Fascinating lessons from a curious entrepreneur

Rowena Bird, co-founder of Lush Cosmetics, takes in the scent of their new launches — diya and jalebi-shaped bath bombs. Pic/Shadab Khan

When Rowena Bird joined Lush Cosmetics UK in 1981, she started with her knowledge as a beauty therapist, but evolved her skills by saying yes to every learning experience in the company, be it formulation, marketing meetings, ingredient sourcing, customer service, ethics policies. Today, after 45 years, Bird continues working with the same enthusiasm, as she excitedly shows us their global Diwali launches (diya and jalebi bathbombs, and a mango kulfi and lassi-based body care range), and discusses her trip to India and their new Mumbai store at Inorbit Mall in Malad.

While here, she visited the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, signed up for a Bollywood tour, even took a photo outside Shah Rukh Khan's Mannat. Bird discusses the lessons she learned as a female entrepreneur in the crowded beauty and wellness market.

How does one keep evolving as a founder?
I think the journey is about saying yes, always, and never thinking, ‘I can't do that'.

It's about always thinking, what else can I do? The expression we have in the UK is ‘Yes, and?'. That is what people have to do. If you want to get ahead, and you want people to recognise your worth, you do your ‘yes, and?'. You do say no - when something's not morally right, like social media. It's a challenge… [But] we truly believe that right now social media isn't a safe place for so many, especially younger people who are easily influenced. We wouldn't put a Lush store at the end of a dark alley because we wouldn't want our customers to go there, social media to us is this dark alley. It doesn't mean that we're not on it. Because influencers see our products, they love it, they talk about it. And for that, we're very grateful.

Pic/iStock

What have you learned from taking a moral stand as a business owner?
I don't think we're political, we are humanitarian. We will give both sides of the picture - a balanced view - and educate. If making a campaign or sharing a public opinion, we always share both sides and then it's for you to make a decision as to what you do with good, balanced information. For example, we would always say use your vote, but we wouldn't say who to vote for. If we see an issue or a cause or we see harm or injustice, then we will use our business as a voice. For example. we sell naked products without packaging, which last three times more than the packed ones, [but] we have to do an offering of both.

It's the customer's choice. So we're all about giving you a choice, but hopefully steering you towards the more conscious choices.

How do you balance product innovation, consumer demands, and sustainability?
Not thinking there's any other way. We have to make enough money because we are a business, so we reserve the right to have a profit to keep the company running so everybody's employed. But not at the cost of the environment, at the cost of animal testing, at the cost of how we buy our raw materials. If another company bought us today they could immediately make more money and less impact, but that's not the goal. For example, we used to have a colour cosmetics brand which used mica, and we learned that despite having fair certifications, mica extracting practices were still illegally employing and killing children, so we decided to not use natural mica ever. We always go for natural, but at this instance, went straight to synthetic.

Advice for women who want to start their own brand?
Be your own person. Men do not know everything - sorry, guys. Make sure you're working with people that you really like and trust, and have a long-term relationship with. Don't be taken over by somebody else. Understand what you want and how you're going to do it and then stick with that.
We work very well as a group of six co-founders.

Each one of us has a different skill set, but all the skill sets interlock. Respect within a team is most important. If you're working yourself, employ people to work for you that are stronger than you in the different areas.

Ambition vs risk, how important is it to tell yourself the truth?
Believe in what you're doing. If you're starting a business and are not passionate about it, it's easy for somebody to derail you and tell you it's no good because you're half thinking. You have to be like your Bollywood star that kept telling himself he was the best. Find people to support you. The beautiful thing about having six partners as founders is that when one of you has a wobble, you've got five people behind you cheering you on.

It'd be very lonely doing it on your own, but it's certainly not impossible.