Michael Smith, CIO at Estee Lauder: Building a Strong Team

As a longtime executive and technology leader, Michael Smith understands the value of team development – particularly when it comes to driving growth and innovation throughout the workplace. Currently the CIO atEstee Lauder, Smith has demonstrated a knack not only for building effective professional teams, but for cultivating the environment of collaboration and cooperation so essential to team success – that which furthers short- and long-term organizational goals.

Michael Smith, with Estee Lauder since 2017, understands the challenges that come with developing a professional team – particularly within a fast-paced, often competitive corporate environment. Adherence to a few simple ideas, however, can help to mitigate the challenges of team building – behaviors such as:

·  Spending time to find the right people. Rather than hiring to simply fill space, take time to locate people who specialize in roles your organization really needs.

· Communicating honestly and openly. Establishing direct, responsive and transparent communication with your team right at the get-go helps eliminate confusion and makes collaboration so much easier down the road.

·   Setting clear goals. When your staff has a clear idea of what to shoot for, they’re far more likely to work together to accomplish those objectives.

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Michael Smith: Becoming Estee Lauder’s CIO

Michael Smith is a leadership professional with decades of experience who accepted the role as Chief Information Officer of The Estee Lauder Companies in August of 2017. This was after a one-year sabbatical he took to be present for his son’s last year in high school, and he’s already excelling.

During an interview about how his Estee Lauder CIO opportunity came about, Michael Smith explained that the company contacted him just weeks after resigning from his previous role with Mylan.

“I was committed to my sabbatical plan,” he said. “I told the recruiter to call me if the job was still available in a year, although I knew it’d be unlikely. But just under a year later, I heard that the CIO position at Estee Lauder was indeed still open and I called to put my name back for consideration. I accepted an offer one year to the day after starting my sabbatical.”

If you’d like to read more about the thought leadership and professional ventures of Estee Lauder CIO Michael Smith, visit his issuu profile for additional information. For a deeper look at the above interview, click here.

Michael Smith, Estee Lauder CIO: A Special Year

Michael Smith has served as the Senior Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of The Estee Lauder Companies since August of 2017. Michael Smith took the position after a one-year sabbatical that he took to spend more time with his son before he went off to college, and he says he couldn’t be happier with the decision. 

Estee Lauder CIO and SVP Michael Smith was interviewed in mid-2018 regarding his sabbatical and previous career experience.

“During the 3+ years I was at Mylan in Pittsburgh, PA, my family was back in Portland, OR. Although I was able to visit often, I decided that the best thing for me and my family at the time was to resign from Mylan and take a one-year sabbatical so that I could be present for my son’s senior year in high school,” he explained. “It was a special year for me and especially for my son.”

If you’d like to read more about the thought leadership and professional ventures of Estee Lauder CIO Michael Smith, visit his LinkedIn profile for additional information. For a deeper look at the above interview, click here.

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.