Mohamad Mohamad is the Global Category Director Skin Care, Aerosols, and Bodycare – External Manufacturing Procurement at Coty in Amsterdam. Mohamad moved to the Netherlands while working for Coty last year.  

What are the three to five key drivers to success in Coty that you watch the most?

The most important thing to start with is why we exist at Coty and to think like the consumer.

Our mission is to create forward-thinking beauty and provide new, innovative, science-based solutions. We do that with our people, our partners, and our customers. Together, we unleash a vision of beauty.

Some key drivers there are being consumer/customer centric; understanding and meeting their needs is critical to our success. The other one is how we position ourselves through innovation, staying ahead and meeting changing consumer trends.

One key driver to success that is near to my heart is operational excellence; my background is in Operations and Manufacturing. Part of the engine that makes a good products company, in my opinion, is focusing on the operational efficiency or effectiveness to drive cost savings and value for our business and consumer.

As someone who’s recently moved to the Netherlands, what advice would you offer to someone thinking about making that move?

The first one is, do it. The other one is, embrace the culture. The Dutch people are great; they’re very open, they’re very direct, so be prepared for that.

The other one is the outdoors. If you enjoy the outdoors and you come here, go and explore. The landscapes are great - the canals and biking. There’s a reason why a lot of people do it here, because it’s quite convenient.

I really recommend for someone who comes to the Netherlands to be part of that culture of biking, because - once you get over the learning curve - it almost feels like the most convenient way to get around. It almost becomes second nature. Even me, now, I very rarely use anything other than a bike to get around.

Was that quite a big culture change for you, considering that you often need a car to get around in the US?

Maybe from a muscle memory perspective, for sure. It is different than the US. What I would say is, the Netherlands has done a lot of things properly in regard to the easiness of an expat coming to live here, like getting a place, getting around. Even if you don’t choose to bike and you use public transportation, all these things are quite systematic and user friendly.

I’m quite accustomed to change and I like change. That’s my personal perspective.

What is a personal highlight in your career so far?

At Coty, if I look back, and even with our most recent vision, we are focused on our consumer; that’s why we exist, but we also have some good values.

One is being fearlessly kind to yourself, fearlessly kind to others, and fearlessly kind to the planet. I think all this relates back to my career, because Coty has allowed me to be myself. Whenever I wanted a new opportunity, or maybe I wasn’t learning in a specific area anymore and I wanted to expand or take my knowledge from one area and shift and apply it to another area, Coty has allowed me to do that.

Coty has allowed me to continue to grow, which I really appreciate, and I think the message there is, by allowing you to be yourself and nurturing your career, there’s a baseline that you need to deliver and do the right things.

But, if those things are done and you have flexibility, from a career perspective, Coty has allowed me to grow and I’m very thankful for that; I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. Again, our values are rooted in helping people grow in their careers, and in themselves, as well.

How did you plan out your career development path?

The first step is to start with the micro. The micro is setting clear goals and objectives, and seeking out short-term learning and growth opportunities. This includes networking with the people that are closest to you - they are within your circle day-to-day, peers or mentors that you have access to. The first thing I did was to understand, and connect with people, the goals and objectives.  

Once I felt comfortable, I started to ask the people that I developed a good relationship with: How do I expand? How do I learn about these other areas? Once I started to do that, I branched out. Even when you’re quite into your career, you only see what you deal with on a daily basis; there are things you don’t see. So, understand your area, then - once you start to branch out - you start to learn about what is out there.

Once I did that, I could say, “Okay, let me talk to my leader, this area looks interesting,” and I would ask if I could do stretch assignments or projects. I did a few of those throughout my career, whenever I wanted to see or develop new skills, or understand a new area.

Whenever I thought there was an area that I wanted to do, I would bring that back and link it to a personal highlight of my career, and even back to Coty as an organisation. When I came back with these opportunities, whenever I’ve been performing well, Coty has allowed me to take those and run with it or go into a new area and develop new skillsets.

What would be your opinion on the four-day work week?

I’m open to the concept, but I think there needs to be a few more in-depth studies on it.

Like many other organizations, the pandemic has provided us with a pilot experience, an opportunity to test both our technological capabilities and our appetites for a new philosophy of flexible working.

During COVID, we kicked off omni-work, a hybrid workplace flexibility model.

Removing the stress of having inflexible working principles, while ensuring people always feel productive, Coty provided the option to work up to 50% of the week remotely.

How is the growing focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) changing the Procurement function and how does it relate to your role?

If I were to keep it as simple as possible, the function of Procurement is to make sustainability a key consideration - let’s say a KPI or even a right way of doing business - for supplier selection and supplier management.

On a different front, it’s a journey; everyone’s on that journey, including our supply base. In certain cases, where we have developed partnerships, we get to work really closely with suppliers, co-building plans, partnering and going on the journey together.

Before, it was more of a supplier-customer relationship, now we’re very closely tied on this metric, and we have invested interest on each other’s success. That’s a little bit of change on that front.

What do you think the future of sustainability in your sector looks like?

At Coty, sustainability is the ultimate driver of innovation.

Our sustainability strategy, Beauty That Lasts, outlines the ways we will deliver on our goal of becoming an industry leader in a more sustainable and inclusive world. Launched in February 2020 and guided by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, our strategy is structured around three pillars: the Beauty of our People, Product, and Planet.

What are the three challenges ahead of you for third-party manufacturing?

For me, one of the most important things is to stay knowledgeable on innovation, consumer trends and market dynamics. I try and stay as knowledgeable as possible. We have some excellent leaders in our Procurement team, with our head CPO [Chief Procurement Officer], Stéphane Delbos. We have some excellent people in our organisation, and we want to keep that knowledge and continue to grow that.

The other one that I mentioned is close to my heart, Operations and operational excellence - not just of us, but also of who we’ve chosen to partner with, because we also want to push our partners to be elevated.

We’ve talked about Operations excellence, consumer trends and knowledge - the last one is relationships and performance of our suppliers and partners. Coming out of COVID was a very dynamic time - everyone experienced it in one way or the other on a day-to-day basis4 through our energy costs, etc. So, now, we need to ensure we’re building really strong partnerships across the supply base we partner with.

Thank you to Mohamad for speaking to our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in the Netherlands, led by Richard Bailey.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.