雅芳如何挑选新CEO

    4月9日有消息称，强生（Johnson & Johnson）的谢莉•麦柯伊将取代钟彬娴成为雅芳（Avon Products）的CEO。如此看来，财富500强企业已经出现了两次女性之间的权力交接。

    第一次是哪家公司呢？就是施乐（Xerox）。两年前，乌尔苏拉•伯恩斯接替了安妮•马尔卡希的位置。

    那次权力过渡已经取得了很好的效果。而虽然雅芳目前麻烦缠身，包括香水巨头科蒂（Coty）主动提出的100亿美元收购要约，但这次权力交接看起来同样不失为一个明智之举。

    麦柯伊在财富最具影响力女性榜上位列第十，拥有消费和美容行业的丰富经验。自去年12月宣布钟彬娴将卸任CEO之后，雅芳就一直在寻找这方面的人才。在强生公司，麦柯伊负责管理药厂和消费者事务，其中包括护肤品牌露得清（Neutrogena）、Lubriderm、Aveeno以及邦迪创可贴（Band-Aids）。去年，她管理的强生部门创造了393亿美元的销售业绩，是雅芳2011年113亿美元营收的3倍多。

    今年2月底，麦柯伊在强生CEO继任争夺战中以微弱劣势输给了亚历克斯•戈尔斯基，随后雅芳董事会立刻对她展开了游说。雅芳董事会设立了一个由三人组成的CEO甄选委员会，雅芳首席董事弗雷德•哈桑是其中一人。他在制药圈子里认识了麦柯伊。哈桑是灵葆雅（Schering-Plough）的前董事长兼CEO，现在该公司已被默克（Merck）收购。

    虽然雅芳董事会还考虑过其他的人选，其中包括最近加入百事可乐（PepsiCo）的沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）前高管布莱恩•康奈尔，但董事们认为麦柯伊才是正确的选择。她的技术经验有助于雅芳的产品研发。30年前，她加入强生时的第一份工作就是在该公司的实验室里担任化学工程师，现在还握有其工作成果的专利。麦柯伊也做过营销和经营工作，管理过婴儿护理、伤口护理和手术护理业务，如今她在强生的诸多职责中甚至还包括IT技术。IT技术一直是雅芳的软肋。

    目前雅芳的员工队伍士气低落、规模下降，对它来说最为重要的是，麦柯伊似乎拥有合适的领导风格。她被认为是个注重协作的管理者。她公开谈论兼顾事业和家庭，并要求强生员工对二者都要重视。她有三个儿子，没有女儿。但在“一家面向女性的公司（钟彬娴就是这样描述雅芳）”里，要想迈进雅芳的门槛几乎肯定得牺牲这样的工作与生活平衡的体验。

    顺便说一句，麦柯伊在雅芳会得到辅佐。13年前接掌雅芳的钟彬娴是财富500强企业任职时间最长的女性CEO，她打算在未来两年里继续担任公司董事长。钟彬娴现在还没有向媒体表态，但据说她打算致力于雅芳基金会和该公司640万销售代表，包括麦柯伊这位处在公司顶端的最新代表。

    译者：千牛絮

    With today's news that Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) Sheri McCoy is replacing Andrea Jung as CEO of Avon Products (AVP), the Fortune 500 now has two cases of woman-to-woman handoffs.

    The first? Xerox (XRX), where Ursula Burns succeeded Anne Mulcahy two years ago.

    That transition has been a good one. While Avon is mired in all sorts of trouble--including an unsolicited $10 billion takeover bid from fragrance giant Coty--this succession also looks like a smart one.

    McCoy, who ranks No. 10 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, has the broad experience in consumer and beauty businesses that Avon has been looking for since it announced last December that Jung would step down as CEO. At J&J, McCoy runs global pharma and consumer, which includes skincare brands Neutrogena, Lubriderm, and Aveeno as well as Band-Aids. Her J&J units generated $39.3 billion in sales last year, which is more than three times Avon's $11.3 billion in 2011 revenue.

    Avon's board began pursuing McCoy in late February, as soon as she lost a close CEO succession race at J&J to Alex Gorsky. Avon lead director Fred Hassan, on the board's three-person CEO search committee, knew McCoy from pharmaceutical circles. Hassan is the former chairman and CEO of Schering-Plough, now part of Merck (MRK).

    While the Avon board considered other candidates, including Wal-Mart (WMT) executive Brian Cornell who recently joined PepsiCo (PEP), the directors agreed that McCoy was the right package. She has technical experience that could help Avon with its R&D. She started at J&J as a chemical engineer in the company's labs 30 years ago and holds patents for her work. McCoy has held jobs in marketing and operations--running baby care, wound care, and surgical care--and now her broad responsibilities at J&J include information technology. IT has been a trouble spot at Avon.

    Most importantly for an Avon workforce that has been demoralized and downsized, McCoy seems to have the right leadership style. She is known as a collaborative manager who talks openly about juggling career and family and urges people at J&J to pay attention to both. She is a mother of three sons--no daughters. But at "the company for women," as Jung labeled Avon, such work-life experience is practically the price of entry.

    McCoy will have help at Avon, incidentally. Jung, who has been the longest-serving female CEO in the Fortune 500 since she took charge 13 years ago, is slated to continue as chairman for two more years. Jung isn't talking to the press right now, but word is, she plans to focus on working with Avon's Foundation and with the company's 6.4 million sales representatives--including the newest rep at the top.