Sandy on Talent · 2026-04-30 · 43 min
Jan Zijderveld has run businesses on five continents, fixing broken ones, growing strong ones, and inheriting everything in between. In Part 2 of this conversation, he picks up where the strategic playbook left off: leading leaders across Southeast Asia and Europe, then walking away from 30 years at Unilever to take the top job at a company most people had written off. That company was Avon. Share price at $2, $2 billion in debt, 6 million sales reps cycling in and out the door every year. Zijderveld rebuilt it around four levers: brand, earnings, digital, and simplification, and sold it three years later for $6 a share. The episode closes with hard-earned advice: start with the end in mind, take risks, and learn from everyone worth learning from.
041: How Family, Faith, and Football Shaped Drew Weatherford's Career52 / 100
040: Betting on People: How Guy Schory Built a Career at the Intersection of Technology and Purpose
039: Talent, Value, and the Click: Shefali Salwan on Building a Career That Means Something
038: The Project Economy: Why Projects Are the Future, Not Just the Present with Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez
036: The Art of the Turnaround: How Jan Zijderveld Transformed Unilever Europe and Saved Avon Products - Part 1