Pros
Estee Lauder owns many great brands and is the market leader in the prestige segment. Fabrizio Freda is an outstanding CEO who drives clarity of direction , consistency and is a "teacher" so he enjoys training the organization. He also tackles the difficult issues with transparency and drives resolution with his team. The only question I have of him is does he understand the dysfunctionality that goes on below him? Or does he let it go as his managers are connected to the Lauder family so he can't act on it.
Cons
The next level of management, below Fabrizio are a bunch of dysfunctional bullies. They are looking for what is wrong in order to yell and scream at people. This must make them feel powerful. They create a culture of people that are told what to do and cannot have an opinion of their own. Because they are so connected to the family they get away with this behavior. The biggest bully is impressively smart but his treatment of people is horrible. He also gets stuck on stupid issues and loses focus of the big picture. The lady bully is not even smart. She makes decisions without thinking them through and is fiscally irresponsible. The other lady does not make any decisions and the International guy never speaks so hard to know if he is any good. The R&D guy is a politician. Which is the best way to survive in this company. Just telling everyone what they want to hear. So if you are someone with great capabilities and a point of view, I would stay away from this place.