Medha Tawde Bhagat, a progressive and results-driven fragrance expert with 28+ years in the Personal and Home Care industry across global markets. She combines technical expertise and strategic acumen to drive growth, innovation, and holistic, purpose-led leadership, fostering business excellence and well-being.
In an engaging interaction with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Medha shares her insights on how the fragrance industry is adapting to shifts toward sustainability, transparency, and biodegradability, while balancing innovation with emotional appeal, artisanal creativity, and brand authenticity.
How is the fragrance industry responding to the current shift in consumer preferences toward sustainability, transparency, and biodegradability, while maintaining the emotional allure of scents?
I have been travelling extensively between Europe, USA and Asia and it’s interesting to observe live consumer expressions from different Tiers and Geographies. There are different themes that flash out, apart from what we interpret from Industry and Consumer Research reports.
Our lifestyles are constantly evolving and much faster than before with information overload by media and internet. At the same time, I also see it’s pushing the consumer to pause, re-think and consolidate. You almost see the contract and dilemma that consumers are going through today.
Sustainability, transparency and biodegradability have become subjects of consumer claims and with consumer preference. There is a lot of work happening in Research and Development on this subject with significant investment and innovation focus. There are learnings from regional olfactive exploration, old wisdom and nature for authentic claims. Industry is also keeping in mind the objective of long-term sustainable strategic growth vs short term action driven by quarterly results. Companies with strong fundamentals and values hence will continue to excel.
With a rise in demand for renewable and upcycled fragrance ingredients how can R&D teams innovate beyond conventional sources without compromising olfactory complexity and global scalability?
We have an abundance of natural resources, artisanal knowledge and centuries old expertise. Exchange of knowledge between developed and developing countries would help unleash further potential opportunities in new olfactive territories. This needs to be driven by specialized training, education and exposure for R&D team.
We also need further work on maximizing agricultural value, encouragement to our farmers to produce perfumery feedstock, international quality processing technology and processes, managing climatic conditions and improving crop yields for better value creation.
As AI, biotech, and green chemistry revolutionize fragrance formulation, how can leaders integrate these advancements while preserving artisanal creativity and brand authenticity?
Critical thinking and emotional intelligence at strategy level is going to be even more crucial given the new advancements. Observations, interpretation and intuition to create new differentiating concepts, will be key while introducing new innovation. If we historically look at the classics and iconic launches in Fine fragrances, they still rule the market while more than 50% of new launches do not receive the desired success, hence authenticity will be even more valuable going forward.
AI will certainly ease out processes and improve efficiency while sense and sensibility is what would drive creativity to retain Brand authenticity.
How should future fragrance industry leaders be trained to navigate the intersection of sustainable innovation, regulatory compliance, and evolving consumer behavior?
Sustainability is no longer just the subject for big corporates and world organizations; it has become priority for common man for our very own existence. Leaders need to recognize this fact and shift the mindset to make it a core part of product development strategy.
Your drive to learn new things and meaningful innovation is necessary to stay relevant. There is no replacement for human interactions, consumer engagement and being observant is a must for business acumen required for today’s dynamic market conditions.
What leadership capabilities will be essential to drive cross-functional collaboration between perfumers, scientists, and marketers to create sustainable yet emotionally compelling fragrances?
Fragrance at the end of the day is supposed to create joy, emotional connection as it’s build to please one of our 5 key senses. Beyond the calculations of P&L and short terms quarterly results, Leaders need to be product and consumer centric and that’s nonnegotiable. In fact, historically every iconic Brand or company has been successful when they actually started with need, opportunity – ideation – product to convert into business. There was no artificially created storytelling; the idea had a story in itself that made it iconic.
Translational Leadership thinking why it matters is essential. Perfumers think in notes and emotions, scientists in molecules and efficacy, marketers in consumer needs and storytelling. The leader capability should come from connecting these dots and translate and align these different “languages” into a common narrative that resonates with all functions.
To ensure flawless execution Empathy and Emotional Intelligence matters. Each function is driven by different motivations—creative pride, scientific rigor, consumer-centricity. Understanding what matters most to each team and creating space for their strengths to shine while managing tensions with care, requires tremendous softer skills and sensitivity.
Beyond these emotions comes the practical and systematic thinking that involves life-cycle thinking, supply chains, regulations, interdependencies to drive choices that are technically, emotionally, and commercially viable.
To champion sustainable fragrances, the value proposition must be clearly articulated and communicated with impactful story telling both internally and externally. Leaders should inspire teams with a vision that combines sustainability, sensorial beauty, and consumer relevance—backed by both science and emotion.
Fostering a culture where perfumers can suggest scientific tweaks, scientists can critique emotional claims, and marketers can push boundaries without fear is critical too. Sustainable fragrance development involves complex trade-offs—between cost, performance, emotion, and impact. Leaders need strong resilience to walk the thin rope by facilitating inclusive yet efficient decision-making that respects all voices while moving toward a shared goal.
And to stay relevant with changing times one needs to remain curiosity with humility, observant about what’s emerging, and humble enough to learn from every function, regardless of seniority or domain.
Future Leadership can be imagined like a fragrance pyramid with these capabilities as the top, heart, and base notes of collaborative leadership. Setting the top note with the Vision and Presence, Heart note sustaining the Emotional Pulse and Base Notes, anchoring the Journey with Integrity and Depth.
Leadership is like a great Scent in itself, leaves a trail, or sillage, signature presence that lingers. Elevating harmony.
How can organizations future-proof talent pipelines in the fragrance and chemical industries, ensuring leaders can anticipate sustainability challenges while shaping innovation-driven growth?
Our educational systems are slowly evolving to the industry needs for early orientation and necessary mindset that’s necessary to face the newer challenges in sustainability, anticipating them in advance and preparing the next generation requires building the foundation together with universities, to on- boarding new talent and then throughout the corporate process across functions.
This means training and development of future leaders to understand the technical nuances not just at creative and R&D level but cross function beyond product development and manufacturing verticals.
We also need to roll our models to work and take inspiration from cross industries beyond fragrances, be it from food, fashion, architecture, lifestyle and more.
Recognizing those efforts to celebrate 'fragrance impact leaders', incentivize fragrance circularity, Reward development for sustainable scents and scent delivery systems. We should even build Reverse Mentorship & Intergenerational Olfactive Exchange like pair Gen Z trainees passionate about climate action and clean labels with experienced perfumers and R&D leaders—sparking new dialogues between tradition and transformation.
Sustainability is way of Life as mentioned necessary for our very existence, so it has to reflect in our every day-to-day corporate actions.
