Brazil’s biggest beauty company makes anti-poverty pledge

Natura, Brazil’s biggest beauty company – and a green one at that - has pledged to provide new skills training to low-income sales representatives in Mexico. The initiative is part of its commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global anti-poverty initiative backed by the UN Development Programme.

Natura expects to integrate all of its nearly 74,300 beauty advisers into a specialised job training programme aimed at optimising and upgrading job skills and self-development over the next three years, the company said.

The training modules, designed by Natura, are expected to increase productivity as well as earning potential by teaching essential business skills and self-knowledge. Some of the training offered includes strategic planning, direct sales, computer skills, customer service and project management. There is also a focus on helping the consultants become agents for change in their own communities.

Around 98 per cent of Natura’s beauty advisers in Mexico are women who lack formal education or prior work experience. The company, as part of its focus on sustainability, hopes to empower its advisers with entrepreneurial skills that will serve them well in the future.

“This important commitment represents a new, multi-level direct sales model that embraces entrepreneurship and social responsibility. Natura consultants have the opportunity to develop skills and capacities to improve their relationship with themselves and their communities,” commented Natura ceo Alessandro Carlucci.

BCtA Programme Manager Sahba Sobhani added: “This commitment demonstrates that companies can have simultaneous commercial and development impacts. Through innovation, investment, and adaptation of business models to the needs of low-income people, the private sector continues to play a viable role in promoting equitable economic development.”