Mila Litvinjenko, the founder and director of Aura Cosmetics Company, speaks for Profit magazine.

1.Mrs. Litvinjenko, where were you born and brought up? Where were you educated?

I was born and raised in Belgrade in Banovo Brdo. I completed secondary school and then graduated from the Faculty of Philology. During my studies I attended professional development courses in France.

2.How did your career develop before you founded the cosmetics company Aura?

Upon completion of studies I did what I was qualified to do, and worked as a simultaneous translator for the United Nations, working on translations from various fields. I worked as a French teacher for a short while at the Adult Centre for learning foreign languages.

3.You began production in 1997 in Nis. What was the investment amount at the very beginning and how did you provide the start-up capital?

The initial investment was around 300,000 German Marks. The start up capital was obtained through a loan on the one hand and through the investment of the cofounders on the other. The then cofounders provided around 50,000 German Marks. After the first year, the cofounders withdrew their shares.

4.What challenges are you facing now as a successful business woman in Serbia and how do you tackle prejudice regarding women inbusiness?

I think these are challenges that every owner i.e director of a public enterprise faces and every single system has its own specificities.

What distinguishes us is the fact that we are cosmetics producers, I think the only one in the region, and we distribute our products on our own. Wholeness and harmony within a system are important elements for its sustainable development.

It is important to recognise, and in due time create, market demand, and have the necessary information about developments in the technology and raw materials markets.

It is also important to provide resources for innovation, education and development, as well as to have adequate marketing that accompanies new ideas,with sales instruments that enable the placement of products on the market in the best and quickest way to make them closer to the buyer; securing good charges, and low cost funding from banks and funds are very important for the potential of further growth.

Prejudices surrounding women involved in business were in my case overcome many years ago. Honestly, I have never experienced them personally.Since the very beginning I have made an effort to be perceived as a serious person.

5.What was Aura’s product range like in the beginning, and what is it like today? Do you procure raw materials abroad or in Serbia, and what markets do you distribute your products to?

It is sufficient to say that there were around fifty products in our range in the beginning, whereas today there are over seven hundred products. We have appealing products that can compete with all great world brands. A modern woman is well informed, she is acquainted with the world trends, she knows how to use these products and she wants totreat herself to them.Our goal is to have a wide range of products which will meet the market demands and which will hold the title of a high quality product at a reasonable price that matches the spending capacity of our customers.

Raw materials are mainly imported from abroad, from the most renowned world producers. There is practically no domestic market that sells raw materials for the production of decorative cosmetics. In addition to selling our products in Serbia, we export them to all of the former Yugoslav republics, except Slovenia, though we expect to have our products there soon, followed by Romania and Bulgaria. Besides these countries there are a few more, but they account for a negligible percent of our total exports. Alongside Slovenia, we are working on getting our products in Austria. In May we are going to Dubai to negotiate potential distributers for the UAE.

6.In your opinion, to what extent has the cosmetics market changed in almost twenty years, from when you began until now?

In the last couple of years, due to the expansion of social networking sites, there have been big changes in the awareness of consumers in all areas. I can admit that these trends are favourable for us since our customers are now fully informed about future trends, novelties and how to use products. Most women, having acquired their own makeup skills, want to have their own collection of products and will therefore rarely go to a beautician, which gives us the opportunity and challenge to support them with our product range.

On the other hand, the cosmetics market is constantly changing, both in terms of the content of the raw materials and their performance and the machinery and tools.When I look back to twenty years ago, the changes have been huge and every year I am surprised by the new possibilities, which are quickly adopted on our market.

7.Aura products are very well positioned in Serbia. What methods and strategies do you use to achieve that? What are your current production capacities?

Owing to our own distribution network, the constant presence of our people on the market and our contact with our end customers, we are able to recognise their needs and even anticipate them. We are constantly improving the software we developed, and it offers us invaluable data to aid us in our decision making. It all comes down to having information at any moment.

I am proud of our production capacity. From a small production we have grown into industrial production. We now have a capacity of 15 million products. We make sure that our production capacity matches the sales capacity.

8. Which product from your range are you particularly proud of, and do you plan to launch any new products?

Currently the best selling product is absolute Matt rouge. At the end of every year we create a development plan for the following year.Annually, we launch, on average, fifteen new groups of products. More often than not we deviate from the plan and enhance the number of novelties. The point is to react quickly and offer the product to a customer at the moment when they want to purchase it. I am not talking about details, but about completely new products.

9. What conditions do the cosmetics need to meet, and what is the quality measure? Your factory operates according to international standards. What certificates do you hold?

We have to make sure that a cosmetics product is safe to use in the first place and that it shows good physical-chemical stability until the anticipated expiry date. Decorative cosmetics are regarded to be “correctional” cosmetics and it is now becoming clear why the functionality of products as well as good choice of colour are essential. In order to get a product which will fully meet the consumers’ needs, you have to find a way to recognise those needs and requirements and then create a good formulation which contains high quality raw materials. During production, the highest standards must be respected and naturally, an adequate level of quality control must be provided. There is another important fact which makes a customer completely satisfied. It is important for customers to know their own skin, so that they choose adequate product that meets its needs.

Through the detailed survey and testing of the products already present on the market, one always aspires towards giving customers better quality products.

Aura follows the ISO 9001:2008 standard, and completely respects and follows the guidelines of the ISO 22716:2007 standard whose certification is due by autumn.

10. Within the factory you also have a development and quality control laboratory. What are the advantages of starting your own laboratory?

We started the laboratory in order to check the imported raw materials and the quality of the semi-finished products. Our knowledge and experience made it possible for us to equip the laboratory with the most state-of-the art appliances (this investment is constant). With our extremely skilled personnel and modern equipment, there is not a single product we are not able to produce today. I am not exclusively referring to decorative i.e corrective cosmetics, but also to personal hygiene, facial and body nourishment products and perfumes. In this way we offer the service of making private labels, which over the course of time becomes significant item in our annual turnover. Today everything is the same as it used to be. The laboratory is the initial and the final point in the quality control. You must perform the incoming quality control of raw materials, process control and finally give the product “acceptable” status. Thus, you are always sure about the quality of a product which is sent to market, and when you are able to carry out the process on your own, it saves time which is very important to us.

11.Aura is a leader in innovations. What new products do you offer to consumers in Serbia as well as in the region? How do you design a new brand, in your opinion?

We always do our best to satisfy the needs of our end buyer, and offer them a wider range of products, as well as keep up with the current trends. It is these guidelines which direct us in our decision making when it comes to introducing new products. At the end of last year the decision was made to use limited collections in order to enable our consumers to try out very specific products, whether for the formulation itself or the choice of colours. We are sure that at some point in time, we will be the only brand of decorative cosmetics on the market which contains certain specific products in its range. This is another reason why the brand name AURA will always be associated with the word innovation.

A new brand should be developed by adding your personal signature. Regardless of the huge competition in decorative cosmetics, I am convinced that good quality, and acknowledging the end consumers’ needs and their anticipation can lead to a success. There is also the unavoidable marketing. You have to know how to assess when the time is right for corporate marketing, and when it is necessary to promote a certain product.

12.How do you tackle competition in the country as well as abroad, since you have high quality products and excellent designs at a low price?

One of our strongest links is our team, who understand, interact with and respect each other very much.

Our decision making is quick and we react to our consumers’ demands immediately. Our competitors work on a global level and reaching a decision requiresmuch more time for them to finalise. They hardly focus on the regional market needs, which we have used to our competitive advantage.

13. How many people are employed in your company? What criteria do you use in selecting your closest associates?

Aura has a hundred employees, and we expect to hire at least fifteen more employees by the end of the year. Most of the people who embarked on this adventure with me are still here today. We have our kids with us as our biggest boost. The kids grew up alongside Aura, they were educated and came to the company with new energy and enthusiasm. In this case it has been proved that an apple does not fall far from the tree and this combination of experience with new ideas makes me very happy. What more can you achieve than when your employees see their children’s future in the company they work for?

14.To what extent do you keep up with the latest technological innovations and trends in the cosmetics industry and what development programmes do you implement in your laboratory?

Right from the beginning, Aura has been at all of the major cosmetics events. The two most prominent fairs are in Bologna and Hong Kong, and apart from them there are at least fifteen more. Trends in raw materials, colours and packaging are presented at these events a year ahead.

The knowledge and information that we obtain in the field of technical innovations and cosmetics trends are very useful. We analyse them thoroughly, adjusting them to the requirements of our market, and we implement them as such.

Our level of innovation and flexibility determines our competitiveness on the market.

15.Regarding your corporate social responsibility, how do you help your local community?

I believe that each person should first and foremost be socially responsible where they live and work. This practise transfers to the wider social community. Here, I am not referring to social responsibility under the law, but to a wider scope of action. Over the years, we have managed to recognise where help is needed and have donated material and financial assets to various organisations for children with developmental difficulties, as well as numerous sponsorships of cultural and fashion events and events in the field of medical care. We mainly do this without the help of a mediator and always with the aim of sending help to the right address. We are aware that such initiatives are unfortunately being used for the purpose of marketing now, but Aura has always had a sole motive - to act as a socially responsible company contributing to the community in this way.

16. What advice would you give to women who have decided to become entrepreneurs, what is it that they should pay special attention to before they make such a decision?

A woman, besides being a mother, wife, and daughter, has to find something fulfilling, which will provide her with confidence and financial independence. The most important thing is to opt for something they like, something they are sure will always make them happy and satisfied. What matters is permanent commitment to quality, in whatever they start doing...Without endurance, persistence and constant education and improvement, there are no results. They should be patient, because they will achieve success if they accept these things.

17.What do you do to relax in your free time and how do you handle stress?

I am a calm person by nature and up to now I have experienced stress as something that affects other people. I have been lucky to have associates who are close to me, and I have tried to base our relations with customers on partnership and friendship. Over the course of time, I have learned that stress at work is a challenge which can be taken care of.

Besides the work that I do, I have a variety of interests and constantly need to find out something new. I am interested in interior design, medicine (surgery in particular), I like sport, and spending time in the countryside. This job has enabled me to travel over almost the whole world, meet interesting people and get to know different cultures and customs. Apart from that I am still to the present day keen on my work since it allows me to express my creativity and enjoy the results of my work.

Satisfying the varying tastes of consumers from the USA to Asia is the daily task of one hundred employees at the Aura Company based in Nis, which has dealt with the production of cosmetics in Serbia for twenty years.

Besides winning the markets in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Holland, Ukraine, Croatia and Greece, products from this Serbian company have reached Asia in the east and the United States in the west.However, this is not all.