Brandstorm<\/a>, which was a competition between universities,\u201d he remembers.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe task? To go against 80 college teams to come up with a cool sun protection brand. Temmerman\u2019s team made it to the finals and got to pitch to the bosses in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t win. But after that, they offered me a job,\u201d he says, adding that \u201cit was not the typical thing to do\u2014everybody in Holland goes on to Unilever, Shell, big banks or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
He took the product manager job and that\u2019s where he ended up for the next 2 decades. Promotion after promotion saw Temmerman move around the world\u2014actively working across more than 20 countries and relocating to five\u2014from the Netherlands to Paris, Sweden and Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He says the experience set him up for success in his current role as GHD\u2019s chief, which has ambitious plans for global expansion. \u201cObviously, when you jump into a global job, that helps a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does he think he could have gotten to where he is today (at 52 years old) quicker if he had left L\u2019Oreal sooner? \u201cNot sure\u201d\u2014but he has zero regrets over only ever having had two employers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see your career as a backpack. You climb a mountain and you fill your backpack with tools on the journey to get to the top,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Essentially, whether or not you change employers frequently, the key is ensuring you\u2019re constantly learning. But don\u2019t overthink it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t think too much about career [trajectory],\u201d he says, adding that he was \u201cmost unhappy\u201d in his job when he was focusing on what\u2019s next instead of enjoying what\u2019s now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to live in the now, do your job that you have at hand as good as possible, and trust the people around you,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you excel in what you do when you\u2019re young, you will get the next opportunity. It\u2019ll come by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to be ambitious,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut don\u2019t get over overly obsessed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tips for bagging a CEO gig? Network, network, network\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Although Temmerman had his eye on GHD while at L\u2019Oreal\u2014the hair tech brand, of course, had no idea. Instead, he says, the call to take its helm came thanks to lots of networking on his part.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I was not actively looking outside,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was purely thanks to all the relations that I built in the 20 years that I was working that put me in connection with this opportunity because curiosity will drive opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
His top networking tip? Stop humble bragging on LinkedIn and get out there. Meet your peers in real life and get real about where you fall weak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big thing is that you have to be authentically interested in what you do and then network will draw by itself,\u201d he says, adding: \u201cAs a leader, you need to talk to people that are in the same kind of situations that you are in\u2014not with a double agenda\u2014just like, how did you solve that problem? Because I have this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe too much in showing off that everything is perfect,\u201d he stresses. \u201cThe most interesting part in a discussion is how you deal with very complex situations at work, because everybody has them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing on the theme of being honest, Temmerman admits that the jump from being a L\u2019Oreal veteran to helming an \u201centrepreneurial\u201d company was hard\u2014and not without risk.<\/p>\n
At the time, he was managing all of Latin America for L\u2019Oreal and, on average, received a promotion every two years or so.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say goodbye to something that you know and to jump in a new adventure is always scary,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But when weighing up whether it was time to leave the company he had spent his entire adult life at, he recalls looking ahead at what he wanted from the second act of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve run the half of the marathon. Now, I still have the other half of the marathon in my career to go and this was one of those golden opportunities that I that I had to take.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, it was time to fill up his backpack some more: \u201cSometimes you have to push yourself out of the comfort zone that you\u2019re in and this was one of the opportunities to really take me back out of the comfort zone and put me in the stretch zone again.\u201d<\/p>\n
No rest for the wicked (or rather, ambitious)<\/h2>\n
Now that Temmerman is in the top job at GHD (now owned by Wella Company), he\u2019s still not sitting comfortably or resting on his laurels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are building the brand in the U.S.,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that is a fantastic challenge we have ahead of us. We don\u2019t have the awareness yet. But we will get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already, he says that the State-side business has doubled in the last couple of years, GHD is now stocked in Ulta and Sephora, and it\u2019s \u201ccreating a professional footprint\u201d with SalonCentric, one of the largest wholesale salon and beauty supply distributors of professional beauty products in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a strong believer in having good products, because then products will do the job,\u201d he adds. \u201cSo we are set up for success, especially with the innovation pipe that is coming in the years ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of innovation, unlike Dyson\u2014which pivoted from vacuums into hair tech with roaring success\u2014don\u2019t expect to see GHD side-step into other heat-related products outside of hair care, like radiators or irons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or, during Temmerman\u2019s tenure, at least.<\/p>\n
\u201cI strongly believe that the brands of the future are the brands that are focused,\u201d he insists. \u201cIn the beauty industry, I learned that brands with a clear focus and a clear DNA are the ones that can travel very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we will be focusing on a good hair day where GHD stands for\u2014making women\u2019s life easier, more beautiful by creating a good hair day.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for getting GHD\u2019s products in the hands of women everywhere, instead of their many competitors?\u00a0\u201cThere are more than 240 million consumers in the U.S., so the one that has the best products and the best value proposition and solves problems is the one that will win.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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