Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, Founder of Braintrust, had an interesting discussion with Debra Perelman, President and CEO, Revlon about diversity in the c-suite, in the 2022 CEO Summit, that took place in New York city.

Debra Perelman began the discussion by explaining her purpose and the values she wanted to see in Revlon. It was very important for her to redefine the values of the company, to make sure the employees voices were heard and defining changes were made. 

The values that Debra Perelman and the leadership team agreed on were collaboration, accountability, innovation and inclusion. A successful team comes from having diversity across all aspects “that’s diversity of gender, it’s diversity of race, and that brings diversity of perspective, experience and thought”. All these, form the company and create a thriving partnership.

Kendra Bracken-Ferguson believes that “a genuine notion of care and being of service”, is of paramount importance. That starts from within, from home base, when you feel that in order to help people, you need to truly want it. In order to thrive as a company, those should be your pillars. As she said, “We can’t change the way that we look, but we can change the way we behave, how we treat people, how we include people”.

When it comes to decision making in companies, the drive should always be purpose. You need to make decisions around inclusivity and diversity around the new products you want to launch and the way you want to be perceived in the market. How you show up and how you present yourself, is your company’s image. Debra Perelman said, “who doesn’t want to bring confidence and joy into people’s lives every day?”. When true passion meets true purpose and value, the consumer understands and appreciates the efforts being made.