Laurence Frémy, director for APAC at Laboratoires Expanscience, discusses emerging skincare and dermatology trends in the region and her priorities for the affiliate.   Having had the experience of opening the affiliate in Brazil, in addition to your in-depth understanding of other emerging markets, what were the key skills you developed there? I had the opportunity to analyze emerging markets when I first joined Expanscience, with my extensive background in business development and management. This involved identifying new products, new markets and thus new opportunities for the company. I began working on how to help expand our presence in the world through a deep analysis of both India and Brazil. This observation and understanding of the market landscape and its potential to help in the decision-making process of whether we should enter the market through a partner or as an independent affiliate and capitalize on the opportunities present there. At the time, Brazil was the third largest market for baby skin care and the route to market was in line with our global strategy. It led me to make a positive recommendation to our CEO, Jean-Paul Berthomé, that we should enter this market independently. Thus, I developed two main skills: firstly, understanding how to become operational in the country, by creating a team made of local talents and learning key business specificities like financial or administrative rules. Secondly, how to expand the company in the market. For me, a deep insight into the market requires a local team, especially in areas such as sales, marketing, and communication. Although I spoke Portuguese, there is always the obstacle of language barriers and miscommunication, so having a local team really helped me to fully understand the region and the market, far more than any research or observation I had done prior to arriving there. These are the main skills and attributes I was able to translate into my operations here in Asia.   What do you believe are the main similarities between an emerging market like Brazil and the APAC region? What I discovered through my experiences is that there are a lot of similarities, despite the distance between the two regions. An emerging market like Brazil actually covers both highly developed state cities with high-income levels and emerging regions. The Asia Pacific shows similar market situations with wealthy countries and emerging neighbors. In both cases, the challenge is to manage diversity and be able to develop a brand in line with corporate guidelines but adapted to local realities. It requires the right mix between a deep understanding of the company’s strategy and some agility/creativity in daily operations. Another example lies in people management and commitment. I was warned that hiring young, career driven individuals would result in a high talent turnover. However, my belief is that many professionals also want to be part of an exciting story, with a long-term vision and a career plan. I had the chance to share my vision for Laboratoires Expanscience in Brazil and convince many of my employees that there is a great job to be done in the region for our brands. Since first having them on board more than five years ago, I am proud to say that my key team players, who were all high-flying career driven individuals, are still with the affiliate. Similarly, I believe that young talents in Asia can be very attached to a company’s vision and values, and deliver their best over many years   What have been your main priorities since becoming Director of the APAC region? Since heading the region, my main priorities have been to honor the wish from management to enhance our position and presence in the Asian markets, along with supporting more our distributors and strengthening our relationship with them, ultimately forming partnerships. Creating a strong presence in Asia has been a strong wish of our CEO. Beforehand, we only had a direct affiliate in Australia and distributors the other countries. In order to progress, it was important to create a regional team here and strengthen our Asian identity. To do so, a small team was set up in Hong Kong. Furthermore, in June last year 2017, both sides of our business units, baby skincare, and Rheumatology, have come together under the same organizational structure. The priority now is to manage and grow together with our partners in the APAC region and provide more training. Another big step in the right direction to create this stronger presence in Asia came with acquiring our distributor in charge of our baby skincare brand Mustela on the Hong Kong market and establish a direct anchor here through a fully owned affiliate.

Mainland China’s market is crucial for the development of the company internationally