MAM
Ajay Gahlaut resigns from Ogilvy India
MUMBAI: Ajay Gahlaut, the deputy CCO of Ogilvy India and CCO of Ogilvy North has resigned from the company.
Gahlaut leaves Ogilvy to pursue his own interests.
He first joined Ogilvy in 2001 and was with Ogilvy until 2005. He then rejoined Ogilvy in November 2007 and between his first term and the second, he has spent a good part of his career with Ogilvy. In the last ten years, Gahlaut has worked to help build brands such as Pernod Ricard, BMW, KFC, Taco Bell, Dabur, Perfetti Van Melle, Mother Dairy, Pizza Hut, Sprite, Best Foods, HT Mint, Philips, to name a few.
Ogilvy India group CCO and vice chairman Sonal Dabral says, “Ajay did some excellent work in his decade long innings in Ogilvy Delhi. I'd like to thank him for building a great team and wish him all the best for all his future endeavours.”
Ogilvy south Asia executive chairman and chief creative officer Piyush Pandey adds, “Ajay is looking for life beyond advertising and for that reason, I cannot stop him just like I couldn’t stop Abhijit. If Abhijit was going to another agency, I wouldn’t have let him go. Everyone has a dream and unfortunately, I can’t fulfil that dream. He has done a stellar job and I am very proud of him. He worked very closely with me and I will miss him. He is a very dear friend.”
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
