L'Oréal to Remove the Word 'Whitening' From Its Products

Earlier this evening I posted the following on Face Book - only to take it down after reconsideration.  Upon reflection - better to publish my musings here instead of unnecessarily agitating anyone on Face Book.  The world is already too agitated.  After all, attendance here is voluntary.  Everything on FB is pretty much in your face on a subscribers news feed.  Besides, I can always redirect back to this venue if needed on Zuckerberg's cesspool of sloppy information.
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 L'Oréal to Remove the Word 'Whitening' From Its Products

Interesting to me was the news when I initially saw it this afternoon courtesy of a trusted friend.  At first blush my mind instantaneously flipped to:  ‘This is PC run-amok’.

Following a few moments of reflection while weeding in the garden it occurred that maybe I was letting one of my many biases cloud my thinking.  My former professional instincts have gathered a hint of rust in retirement.  And there is no longer a Bloomberg Terminal starring me in the face.  In any event, what I knew for sure was that L'Oréal is a ginormous company and that there might be more to this news than what we see on the surface.

I checked the interweb and with a few clicks learned that L'Oréal S.A. is the world's largest cosmetics company - a multinational with divisions in Europe and two additional continents. Global revenue in 2019 was about 30 billion € and they employ more than 80,000 individuals around the world.

The link at the bottom of this post redirects to the Harvard Business Review.  It is quite illustrative on many levels that much of L'Oréal’s corporate success derives from mastering the business side of multiculturalism. 

Who knew?

It is their business model.

The lesson from this news (to me at least) is that we all have triggering biases as a consequence of how we were raised, our culture, value system, etc. 

What I learned in almost 40 years of my previous life is that capitalism’s only bias is making money and that requires taking calculated risks.  And, of course, tailoring a plan and a portfolio to an individual client’s goals.  Professionals implicitly know that there is little if any room for risking the potential deleterious impact of personal biases in the very personal financial decisions of others seeking their guidance. 

Translation:  Ignore capitalism at your own peril.

There is already faux FB outrage about this announcement.  And I am hardly surprised.  What I will point out as a recovering financial guy is that it is not intellectually challenging to flip-off a 100 year-old multinational business as simply being politically correct.  It goes deeper.

L'Oréal is obviously taking a risk - and they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to take pains that this is a smart business decision. You can bet they surveyed, market-tested and focus-grouped this decision until the cows came home.

They likely know exactly what they’re doing - and why.  Moreover, attention-grabbing news like this during our troubles is basically free marketing.

Only time will tell if they got it right.

Between you and me I’d bet on them - not the laureate of random FB experts who couldn’t tell a share of stock from a brick.

Don’t take my word for this – I don’t give financial advice any longer.  I only warn of generally incomplete and useless FB content.

Call your trusted financial advisor on Monday for a professional opinion.

You may link to the Harvard Business Review here.