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- Our business's main function is invention,
innovation, and keeping an eye
on what's happening in the world.
We do take a stand on issues
and we like to be able to just move quickly
to support an issue that we believe in.
A lot of times, that means that everybody
has to be ready to jump on something immediately.
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A lot of businesses will actually work
so far in advance that Christmas of 2020
is already complete, whereas our founders
and our inventors are just starting to look
at what we might be doing for Christmas of 2019.
I believe that the reason why our staff
is so willing and able to jump on short timelines
when they need to happen
is that they're very passionate about the brand
and very passionate about the company.
You need to develop a business
that people feel like they can make a difference,
that their voices are heard.
Anyone can make suggestions to any department
and it's not weird.
There's no lines in the sand
where you can't go and give a suggestion
to the copy team
and you work on the floor in manufacturing.
This is a business full of opportunity
and personal development.
When the people working in the business
can see that the business cares about them,
they're more willing and able to go the extra mile
to pull off the impossible.
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Lush's roots come from a mail-order business
in the '80s called Cosmetics To Go.
There was a very strong following of that brand.
One thing led to another;
the business unfortunately went under.
At the time, we'd employed so many people
from our community, and all of their friends
had lost their jobs.
It was a year later when they decided
to get back together and to give it another shot.
They got in touch with their old loyal customers
and had a contest to name the brand.
That's where the name Lush came from.
They opened their first shop in Poole, UK,
which is a little seaside town
in the south in Dorset.
That store is still there
and they still invent products upstairs
where that first massage bar was made.
A very important part of the business
from that early day was employ people;
giving jobs to people and not mechanizing.
That people first mentality
really comes from back then.
It was extremely important to our founders
that people be given work.
We've always just had this culture
of employing people, not machines.
We wanna make our moms proud.
We have what we call the We Believe statement.
We believe in happy people making happy soap,
is a very core value for us.
If our people are happy, our product is happy.
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Something that's really important to us
is bringing people up through the business.
Our owner in North America just loves to be able
to see somebody like Davy who gave the factory tour,
who started in distribution as a order picker,
who then moved into the newly-formed
internal communications team
and is now a project manager
for our brand part of the business.
Or myself, I started as a buyer.
We weren't exactly sure how launches worked
in our business, and there wasn't anybody
dedicated to project managing that.
I saw an opportunity
and I just started working on it.
Eventually that became my full-time job.
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The easiest way that I've found
for a business to get buy-in on a project
or for you to get buy-in on a project
is to ensure that your team
or the teams within the business feel heard,
valued, that they feel like they can come forward
with feedback, and that they're going
to be listened to.
You don't necessarily have to take
the feedback and run with it,
but you definitely should acknowledge it.
People have good ideas,
so it is really good to hear them.
From a business perspective,
if you want to really get that buy-in from your staff,
just make sure that you're building a brand
that your employees can connect with
on an emotional level;
they feel good about coming to work in the morning
and they're gonna be excited to just wake up
and do what needs to be done.
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