This paper is about Mary Kay Ash who owns Mary Kay Inc and how she has positively affected the society through her service in the community. She was born on May 12, 1918 in the village Hot Wells. Her mother truly impacted her life because she provided well for their family together with their grandfather. The mother really encouraged her in her duties and she instilled an indomitable spirit in her life. The mother always encouraged her that she would make it in her life all through her life and in all her aspirations.
Mary started studying in a course as a doctor but she always sold things in her part time when she was not studying. She started selling products for Stanley Home products and then for World Gift where she was promoted to be the sales director and worked there for 25 years. This encourages the people in the community that they could start from scratch and then advance to greater heights. It is good to work hard at every place that one is working. Mary then wrote a book which later turned out to be her plan for her business. With only $5,000 that she had saved, she was able to start her cosmetics shop that she had always dreamt of. From the start she was able to make a total profit of $200,000 with only nine sales people and some skin-care cream. With this profit they were able to make the business bigger and this has continued till it became what it is known to be today (Mary 23).
With the help of an interview with 60 minutes, the company was able to soar to higher success especially because the company was starting from the humble beginnings. The top sales people were rewarded heavily with pink Cadillac that was trademarked. By this help, the company was able to do very well in the business and grow to what it is known to be today. This encourages the present person to positively accept their workers and pay and reward them accordingly. This helps to motivate them to work hard in whatever that they do. Mary Kay Ash had a dream and a goal that when she would pass on that someone would stand and say that she cared about them (John 12).
The company was made public in 1968 but it then was made private again in 1985. It is still the largest known private firms in the United States. This company is still known to be one of the best companies that would work for the surveys which is always done in regular basis. Mary Kay Ash retired in 1987 and was made the chairman emeritus in the company. She did not measure the performance of her company by the profit and loss accounts but on people and love. By the year 2004, the company was able to expand its sales to $1.8 billion in more than 30 markets and had a sales force of more than 1.3 million. This teaches the society and the members of the community that they should be able to organize their work force in a way that they will be able to work better and degenerate enough profit to pay them (Matthew 18).
Mary Kay Ash passed on in November 22, 2001 but she had realized her dreams and goals that she had aspired to achieve before she passed on. She had started a charitable organization that makes crucial contribution to prevention of violence against women and cancer research. She also provides women with the opportunities to develop and empower them. She based her company on strong founded Christian faith which really helped her. She taught her people to put God first in their lives, their families second and their work last. This was very encouraging especially to everyone who worked for her in this multi-million company. Women were able to succeed in their financial, personal and spiritual lives. This shows how she has positively impacted on the society at large (Jackie 1).
The wall street journal ranked Mary Kay as the industry leaders in the provision of basic skin care provisions and other cosmetics products. The company became a private corporation in 1989 after its initial attempts to go public in 1968. It provided a wide range of cosmetic products and assisted many people in the provision of better beauty and skin care products improving the lives and lifestyles of many people in the society. The employment opportunities provided by the company offered jobs for millions of American citizens not only improving their lives but also promoting their welfare both socially and economically. This was as a result of establishment and expansion of its newly production plant and facility, a new and modern warehouse as well as corporate headquarters that were established in Dallas in United States (Mary 26).
This not only attracted the investment opportunities for substitute and complementary firms but it also created massive revenue to the government increasing government responsibility in provision of public utilities like education, health care and infrastructural activities through the revenue gathered from the company. All these establishments that were initiated by the company were all internally financed hence promoted the internal credit transfer and circulation of credit facilities. Therefore, the company promoted the banking system in the US through its provision of credit facilities to its subsidiaries and also external sources. The companies financing from its internal financing promoted the banking sector when it borrowed from internal sources and the banking system. The banking system was therefore promoted for growth and expansion of the financial sectors (Jackie 1).
The company not only operated in United States of America, but it is also recognized internationally by its subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Argentina and the West Germany. Mary Kay did not only spearhead the company to higher growth through her entrepreneurial skill but also improved the skills in the country through numerous trainings and seminars he organized to training that were organized for his company. Mary Kay foundation was also another major step that the company initiated to assist charitable organizations and participate in less fortunate members in the society (John 19).
Mary Kay Ash was honored with many and numerous honorary degrees and awards not only in the business world but also in social settings through her contributions in the society and acting as a role model for young ladies in the society. She has also been inspirational through her impartial conduct in both managerial and recruitment processes in her company and foundation. She was also recognized as one of the greatest American female entrepreneurs in the American history in 2003. She transformed the entrepreneurial field in America and its management skills through her successful leadership model she established in the cosmetic company. Through her foundation, she also sponsored many business conferences to educate and sensitize the world business community on the best practices and model of success (Jackie 1).
This affected numerous business empires resulting to their growth, expansion and development. Mary went down the history books when she was recognized as one of the first successful women entrepreneurs in the world. The fortune magazine nominated Mary Kay Ash Inc as the best among the 100 companies that worked for the American citizens delivering the best products, commodities and services. This was attributable to Mary’s inspirational and motivational methods that she adopted proving the company with a “˜heart’ of business service hence providing an opportunity to generate unlimited income. This income is not only directed towards uplifting and expanding the company through establishment of new subsidiaries but also channels a substantial proportion of finances to her charitable organization dealing with contemporary issues directly affecting the citizens across the worlds (Mary 33).
This uplifted the living standards and lifestyles of millions of citizens across the global both directly and indirectly. Due to Mary’s inspirational and motivational exemplary leadership skills that she had demonstrated over the years, the number of women sales directors in the world has increased significantly to a higher number of 500 worlds- wide. This number increased tremendously with more women achieving the highest status in the corporate world to a figure of 33,000 with more than 14,000 of them occupying the position in the United States of America. These figure initiated by Mary Kay was so significant it influenced more than 1.8 million women worldwide to venture in this independent field as beauty consultants (John 27).
Mary has also ensure that her company’s products are the highest performance, with great safety and of high quality where millions of dollars are spend every year to ensure these goals are achieved. In the preservation and maintenance of rights of all testing creatures like animal testing has been harmful in the country. Mary Kay Inc has been on the forefront in the development of alternative testing methods that environmental and animal as well as human friendly. The effort she has developed has greatly improved the efforts to conserve environment and preserve the preservation efforts. In order to ensure that her company contributes back to the society, she has established a charitable organization that funds and collaborates with research institutions that concentrates on the cure for cancer and other chronic diseases. The company’s charitable organization has also promoted the strengthening position of women in the society by funding women empowering programs in the international frontier (Jackie 1).
The organization has promoted sensitization campaign for violence against women in the international community. Mary Kay also contributed to empowering of her family members especially her son Richard who took over the control of the company after the death of her mother in 2001. The company continued to grow tremendously even after her death due to the reputable legacy and strong pillars she laid in years of her existence (Matthew34).
Conclusion
Mary Kay Ash died in 2001 having realized and achieved her destiny and life dreams which she so earnestly worked hard. The teachings and advices she got from her mother as she has documented after her retirement shows how determinable and dedicated she was in the improvement in whatever task she engaged herself with. Her company was nominate and voted as the best Cosmetic Company not only in America but also in its subsidiaries in the international market since they instituted preventive and cautious measures to ensure that their products and services are of quality and their safety were guaranteed. She also established a charitable organization which deals with financing research services for cancer problems and other chronic illnesses. Mary also sponsored programs that were promoting prevention of violence against women and major empowerment programs for women across the world. She also sponsored and organized corporate trainings and seminars as well as workshops for managerial staffs of numerous countries across the world to improve the business corporate sector. Other major contributions for the company were offering thousands of employment opportunities.