A New-Generation Avon Lady

摘要

You could call Harriet Edelman the Ultimate Avon Lady. The 18-year company veteran, now senior VP and CIO, knows Avon Products Inc. inside and out. She also has the personality, energy, smarts, and influence to help make the cosmetics giant a Web-sawy business. "Harriet brings together the old and new. She understands technology, but she also understands what the capabilities of technology mean in the Avon world," says Adam Kuta, Avon's senior director of customer relations and retail systems.rnIn other words, the cost and efficiency benefits of the Internet have to complement Avon's legendary direct-sales model. With Edelman's guidance, Avon has tread lightly as it moves into E-business: It can't afford to alienate its network of 450,000 independent U.S. representatives or its nearly 2.5 million overseas reps as it moves sales online. Globally last year, those reps sold direct to 95% of consumers of makeup, skin-care sundries, jewelry, and other products generating Avon's $5.3 billion in revenue.