New ideas from dead CEOs

Lasting lessons from business leaders who've gone to the great corner office in the sky.

Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder
Obstacle:
A working class girl from Queens, New York aspires to conquer the toniest salons in the world.

Innovation:
She targets her customers and virtually stalks them in their fancy hotels and department stores, while developing the idea of "gift with purchase."

Lesson for today:
Even the rich like freebies. Today at the ritzy Pebble Beach Lodge, golfers can borrow a brand new convertible Lexus to take the famed 17-mile drive around Monterrey and Carmel, California. Lexus is delighted to offer a free loaner to its exclusive, target audience.

Giannini

Watson Sr.

Watson Jr.

Ash

Lauder

Sarnoff

Kroc

Morita

Walton

Disney
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.