Hong Kong
William P. Lauder
William P. Lauder
Executive Chairman
William P. Lauder, son of Leonard and Evelyn Lauder, and grandson of Estée and Joseph Lauder, became Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2009. During his previous five-year tenure as Chief Executive Officer, he expanded the Company’s international presence and distribution channels and greatly strengthened the brand portfolio. Mr. Lauder joined the company in 1986 as New York Regional Marketing Director for Clinique, eventually running its worldwide business. He led the creation of the Origins brand and its innovative store-within-a store concept as well as directing the company’s freestanding stores and Internet business. He is on the faculty of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches “Decision Making in the Leadership Chair,” a course he designed for second-year MBA students.
Q&A
What excites you about coming to work each day?
First and foremost, it’s the people who work here — their commitment to our brands is palpable and energizing. It’s the intellectual challenge. It’s the competition. It’s the excitement of doing great for our consumers — helping people feel better about themselves, helping them unlock their own beauty.
Why is continuous learning important at The Estée Lauder Companies?
Learning is an integral part of our culture. We continuously ask ourselves: Is what we’re doing today going to be relevant to the consumer in the future? We insist that our leaders never stop exploring new ideas, and we expect that mind-set to trickle down throughout the company. We want employees to feel like they have permission to push the envelope and think differently, because we have to constantly reinvent ourselves. Ultimately no one individual has a monopoly on insight and brilliance. Innovation comes from every chair.
You’ve been championing the Company’s online/digital efforts from their inception. What were some of the smartest decisions the Company made in this arena?
When we turned on our first e-commerce site in 1996, it was controversial because our retail partners perceived it as a threat to their business. We understand now that our online presence enhances our overall business. The multichannel consumer is a far more valuable customer who spends more on our brands than the consumer who shops exclusively online or in store. The highest click rates on our websites are for the store locators. Many consumers still want to know where they can see, touch, feel and smell the product before they buy it.
What core capabilities will future leaders need to take the business to the next level of growth?
The technical skills companies need will almost certainly change, but the core capabilities needed for effective leadership — curiosity, adaptability, communication, imagination — will be the same. Leaders have to be bold and have the courage to try something new. This applies to their careers and to the business itself. I encourage young leaders to live in another country or region, to experience another culture — which pushes you to explore and learn.
What’s different about leading a family company versus a nonfamily company?
Leading a family company and being a member of that family is both a pressure and a privilege. In many ways, the stakes are higher in a family company because your name is on the door and you can’t just walk away if things go south. You are the keeper of the culture — it’s your responsibility to honor and respect the past without letting it hold the company back from its future potential. At the same time, there is a real advantage to leading a company that is focused on longevity and on generating long-term value. We practice what I call “patient capitalism” — we have a higher tolerance for long-term investments that yield greater returns 5, 10, 15 years into the future.
How do you maintain a family culture in such a large, spread out company?
Our definition of family goes beyond the family name — it is broader and more inclusive. It involves a sense of belonging. It’s about those human touches we put into our company that maintain an ethos that makes people feel they are welcome — because they are. We try to maintain a warmth and friendliness that is, hopefully, part of what most families are like, which makes everybody feel they’re a part of the family in one way, shape or form. It’s becoming a lost definition of family, but it still works for us.
What do you hope to accomplish by the end of your career? What do you want your leadership legacy to be?
The most important thing I want to do is to help set our company on a course for sustainable excellence and leadership in our sector that will last for many generations beyond the influence I might have as an individual. I hope that through the executives whose careers we’ve nurtured our company will continue to adapt and thrive while maintaining the value systems that have allowed us to get to where we are today — and those values endure for many generations to come.
What is your definition of beauty?
My definition of beauty is the tremendous diversity we have inside of our company. Diversity of our people, diversity of our brands, the diversity of our consumers and the diversity of their definition of beauty is what connects us all together with all of our brands.