SIZE + QUIP | Talent Acquisition & Operations
A design-forward oral healthcare brand sought SIZE's expertise to secure new creative leadership and navigate operational challenges during a period of rapid growth. SIZE's Lara Osment and Kirsten Hochberg brought their expertise in talent acquisition and supply chain strategy, ensuring the brand could innovate and scale efficiently despite global disruptions.
The Brand
Quip, an early mover in the oral health space aims to revolutionize personal dental care with modern, user-focused design and experience. With an expanding suite of products including their signature sleek electric toothbrushes, flossers, mouthwash, gum, and aligners, Quip has become a global brand operating in more than 100 countries around the world.
The Challenge
Quip was looking to add a dedicated Creative Director to their team. Since the brand’s inception, creative had been led by the CEO and founder. The company was rapidly growing and had just secured a new round of funding. It was the right time to bring in a leader to manage the design group and guide the brand’s creative vision moving forward. There were two equally important pillars required for this role, a background in design and strong leadership skills demonstrated by previous management experience.
The Objective
Lara Osment, SIZE Talent Acquisition Advisor, was engaged to recruit a Creative Director with a strong design background, experience with high growth brands and a track record of outstanding team leadership.
The Process
Because there were highly specific criteria for success, it was an involved search. Quip was precise about the types of brands they wanted the person who filled this role to come from. Lara researched the market that Quip sat in and also looked closely at other categories like non-traditional beauty and fast growth direct-to-consumer tech firms.
Once Lara and her team were ready to look at specific candidates, they had to evaluate their design portfolio. This person couldn’t only be a Creative Director, they had to have a strong design background with hands-on experience as a designer and art director earlier in their career.
The frontrunner for the role met with the CEO, VP of HR, VP of Growth and the team of seven that he would manage. Initially, there was some hesitation because the candidate was based in California instead of New York where Quip is headquartered. Ultimately, the CEO decided to move forward after the candidate met with the creative team and there was an overwhelmingly positive response. The final conclusion from Quip was that this was a homerun hire on all fronts.
The Results
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Working closely with Quip’s CEO and head of HR, Lara placed a new Creative Director after a three-month search process.
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The new Creative Director was an ideal fit in terms of meeting the original expectations for the role. He came from a high-growth brand, had an extensive design portfolio and experience leading teams. The team unanimously agreed he was the right hire and could empower his direct reports and further the visual aesthetic that Quip has already established.
The Objective
Kirsten Hochberg, SIZE Supply Chain & Operations Advisor was engaged to advise on the operations of this growing omni-channel oral care brand through unprecedented global supply chain challenges at the start of Q2 of 2021.
Why do you enjoy your work with SIZE?
“I work with brands that have a mission to do good in the world. That can mean a multitude of things, from creating products that help customers take better care of themselves to being a sustainability-oriented B Corporation to prioritizing the treatment of their employees. The Quip project with SIZE was an exciting opportunity for me because we primarily work with fashion, clean beauty and wellness companies and Quip is an innovative and disruptive wellness brand that helps people take care of their body smartly. It’s so much more than just toothbrushes. They have a great story and it was an ideal fit for me personally.”
LARA OSMENT
Talent Acquisition Advisor, SIZE
The Challenge
With an immediate focus on growth and innovation, it was critical for Quip to strategically navigate supply chain disruptions that were causing widespread manufacturing delays in many industries including personal electronics (like electric toothbrushes). Additionally, there was an evident need for operational leadership that could nurture and retain high performers and attract new talent to fill gaps on the ops team.
The Approach
As lead times stretched and printed circuit board shortages caused many brands to reassess their production expectations, Kirsten was initially brought in to perform an assessment of the Quip operations team and strategy and recommend a path forward to ensure operations kept pace with the growth of the organization. She began with an audit of the current strategy in a series of interviews with all team members. After a short time, the scope of the project expanded and Kirsten stepped in to assume the role of day-to-day leadership of the ops team as the interim COO. During her time with Quip, Kirsten coached her team, mentored direct reports and managed the organization through significant employee transitions on the ops team. She led the department with a conservative approach to the supply chain challenges and negotiated pricing agreements and MSAs with various suppliers that secured components and enabled Quip to continue production schedules with minimal disruption.
The Results
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Despite supply chain challenges in the marketplace and travel bans due to Covid, quality has remained consistent, fill rates are at 98% and the time it takes to fill a DTC order has decreased by 20%.
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During 2021, Quip was able to out-supply the competition. Due to Quip’s available inventory, the brand has been able to secure additional shelf space in key retailers.
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As a member of the executive team, Kirsten helped close Series B funding which will support the next phase of Quip’s growth and fuel new verticals.
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Working closely with Quip’s HR team, Kirsten helped hire a new full time COO who began in Q4.
Why do you enjoy your work with SIZE?
“I love operations and supply chain–that’s my bread and butter. And I especially enjoy working with growing companies to create alignment between the operation and supply chain and the other functional groups. Oftentimes there is a big opportunity to improve how ops works across the organization so that ultimately, operational strategy can support the strategic direction of the business.”
KIRSTEN HOCHBERG
Supply Chain & Operations Advisor, SIZE
