Catch up on this week’s industry chatter with these click-worthy links:
- As part of a larger feature for Columbus CEO magazine, the Columbus Dispatch posted a Q&A with Thirty-One Founder and CEO Cindy Monroe, who spoke about her experiences launching the personalized accessories brand, as well as what she might have done differently along the way.
- The Christian Science Monitor explored the appeal of direct selling for the “Avon lady 2.0”—a new generation of sellers primarily using social media to market their wares.
- Connecticut regulators ruled Viridian Energy made “good faith efforts” to alert its account holders of rate changes, after some users claimed the renewable energy company charged them unfair early termination fees. Consumers took issue when their low introductory rates increased sharply after a six-month period. In August, CEO Michael Fallquist told investors the company was already scaling back its use of introductory rates, which lead to high customer attrition.
- Yahoo! Finance took a look at the trend toward emerging markets among major players in the beauty industry, as well as the tension between tailoring product offerings to a new market and controlling costs.
- South Korea is seeing an uptick in multi-level marketing businesses, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission. In the second quarter of 2015, the country netted seven additional companies in the category, bringing the total to 132.