Good morning. The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC), whose brands include MAC, Clinique, Aveda, and Le Labo, is gaining momentum in its multi-year turnaround.
The company beat both revenue and earnings expectations in its latest quarter. “2025 was a year of stabilization, building credibility, and promises kept,” EVP and CFO Akhil Shrivastava told me.
Shrivastava, who joined ELC 10 years ago, was promoted to finance chief in November 2024, succeeding Tracey Travis, who retired, and shortly before President and CEO Stéphane de La Faverie assumed his role. Their first joint earnings call in February was significant, as they announced the “Beauty Reimagined” strategy, Shrivastava said.
The plan was created to restore credibility, address declining sales, a softening of demand in Asia, improve market agility, and respond to rising competition. It includes restructuring, job cuts, and a greater emphasis on innovation and digital sales.
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, ELC (No. 279 on the Fortune 500) saw early recovery in China and travel retail, posting 4% year-over-year sales growth in Q1 fiscal 2026. Consistently landing at the upper end of guidance has helped rebuild stakeholder confidence, Shrivastava said.
Looking ahead to the new fiscal year, Shrivastava described it as the “year of returning to growth”—not just in top-line revenue, but also profitability. For Q1, he noted margin expansion, an almost doubled EPS, and 3% organic sales growth. This wasn’t just a matter of tighter cost controls; it reflected a strategic decision to invest long-term in consumer needs, bucking the trend of short-term cost-cutting, Shrivastava explained.
For the quarter, operating margin rose 300 basis points to 7.3%, driven by a 3% reduction in non-consumer-facing costs, despite normalized incentive expenses. This enabled a 4% increase in consumer-facing investments.
Keeping the consumer at the forefront
A sharper consumer focus is central to the strategy. ELC is investing in media, product innovation, and launches such as La Mer night products and Clinique serums, Shrivastava explained. The company identified new ways of working—empowering markets and regional teams to move faster and make decisions closer to consumers.
“We changed our structure so leaders in New York focus on brand strategy, while affiliates execute locally with unconstrained authority,” he explained, which has unlocked both speed and accountability. Drawing a sports analogy, Shrivastava noted: You lead where needed, but also support the team collectively.
Shrivastava summarized ELC’s leadership philosophy in four pillars: behave like owners, put the consumer first, create value, and uphold governance with courage. Finance, he said, must drive demand—not just manage costs.
“Leadership is about attitude and broad perspective—feeling like your name is on the building,” he said, encouraging team members to understand the consumer deeply, regardless of their function. “Value creation is long-term—growth, margin, and cash flow go hand-in-hand, and governance means doing the right thing, with support from the top,” he added.
Lessons learned
Before joining ELC, Shrivastava spent 18 years at Procter & Gamble, cycling through roles in auditing operations, supply chain, marketing, and factories across Asia and the U.S. He offered the example of strategizing Tide’s sale to Indian consumers as a formative experience: “We had to reimagine the product and communications for one rupee per wash—requiring ruthless prioritization and start-up mentality.” He added, “That end-to-end understanding, from engineering to marketing, translated seamlessly to luxury beauty and problem-solving at Estée Lauder.”
When asked about his career path at ELC, Shrivastava shared that curiosity and a willingness to try new things have defined his journey. “I started with the Estée Lauder brand, worked on other brands, moved into treasury, tackled supply chain challenges, and took on operational excellence,” he said.
These experiences provided “breadth but also depth”—essential for leading large organizations today. He encourages his teams to follow a similar path, volunteering for new assignments and continually building new skills.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
