MAM
Genpact propels AI-first strategy with new leadership appointments
Mumbai: Genpact (NYSE: G), a global professional services firm focused on delivering outcomes that transform businesses, has announced two new executive leadership appointments. These appointments demonstrate the company’s continued focus on strengthening its executive team with transformative digital leaders to propel the company into its next chapter of growth, leveraging data, technology, and AI-first principles.
Vipin Gairola has been appointed Genpact’s global operating officer and is leading the charge of transforming service delivery for Genpact’s clients by leveraging AI-led solutions. As global operating officer, Gairola oversees Genpact’s global client operations, analytics, data, technology across all countries. He is part of Genpact’s Leadership Council and will lead the company’s operations and cost council. Gairola comes to Genpact from Accenture, where he served in several senior leadership roles over the past two decades. His most recent role was chief strategy officer for accenture operations.
Vidya Rao, Genpact’s chief information officer, takes on an expanded role of chief technology and transformation officer. In this role, she will be at the forefront of reimagining Genpact’s internal processes, tools, technologies, and infrastructure with an AI-first approach. Furthermore, Rao will also play a crucial role in establishing a world-class data office to fortify Genpact’s data capabilities. This will enable Genpact to harness the power of data and drive insights to guide our AI and Automation initiatives effectively and shape our internal functions for the future.
“We are excited to have highly talented and transformative individuals in key leadership roles at Genpact. Vidya and Vipin’s appointment emphasizes our ongoing strategy to re-energize our leadership team to drive us into our next chapter of growth,” said Genpact president and CEO BK Kalra. “More and more of our leadership has deep expertise in data, analytics, operations, and AI and their experience will play a pivotal role in how Genpact and our clients will do the work in an AI-driven world.”
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.
