded Global Health Consulting, and before that, he worked for CSC Healthcare as a senior consultant.
White House doubles down on tariffs as a weapon in trade talks
By David Rauf
Last year, the U.S. imposed new duties on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico, prompting the Mexican government to react with its own set of retaliatory tariffs that ended up having an impact on some U.S. direct sellers that sell health supplements.
“If China wants to restrict anything coming from the U.S. or tax any company it sees fit from the U.S., it could do that very easily. In that scenario, what’s going to happen is that the cost is going to be absorbed by the company or passed on to the consumer.”
—Rafael Miner, partner, Miner Group Consulting
Without warning, company restructures compensation plan to single-level; field leaders stunned
By Teresa Craighead
The sudden announcement has created speculation throughout the channel, with [experts] asking why a company with $472 million in revenue would choose to so dramatically change its business model, seemingly overnight.
“The FTC has basically told us what the right way to do business is. [FTC Associate Director] Lois Greisman has repeatedly said ‘look to the settlement’, ‘look to the MLM business guidance.’ This seems to be a pretty clear indicator they weren’t kidding around.”
—Al Bala, CEO Mannatech