Nature's Sunshine - Female Executive of the Year

Company: Nature's Sunshine
Company Description: Nature's Sunshine, headquartered in Lehi and with operations in Spanish Fork, is a 50-year-old, publicly traded company (Nasdaq:NATR) committed to helping their customers live a life of wellness and well-being; manufacturing over 1,700 different health and wellness products, including herbs, vitamins, minerals, essential oils, protein powders, and personal care products for global distribution.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services –11 to 2,500 Employees

Nomination Title: Kelly Rich

With more than 20-years-experience in high-impact roles at four leading companies, and with experience working in 25 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, Kelly Rich, has emerged among the nation’s most accomplished female executives in the health and wellness industry.

Currently serving as Vice President of U.S. Sales at Nature’s Sunshine Products, Kelly joined the company in March 2020 during the initial COVID-19 lockdown. Though she was unable to meet her team in person in 2020, she successfully led the execution of a dynamic transformation strategy designed to re-imagine the way the 50-year-old Lehi, Utah, company, conducts business. Her strong relationship building skills and a strategic execution mindset empowered her to accomplish so much with the team, without even setting foot in the Head Office and meeting the teams and customers in person.

Prior to joining Nature’s Sunshine, Kelly was global Vice President of Field Development at LifeVantage Corporation, a pioneer in Nutrigenomics. Earlier, she led global marketing operations at Modere International. She began her career as a business analyst at NuSkin Enterprises located in Provo, Utah.

At each stop in her career, Kelly led company transformation efforts, opened new markets, and driven increased sales and bottom-line results.

Before Kelly’s arrival, Nature’s Sunshine was experiencing 20-years of declining sales. Tasked with helping to lead the company’s biggest transformation in its 50-year history, Kelly went to work to prepare our field for this change.

Our re-launch touched every part of our business, from a refreshed brand image, to an entirely new set of tools to help Consultants amplify their expertise, and a simpler compensation model with faster payments and greater earning opportunities.

Kelly laid out a communications plan outlining hundreds of touchpoints across multiple channels so that everyone would have the opportunity to prepare for the change. She and her team engaged with field leaders regularly using Zoom calls, conference calls and emails to provide training and tools. From May to August, they:

-Sent countless personal emails and texts
-Conducted 2,552 1-on-1 phone calls
-Sent 5,417 snail mail communications
-Held 64 webinar trainings
-Developed and distributed 20 animated training videos
-Shared nearly 100 messages through corporate social platforms, texts and emails

As with any transformation, you prepare for the best and the worst. With such far-reaching changes, we could have experienced massive disruptions in our business – especially during these unprecedented times – but we didn’t. In fact, we experienced record-breaking results with Q3 and Q4 being the biggest in the history of the company! Other key indicators of success included:

-Number of Consultants increased
-Our Customer base Increased
-Active Rates Increased
-Training Attendance Increased
-Affiliate Program Increased
-Subscription Orders Increased
-Revenue Increased

Instituting change of any kind is often difficult for many people. When you consider change at a 50-year-old company with long-tenured employees, and couple that with a global pandemic, and change can seem near impossible! That was the challenge that faced Kelly when she arrived at Nature’s Sunshine.

Beyond business results, and despite only-ever working with her co-workers virtually, through her unique leadership approach, Kelly managed to establish trust and confidence among her direct reports and teams; as well as her many co-workers and consultants scattered all over Utah, the country and the world!

Since implementing the transformation strategy, in Q3 2020, and despite the global pandemic, Nature’s Sunshine has had its three best quarters in company history, posting $100 million in net sales for the first time. Plus, the company dramatically increased shareholder value by taking the stock from $5 per share to over $20 per share in April 2021.

What’s more, our new Business Plan positions Nature’s Sunshine at the forefront of our industry and includes ground-breaking features that will drive long-term success, including:

Unique Affiliate Model
Subscription Purchasing Model
Membership Benefit Model
Social Media & eCommerce Presence
Brand Improvement
Real-time Payment
Consumer-driven Focus

As we move forward, Kelly and her team continue to analyze data in order to improve on the new model, and we continue to innovate and create opportunities for everyone to enjoy our business and our products.

Please see the linked materials Kelly was instrumental in developing to engage with our field leaders and drive our organizational transformation throughout 2020.

https://www.naturessunshine.com/
Our Legacy Lies Ahead PDF
2020 New Business Model Initial Training Presentation
Our Transformation Journey
Additionally, here are a few things some of her co-workers have shared about working with Kelly.

“Kelly has been an amazing boss and mentor to me, through an especially challenging time of transformation within our company,” said Scott Terry, Director of Training & Development, who has been with Nature’s Sunshine for 25 years. “She is a strategic thinker with a caring heart. Her steady guidance through change – all while working remotely due to the pandemic – has been a true blessing for me and for our company.”

“Kelly brings boundless passion and energy to work every day,” said Alex Melecio, Director of Training & Development, Nature’s Sunshine. “Her deep industry experience, coupled with her positive perspective about the future impact we can have as an organization, has been inspiring for me, and the entire team.”