David Boynton on leading purposeful enterprise in turbulent times

In this episode we welcome the former global CEO of The Body Shop, David Boynton. We explore his perspective on The Body Shop's journey and the leadership challenges of growing a purposeful business in a crisis-prone environment. We discuss the process of creating the 'fight for a fairer, more beautiful world' purpose statement and how it was implicitly used as the glue in tough times and the decision-making tool in growing the business. This is both exit interview and fascinating exploration of how purposeful enterprise can prevail in our turbulent times. The live event also happened to take place on the day The Body Shop changed hands from Brazilian B corp Natura to global private equity group Aurelius in November 2023. In addition to his leadership at The Body Shop David previously held senior positions at a number of major high-street retailers and most recently was CEO of menswear company Charles Tyrwhitt. Prior to that he spent ten years at French beauty brand L’Occitane, where he was based in the US and part of a small global leadership group that took the company from 200m to over 1.2bn euro during that period. He has also held a number of senior management roles with A.S. Watson in Asia and supermarket group Safeway Plc in the UK. He is known for creating challenging but supportive environments where talent can develop and flourish and for being a thought leader on sustainable brands and a keynote speaker at other major conferences around the world. This episode was hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of the MarketingKind community, director of the Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.