My team and I were invited to support The Dow Chemical Company’s LATAM region in implementing a strong initiative blending local reality with strategic direction coming from headquarters. To that effect, Pedro Suarez, the President for the whole zone (covering from Mexico down to Chile and Argentina) and his leadership team had invited their top 300 leaders to engage them…
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Engaging Leadership
"How to live up to our brand promise"
Sunday May 22nd, 2011 4 commentsIn a Financial Times article from November 2006, titled “My two weeks in Hell with the tortured Soul of Dell”, journalist Stefan Stern shared his frustration at his Dell experience, conflicting badly with the brand’s promise such as conveyed in its tagline, advertising and marketing material. I regularly write to CEO’s in order to inform them about my client experience,…
"In Praise of the Handshake"
Sunday March 20th, 2011 2 commentsWhen asked by a new client to describe the Enablers Network, I usually explain that we are no conventional, pyramidal organization but far more an organic and connected community. In our team, seniority is not superiority; we have no contractual agreement between us although we are highly engaged and dead-serious about our values (which we prefer to call “a permanently…
“Do you create the conditions for your team to hold truly strategic conversations?”
Saturday March 12th, 2011 5 commentsTwo years ago, I was invited by my daughter’s school in order to hold a conversation with the younger pupils, as they were reported to be increasingly stressed by all the things they heard and saw from their parents during the worst moments of the financial crisis. When, at the end, children asked me what job I was in, the…
“People don’t buy what you do! They buy why you do it!!!”
Sunday February 20th, 2011 10 commentsSimon Sinek[1] proposes a simple and elegant model: the golden circle. When talking (as everybody today) about Apple, he challenges its competitors: “Apple is just another computer company… They have the same access to the same talents, the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media, then why is it that they seem to have something different?”. For him most…
“What can we learn from Wilhelm Tell’s sons?”
Sunday January 30th, 2011 1 commentI was born a Belgian (with a Colombian grandmother which explains my hot temper I guess) and became Swiss at the age of 30 (I lived here since I was 2). My heart is “green & yellow” (from my wife’s Brazilian origin). So please do not take the following text as a nationalist outcry. Switzerland has a lot to be…
“Those who can do, those who can’t… teach”
Sunday January 23rd, 2011 5 commentsMy rebellious side fell in love with this quote of G. B. Shaw, brought by Nick McRoberts[1]. We now have wonderful Enablers “intelligent fibers” shirts (Rhodia FiBras) on which the wise words are proudly worn. There is be a profound need for evolution in the world of teaching. I find the following clip below quite compelling: My daughter has the…
"Improvisation takes a lot of preparation: What Samba Schools can teach us about leadership"
Sunday December 5th, 2010 1 commentJimmy is professor of Strategic Marketing in São-Paulo (USP and ESPM). He is a dedicated member of the “Vai-Vai” samba school and has decided to bring lessons from this world to the corporate world… “Is samba serious or just leisure?” The “gringos” (non Brazilians) as I am, respectfully consider samba as a pleasant diversion, a nice and pagan way to…
"G.D.P. vs J.D.V.", an original explanation of the Resonating focus
Sunday November 28th, 2010 3 commentsHeartfelt thank you, once again, to Doug Dean a Strategic Marketing Guru (whom I met when we both did our MBA in IMD, now based in Hong-Kong), for sharing another inspiring speech he watched on TED.com. It shows Chip Conley, owner of a Motel chain interestingly called “Joie De Vivre” (J.D.V.) Chip is an obvious enthusiastic and, in the strictly…
“How the janitor saved our company”
Sunday November 14th, 2010 0 commentsSRC Holdings[1] was founded in 1983, when 13 employees of International Harvester (at the time a leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery) bought that part of the company that was into the business of maintenance and repair of diesel engines. That subsidiary had failed to perform for years so it had been decided to divest it. The new management team of…