When Alexis Perakis-Valat assumed leadership of L’Oréal China in 2010, the country had grown to over 1 billion euros in sales and was already the company’s third-largest market.

Perakis-Valat took the reins thinking the heady days of rapid transformation were over. He was even a bit wistful about it.

“I was looking at old photographs and would say, ‘I wish I had lived through that phase,’” the executive reminisced during a recent interview.

Related Articles

Then came a pivotal meeting with Alibaba’s Daniel Zhang, who shared his vision of creating a digital mall for brands, to be called Tmall. Perakis-Valat immediately saw the potential and sprang into action.

L’Oréal Paris became the first international beauty brand to launch on Tmall in 2010.…