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Recently, a relevant person in charge of PROYA revealed to the media that its chief scientific officer Wei Xiaolan has resigned.

For a time, negative news such as "PROYA cannot retain talents", "It focuses more on marketing than research and development", "It has lost a 'powerful general'", and "The company has problems with internal management" began to circulate on the Internet, and the voices denouncing PROYA as a cosmetics company for not paying attention to research and development and talents became louder and louder.

In a horizontal comparison, PROYA's R&D ratio is indeed lower than that of some of its peers. Data shows that in 2023, PROYA's R&D expenses were 174 million yuan, accounting for 1.96% of its revenue; Bloomage's accounted for 7.34%; Beitanni's was 6.07%; and L'Oreal's was 3.13%.

However, in vertical comparison, PROYA's R&D expenses remained at more than 70 million from 2019 to 2021, 128 million in 2022, and 173.6 million in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 63.34% in the past two years. It is somewhat unfair to be accused of "not paying attention".

Is it real research and development or just a "booster"?

It is understood that Wei Xiaolan officially took up the position of PROYA's Chief Scientific Officer in September 2022. Before her resignation, Wei Xiaolan had always been considered the successor to PROYA's former R&D Director Jiang Ligang, responsible for PROYA's R&D management.

Public information shows that Wei Xiaolan graduated from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Peking University, and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2018, Wei Xiaolan served as Vice President of R&D for Asia Pacific at Coty Group, during which time she helped the company build a complete local R&D center, covering the organizational closed loop of front-end product insights, formula design, packaging engineering, processes, efficacy testing, toxicology and regulatory departments.

In September 2022, he served as PROYA's Chief Scientific Officer. During this period, PROYA launched the Energy series of products, Shield Sunscreen, PROYA Optical Bottle, and upgraded the Ruby series of products and Source series of products.

It is worth noting that for PROYA, which has always been pursuing the "big single product strategy", Wei Xiaolan did speed up the launch and upgrade of new products during his tenure, but key products such as the double-antibiotic essence and pomegranate series were not the key products developed by her team, but were star products developed by the former R&D director Jiang Ligang.

"During Wei Xiaolan's tenure, the launch and upgrade of PROYA products accelerated significantly compared to before, but there seems to be no information on the Internet about the core product development she participated in. She must have contributed to the accelerated product innovation, but it is more likely to be related to PROYA's own strategy." A shareholder posted on the Eastmoney website that her work during the Coty period did not seem to have many highlights, and was more of a conventional management job.

Some institutions analyzed that Wei Xiaolan joined the company in 2022, which also marked a significant increase in PROYA's R&D expenses. Combined with her academic level, her joining was more like PROYA sending a signal to the outside world that it "will start to focus on R&D", and it was a shot of adrenaline to the market and consumers, telling them to "make good products".

It is both change and innovation

For PROYA, the departure of key personnel is not news. Whether in the long or short term, the impact on it is not as exaggerated as circulated online.

In August 2022, Jiang Ligang, former R&D director of PROYA, resigned.

Public information shows that Jiang Ligang graduated from Zhejiang University with a degree in polymer chemistry and worked for Mary Kay and Estee Lauder for nearly 10 years. She joined PROYA in 2008 and worked there for 14 years until she left.

During this period, he helped PROYA establish two R&D teams for skin care and makeup, forming the prototype of PROYA's R&D Innovation Center. Jiang Ligang led the team to launch a number of successful products - the Ruby Series and the Double Antibody Series. The concept of "C in the morning and A in the evening" was once popular and became the brand label and pillar of PROYA.

Jiang Ligang's departure also brought some negative voices to PROYA, but although the person left, the technology remained. Jiang Ligang's 14 years of research and development achievements will always accompany PROYA's future performance and growth.

According to the 2023 financial report data, during the reporting period, PROYA brand revenue reached 7.177 billion yuan, among which the contribution of major products such as the "Ruby Series" and "Dual Antibody Series" was particularly significant, accounting for more than half.

In January 2024, Ye Wei, former CMO of PROYA, resigned.

It is understood that Ye Wei joined PROYA in 2018, which was also the period of PROYA's transformation. It can be said that during his five years in office, Ye Wei experienced many important nodes such as PROYA's online efforts and product-driven branding.

According to a Dongguan Securities research report, from 2017 to 2020, PROYA's online sales revenue increased year by year from 643 million yuan to 2.624 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 59.80%; the proportion of the main business also increased year by year from 36.08% to 70.01%. In 2022, the company's online sales will account for more than 90% of its main business.

Bai Yunhu, a senior management expert in the cosmetics industry, said that Ye Wei's departure will not have any significant impact on PROYA. "In general, PROYA's decision-making mechanism is led by the founding team and cannot be influenced by ordinary professional managers."

The above-mentioned institutions believe that the change from Jiang Ligang to Ye Wei and then to Wei Xiaolan can be regarded as the normal personnel flow of a large company. It will have a certain impact on public opinion in the short term, but in the long run it will also promote the growth of the company. The alternation of old and new people brings more development directions and R&D ideas to the company. "Change" does not mean abandoning previous achievements, but also means making better innovations on the original basis. It is predicted that PROYA will find a more suitable successor as soon as possible and continue to increase R&D investment to maintain its competitiveness in the market.