Key Takeaways:
In beauty, having a great product is table stakes. So why do so many brands with genuinely innovative formulations stall at $5M, $10M, or $20M—never making the leap to category leader? Elizabeth Corrigan has spent three decades answering that question. She’s the founder of The Complete Package (TCP), a company that provides business solutions for new and existing beauty brands, including business transformation, brand expansion, product development, supply chain management, and market strategy. Corrigan has witnessed the same pattern play out across countless brands: brilliant formulations, passionate founders, and legitimate consumer traction that somehow can't break through to the next level.
The problem, Corrigan has learned, isn't the product. It's what she calls "pattern blindness"—the inability to see that your greatest strengths can become your biggest liabilities when the operational infrastructure beneath them isn't built to scale. Most beauty brands aren't failing because of what's in the bottle. Brands fail because they're sleeping when they should be scaling. And the difference between the two often determines whether a brand becomes a category leader or another cautionary tale.
The Pattern Problem
After three decades spanning L'Oréal, LVMH, and Bliss, Corrigan has developed an almost diagnostic ability to identify what's holding a brand back. The pattern appears in four interconnected symptoms: great product, weak narrative, disconnected distribution, margin friction. But here's what founders miss: These aren't separate problems requiring separate solutions. They're symptoms of the same root issue—lack of strategic integration.
"A good product is essential, but it must be precisely crafted, rooted in insight, and ready to meet the moment," Corrigan explained. That last part—ready to meet the moment—encompasses everything from consumer acquisition to organizational preparedness. It's the difference between a brand that can handle sudden demand and one that crumbles under it.
TCP's transformational approach cuts straight to the core. "We focus on quickly identifying core issues by listening with intent and analyzing margin as a measure of wisdom and supply chain as operational accelerator," Corrigan said. "A segmentation methodology from product innovation to supply chain infrastructure should be aligned across the organization."
When it's not, you get brands that look impressive in pitch decks but can't translate promise into performance—stunning hero products with supply chains built for last year's volume—compelling brand stories that don't connect to actual distribution strategies or margin structures that make growth financially unsustainable.
But here's the good news: pattern blindness is curable.
The TCP Difference—Full-Spectrum Partnership
The Complete Package operates differently from a traditional consultancy. There's no 80-slide deck dropped on your desk with a handshake and a "good luck with implementation." TCP embeds itself as a full-spectrum partner across three critical dimensions simultaneously: strategic, operational, and creative. This isn't consultant-speak for "we do multiple things." It means TCP works on margin structure, distribution strategy, supply chain optimization, and brand narrative simultaneously—because in real businesses, these elements don't exist in silos. A distribution decision impacts margin. A supply chain constraint shapes creative possibilities. A narrative shift opens new channels.
What makes this approach powerful is that TCP doesn't replace internal teams—it amplifies them. "What usually holds internal teams back are process bottlenecks, streamlining issues, and executive approval cycles," Corrigan explained. "We bring flexibility to those processes." This is force multiplication in action: unlocking the potential that already exists within an organization by removing the friction that prevents teams from executing at their full capacity.
At the center of TCP's philosophy is a margin-minded approach that's rare in beauty. "Margin must be protected while allowing for reinvestment in growth and continuous improvement within the strategy from the outset, fueling the innovation pipeline," Corrigan said. This means treating distribution as performance, not just placement—evaluating every channel decision through the lens of sustainable profitability, not just brand prestige or vanity metrics.
Perhaps TCP's most unreplicable advantage is Corrigan's ability to speak both investor and founder language fluently. She offers a holistic view of the organization that many consultants miss by focusing on only one perspective. "This bilingualism is critical for progress," she noted. Beauty doesn't just need operators who think like investors, or investors who understand operations—it needs both in the same room, speaking the same language, solving the same problems. That's what TCP delivers.
From Sleeping to Scaling—The Framework
So what does "sleeping" actually look like? In Corrigan's framework, a sleeping brand is one that hasn't re-evaluated its supply chain and operational infrastructure to prepare for scaling proactively. Instead, it's reacting—scrambling to catch up once rapid growth is already underway. The red flags are everywhere: Production timelines that worked at $5M in revenue suddenly become bottlenecks at $15M. Component suppliers who were reliable partners can't scale with demand. Distribution strategies designed for controlled growth collapse under viral momentum. These aren't unfortunate surprises—they're predictable consequences of building for today instead of tomorrow.
Corrigan points to Olaplex back in 2020 as the textbook example. "They were over capacity on production and components when they experienced rapid growth, unable to keep up with demand due to insufficient foundational infrastructure." The product was revolutionary. The consumer demand was real and urgent. But the operational backbone wasn't ready. Olaplex was caught sleeping, and the cost wasn't just lost sales; it could have resulted in lost market momentum at the exact moment when dominance was within reach.
The TCP approach is different. It starts with finding white space that others miss—and Corrigan notes that TCP's recent breakthroughs have been at the intersection of professional aesthetic and consumer-facing opportunities, where traditional beauty players often overlook hybrid models. From there, TCP redesigns distribution with margin and scalability in mind, and restructures operations to handle not just current volume, but 3x current volume without breaking.
The inflection point comes when a brand shifts from reactive to proactive. Before: founders firefighting production delays, negotiating with maxed-out suppliers, watching margin erode as they expedite shipments to meet demand. After: a brand with supply chain optionality, production capacity built ahead of need, and distribution strategies that generate profitability at every tier. The difference isn't just operational—it's existential. Sleeping brands hope they can scale. Scaling brands know they can.
Proof of Concept—The Case Studies
Theory is one thing. Results are another. TCP's track record spans brands at vastly different stages, each requiring a different form of strategic intervention—but all sharing the common thread of translating potential into performance.
Take Bluemercury, a TCP client of 15 years, where the company partnered with its founders to implement a retail expansion strategy that went far beyond adding doors. The work encompassed proprietary product line development, Amazon entry strategy, and M&A readiness—building long-term value by ensuring every growth lever was pulled in sequence, not simultaneously. The result wasn't just expansion; it was strategic positioning that made Bluemercury an attractive acquisition target for Macy's in 2015.
Another example is BEVEL, where TCP transformed a culturally focused mission into a market-ready brand at unprecedented speed. The work encompassed complete product development for five core shaving products designed specifically for coarse and curly hair, integrated supply chain architecture, and operational infrastructure—all delivered in record time that significantly outpaced industry standards. TCP didn't just execute on product; they built the operational backbone that enabled Walker & Company to scale from direct-to-consumer traction to major retail partnerships with Target and others. The result: a successful launch, and proof that speed and cultural relevance, when backed by operational excellence, can turn an underserved market gap into a national omnichannel presence. Walter & Company was sold to Procter & Gamble in 2018.
Currently, TCP is deep into active product innovation work with Hydrafacial, leveraging TCP's testing and development infrastructure to expand beyond the core device business. This isn't about incremental line extensions, but rather, strategic diversification that protects the brand's leadership position while opening new revenue streams. The work exemplifies TCP's full-spectrum approach: equal parts innovation pipeline, operational rigor, and market positioning.
What ties these cases together isn't the specific tactics—each brand required different solutions. It's the methodology: ruthless pattern recognition, strategic integration across every function, and the operational discipline to execute without disruption. Bluemercury needed M&A readiness. Go Smile needed category repositioning. Hydrafacial needs innovative infrastructure. TCP delivered all three because the underlying capability is the same: seeing what's possible, building the roadmap to get there, and embedding the systems that make it sustainable.
The Founder's Blueprint
This methodology didn't emerge overnight—it's the culmination of Corrigan's unconventional path. She cut her teeth at L'Oréal, honed her strategic instincts at LVMH, and then made a move that raised eyebrows: pioneering the hotel amenity category at Bliss. It was an unconventional play that would become definitional—not just for her career, but for how she thinks about distribution itself.
The W Hotels partnership taught Corrigan something traditional beauty executives often miss: Opportunity is everywhere, and brands must meet consumers wherever they are. At the time, placing premium skincare in hotel bathrooms wasn't an obvious channel—it was experimental, even risky. But it worked because it intercepted consumers in a moment of openness and discovery. That insight has only become more relevant. Today, Corrigan sees the same cross-pollination happening between professional and consumer environments, particularly at the intersection of wellness and aesthetic skincare. The lines are blurring, and the brands that recognize it early will own the white space.
Each chapter of Corrigan's career built toward TCP. From L'Oréal, she learned the discipline of global brand building at scale. From LVMH, she absorbed the luxury playbook—how to protect margin while expanding reach. From Bliss, she learned that the most lucrative opportunities often exist outside traditional channels. But the decision to build TCP in 2005 wasn't just professional—it was deeply personal.
"It was a personal choice, driven by the desire to be present for my twin daughters and to create a flexible work environment for women," Corrigan explained. At a time when hybrid work and work-from-home options were virtually nonexistent in corporate beauty, she built a company that made flexibility foundational. But there was also a market gap she couldn't ignore: Too many brands were getting strategic advice from people who'd never actually operated a beauty business, and operational support from people who didn't think strategically. TCP was built to close that gap.
What Makes TCP Unreplicable
The beauty industry isn't short on consultancies, incubators, or contract manufacturers offering strategic support. So what makes TCP different? It's not one thing—it's the specific combination of capabilities that others can't replicate.
First, TCP operates across the full lifecycle, pre- and post-capital. For bootstrapped founders, TCP introduces rigor into processes that may already have costly mistakes baked in. The focus is on margin impact and distribution strategy designed with profitability as the foundation—ensuring the business is poised to attract capital, not just survive until it arrives. For PE-backed CEOs, the mandate shifts: How do you effectively use additional resources to scale while maintaining a lean organizational structure? Most consultancies serve one audience or the other. TCP serves both, because the same strategic principles apply whether you're raising your first dollar or deploying your fiftieth million.
Second, TCP brings decades of pattern recognition that can't be taught in an MBA program or learned from a single successful exit. Corrigan has seen hundreds of brands at every stage—she knows what works, what fails, and why. She's a trusted C-suite advisor who's also been an operator, meaning she doesn't just recommend strategies; she understands the realities of implementing them.
As Corrigan put it, TCP is "the only beauty operator that blends private equity-level strategic rigor with hands-on execution." But perhaps the most critical differentiator is her perspective on what separates brands built to scale from those that only look good on paper: "Strategy meets execution." The brands that make it prioritize truth-tellers within their organizations and effectively act on that truth without significant disruption.
What's Next—Industry Evolution
Ask Corrigan what's evolving in beauty that most people are overlooking, and she doesn't point to a trending ingredient or a hot new category. She points to the intersection. "There's buzz around 'longevity' and its intersection with 'wellness,'" she observed. But here's the problem: "Wellness" often lacks a clear definition, much like "clean beauty" before regulatory and consumer pressure forced clarity. The brands that will win aren't chasing the buzzwords—they're defining what these terms actually mean in practice.
The bigger opportunity, Corrigan believes, lies in the intersection of professional services within retail environments. This isn't about putting an esthetician in a Sephora for a weekend activation. It's about fundamentally rethinking how and where consumers access expertise, treatment, and products. The infrastructure for this shift is currently being built, yet most brands remain unaware.
But the macro forces demand attention. Global readiness isn't optional anymore—it's existential. Tariffs are reshaping supply chain economics. Channel shifts are accelerating as traditional retail contracts and DTC costs rise. The brands that will survive the next decade aren't just the ones that stay relevant—they're the ones built to be resilient.
What should founders and CEOs be thinking about now? Corrigan's answer is straightforward: Are your operations ready for disruption? Can your supply chain handle volatility? Is your margin structure defensible if costs spike or a key channel disappears? Relevance gets you into the conversation. Resilience keeps you in business. The brands building for both will be the ones still standing when the next seismic shift hits—and in beauty, the next shift is always closer than it appears.
Sleeping or Scaling?
So here's the diagnostic question every founder and CEO should be asking: Is your brand sleeping or scaling?
Corrigan offers a framework to find out. Start by evaluating the productivity and ROI of your new launches. Are they moving the business forward, or just adding noise? Are you trying to reach too broad an audience instead of dominating a specific one? Consider segmenting your strategy—starting with professional products to build credibility before moving to consumer-facing distribution, for example. Ensure all pillars of the business—product, profit, margin, and operational supply chain—are strategically stacked to support scaling, not just stacked on top of each other.
The future of beauty belongs to brands that understand this integration. Corrigan's vision for TCP is to be the partner that makes it possible—the force multiplier that turns sleeping brands into scaling powerhouses and scaling brands into category leaders. Because in beauty's new era, having a great product is table stakes. Knowing how to build the engine beneath it? That's what separates the winners from the almosts.
