Leonard Lauder on Saying Yes

What motivated you to write the book?
I am a storyteller by nature. When I sit down for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I wind up telling stories to my family, my children, and my colleagues.

Also, right now we are in a very crucial point in the United States, and in the world as we’re slowly emerging from the pandemic. My parents founded Estée Lauder during a difficult period like this. They were coming out of the Great Depression and the end of World War II. Everything was difficult. A lot of people didn’t know where their next paycheck was coming from. It’s a natural time to ask, “What have I learned from the past, and what can I do for the future?” Telling my story in this book is a way for me to address that question: “What can I do for the future, based on my past experience?”

Writing the book required you to look back over your life and career. Is there anything you would do differently?
I can’t think of anything that I really regret. Now, could I have done a few things a little bit better? Of course. You can always keep trying to do better. But do I regret anything? Not a bit. Onward!

Throughout the book you share a number of business and life lessons you’ve learned. What is the most important lesson you’ve learned that still guides you today?
Over the course of my life, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to learn from a number of strong and effective leaders—from my mother and ELC colleagues, to my university professors and US Naval Officers. Today, I believe the most important lessons in leadership to be:

1. Value kindness. Leadership does not have to be transactional or ruthless to be successful.

2. Hire people who are smarter than you. You can be the head of a company or the leader of a team, but you can’t do everything. You have to hire surrogates—thoughtful, responsible people who enhance your knowledge, extend your reach and pump up your performance.

3. Share the credit, own the blame. You can delegate authority, but you can never delegate accountability. An accountable leader takes responsibility—for their own actions as well as the actions and performance of their teams. The buck stops with you.

4. Values—real values—can co-exist with success.

Is there one idea you hope people will take away from the book?
Start with “yes.” Tomorrow will be a world of “yes.” Not “no.”

Years ago, when I was CEO, we made a decision to expand our portfolio of brands. At the time, we had just Estée Lauder and Clinique. I had started acquisition discussions with MAC, a Canadian brand. People in my organization said, “No. You shouldn’t do that. It’s a risk investing in a different type of brand. If we took the same amount of money and put it behind our own brand, think what we could do.”

But I believed in the brand and said, “This acquisition is something we have to do.” In retrospect, the acquisition of MAC was a huge success.

That decision reminds me of watching my parents take risks as they worked their way out of the Depression. One night when I was about 15, my parents took me out to dinner with their lawyer and their accountant. At that moment, my parents were on the verge of making an important decision, a big investment, and their lawyer and accountant said to them, “Estée, Joe, you can’t do this. It’s too risky. You’re going to be killed by your competitors. Don’t do it!”

Well, my parents made the decision that while lawyers and accountants make very good lawyers and accountants, it was their business, and they needed to say, “We’re going to go ahead and do it anyway.” I was the witness to that “yes” that helped bring Estée Lauder to where it is today, an approximately $16 billion (in estimated Fiscal Year 2021 net sales) global business.

That was coming out of the Depression. What I would recommend as we come out of the pandemic is that you start with, “yes.”

When you think about the world now, what gives you hope?
When you take it country by country, you’d have to say that the United States faces some political challenges, the UK and Europe are still coming to terms with COVID and Brexit, India at this moment is having a terrible crisis with COVID. But in every case, humankind will prevail. No matter where you are, you must believe, “We will survive. We will win.”

I have a huge amount of faith in people. My wife, Judy, has a beautiful house on the coast of Maine. In that area, during the recent presidential election, we saw a lot of signs for Biden, a lot of signs for Trump. But right across the street from our house is an Anglican church, and there’s a small sign in front of it that says something simple: “Be kind.”

Katharine Crallé is a Director in Brunswick’s New York office specializing in crisis and change communications. She has also worked in Brunswick’s offices in Hong Kong, Dubai and London. Madi Wallace is an Associate in Brunswick’s New York office specializing in corporate reputation management and financial situations.

Photography credits: (lead) Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images; (second and third images) courtesy of the lauder family and THE ELC corporate archives; (fourth image) hal okun; (book jacket) Mark Leibowitz