Jackson Jeyanayagam - VP, GM DTC at The Clorox Company

On this episode of the Reboot Chronicles, I invited the head of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) at The Clorox Company, Jackson Jeyanayagam  to discuss consumer shifts and the future of consumer packaged goods (CPG).

For over 100 years, this $7 billion dollar giant, with over 9,000 employees in over 200 markets, has been developing and acquiring market leading products that consumers rely on worldwide. With a wide assortment of cleaning oriented brands, Clorox has experienced a massive increase in demand in response to the coronavirus.  According to CNBC, Clorox reported their third fiscal quarter being a net income of $241 million with $1.89  earnings per share has increased from year prior of $187 million.

See  Opportunity, Take It

No longer just considered the company your mom buys bleach from, Clorox has worked to revamp their image with new brands tapping into the DTC space. CPG companies have pursued DTC brands to fill market whitespaces, steal share and appeal to more consumers. Clorox acquired Burt’s Bees and Nutranext,  and has been expanding their consumer facing brands, a move which also helped them segway into future investments. Jackson is continuing this growth by investing in future products, projects and companies, leveraging data tracking, creating customer brands relationships and loyalty experiences, getting new consumer insights, and creating more personalization experiences.

Dancing with Startups? Build-Buy-Borrow

As serial CEO, I have scaled companies unnaturally faster than the competition by addressing growth and innovation through a Build-Buy-Borrow lens that favors the speed and robustness of co-creation of new products, services, channels and ventures. Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly popular for larger companies, like Clorox, to simply acquire DTC companies to expand, and often that is still the smart move. Clorox on the other hand, as Jackson shares, is taking more of a hybrid approach ,not starting from scratch, but instead of investing in, white labeling, partnering or acquiring—and then assembling the right people to take over and finding what works at scale.

Opportunity  Lies Ahead for Entrepreneurs and Startups

Although there will continue to be bumps in the road triggered by the pandemic, there are new opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups to blossom. With ecommerce and Shopify type platforms, there is a lot of whitespace out there to create new ventures and growth partnerships. Jackson’s experience has taught him the importance of treating your people well, not  as a dollar sign—but as humans, while encouraging, supporting and motivating them. With motivated people and a solid path toward profitability you can be unstoppable.