Michael Smith, Estee Lauder CIO: Dedicated Leadership

Michael Smith is passionate about transformational leadership with an excellent reputation as a dedicated leadership professional with colleagues, team members, and clients. Since August 2017, Michael Smith has been the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

In a recent interview, Michael Smith discussed what piqued his interest in joining Estee Lauder. "I get excited about working with great leaders and great leadership teams - visionaries who want to transform their industries, who aspire to inspire. I had the privilege to work with some pretty impressive and visionary leaders up to that point, like Phil Knight at Nike, although I never reported directly to him, Mark Parker at Nike and Heather Bresch at Mylan. Everything I heard and read about Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer of Estée Lauder, placed him in this league of dynamic, engaged, curious CEOs."

When asked what Estee Lauder found attractive about his professional background, he responded, "I have a strong track record for leading transformation, and a lot of experience with digital marketing and innovation in areas like eCommerce and mobile, such as my work with Nike ID. I ran Nike.com, Nike+ and NikeFuel, the fitness-tracking ecosystem. Also, I had done a lot with analytics both at Nike and at Mylan."

Estee Lauder liked that Michael Smith was well rounded in leadership responsibilities. At Nike, he started in IT and ended in IT, but did many other things outside of IT in the middle. At Mylan, he led several global business services during a time when the company went through tremendous growth. 

"I think they [Estée Lauder] also appreciated the fact that I had experience in different industries, including pharma, retail, and fashion.  There are numerous similarities between Nike and Estee Lauder. For example, at Mylan we owned a vast majority of our own manufacturing and R&D, which Estee Lauder does as well."

Visit https://profilemagazine.com/2017/mylan-2 for more information about him.

Estee Lauder CIO Michael Smith: The Dynamic Nature of Business

Michael Smith is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Estee Lauder, one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products. Recently interviewed by Steve Rovniak, Michael Smith of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. discussed the changes he has helped make within the organization.

Since joining Estée Lauder in August of 2017, Michael Smith has been instrumental in resetting the organization's IT function strategy quite significantly. One of the goals is to make the organization more agile and consumer focused. "We also reset our technology strategy and we’re building on the solid technology foundation that we have and responding to the dynamic nature of our business," stated Michael Smith of Estee Lauder .

When asked what the 'dynamic nature of our business' means to him, Michael Smith, Estee Lauder CIO responded, "Consumer expectations are always rising and changing. As we see each new generation of consumers come along, they bring new expectations. 

And not just with regard to retail, but also in the workplace – such as the tools our employees expect to have to do their jobs. There are also broader geopolitical shifts we must track and respond to. For example, as Asia continues to significantly influence prestige beauty, our success will depend on how nimble and agile we are to respond to and influence trends in our industry."

Visit https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/estee-lauder-names-michael-smith-senior-vice-president-and-chief-information-officer for more information about him.

Michael Smith, Estee Lauder CIO: On Company Culture

Michael Smith is the Senior Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of The Estée Lauder Companies. Michael Smith Estee Lauder has decades of experience and is a respected speaker on company culture, leadership and transformation.

“Succession planning is obviously a big part of what I stand for. It’s a moral obligation to the corporation to have great succession planning,” said Estée Lauder’s Michael Smith during an interview. “It’s a moral obligation to your team — to let them know where they stand, to be open and transparent, to remove politics, and help explain why people get certain assignments.”

“Fun dissipates, but joy is sustaining,” he continued. “One definition of joy talks about a sense of achievement, a sense of well-being — that’s what I want.”

Would you like to continue reading the inspirational thoughts on leadership and company culture from Michael Smith, CIO of Estee Lauder? Consider visiting Michael Smith Estee Lauder blog for his latest blog posts. You can also visit www.elcompanies.com for additional information about his work through The Estée Lauder Companies.

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FnAWIyi4As for more information about him. 

Michael Smith, Estee Lauder CIO: A Personal Decision

Michael Smith currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of The Estée Lauder Companies. For a year before he worked with the company, he took a sabbatical to be with his son during his final year of high school, before going off to college.

“In late February 2016, I had the privilege of watching my son upset the number one seed in the district wrestling tournament and qualify for State,” said Estée Lauder’sMichael Smith when explaining what sparked his decision to take the sabbatical. “The State wrestling tournament was to be held the next weekend. I had the monthly all-day executive meeting scheduled for that Friday. Friday night I was slated to kick-off our third annual hackathon that… was to run through Saturday night. Sunday I was already booked to fly to Europe for time-critical meetings. There was no way I could watch him in the State tournament. A few days later, I turned in my resignation.”

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Visit https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/michael-smith-svp-of-global-information-services-chief-information-officer-at-the-estee-lauder-cos-11008283 to know more about him.

Michael Smith, Estee Lauder CIO: On Company Culture

Michael Smith, the CIO and Senior Vice President of Estee Lauder, is a respected industry leader who has worked with the company since 2017. He currently reports to Estee Lauder’s Executive Vice President, Global Finance and Strategy and Chief Financial Officer, Tracey Travis.

Innovation in company culture is among the many skills that Michael Smith,Estee Lauder brings to Estee Lauder, and he’s a respected speaker on the topic around the world. 

“Culture is a company's greatest asset, or its greatest liability, yet founders are rightfully focused first on survival. They are faced with a barrage of day-to-day demands,” explained Mr. Smith. “While it is nice to think they can be ever aware and invest the time to carefully consider the cultural implications of even their smallest actions, it is not practical. They need someone to help them define, nurture, and guard the desired culture.”

Would you like to continue reading the inspirational thoughts on leadership and company culture from Michael Smith, CIO of Estee Lauder? Consider visiting his LinkedIn profile for his latest blog posts. You can also visit elcompanies.com for additional information about his work through The Estee Lauder Companies.

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