Estee Lauder: Charity adds soul to cosmetics giant
Print Edition
William Lauder, chief executive chairman of Estée Lauder Companies, envisions the legendary organization as a global citizen that raises awareness of breast cancer around the world.
Lauder is the son of Evelyn Lauder, founder of Clinique brand and the force behind the Breasts Cancer Awareness Campaign. He is the grandson of Estée Lauder who founded the cosmetics company in 1946.
“The Breast Cancer Awareness campaign created by my mother helped to open our eyes as a company in the spirit of what we do. It helped to add a soul to what we were as an organization on a global basis,” Lauder told Shanghai Daily in an exclusive interview last month. He was in the city to attend the annual gathering of 300 top company executive and reinforce the importance of the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. It has been expanded from the month of October to the entire year.
Estée Lauder, who founded the company, was the only woman on Time magazine’s 1998 list of the 20 most influential “business geniuses.” Evelyn Lauder was also a renowned philanthropist, credited as the joint-creator of the pink ribbon, symbol of breast cancer awareness.
“I have a very strong family. All the members have shown that hard work and focus really do pay off,” Lauder said. He became executive chairman of the board of Estée Lauder Group in 2009; before that he was CEO for five years.
“In general we are a family just like other families that gather for dinners, holidays and other occasions. And also we are a family for business together, so table conversations often revolved around the business.”
Lauder said the bond between family members is so strong that none could have achieved what they did without the partnership of the others.
Growing up, he imagined becoming a baseball player, an airline pilot, a hotel manager. “I give my parents a great deal of credit in encouraging my brother Gary and me in pursue our passions and dreams. They neither insisted we should join the business nor said you can’t. They were very neutral and supportive. And I hoped to give the same opportunities to my children, and say find your passion and do whatever that you do. Do as well as you can and I’ll be there to support you.”
Lauder said success is about pursuing passion while seizing opportunities. Success today isn’t necessarily what someone imagines at a younger age.
“To use a football as a metaphor for life, you never know where it will land, or which way it will bounce. The same as you never know the opportunities that will present themselves at some point of your life and how you will be prepared to take advantage of them. The career path I follow is much because I was pretty good at it and I was able to do it well.”
Building morale is extremely important for a leader, said Lauder, adding that he had to learn to become an effective motivational speaker — it didn’t come naturally.
“We all have things we do better than some others. So to multiply ourselves will make an organization more effective. In other words, it’s more efficient to teach somebody else to do what I do well, so they can do it when I’m not there. In one’s leadership, he or she needs to communicate to teach and to help people grow. My role as a leader in the organization is to encourage everyone to learn continually.”
He said the company has a human touch because it’s passionate about learning, the environment, women and children.
“We are not just there to sell the products, but also to give back to society,” Lauder said, adding that charity programs drive a great deal of customer loyalty. “We want our people to be proud of who we are, proud of products, proud of customer loyalty and proud of principles.”
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