Estee Lauder 2007 Annual Report Download - page 10

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cHief
exEcUtive’s
rEvieW
Dear Fellow Stockholders:
Leading People. Leading Growth.
These days, being the President and CEO of an expanding
international company requires the leadership skills of a conductor,
the persuasive abilities of a great communicator and the street smarts
of a small corner merchant. Each brings talents that are important to
leading people to growth.
At The Estée Lauder Companies, our single focus is to remain
the pre eminent leader in global prestige cosmetics. To do that
means nurturing
three key assets — great brands, great people and
great ideas.
This year, sales from our international business again surpassed that
of the United States. Most of our 27 brands can be found for sale in
international markets, and we will continue to launch them in new
markets where appropriate. To meet the demands of an evolving
global marketplace, our affiliate networks must be managed by the
best talent in the industry.
Like a conductor, my job is to assess the demands of the upcoming
performance, match the right people to the right positions and
provide the leadership that lets them perform to the best of their
abilities. Half of our 35 international affiliates are led by a General
Manager who has been in that position three years or less. As
Benjamin Franklin once said, “To change is difficult. Not to change
is fatal.” It is imperative for us to continue to nurture new talent
with fresh thinking to successfully engage in the dynamics of
a global business.
Persuasive communication is essential to strong leadership.
Com muni cating
our strategy creates transparency and trust. Our five
strategic imperatives:
•฀Optimize฀our฀brand฀portfolio
•฀Strengthen฀our฀product฀categories
•฀Strengthen฀and฀expand฀our฀geographic฀presence
•฀Diversify฀and฀strengthen฀our฀channels฀of฀distribution
•฀Achieve฀operational฀and฀cost฀excellence฀
are well known to our management and our key stockholders, alike.
This year, we held conferences around the world to communicate
our direction for growth to the financial and supplier communities.
We have also initiated a more proactive approach to communicating
with our 28,500 employees worldwide to foster high engagement
in their jobs. More robust daily reporting on our corporate Intranet,
more frequent personal appearances by our senior management
teams and CEO Roundtables are just some of the ways we
regularly
communicate our values to employees.
09
WILLIAM P. LAUDER