Unlocking double digit growth at Estée Lauder Australia

“We needed to think differently”

Estée Lauder Australia was struggling as the world of commerce was changing rapidly in 2015. 

Growth had flatlined at 3% per year. At the same time, e-commerce was growing rapidly and transforming the marketplace.

"We needed to think differently," says Heidi Philps, HR Director. “Our corporate learning and development programs were very traditional and they weren’t what we needed any more. We couldn’t just keep doing business as usual. We needed to inject new ways of thinking into senior leadership and their direct reports."

A multi-year relationship with FourSight begins

• 2015: Estée Lauder Australia’s HR team brought in FourSight to train 50 senior leaders across the organization to apply the FourSight assessment, tools and framework to real business issues.
• 2018: The initial training was so successful, they asked FourSight to train an additional 35 emerging leaders.
• 2022-2023: FourSight pivoted to deliver FourSight training virtually under COVID-19, reaching nearly 200 participants.
• 2024-2025: Estée Lauder is beginning to integrate the new FourSight Online platform and training programs.

Teams began collaborating differently 

• “It was a complete mindset shift for us. It used to be the biggest personalities and the loudest voices get heard most. FourSight gave us a way to work to make a massive leap forward in the way we collaborated."
• “It was really important to have a common, shared language for thinking about collaborative problem-solving. We brought together teams in branding, marketing, finance, HR and supply chain…all talking the same language.”

“We use FourSight every day. It’s just part of our culture at this point"

The chance to apply new thinking to strategic decisions not only supported collaboration; it also had a measurable effect on the bottom line.

In 2016, Estée Lauder Australia experienced double digit growth, which Heidi attributes directly to the new way of thinking.