Estée Lauder Companies Course at Vassar

A unique educational program helps executives be the best.

By Janet Herlihy, Editor

The Estée Lauder Companies’ success is legend in the beauty business. Its brand strategies serve as case histories in business school textbooks and the industry marvels at how the company manages to field 18 distinct brands, all the while maintaining quality and excellence.

Cosmetic Packaging & Design was recently given a rare look inside an ELC program that goes a long way toward explaining how the company manages to be so successful.

As William Lauder, chief executive for the company, is known to state, “Great brands and great people are the future for the Estée Lauder Companies.” Many companies will say they value their employees, but Estée Lauder proves it by investing in their long-term professional and personal skills and well-being.

‘Semper Novus’—Always New

The Estée Lauder Companies’ Course at Vassar is the brainchild of Leonard Lauder, company chairman, who gave the program its motto, “Semper Novus,” or “Always New.” The course has been in session since 1987 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, graduating approximately 4,650 executives from this unique program. At Vassar, housed in historic, red brick buildings that are steeped in academic tradition, the company gathers executives from every part of the company, as well as a few guests, to offer an intense four-day course designed to help each “student” develop skills and strategies for enhanced performance.

While this reporter started out as an observer, I was quickly pulled in as a full participant. The following is a diary of my experiences at the Estée Lauder Course at Vassar.

Opening Day-Sunday-7/18.

We arrive and are greeted by a staff headed by Phebe Port, ELC vice president corporate management strategies, who is our dean, house mother and greatest cheerleader over the next four days. A 30-year ELC veteran, Port has that curious combination typical of Estée Lauder executives. She is warm, articulate, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and fiercely loyal to Estée Lauder.

The staff, supplemented by a group of Vassar students, will keep the Class organized, on time, well equipped and well fed for the course of our stay.

This is an international week and one can hear a multitude of languages. Harry Bennett, ELC vice president technical packaging, and I traveled only 90 minutes by car, one of the shortest distances, to join ELC executives and guests from five continents.

Room assignments and shirts for the week were the first order of business. All students are housed in Vassar dorm rooms that foster a sense of shared academic experience. (You really get to know someone when you stand with them on the shower line in a bathrobe.) All would wear Estée Lauder shirts for the week’s activities (except for 6:15 a.m. mandatory exercise!)

After being assigned a room and changing into the first of five program shirts, we set off for registration, where each student is processed through four stations—health & nutrition; heart rate & blood pressure; ergonomic work environment, and body composition. Each station recorded personal information that was part of establishing physical goals. The course is about maximizing energy for the whole person—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Sunday’s dinner found the Class seated by color teams. At each table, team members fill out more forms, share information and begin to bond. The atmosphere is charged, positive and enthusiastic. We hear that over the next four days, we will learn about ourselves, each other, and better ways to conduct business. As an observer, I am impressed by the international flavor of the group and note that most of these Lauder executives are young, attractive and gregarious. As Day 1 draws to a close, we are reminded that roll will be called at 6:00 a.m. and that mandatory exercise begins at 6:15 a.m. We are told, “If you are not present when your name is called, someone will go to your room to get you.” This is going to be fun, but make no mistake; it’s also serious business.

Day 1-Monday-7/19

Shared experience is the beginning of team building. We will share early morning aerobic warm-ups and then a choice of physical activity each day. After rising at 5:30 a.m. for the workout, there is time to shower, dress, and have breakfast at 8:00 a.m. We all feel that the day is well along when we arrive in the classroom for our first lecture at 9:00 a.m.

• Raquel C. Malo, director of high performance nutrition for LGE Performance Systems, describes how nutrition affects energy levels, mood and performance. She then provides strategic eating guidelines for achieving and maintaining optimum energy for balanced living.

After a break, which includes what we now recognize as a high-energy snack, we return to the classroom for the first of the business-oriented lectures.

• Catherine McCarthy, Ph.D., president of Peak Performance Professionals Inc., uses Leading at the Edge, a book she co-authored that chronicles the Shakleton Antartic Expedition, to explain strategies for success in leadership and team-building.

The lecture is followed by a team-building exercise, which manages to get every color team and individual involved while breaking down barriers and adding some comic relief.

After walking to an open field, each team is given two large cardboard boxes, a roll of duct tape, a pair of scissors and two medium-size plastic bags and asked to build a boat. The boat should be able to hold two team members out of the water as they paddle across a swimming pool.

The exercise calls for vision, organization, delegation and implementation—and it doesn’t hurt to have two small team members who know how to paddle.

Day 2-Tuesday-7/20

The second morning of early roll call and exercise is smoother as we settle into the rhythm of life at Estée Lauder Vassar.

Strategic Negotiations will be the subject for Day 2 and half of Day 3, even through lunch and dinner ‘til lights out.

Ron S. Fortgang, a principal at Lax Sebenius, The Negotiation Group, and a fellow of the Negotiation Roundtable at the Harvard Business School, leads a variety of exercises and presents the ways and means to successful negotiations.

Roger Caracappa, ELC executive vice president global packaging, quality assurance, global merchandising, corporate store design and retail store operations, is a guest speaker for this segment. Caracappa presents a real-world situation requiring delicate negotiations that occurred in his business area.

The lectures and exercises all stress that “negotiation is the art of letting them have your way,” and that finding the right combination of elements should allow all parties involved to come away feeling that each has “won.”

A free period in the afternoon gives everyone a chance to break away and pursue something new. Choices range from yoga and golf to gourmet cooking and self-defense. Refreshed after stepping out of character for 90 minutes, the class is divided into groups by role in the last exercise. We eat dinner and spend the rest of the evening discussing positions and preparing for the last negotiation exercise, a complicated problem involving six parties, each with a distinct agenda.

Day 3-Wednesday-7/21

By the third morning, most students are gathered for roll call and exercise well ahead of the deadline and no one is missing.

Everyone is “in character” for the negotiations exercise and deal-making between parties in each group starts immediately, even as warm-ups and exercise get underway. The negotiation challenge has tapped into a common competitive spirit and we are anxious to match wits. The outcomes vary group to group, but by the deadline, most had indeed reached a “deal” with which all parties were content. For a non-business/literature major, the negotiation process is de-mystified and made less intimidating. I’ll even admit that it was fun to “win.”

The afternoon lecture explores a topic near and dear to Estée Lauder. Nancy Koehn, associate professor of Business Ad­ministration at Harvard Business School, presents a lecture on creating and maintaining brand value. Koehn’s book, Brand New, used as cornerstone in the discussion, contains case studies of successful entrepreneurs and their brands, including the story of Estée Lauder and the company she built.

Discussion includes the formulation of initiatives that could enhance the brand equity of Estée Lauder companies and each of its brands. As an observer, I am again impressed with the fervor of these executives and the creativity they bring to the challenge.

An off-campus dinner at a scenic colonial restaurant caps off this intense, business studies day. We have all formed new friendships and have new ideas to exchange.

Day 4-Thursday-7/22

The last morning for early roll call and exercise for this Estée Lauder July Class has a different atmosphere. We are familiar with the routine and have come through some challenging situations together. There’s a lot of laughter as we gather for the last seminar, a full-day program titled Power of Full Engagement.

Presented by Dr. Jim Loehr of LGE Performance Systems, this program is more personal and extremely powerful. Over the next seven hours, Loehr will have the class totally captivated as he offers a strategy that encompasses diet, rest, exercise, goals and practical ways to achieve positive change.

Loehr’s program is based on this statement. “The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quality and quantity of energy available to us is not. This fundamental insight has the power to revolutionize the way you live your life. Managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness and life balance.”

Loehr asks us to look closely and honestly at what we say is most important to us as individuals. Then he challenges us to judge whether the actual way we live fulfills those values.

The Power of Full Engagement, which has a record of producing award-winning athletes and teams, offers a practical way to increase personal capacity in order to have enough energy to satisfy a demanding corporate life without sacrificing personal goals, home and family.

At the end of a day filled with elements of comedy and pathos, revival meeting and group therapy, we are challenged to set personal and professional goals and devise ways to achieve them using Full Engagement methods. We then commit to making a sincere effort for 30 to 60 days to test Full Engagement.

The course ends with a special dinner and graduation ceremony, complete with certificates, photos and congratulations. We trade business cards and good-byes as classmates began to leave for homes near and around the world.

Commitment Begets Commitment

The clear, intense message of the Estée Lauder Course at Vassar is that ELC is committed to giving its executives every advantage to enable them to perform at the highest level.

The value and loyalty engendered by such commitment is the foundation of ELC’s success. For Estée Lauder and all its businesses, it’s all about the people—finding the best and giving them the tools needed to do the job.