With his signature ponytail, beard and characteristic tie-free attire, John Paul DeJoria doesn’t look like a typical CEO. And he’s not.
John Paul Mitchell Systems, the professional salon product manufacturing company he co-founded 25 years ago, is an industry leader with annual retail sales of approximately $700 million. But JP, as his friends and colleagues call him, plays by his own rules.
“I believe in having fewer moving parts in an organization and doing more with less,” says the 61-year-old chairman and CEO. “Growth and expansion usually come with increasing layers of management, but not at John Paul Mitchell Systems. I keep things lean intentionally. It helps maintain the sense of family and team spirit that’s part of our corporate culture.
“My 130 employees do the work of 300. And in 25 years, we’ve had very little turnover, replacing only 15 people in all that time.”
How does he attract and retain these dedicated super-achievers?
“Hire the best and treat them well,” he says. “I expect more, give employees more responsibility than their peers in other companies and I pay them more. When I was building this business, I did everything from selling to keeping the books, and now I look for that same versatility in others. I choose people who want a career, not a job, people who want to be part of something.”
He also offers some unusual benefits. Because of his commitment to environmental activism, employees who carpool are reimbursed for their gas expenses. He also provides a meal on the house to those who work at corporate headquarters in Beverly Hills.
“Ever heard the expression, there’s no free lunch?” he asks. “Well, at my company, there is.”
Doing things differently is a DeJoria trademark. He and partner Paul Mitchell, who died in 1989 of pancreatic cancer, started the company in 1980 with a radically innovative hair care product, styling method and marketing concept. Their hair sculpting lotion was sold only to salon owners and stylists.
The partners took it door-to-door, providing free training demos. And they promised that unsold products could be returned for a full refund.
It was an idea, not a business plan. To say that the venture was seriously undercapitalized — think a borrowed $750 — is an understatement. Their first year, says DeJoria, was all about avoiding bankruptcy and staying afloat.
“We should have gone under. It’s amazing we didn’t,” he says. “Our short-term objective was just to be able to pay our bills and take home a little money for ourselves. Our big dream was to one day have $5 million in sales.”
The man and the business have clearly exceeded those aspirations. DeJoria, who was raised by a single mother, with no silver spoon in his mouth or a college education to give him a leg up, is a self-made multimillionaire and philanthropist. He runs a global beauty empire that is one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the country — not bad for a kid who was voted least likely to succeed in high school.
“I’ve sold everything from encyclopedias to life insurance,” DeJoria says. “The most important thing I discovered is that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that the successful ones do the tough stuff that others don’t want to. That means after getting a door slammed in your face 10 times, you still go to door No. 11 with just as much enthusiasm and a smile on your face.”
