The Lauder family handed CEO power to an outsider in 2009, and sales doubled to $15B

The Estée Lauder Companies, founded in 1946 by Estée and Joseph Lauder, was still family-dominated in 2009: the Lauder family controlled 87% of its shares and four family members sat on the 13-seat board. The recession was hammering beauty spending, and the group had grown as a collection of brands and countries without exploiting scale.

The family's decision was to name Fabrizio Freda, a 20-year Procter & Gamble veteran, as president and CEO — the first outsider to run the company since its founding. William Lauder, the founders' grandson, moved to executive chairman, and the family kept voting control.

Freda restructured the company, cut 6% of staff, wound up the Prescriptives brand and built regional innovation centers, using the recession as the burning platform for change. The strategy paid off: from 2009 net sales more than doubled, from about $7 billion to $14.86 billion in fiscal 2019, averaging 8% annual growth.

Net sales more than doubled from about $7 billion in 2009 to $14.86 billion in fiscal 2019, growing an average of 8% a year; net earnings rose 61% in that final year.

An outsider could make cost cuts and brand closures the family could not easily impose.

Keeping 87% of the vote let the family hire an outsider without losing control.

The recession gave restructuring urgency inside the organization.

P&G discipline brought scale, duplication removal and regional innovation.

A family can keep control and hand power to an outsider: the Lauders kept 87% of the vote while a P&G-trained CEO integrated the brands, cut duplication and shifted the company to global innovation.

Freda was still CEO when the company reported $14.86 billion in fiscal 2019 sales, and the 2009 handover became the model for family-owned consumer groups: keep ownership, professionalize management, and let an outsider run the day-to-day.