Is a woman, according to one well-known investor. In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary noted that after taking stakes in 39 companies during the TV show’s run, he has received significantly better returns from startups founded and run by women. Why? O’Leary says women set reasonable goals for success. In contrast, men set testosterone-driven goals that they actually achieve just 60% of the time, in his experience. Setting achievable goals has a lot of benefits, including proper cash flow management. If growth comes in far below assumptions, companies run out of cash before generating enough of it to cover costs. Better still, when targets are reasonable, employees hit them, morale is strong and turnover is nil.

“These women-run companies go three, four, five years with no turnover,” O’Leary told The Journal.

Overestimating one’s ability to make money for themselves and their companies isn’t limited to men, of course, it’s just that men are more myopic when it comes to their abilities. A few years ago, one of our sales guys was confident that Google ads would quickly become a “million-dollar property,” for Rodman Media. After a couple of months of stops and starts and drips and drabs, the Google ad well went dry and our fearless prognosticator was on to his next get-rich-quick scheme. Oh, well, if you’re going to fail, fail fast!

Everyone knows that Indies have been crushing it for the past several years; and most know that 94% of these companies are owned by women. While no one is quite sure of their success rate, the phenomenal growth of indie beauty certainly has more to do with female-, rather than male-led leadership. These Dog Days of Summer are prime time for indie beauty; ICMAD just gave out its Indie Beauty Innovators Awards at Cosmoprof North America (see Happi.com for a list of the winners) and later this month, the Indie Beauty Expo hits New York City. Day in and day out, Happi.com features leaders in the indie beauty industry and our Indie Inc column appears in every issue of Happi.

Slow-and-steady wins the race. A RunRepeat study of more than 1.8 million marathon results from all over the world spanning five years, concluded women are better at men at maintaining a consistent pace. They slow down 18.61% less than men in the second half of a marathon. Consistency works in road races and it works in business, too.

The Society of Cosmetic Chemists is recognizing the valuable work that women do in the industry. Read This Woman's Work to learn more about the SCC's new Florence Wall Women in Cosmetic Chemistry Award. 


Tom Branna
Editorial Director
tbranna@rodmanmedia.com