About Reinold Geiger
Reinold Geiger, Chairman and CEO of L’Occitane Group, has described the company’s origins as beginning in Provence, France, with the production of essential oils from local plants and flowers, later expanding into natural-ingredient cosmetics. He stated that formulating such products was more costly and difficult, and that the company attracted “purists and idealists” who wanted to improve the environment. Geiger said the company focuses on supporting women in need and people who are blind or visually impaired, particularly in underdeveloped countries, noting that “every minute in the underdeveloped countries you have one child who is losing his sight because he has no medication.”
Geiger has discussed his approach to turning around the company, saying that when faced with the choice of reducing costs or increasing sales, he decided to focus on growing revenue. He described the early years as “real hard suffering” before the business took off. Geiger also noted that while larger competitors may have many brands, few individual brands generate over a billion euros in sales, and L’Occitane is now developing three smaller brands. He attributed the company’s ability to compete with larger players to its entrepreneurial culture, where employees work autonomously, and said that for a smaller company, “presentation nützt sowieso nichts” (presentations are useless) and one must keep the process in mind.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Reinold Geiger's recent appearances.
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Transcript (8 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Mr. Geiger, you are one of the speakers today at the 2012 Economic Forum in Bregenz, a very special speaker – a Vorarlberger who left the country and is now CEO of a global company, L'Occitane, a major international cosmetics company. What were you able to tell the audience today? What did you want to convey? What can the Vorarlberg economy learn from you?
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Reinold Geiger0:30
As someone from Vorarlberg, I feel a certain obligation. And since the organizer of this forum, Mrs. Böhler, asked me to come, I came. But at the same time, I don't think you can learn that much from us. I simply told a bit about how we developed our company and why I believe it has worked relatively well.
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Interviewer1:06
Now, despite your modesty, you took over the company in a very difficult situation. You were already involved, the company wasn't doing well, and then you went all in – you put more money in, took over leadership, and made it successful and profitable. Does the economy need more courage and conviction that you can succeed even in tough times? You need conviction, a plan you believe in, and you need to stay in control and react quickly if you deviate. If you don't, you can quickly build up a deficit and the company is finished. Can you briefly tell us how it was back when you decided to take over?
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Reinold Geiger2:24
We had two options: reduce costs or increase revenue. I decided to try to increase revenue, so we went out and tried to sell, and we were lucky that people bought from us.
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Interviewer2:41
Now, L'Occitane is a successful company, but there are very different global players in the world market. It is very encouraging that you say it is a smaller company compared to these, yet it can operate successfully worldwide. So it is possible to compete against the global players.
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Reinold Geiger3:02
Yes, the global players have many strengths, but also weaknesses. In large companies, a lot of time is spent on corporate politics and bureaucracy. At our company, people work quite autonomously – that's entrepreneurial. That is probably the most important advantage a smaller company like ours has. But as a brand, there aren't many larger brands than us. We already do over a billion with L'Occitane alone. Large companies have many brands, but few have over a billion. Now we have three small brands we are developing, and maybe we will become a larger player. So the development continues.
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Interviewer4:21
Can we summarize it like this: it requires conviction, commitment, and also a bit of luck, but above all, it's about really getting down to work and doing it yourself. Was that always your philosophy, that this is the most important thing?
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Reinold Geiger4:41
You have to be a doer. Giving speeches or presentations doesn't help, especially when the company is smaller. Presentations are useless anyway. You have to have the process in your head and not depend on fancy presentations.
