L 'Oré al Group helps employees emigrate.

Estee Lauder, a beautiful cross-century legend.

The beauty queen of Absolute beauty, driving a never-ending business empire chariot, was once a perfect picture of the American dream.

In 2004, Estee Lauder passed away, and the legend of Estee Lauder family opened the prelude of version 3.0. This time, William, the grandson of Estee Lauder, took the scepter from his father Leonard. ...

The legend of youth is named "beauty"

The lasting foundation is often just a vision.

The evergreen family business is even more rare. The proverb "Three generations are not rich" is universal all over the world. This is not just prejudice against the giants. In fact, only 79 of the global 1000 top enterprises are family businesses, which are controlled by family heirs; In addition, only 20% of family businesses can survive after 60 years.

The Estee Lauder family wants to break the law of the rise and fall of this "curse" and make Estee Lauder, founded in 1946, last forever in 2 1 century. In fiscal year 2005 (as of June 30th), Estee Lauder's net sales exceeded US$ 6.34 billion and its net profit was US$ 406 million. Estee Lauder is still shining after nearly 60 years.

Estee Lauder (1907 ~ 2004,97) made a beautiful legend and created a business empire. Born in Queens, new york, Cinderella, a descendant of immigrants from Eastern Europe, wrote the legend of the American dream with ambition, enthusiasm and persistence. She is smart, diligent and persevering, in exchange for wealth, status and respect. Freedom and equality contained in the American dream spread in Estee Lauder's life story. Estee Lauder is the only woman among the 20 most influential business geniuses in the 20th century selected by Time magazine from 65438 to 0998.

In her kitchen, Estee Lauder started her beauty career with the help of a cream prepared by her uncle, who is a chemist, and a 50,000-dollar venture capital. This beautiful and exquisite woman, at the beginning of her business, set herself the workload bottom line of "touching at least 50 faces every day", and persuaded passing women to try their own skillful hand care in the bustling street. Estee Lauder's persistent persuasion made her qualified to enter Saks Fifth Avenue, the highest department store in the United States, with 1948. Estee Lauder's brand has won a place in the territory of high-end beauty products since this year.

Looking back on the process of starting a business, Estee Lauder said, "Every day of my life is related to sales promotion. If I believe in something, I will sell it and spare no effort. " Estee Lauder, one of the most influential marketing geniuses in the 20th century, may be dull, but it is a tribute to a brave, innovative and world-renowned woman. She used to be just a salesman who fought the world with her bare hands, but she took "beauty" as her lifelong mission. "Beauty is an attitude. There are no ugly women. " Estee Lauder's business empire began and grew in the name of "beauty".

Go out of America and pursue your own vision.

Leonard lauder, the eldest son of Estee Lauder. In a speech in his forties, he once said, "People often ask me what my occupation is, and I will tell them that my job is to be a son." Leonard was born in 1933. He is 72 years old this year. His beloved mother passed away on April 24th last year. Leonard put the seeds of his mother's career on the global map to achieve a new scale and influence like a dynasty. At present, 26 brands of Estee Lauder Group have almost spread all over the world. Nearly half of the company's revenue comes from markets outside the United States, and its procurement, production and sales also span three continents: Europe, America and Asia.

Leonard was only 25 years old when he joined Estee Lauder in 1958, and Estee Lauder's sales were only $800,000. This is still a small family business. Estee Lauder and her husband Joseph Lauder work together, Estee Lauder is responsible for marketing, and Joseph is responsible for finance and production. Leonard became the CEO of the group after 25 years in 1982, and concurrently served as the chairman in 1995, and planned the important turning point of Estee Lauder-listing that year; When Leonard inherited the CEO position from his son William in 2004, Estee Lauder was a listed company with annual sales of $5.79 billion and a market value of $7.82 billion.

Leonard brought an international and open color to Estee Lauder. Leonard thinks he inherited his father's calmness and his mother's insight. Someone once asked him to sum up his mother's greatest characteristics in one word, and Leonard used one word-ambition. Not inferior to the mother's ambition, Leonard led the group to realize the transformation from listing to expansion, which reflected the ambition of building a multinational giant.

Although it has been listed for 10 years, the Estee Lauder family still holds 82% of the voting shares of the group, but after all, the decision to go public makes the operation of Estee Lauder more transparent and standardized, and also gives it a more flexible choice for its global expansion. Leonard said: "Our creed is that we are not a family business, but a family in the business field."

Estee Lauder family must have enough management talents and creative experts to run this kind of "non-family enterprise" in which family members actively participate in management; Besides, Estee Lauder must keep an open and elite mind. Former CEO Lian Hanmo (term 1995-2004) is not a family member, but Leonard, a veteran who joined in 1975, also entrusted him with the responsibility of being the head of the company. Although the CEO position of Lian Hanmo was succeeded by Leonard's son William in 2004, this cannot deny Leonard's excellent balance between meritocracy and not avoiding relatives.

Leonard's other great contribution is to establish Estee Lauder's brand lineup through acquisition. In the mid-1990s, Estee Lauder began to pay attention to the important role of multi-brand combination and franchising. Estee Lauder, from the first day of the brand's birth, positioned herself at the highest end and started a game for the rich. Compared with L 'Oreal with annual sales of $65.438+07 billion (three times that of Estee Lauder) and Procter & Gamble with annual sales of $56.74 billion (nine times that of Estee Lauder), Estee Lauder is different. P&G is very obvious. Its Olay and CoverGirl have a mass market atmosphere, and the overall brand lineup is more popular because of the company background and corporate brand connotation. L 'Oré al, from the popular Maybelline to the high-end Kiehl's, has a strong brand lineup in an all-round way, but for Estee Lauder, which is half smaller, the latter's high-end positioning is still relatively pure on the whole.

As early as 1958 joined Estee Lauder, Leonard realized the great risk of single products. 1968, Leonard launched the Clinique brand with the same high-end positioning as the original Estee Lauder brand. Others may worry that brands are killing each other, but Leonard thinks it can be a healthy competition. As the father of two sons, he applied the experience of family life to the operation of the company, but the concept of harmony and difference actually worked, and there was no accident.

Whether it is the acquisition of makeup brand M.A.C or another makeup brand Bobbi Brown, Leonard has brought the tolerance of benign competition into Estee Lauder's corporate culture, and stimulated the innovative spirit and brand vitality through internal benign competition to cope with the far ruthless external competition. Whether it is internal research and development or external acquisition, the purpose is nothing more than to stimulate the innovative spirit in Estee Lauder culture.

When talking about the important characteristics of excellent leaders, Leonard once mentioned one point-"having a clear vision. Know where you are going; If people agree with your vision, they will take you there. " Leonard led Estee Lauder out of the United States, out of the family business and out of the single product lineup of high-end brands, perhaps because of the guidance of his clear vision in his mind. He once said: "It is my mother's dream and Estee Lauder's vision to bring beauty to all women in the world." Like his mother, Leonard, the largest and best beauty empire in the world, was built with lifelong enthusiasm.

The century challenges the "offspring" of beauty.

Stepping into the 265,438+0 century, Estee Lauder is facing new challenges. The team leader who responded to these challenges was william lauder, the eldest son of Leonard and the grandson of Estee Lauder. Any brand with a long history is faced with the problem of brand connotation renewal and brand vitality re-excitation, and Estee Lauder is no exception. Nearly 60 years of history, classic glory, facing the test of modern times. Preventing the aging of Estee Lauder brand was one of the challenges William faced when he took office in 2004.

About 40% of Estee Lauder's income still comes from high-end department stores; At the same time, more and more young customers prefer high-end brand stores with strong personality and fashion sense. As for Procter & Gamble, with its huge and powerful enterprise resources, the giant intentionally prohibits the boundary between luxury goods and mass beauty products, thus blurring the high-end posture of L 'Oreal and Estee Lauder and winning a competitive advantage for their comprehensive enterprises from beauty products to washing products. Top variables, low-end rivals, Estee Lauder's business ideas have reached the threshold of self-renewal. Only in this way, the next milestone goal of the enterprise-breaking through the sales mark of 654.38+0 billion US dollars, can be realized.

Under the pressure of "the son of Lauder", with an excellent grandmother and an equally excellent father, William, the third descendant of the family, needs to emphasize that he is the successor of the family and get out of the shadow of the previous generation with the blessing of the previous generation. He said frankly: "I have to redouble my efforts to get half the recognition from the outside world. This is the motivation in my heart. I am the heir of Estee Lauder's family, but this does not mean that my work has been successful. "

Can my grandmother and father's insight into the trend of the times and business opportunities be extended to William? For William, 2 1 century is a key concept of time. If Estee Lauder is recognized as a quality freak and Leonard is an undisputed acquisition freak, what kind of successor will William be to "2 1 century"? The emotional bond between grandparents and father and son is one thing, but William has a clear sense of self in his work. "I am me and I am William." Obviously, William doesn't just want to enjoy the achievements of his grandmother and father in his work role, but he strongly pursues his own achievements.

William, with a steady and cautious style, seems to be more like a banker than those beautiful and neutral executives. Compared with his grandmother and father, William seems to have a different understanding of Estee Lauder's business model. For example, the operation mode of big advertising investment has become a direction that William considers to adjust. Previously, Estee Lauder's operating profit margin was 1 1.4%, which means that the product with the market price of 100 cost $25, but the advertising investment was as high as $63.

In the year after William took office in 2004, Estee Lauder's income increased by 9%, while its profit increased by 8%. Compared with his grandmother's belief and his father's speed, William, as a "banker" style, knows more about finance and has a stronger sense of profit, which is also the adjustment of Estee Lauder's future management style. Regarding the practice of building a great brand at all costs, William said: "We can't think that this practice can continue in 2 1 century just because it was effective in 2 1 century." The difference is not only the fashion trend, but also the way of business operation keeps pace with the times. William doesn't want to fall into the trap of history and predecessors. Behind the luxury high-end brand scenery, the objective financial statements present an amazing low-profit business model.

Will William bring a radical change to Estee Lauder in this respect? Obviously, Wall Street is full of expectations. William will further adjust and check his 26 brands. Will brands with unsatisfactory performance be abandoned? Where is the room for cost control? These are all difficult problems that William will continue to think about in the future. Maybe he can find a way to realize and solve them. At present, the production facilities of Estee Lauder, headquartered in new york, are located in the United States, Belgium, Switzerland, Britain, Germany, Japan and Canada. Compared with the production cost, Estee Lauder can achieve more cost savings in advertising marketing.

Another aspect that William pays more attention to is the channel. In the past, Estee Lauder's channels were mainly high-end department stores, and now there are 565,438+08 independent stores, covering brands such as Aveda, Origins, M.A.C Compared with the department stores where competing brands compete with each other, brand stores certainly have incomparable advantages in highlighting individuality and characteristics. The reform is going on, which of course can't avoid the conflict and friction with the old channels. William's innovation and reform are facing the test and pressure brought by the combination of old and new commercial channels. Even Leonard himself once questioned the channel model of brand stores.

Nevertheless, channel diversification has been included in Estee Lauder's five strategies, and the other four strategies include product innovation, all-round development of product categories, global expansion inherited from her father Leonard, and finding acquisition and franchise business opportunities. It is worth mentioning that William has taken another unexpected measure in the all-round development of product categories-paying attention to the Origins brand. Brand products emphasize the environmental protection characteristics of pure natural plant formula. In terms of product categories, some of its bath products and body skin care products emphasize natural formulas more than the fashion features that Estee Lauder Group has always advertised. It can be said that it is an "alternative" in the overall brand lineup of Estee Lauder, but it is also an "alternative" fashion corresponding to the global environmental protection trend.

William, 45, like his father, graduated from the world's top Wharton Business School. Perhaps he is deeply influenced by the school's concept of "only creating new rules" and can create new rules for Estee Lauder's business operation? The new challenge of Estee Lauder in the 2 1 century has arrived.