Estée Lauder's 'Biggest Organizational Transformation' Overhauls Leadership, Channel Mix, Marketing
The Estée Lauder Cos. continues to enact operational changes as part of its restructure, which has so far included leadership shifts and business optimizations.
Deep investments in artificial intelligence are already reaping rewards as part of these efforts, with AI executions driving a 31% increase in ROI from North America media campaigns.
Learn more: Estée Lauder overhauls digital marketing workflows with generative AI
This is enabling faster decision-making and providing stronger real-time market responsiveness, as well as elevating personalization capabilities and creating a more agile go-to-market strategy, according to president and CEO Stephane de la Faverie.
“For our third action plan priority, to boost consumer-facing investment, we are deploying a new media model that puts greater focus on demand generation through broader media tactics,” said de la Faverie in a recent conversation with investors. “We made a significant shift in the mix of media budget to enhance consumer acquisition and improve ROI accountability.”
Ongoing Business Shifts
The company is supporting these upgrades with a renewed channel and market strategy, reorganizing geographic regions so that they align with the new leadership team.
Beginning in the fiscal 2026 first quarter, the company will be using a new four-part regional structure (instead of seven) to more efficiently jump on consumer trends and innovate faster.
- The Americas, including North America and Latin America
- Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland and emerging markets, including the markets of the company’s previously reported EMEA region, as well as the Southeast Asian emerging markets, which were previously reported in the Asia/Pacific region: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam
- Asia/Pacific, including the company’s global travel retail business, which was previously reported in the EMEA region
- Mainland China, which was previously reported in the company’s Asia/Pacific region, will now be reported as a separate region
“I've said it multiple times; this is the biggest organizational transformation that we have done in our history,” said de la Faverie. “We have the complete new organization in place from a leadership standpoint.”
The final addition, a head of research and development, has been hired and will be formally announced soon, according to the company.
The executive team reporting to de La Faverie now consists of:
- Brian Franz, Chief Technology, Data & Analytics Officer
- Aude Gandon, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer
- Michael Bowes, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer
- Roberto Canevari, Executive Vice President, Chief Value Chain Officer
- Amber English, President, Digital & Online, The Americas
- Joy Fan, President and CEO, China
- Nadine Graf, President, EMEA, UK & I, and Emerging Markets
- Matthew Growdon, President, APAC and Travel Retail Worldwide
- Carl Haney, Executive Vice President, Global Innovation and Research and Development
- Jane Hertzmark Hudis, Executive Vice President, Chief Brand Officer
- Rashida La Lande, Executive Vice President, General Counsel
- Akhil Shrivastava, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
- Tara Simon, President, The Americas
- Meridith Webster, Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs
The company is also moving more toward specialty multi- and pure-play retailers in North America, and has already built a significant Amazon business (with 11 brands so far) as part of these efforts.
"Amazon not only is adding new consumers for us, but it's also acting a little bit as a megaphone to our total business because Amazon is not only a commerce platform, but it's also the majority of the beauty search that is happening in the market," said de la Faverie. "So we have been seeing a lot of positive momentum in retailers like Ulta, where we are very strong."
CFO Akhil Shrivastava said that in North America, the company grew back market share in the quarter, regaining its competitive position due to the channel shifts.
“We now have a much more balanced view of what e-channels bring,” said CFO Akhil Shrivastava. “What we intend to do is to really serve the consumers and the underlying e-channel as part of a very consumer-centric approach. There's a different consumer there — we are serving them according to that.”
Restructure efforts are expected to result in significant savings, estimated in the $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion range.
