Master Strategist, Marketer, Innovator, Leader: Leonard Lauder, The Company I Keep, A Great Read

Master Strategist, Marketer, Innovator, Leader: Leonard Lauder, The Company I Keep, A Great Read

I'm a voracious reader of great company founder biographies and memoirs. Contrary to perceptions that wildly successful company founders like Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Jack Ma, The Wright Brothers, and Jeff Bezos, were golden from the start, most company founders succeeded through exceptional tenacity, problem solving in the face of huge challenges, natural smarts, a vision they were obsessed with that they got others to believe in and support, and for longer than most people realize during the early years, preoccupation with managing cash flow. The Company I Keep, My Life in Beauty by Leonard Lauder, Chairman Emeritus & Former CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies, is the first business founder book I've been inspired to write about. It's a great read, in particular for marketers, entrepreneurs, family businesses, and lovers of fashion, cosmetics and U. S. retail history. Leonard is the son of Estée Lauder, the initial visionary, and Joseph Lauder, Estée's business and operational partner. Leonard put the start-up he worked on in high school with his parents' guidance, from their home, on a path to becoming a multi-brand, multi-national company with over $14 billion in revenue in 2020. Having worked in brand management myself for years on