Business woman of the year

At the World Trade Center on September 21, Wendy Rae, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wendy Rae Body Care Centers Inc., received the Wall Street Chronicle “Business Woman of the Year” award. The award crowns eight years of phenomenal achievement by Mrs Rae.

Her rise began with an idea so simple that it is surprising no one thought of it before. Out shopping one day with her three children, she tried to buy some skin care lotion. At the time, her preferred brand was retailing in a one-size, elegant glass bottle with elaborate cardboard packaging. As money was short, she asked about a refill. “I figured I already had the bottle and I sure didn’t need the box”.

The reaction that her inquiry received not only irritated her, it set her thinking. The result was the now famous Wendy Rae Body Care Concept, which revolutionized the cosmetics industry, formed the basis of a business empire, and made Ms Rae a very rich woman – all within eight years!

She opened her first store in a San Francisco side street three months after that shopping trip. It was tiny and the roof leaked, but the first Wendy Rae Body Care Center was in business.

There are now 360 Body Care Centers in the United States, and 598 outlets overseas. Sales are $82 million yearly, and doubling every eighteen months. The Wall Street Chronicle, commenting on the rate of expansion, stated that “In the US, the practical ceiling is probably 1500 outlets and the company should be there in five or six years”. But overseas the potential seems limitless, because Wendy Rae has a retailing concept that is genuinely international – something few other US retailers can claim.

The concept at the heart of this explosion is a combination of practical ideas, shrewdly applied. Every product is available in four sizes and all containers can be refilled. Testers are available at point-of-sale, so that customers can check whether they like a product before purchase. Pure natural ingredients are used at all times. Whenever possible these are of vegetable, not animal, origin, and at no time are products tested on animals. Packaging is kept simple. In order to reduce costs even more, Body Care does almost no advertising.

Wendy Rae has shown that common sense and high ethical standards can be good for business. “Today Magazine” described her company as “One of the great business success stories of the last ten years”.

Answer the questions:

1. What kind of company is Body Care? What are the main activities of the company?

2. Who is the founder of the company? What is she famous for?

3. What is the idea of the Body Care Concept?

4. What made the company successful?

Exercise 1. Find the explanations (1-10) for the expressions (a-j). Translate the sentences in which these words are used.

1. natural a) storing goods

2. warehousing b) cleverly, intelligently

3. phenomenally c) liquid for the skin

4. lotion d) in a very big way

5. refill (n) e) limit, high point

6. reaction f) new contents for an old container

7. ceiling g) response

8. explosion h) made from non-chemical ingredients

9. shrewdly i) very rapid growth

10. tester j) sample which customers can try

Exercise 2.

Notice: “The potential seems limitless.”

Limitless = without limit

air – airless humour - humourless

care – careless speech – speechless

Now fill the gaps in these sentences.

There is no justification for this. – It is pointless.

1. She didn’t know what to say. – She was ………………………. .

2. Could you open the window? – It is very ……………………… .

3. He never laughs. – He is completely ……………………………. .

4. The sales clerk dropped the testers. – It was very ………………. .

Exercise 3. Find corresponding English sentences to the following Russian ones.

1. Награда венчает восьмилетнее феноменальное достижение.

2. Удивительно, что никто не додумался до этого раньше.

3. Её любимая марка продавалась в упаковке одного размера.

4. Поскольку денег было мало.

5. Реакция, полученная на её просьбу, привела её к раздумью.

6. На что мало кто из других торговцев может претендовать.

7. Умно внедрённые практические идеи.

8. Во все времена применяются чистые натуральные компоненты растительного происхождения.

9. Ни разу эти товары не испытывались на животных.

10. Она показала, что здравый смысл и высокие этические нормы могут принести пользу делу.

Θ We talked to Wendy Rae after the award ceremony. Listen to the recorded interview.

Read the interview.

Interviewer: May I begin by congratulating you on your award, Mrs. Rae? Rae: Thank you. It’s nice to be appreciated, but I’d like to acknowledge the contribution of all the other people involved. As I keep telling everyone, I didn’t do it on my own. The success of Body Care isn’t just my success. The company is run by a team and our achievements are a result of our combined efforts. Interviewer: I’m sure that’s true. A lot has been written about your team’s achievements. How do you explain this great success? Rae: Well, the philosophy behind our work is important ... Interviewer: The Body Care Concept ... Rae: That’s right. And we are a good team, as I say. But I think our decision to franchise was crucial too. Interviewer: Can you explain how? Rae: Well, in the early days, one of our biggest dangers was that the idea was transferable. We were developing a new market, but we didn’t own it. Anyone could have moved in. We realized we had to develop the market before others entered it. Interviewer: You decided against investing in new outlets yourselves. Rae: We would have preferred that option, but it wasn’t an alternative that was available to us. We didn’t have the capital or the management structure to cope with a large number of stores. Banks had no interest in us in those days. All our initial financing came out of our own pockets and the pockets of our friends. Interviewer: Whose idea was it to expand as a franchise? Rae: My husband’s. He saw the danger right away, and said that if we didn’t develop our brand name and our reputation fast, we’d be pushed aside by operations with more money behind them. He saw rightly that franchising was the only way for us to go, the only way of growing fast enough to secure the market we were creating. Interviewer: Thank you, Mrs. Rae. Rae: It’s my pleasure.

Answer the questions: