Natura has a special identity in the Brazilian corporate environment. The 40-year-old cosmetics company does not only sell wellbeing as a marketing tool to reach customers, but has also sought to spread the values of better living among its own 6,000 staff and sales representatives.
Employees benefit from a corporate healthcare plan and healthy food is available at Natura's workplace, which also offers employees benefits such as a spa and yoga classes. It also has space for meditation, which has long been encouraged by one of Natura’s founders, Luiz Seabra. But those are only the basics.
“A lot of people are suffering in a corporate environment, but they do need not to,” says Marcelo Cardoso, Natura's vice-president of organizational development, who was appointed in 2008 to inject new vigor into the company’s philosophy.
This involves introduction of a process, based on the concept of “cultural biology” developed by Humberto Maturana, a Chilean scientist, which focuses on helping individuals to get to know themselves and to feel better about life and work, helps them to build relationships and eventually to be able to reduce work-related stress. It has been implemented at several levels, from the executives (managers to the CEO) to the operational staff on the factory floor, and the so-called relationship managers who are in direct touch with the salespeople. (Natura is predominantly a direct-sales company.) Every employee can then work on their individual plan, but, Mr Cardoso insists, “you can work for something bigger than your own career.”
The efficiency of the methodology can better be measured in qualitative rather than quantitative terms. “More mature staff can take better decisions and bring a better return in business terms,” Mr Cardoso insists. “When you can build this, the outcome is much better."
Natura's rivals include Avon, a US giant, and a myriad of smaller companies in the expanding Brazilian cosmetics market. Its market share is above 20% and growing, and it has been listed on the São Paulo stock exchange since 2004. The next test for Natura's workplace philosophy will be whether it can grow along with the company—a cautious internationalisation strategy has been under way in recent years in various Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico), as well as France.
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