Leadership Summit 2026: Honest Company CEO Carla Vernón on Leading with Focus in Turbulent Times

When Carla Vernón took over as CEO of The Honest Company in 2023, the brand had less than a quarter of cash in the bank, gross margins were declining, and sales were flat. The company had gone public two years earlier, but Wall Street had stopped caring about top-line growth alone—it wanted healthy businesses on both the top and bottom lines. Vernón, a consumer products veteran from General Mills and Amazon, had to turn around a purpose-driven brand without gutting what made it special. Her approach was less about dramatic cuts and more about building a shared language, creating discipline, and repeating herself until the message stuck.

Profitability as the first move

Vernón’s first priority was straightforward: improve the profitability structure immediately to regain credibility with investors. The Honest Company had less than a quarter of cash on hand, declining gross margins, and flat sales. Wall Street had soured on post-IPO companies that could only show top-line growth. So she focused on the levers that would produce the fastest financial improvement. One early move was reducing days of inventory on hand. The company had been building inventory while cash dwindled, so she reversed the balance: sell more than you buy for a while. That simple supply-and-demand shift improved the financial structure, and because the company started measuring it, employees could watch t