MAM
Weekend Unwind with: Hotstuff Medialabs chief creative officer Terence D’souza
Mumbai: With another weekend upon us, IndianTelevision.com rolls over to the next edition of fun snippets that peek into the mind of a corporate executive. This week, sharing his musings with us we have the chief creative officer of Hotstuff Medialabs, Terence D’souza.
An advertising professional, creative director, filmmaker, writer, musician, and brand strategist- all rolled into one, Terence pursued a career in finance before realising his true calling was in advertising. He then switched over from Auditing to Copywriting in 2012, by joining Hotstuff. Here, he channelled his finance acumen into transforming communication for most BFSI brands, and was instrumental in introducing off-beat jingles and genres of communicating financial information through his campaigns. He specialised in investor education drives, working very closely with the mutual fund industry and more than 50+ brands, including ICICI Prudential MF, Edelweiss MF, Kotak Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, Axis, SUD Life, HDFC Ergo, HDFC Life, IIFL Group and UTI Mutual Fund to name a few.
So here goes…
– Your mantra for life
Choose happiness. Everything else will follow.
-A book you are currently reading / plan to read
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. (Hope to finish it before the Rings of Power starts streaming on Prime).
-Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic
I choose sports over the gym, and play Badminton- Properly, I mean, with the right technique on courts. It helps me be more agile.
-Your comfort food
Dal, rice, and rava fried fish- especially when it rains.
-When the chips are down a quote/ philosophy that keeps you going
The poem Invictus by William Henley, especially the last verse which goes, “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my Soul.”
-Your guilty pleasure
Loud and ultra-macho action movies from the 80s.
-When was the last time you tried something new?
Tried mint flavoured coffee for the first time a week ago. Felt like I was brushing my teeth with coffee.
-A life lesson you learnt the hard way
If you don’t protect your work as you would your own children, someone else will raise them.
-What gets you excited about life?
The fact that an entire generation of kids is being introduced to 80s music and pop-culture once more, gives me hope.
-What’s on top of your bucket list?
Winning an Oscar for Best Director.
-If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Travel more, by yourself. You will discover a side of you that is beautiful.
-One thing you would most like to change about the world
Only educated citizens with a proper psych evaluation and certified cognitive skills should be given a license to vote in every election.
-An activity that keeps you motivated / charged during tough times
Talking to the ones closest to me, and realising that no matter how bad it gets, I am still the hero of their story and they believe I can win.
-What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?
I get by with a little help from my friends.
-Your go-to stress buster
Sunday jam sessions with my band Kehkasha. It’s my anesthesia.
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.
