"Structuring hypergrowth without stifling innovation, that’s the challenge”

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As Managing Director USA and Global Digital Director at Erborian, Mathilde Ruche oversees both the brand’s growth in the U.S. market and its digital strategy across about ten countries. Positioned at the crossroads of business, content, and tech, she structures teams, manages e-commerce, e-retail, and media levers, while staying ahead of trends. A K-beauty brand born in Korea and propelled in Europe by the L’Occitane group, Erborian has established itself as a TikTok pioneer and is experiencing strong international growth.

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What are the major challenges you face today ?

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Mathilde Ruche : We’re in a hypergrowth phase, with strong acceleration in markets like the U.S. and the U.K. This dynamic requires high organizational rigor: structuring without slowing down, absorbing growth without being overwhelmed by it, and maintaining brand consistency while finely adapting to local specificities.

In English-speaking markets, competition is fierce. The K-beauty sector is booming, with new brands constantly emerging. So, we need to differentiate ourselves while adapting our codes, content, and messaging to local practices. It’s a delicate balance between global strategy and local relevance.

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You’ve worked on organizing between central and local teams. With what goals in mind ?

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M.R.: We worked with Spaag on a very concrete exercise clarifying roles between local and central teams through a RACI matrix, a project management tool that assigns four roles to each team member: Responsible (R), Accountable (A), Consulted (C), and Informed (I). The goal was to bring everyone around the table, challenge our current ways of working, and lay the foundations for a smoother organization.

This exercise was structuring : it enabled clear alignment between global priorities and local specificities, while overcoming points of friction. It also served as the starting point for an internal seminar where we dug deeper into these topics. Having an objective third party to ask the right questions and challenge existing roles was invaluable.

Today, we have around fifteen people in Paris, structured into three divisions : e-commerce, media, and e-retail (98% Amazon). These teams operate across all markets. But as some countries gain momentum, we’re strengthening local relays: Spain, Italy, the U.S., the U.K. The trade-off is simple: strategic leadership and expertise stay central, but operations adapt locally.

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How do you balance in-house vs. outsourced work ?

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M.R.: We keep in-house everything that is core: content creation, campaigns, PR, influencer management… This allows us to maintain consistency and finely steer projects. On the other hand, we outsource certain technical or ad-hoc expertise: SEA, SEO, media buying, production if needed.

It’s the same model we apply in the U.S.: today, we occasionally rely on agencies to access certain influencers, but whenever possible, we’ll bring it back in-house. The challenge is to keep control, without spreading ourselves too thin.

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TikTok Shop is one of your hot topics. Why ?

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M.R.: TikTok is a platform where Erborian managed to gain real traction. We’re often cited as a case study in France and Europe. But TikTok Shop is another story : it requires combining marketing, digital, and e-retail… with economic models still emerging.

Our current challenge is knowing where and when to go in. Should we focus on markets where the brand is already strong but the platform underdeveloped ? Or the opposite? These questions concentrate all tensions: strategic trade-offs, internal resources, cross-functional organization. Often, it’s projects like these that expose the limits of the organization.

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How do you integrate innovation into an already packed day-to-day ?

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M.R.: It’s a real dilemma. We want to remain pioneers, but we’re already under operational pressure. For instance, we’re starting to experiment with AI, on SEO or content, but that requires time, skills, and structure. Our organization is still consolidating.

The risk is failing to absorb innovation topics because we’re already overloaded with structuring challenges. Sometimes, we need to bring in external profiles to drive certain projects, even temporarily, so we can move forward while continuing to build internally.

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What are your priorities in the coming months ?

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M.R.: A very concrete one : media mix. For us, social networks and influencers are major drivers of awareness and growth. The challenge is to allocate investments effectively, manage these channels in a context of data scarcity, and coordinate expertise across media, creative, PR, and tech. These issues reveal the limits of still-too-siloed organizations.

We’re considering creating cross-functional squads, improving information flow, breaking down silos. And above all, asking the right questions : for what objective, on which platform, with what skills, and at what cost ?

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And if you project yourself 3 to 5 years ahead, how do you see your role evolving ?

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M.R.: My role is first and foremost about business. It’s about supporting acceleration in high-potential markets, especially the U.S. while consolidating growth in Europe. For that, we need an organization that holds up.

I believe we’ll need to tackle very operational issues (structuring, recruiting, prioritizing) alongside more strategic ones, tied to innovation, changing consumer behaviors, and data. The goal is to remain relevant, clear, and focused on what creates value. Only under those conditions can we seize the right opportunities without losing our edge.

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