3. Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.
4. Early Life
• Ash believed "aladyneverreveals her
age“
• estimated to be 1916
• Parents: Edward and Lula Wagner
• In Hot Wells, Texas
• youngest of four children.
5. Early Life
• father was ill with tuberculosis
• responsibility to clean, cook, and care for her
father
• She excelled in school
• family could not afford to send her to college.
• married Ben Rogers at age seventeen
• had three children.
6. Working Mother
Asked to name her greatest achievement,
Mary Kay Ash proudly replies,
"Ithinkthebiggest legacyweare
goingto leaveis awholecommunity
of childrenwho believetheycando
anythinginthis worldbecausethey
watchedtheirmamas do it.”
7. Working Mother
• In half of the 1930s
• A saleswoman struck a deal with Ash:
• If Ash could sell 10 sets of encyclopedias, the
saleswoman would give her a set free of charge.
• Ash agreed and sold 10 sets in just a day and a half.
• This was a rather remarkable feat, considering
10 sets was the three-month quota for the
company's most accomplished salespeople.
8. Working Mother
• Ash continued peddling encyclopedias part time and
was soon earning enough money to help support her
young family.
• Ash searched for a more useful product to sell.
• She turned to Stanley Home Products, a direct-sales
company offering housewares and cleaning supplies.
• Ash was crowned "Queenof Sales" for being the
most successful saleswoman
9. Working Mother
• major turning point in Ash's life:
– Husband returned from World War II
– Divorced
• With three children , Ash was forced to make Stanley Home
Products her full-time career.
• As men who had less talent and knowledge were
promoted ahead of her.
10. Working Mother
• In 1952 Ash joined the direct-sales firm World Gift Co.
• Within 10 years, she had extended World Gift's distribution
into 43 states
• earned a position on the company's board of directors.
• But her suggestions were often dismissed by male members
of the board with the comment,
• "Oh, MaryKay, you'rethinkingjust likewoman“
-a remark that never failed to enrage her.
• Quit in 1962, after a man she had trained was
named her supervisor and given twice her salary.
11. Starts Her Own Company
• Ash set out to write a guide to help other women avoid the pitfalls
she'd faced in the male-dominated corporate world.
• She composed two lists.
• The first outlined her negative experiences.
• The second detailed the qualities she thought would constitute an ideal business-a
"dream company" for working women with families that would
1) treat everyone equally,
2) base promotions on merit
3) choose products based on their sales performance and marketability, rather than
profitability.
• Looking over the second list, Ash realized she'd created a workable
direct-sales company and thought,
"WhyamItheorizingabout adreamcompany?
Whydon't Ijust start one?"
12. Starts Her Own Company
• First she needed to find a product.
• It had to be something women could believe in
• it was already sitting a top her bedroom dresser
• For nearly 10 years, Ash had been buying a skin softener
• With her $5,000 life savings, Ash bought the recipe for the skin
softener, furnished a small storefront in Dallas
• While her second husband dealt with the legal and financial matters
• But one month before the company was scheduled to open Ash's
husband died of a heart attack
• Convinced that she could not succeed without her husband's help,
Ash's lawyer and accountant urged to abandon her plans.
• But like most great entrepreneurs Ash ignored the advice of the
experts,
• Mary Kay Cosmetics opened its doors September 13, 1963.
13. Starts Her Own Company
• Within three and a half months, sales of Mary Kay products totaled
$34,000, and by the end of the first year
• A year later, sales had quadrupled to $800,000.
• Mary Kay once said “success camefast becauseshedid
not haveanytimetowaste. ”
• She was already forty-five years old when she started the
company.
14. MK Cosmetics
• Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is one of the largest direct sellers of skin
care products in the world.
• It develops and tests skin care and beauty products for the face,
body, hair and nails
15. Motivating Employees
• Awards Night
• Winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs,
and pink Cadillac automobiles
18. Motivating Employees
• Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that
it is best to compete with yourself.
• That means every individual is trying to do better then she did
last week or last year.
• Competition winners are rewarded well.
• For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin
called the Ladderof Success.
23. Final Days
• Ash health declined after she suffered a stroke in 1996.
• Died at her Dallas home on November 22, 2001.
• She was a tough businessperson with a thorough
knowledge of marketing and sales.
• She made the dream of a successful career a reality for
hundreds of thousands of women worldwide.
24. An Inspiration
• “Tobesuccessfulinlifeapersonshouldput God
first,
familysecondandworkthird”.
• Just three simple words – One Woman Can™ –
capture the enormous impact Mary Kay has had
on the lives of women worldwide.
• And those same three words also represent the
encouragement and empowerment that every
woman can experience through Mary Kay.
• One Woman Can™ really do anything she dreams
possible.
