“People are the focus!”
An interview with NaturalLook CEO Frowin Pitschl
When Frowin Pitschl is asked just when he realised that he would join the company founded by his father in 1974, he replies: “I’ve been interested in NaturalLook since I was 16 years old, I was always peeking into the business and asking lots of questions – I actually knew even then that I would like to take over the running of the company when the time came”. We talked to him about the changes and challenges that NaturalLook has had to overcome in recent years, why he is proud of his management team – and what makes the Italian market so special.
Frowin remembers: “My father comes from a classic working-class family, but he had always wanted to be self-employed. He had plenty of ideas, just as he had plenty of ability to inspire other people with his visions. He talked a lot about his everyday professional life and about the challenges he had to overcome, but also about the successful experiences”, he says. “That impressed me enormously: I always enjoyed listening to him – and that was when the fuse was lit.”
After leaving school, Frowin decided that the logical course was to study commerce at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. In 2006, the family began to plan the company handover and take the first steps – a process that was carefully followed and only completed in 2021, when Frowin finally took over the reins.
“Freshly graduated from university, I was convinced that I was now fully prepared to take on a management role. I subsequently realised relatively quickly that, when I joined the company, the real learning process had only just begun and that the reality is quite different from the textbooks – or rather, it is simply much vaster than what you learn in lectures and seminars”, Frowin says with a laugh.
“At that time, of course, cooperation with our international partners was still organised around relatively simple interfaces: ordering, delivery, distribution and payment – that was the end of the story. Everything is nowadays much more complex and closely networked. We have constant exchanges with the brands we represent, defining together which product range to offer, how the products and brands as such are presented, as well as which retailers and consumers we want to address.” The processes have become more complex – not least because of the advances in digitalisation in recent years, a challenge that NaturalLook has shown how to turn both into a strength and into forward-looking strategies.
Roots, visions and leadership
“As an entrepreneur, you absolutely need a vision of how and where your company should develop. Defining and developing this vision is of course a task that constantly occupies me and shapes my everyday work – and naturally requires a constant exchange with the management team”, Frowin explains. Especially during the pandemic, which was also a difficult time for NaturalLook, the divisional managers became a close-knit community, whose impulses are greatly appreciated by the CEO: “Some of our managers have been with us for decades, some just a few years. This mixture is in my view ideal: it ensures that we don’t forget our roots and strengths, but that we also remain flexible, we can question and adapt long-established and perhaps somewhat outdated processes. I find that very exciting and I am quite proud that we are really succeeding with this balancing act. We are all pulling and working together in a highly coordinated way, thus ensuring that NaturalLook always keeps its finger on the pulse, that we achieve our goals, define new goals and react quickly and efficiently to all the challenges and changes. At the same time, we are organised in such a way that all processes can continue to run smoothly, even if I am scarcely present in the company for weeks at a time. In principle, this means devolving lots of responsibility, but also granting lots of trust and room for manoeuvre.”
Change, reorganisation and growth
The challenges of the last few years have not only led to a reorganisation of management levels at NaturalLook, but also to a greater focus on digitalisation: “The first lockdown in 2020 did not catch us completely unprepared and, after an initial phase of uncertainty, it all continued to run relatively smoothly for us: employees switched to smart working and meetings were held digitally. One positive, major development that came out of all this was the introduction of a second management tier: employees who we felt wanted to grow and develop were given the opportunity to take responsibility for driving projects forward and leading small teams. For me, this represents a clear win-win situation – on the one hand we can meet the wants of these employees for individual growth, while NaturalLook becomes bigger, stronger and more resilient on the other.
NaturalLook has also grown in terms of its product range and partnerships. This field is approached with both determination and caution: “We concentrate on a few solid brands that we want to develop in Italy in a holistic manner – in other words, in their entire brand identity. This is crucial for us, because we have an extended network of sales consultants who know their customers and markets really well, so we not only offer the best advice, we can also guarantee a high degree of seriousness to our manufacturers”, says Frowin.
Transparency and rapid processing are just as vital as our comprehensive service offer, which includes central management of e-commerce platforms, marketing activities, administrative services and efficient logistics.
People are the focus
Unlike most other European markets, Italy as a country has countless small, lovingly run boutiques and retail outlets, many of which have existed for generations. While in other countries a significant proportion of distribution is handled by large chains, in Italy close-knit networks and personal relationships with retailers play the main role: “In Italy, people think very differently depending on the region they are from. This wide spectrum of mentalities is reflected in an equally broad range of shops, boutiques and points of sale in general. This diversity is all very well, but it’s also a challenge for a manufacturer who wants to gain a foothold in this market. And that’s where we come in, as a distributor with an extensive network, good customer relationships that have grown and been cultivated over the decades, not to mention our experience in logistics and administration. Because, in the end, it is all about the consumer – regardless of the developments that digitalisation for instance brings with it. Or, to put it simply: people are the focus – from head to toe.
