Same Chef, different toque.
Pampered Chef, the Addison-based party-plan purveyor of kitchen gadgets, said Monday that President Sheila O’Connell Cooper is adding the title of chief executive.
And that means the Pampered Chef is launching one of the touchiest transitions for a direct sales business: transferring loyalty from the beloved founder to professional management.
The timing couldn’t be better for Doris Christopher, Chef founder and chairman, to hand the reins to her successor, observers say.
“They have made this transition when they are not at a crisis,” said Madolyn Johnson, founder and chief executive of HomeMaker’s Idea Co., a direct-sales company based in Elk Grove Village. “A lot of companies make this transition when the founder is in poor health or isn’t visible, and that is dangerous.”
Because most direct-sales companies are founded by charismatic entrepreneurs who cultivate deep personal loyalty among the sales reps in the field, transferring that allegiance to the company as a whole can be a minefield, she said.
At Pampered Chef, the shift seems to be smooth, Johnson said. “Doris has spent a lot of time talking with [the sales consultants], telling them that the day will come when she is not here. I do think that the salesforce will move that allegiance to Sheila.”
Cooper, who joined the Pampered Chef in 2000, said that she hopes to emulate the success of a previous employer–Mary Kay Inc., the cosmetics direct-sales company–in transforming a personal vision into a corporate image.
“One of the things that Mary Kay [Ash] did masterfully was transition that role so that people understood that the company was the result of a number of people’s efforts,” Cooper said. “We are doing that too.”
Christopher was shrewd to choose a woman to head the company, said Shelli Gardner, a board member of the Direct Selling Association. At other direct-sales companies that primarily sell to women, women sales consultants have balked at the choice of male chief executives, she added.
By choosing Cooper, Christopher is underscoring the message of entrepreneurial success that is part of the Pampered Chef culture.
Pampered Chef had sales of $740 million in 2001. The company was purchased in September by Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha-based holding company commanded by Warren Buffett.
Cooper, 45, is no ingenue when it comes to buyouts. In 1999, as chief executive of BeautiControl Inc., a direct-sales cosmetics firm, she engineered its sale to Tupperware.
One of her biggest challenges, she says, is to understand the buying preferences of American ethnic cultures and international markets where the company is expanding.
Currently, Chef has 71,000 kitchen consultants–66,000 of them in the U.S. and the remainder in Canada, the U.K. and Germany. Just under 10 percent of Chef’s revenue come from overseas operations.
While much of the Pampered Chef product line is universally useful in the kitchen, there are many nuances that need to be reflected in targeted marketing appeals to U.S. Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans, Cooper said.
Cooper is a hands-on executive Chef in more ways than one. She leaves daily meal preparation to her husband, but loves to concoct complicated chocolate creations in her home kitchen. “My heart is made of chocolate,” she said.
Christopher plans to continue to participate in company events, a spokeswoman said, and is writing a book about her experiences.
