I Am Richelieu Dennis, Owner of the Essence and Sundial Brands and This Is How I Work
Richelieu Dennis runs the family business. He, his mother, and his sister named their cosmetics brand SheaMoisture after the shea butter products Richelieu’s grandmother produced and sold in West Africa. Richelieu turned his company into Sundial Brands (acquired in 2017 by Unilever), which sells hair and skin care products primarily targeted at black women. He also oversees the $ 100 million New Voices Fund, which invests in businesses owned by women of color, and he bought Essence magazine earlier this year. We spoke with him about starting a business with a cultural mission, making business decisions with his family, and how he reacted to the scandalous advertising protests.
Current position: Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman, Sundial Brands; Founder and Chairman of Essence Ventures Location: New York Current mobile device: iPhone and iPad Current computer: Don’t use the one word that best describes how you work: 24/7
First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.
You can say that I was born in the field of entrepreneurship. My grandmother, who was from Sierra Leone, stayed behind to raise four children in the 1940s in a rural West African village after becoming a young widow. To support her family, she made natural skin and hair care products and sold them mainly to missionaries and villagers. Through her personal experience and that of a village trader, she learned (and taught me early on) that with an effective natural product, the consumer doesn’t have to be typical. This is the legacy of my family and the brands we create at Sundial Brands (SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, Madam CJ Walker Beauty Culture and Nyakio).
I was born and raised in Liberia and came to America to attend college. When I graduated in 1991, there was a civil war in Liberia and I could not return home. That’s when I started working at Sundial with my college roommate Niema Tubman and my mom Mary Dennis. We started making soap according to my grandmother’s recipes in our apartment in Queens and started selling it on the streets of New York to survive. As our company grew and we began to expand our family in the States, our diverse cultural influences and lifestyles helped us to better understand the importance of an inclusive perspective. It has influenced how we look at the world, how we look at business – and, perhaps most importantly, how we look at our goal in both cases.
We founded our company to survive, but we built it around a mission to not only help others survive but thrive. In fact, we see ourselves as a mission with a business, not a business with a mission. Because of this, our goal – to empower people to live more beautiful lives – is at the center of everything we do as a company and encourages us to stay connected at our core. This spirit of determination and empowerment of those around us has led to our targeted business model called Community Commerce, which gives underserved people and communities access to opportunities and resources that enable them to create sustainable value for themselves and others. This translates into the ability to build stronger, more self-sufficient communities and businesses.
Tell us about a recent work day.
I started the day by talking to my executive team at Sundial and then had a series of brand meetings for SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, Madam CJ Walker, and Nyakio about new creative ideas, community engagement and strategy. Then I had a mentoring lunch with a group of black women entrepreneurs.
In the afternoon, I met with our New Voices Fund team about our infrastructure and launch, made a few calls to several of our agencies, and ended the day with a dinner where we discussed Essence’s new vision and strategy.
What apps, gadgets or tools can’t you live without?
iPad, Apple Pencil, Notes app.
How is your workplace arranged?
Wherever I am, mostly in the car.
What’s your best shortcut or life hack (no matter how small or niche)?
I’m listening to mom! I often tried other routes, but the smartest and fastest were always the result of my mother’s advice.
Tell us about an interesting, unusual, or challenging process you have at work.
Well, the way we innovate is an interesting or perhaps unusual process. Basically, we get inspiration and ideas for innovation from our community and from our retailers (yes, we do listen!). Based on the feedback and inquiries we receive, as well as our own research and knowledge of culturally effective and culturally authentic ingredients, my sister (our Chief Innovation Officer) and I are working together to determine how to make this a reality. These conversations (or, I would say, debates!) Often spill over from the boardroom to the dining table (and sometimes through mom’s mediation!), But ultimately we agree on how we want to move forward because our primary goal is to – continues to serve our community fully and meet their unmet skin and hair care needs around the world.
When your purchase of Essence was announced, some people raised a controversy over the 2017 SheaMoisture ad that seemed to ignore the brand’s black customer base. How do you deal with the long-term consequences of such incidents?
As a leader, we never hesitated to immediately acknowledge what happened. Most importantly, we have set ourselves the goal of rebuilding trust. The most important lesson we have learned from this situation is that we need to make sure that all of our employees, especially new employees, are fully immersed in our culture. Over the past two years, we have almost doubled. Thus, we face both the opportunities and the challenges associated with this growth, and we apply the knowledge gained from each of them to constantly improve.
Ultimately, I can say that it made us better. Following this incident, I and the other members of my leadership team went on a multi-city orientation tour with 25 to 500 black women in their rooms at the same time, sharing not only their feelings about advertising, but also their lives, their communities. and their needs outside the beauty salon. Our New Voices Fund (a $ 100 million fund we created to invest and empower women entrepreneurs of color) was inspired by what we heard from these women about what some of their main concerns are. to live the life they imagined. themselves. So, we set out to help find a solution, starting by addressing some of the challenges that many black women entrepreneurs have in terms of access, capital, experience, and other resources that help grow and sustain their businesses and thus strengthen their families and community.
Who are the people who help you achieve results, and how do you rely on them?
Everyone and always! Any level of success we have achieved is the result of the exceptional collective effort, determination, commitment and dedication of our entire wonderful team. Believe me, this takes a village!
How to recharge or relax?
I am energized by attending an executive training program every summer. Continuous learning is very important to refresh and recharge, and I am always looking for ways to do things differently, or just understand a new perspective. This is essential for personal growth and for becoming a more effective leader.
What’s your favorite side project?
Gardening.
What are you reading now or what do you recommend?
The Difficult About Difficult Things , Ben Horowitz
Who else would you like to see to answer these questions?
President Obama.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“You can do anything in this world if you don’t care who gets the recognition.”
What problem are you still trying to solve?
Wealth creation in the black community.