THE COMPANY I KEEP

A captain of industry chronicles an extraordinary life in the beauty business.

Lauder (b. 1933) tells both his own story and that of his mother, Estée Lauder (1908-2004), founder of the eponymous cosmetics company. Born Josephine Esther Mentzer, she got experience in the business world as a child, helping out in her father’s hardware store and a department store called Plafker & Rosenthal. At the time, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein owned the cosmetics industry, but as Estée pioneered the ideas of individual consultations and free gifts (her husband, Joe, mixed the creams in the kitchen), her star began to climb. Leonard began working in the plant at age 13; to put himself to sleep, he would “mentally check off all the specialty stores we sold to.” In 1958, he “officially” joined the company, which “barely had a dozen employees, including my parents and me.” He set his course early on: "My dream was to make Estée Lauder the General Motors of the beauty business, with multiple brands, multiple product lines, and multinational distribution.” He also dreamed, literally, of tinted lip gloss, which didn't exist at the time, and put it into production immediately. A watershed moment occurred during college, when his film club became so successful he started a second club to compete against it. This experience emboldened him to create Clinique, Origins, and Prescriptives and later to acquire Aveda, MAC, and others. “Competing against myself,” writes Lauder, “is an idea that never grows old.” Against the changing backdrop of 20th-century retail, the author describes his battles with the “ruthless” Charles Revson of Revlon and the later "Lancôme Wars." The final chapters detail Lauder’s successes as an art collector and philanthropist. The author is such a consistently genial guide that he even makes the rigors of the Navy—he joined after being rejected from Harvard Business School—seem charming.

Full of sturdy, old-school leadership wisdom, a pleasant view from the top of a century of business.