Efrat Konforty is the Chief People Officer at albelli-Photobox Group. She was previously the Head of HR at Marktplaats (part of eBay) in Amsterdam, before moving to uniQure, Optiver, OYO Vacation Homes, and Bauer Media Group.

What excites you about albelli-Photobox Group and what was it about it that attracted you to join?

When I think about it, there are two main things that attracted me. One is the consumer part; I really like when a business has a consumer element to it. We are all consumers, we all know what it means to be a consumer, and we all know what it means to receive bad service or a bad product, I like to be a part of giving good products and good service.

The second reason I joined is because the organisation is the result of a merger between two commercially complimentary groups. They are not competing with one another; they are actually enabling one another to grow even better. They are both great brands and they have a product that makes us smile. It’s consumers, it’s joy, it’s something that is sustainable for a long period of time; if it’s merged together, and it’s actually really an achievement to build a new brand and continue bringing in joy.

In terms of the next 12 months, what would you perceive to be the biggest challenges in the business and your role within the organisation?

I think that the biggest challenge for any organisation these days is basically what’s happening in the world. As much as we bring joy to people, we bring joy by bringing together materials, and materials cost money. From the price of raw materials to the shipment, the cost of everything has increased, and it takes a toll on all, employees and customers, who just want to enjoy their photos.

Other challenges surrounding us are how we become a more sustainable organisation and how we keep our products affordable. The need to be smart, while being socially responsible, is a challenge for any organisation, us included. Internally, how are we continuing to support people who are working with ambiguity? There are many challenges around that. However, that’s one of the reasons why I joined this organisation, because it has social responsibility.

The product needs to be accessible to everyone and we need to be an organisation where both the product and the organisation is accessible to everyone. As an organisation, we aren’t there yet, but I will put it on the agenda for the next 12 months.

In terms of your role, have you identified some ways in which your function can contribute to that sustainable vision and accessibility to everybody?

We have a sustainable strategy that we’re putting into different pillars - people being one of the leading 3 pillars. These pillars range from the basic requirements - such as creating a safe and healthy environment - all the way to ensuring inclusivity.

As a company, we’re setting clear targets and strategies that are not limited to one thing. We look at the planet, we look at the people, we look at the environment - we have different pillars and clear strategies to make sure that all ambitions mature.

As an organisation, what sort of things have you or your organisation done to really support wellbeing in the workplace and positive mental health within business?

At this stage, we need to develop a programme for that. If I look at my past and the organisations that I have worked with, it was always one of the first topics of discussion. I think that one of the ways to be able to support wellbeing is by giving personal responsibilities to people and volunteering days, so they can actually decide what they would like to do with themselves.

When I worked at eBay, one of their strengths was their work surrounding charities. This was done either by offering voluntary days, or through donating their presence, such as real estate and website placements, to charities allowing them to achieve a broader exposure. It isn’t exactly wellbeing of the people, but by being involved in different social activities, it contributes to a positive wellbeing.

The pandemic created a big situation around wellbeing - we all know about it, we talked about it, and there is a lot of material out there to address it. One of the things that I clearly see with wellbeing, like development, is that it’s in the hands of the person.

The company can be blamed for a lot of things. But, eventually, if the company allows a person to work remotely, and allows for flexible working hours, and the person is not taking advantage of it, and letting the time pass without structure and personal commitment, it becomes a chicken and egg situation of who is responsible for the growing workload and tasks.

A company can provide a lot of platforms, but eventually, it’s in the hands of the employee to own their wellbeing and their personal and professional development. It’s the responsibility of the company to ensure that there is enough time and paths allocated for these topics.

We are all finding new ways of working; it is not one organisation versus the other. You can open LinkedIn and see the positive effects of hybrid working, etc.

However, for you to receive your photo album or calendar from us, people need to actually print it and other people need to ship and deliver it. So, when talking about social awareness, if everyone is shouting you must offer hybrid working, we forget about the population that is actually serving the product and delivering it to our homes, making sure that we can actually enjoy the greatness that we are ourselves creating.

When we demand hybrid working everywhere, we are actually paralysing ourselves. The product would not be able to go without the printer and the delivery will not arrive without the delivery person - there is a huge population that cannot work hybrid and we need to respect, and acknowledge them.

If you think about HR as a profession and people’s perception is of it, what do you think is the biggest myth that you’d like to debunk?

It’s a question I’m asking when I hire an HR business partner. What does BP mean? I ask them to describe what the P is and, depending on the description, I end the conversation and say, “Do you understand the difference between Partnership or are you a Police officer?”

The biggest myth about HR is: Are we HR or are we police officers? Are we a stick or are we actually an enabler, a partner? I hope we are more and more true partners, less HR and more People.

Looking back over your career so far, what would you highlight as being a personal highlight for you?

I am most proud of being in positions and in companies where the value of people leads. Where I, with a dedicated team, can drive culture by diversity of backgrounds and create a safe place to work in, no matter what the nationality, religion, orientation or other background is; the individual skills and personality leads.

Is there another direction that you might have taken if it wasn’t HR, or maybe even something that you might want to do in the future as a second career?

That’s a question I ask myself often, because the reason I moved to the Netherlands 19 years ago was because I fell in love with a Dutch guy. I actually dropped everything and had the opportunity to rebuild myself, and decide which path I would like to take.

I think that it broadened the responsibilities of HR at that time. So, it didn’t eliminate HR and business operations, but what I did drop when I moved and actually really liked (and surprisingly I look at it now from a different angle) is photography.

I like photography and I really like to write, as well. I dropped both writing and photography when I moved, and reinvented myself in the Netherlands. But now, being in albelli-Photobox Group, I have built up my attachment back to photography. So, I would probably take photography up again, and maybe some writing. But, honestly, now with blogs all over the place and everyone writing about everything, it’s taken the charm of writing away, so I will focus on reading.

Finally, thinking back to when you were a child, who was the person or the people that you most admired and why?

It’s a cliché, but my dad. I come from a very unique family that is very small. It’s unique, because two people fell in love and then their siblings fell in love with each other, as well. It’s not a marriage within the family, but it’s a very small family.

Actually, one of the achievements belonging to my family is that all family members - both male and female - have succeeded immensely. But there are two pieces of advice that I learnt from my dad that have really stuck with me.

First of all, look into the eyes of every person - look straight into their eyes, don’t block, don’t fool, don’t patronise, just be straight. It doesn’t matter who you are; the person in front of you is the person. Be big enough to level up to the smallest and to the biggest. A person is a person and that is what I heavily learnt in my family.

The second thing is, don’t allow anyone to actively walk over you just because you are in a lower position. Never be the aggressor, never be aggressive. It is fine to defend your values and your morals.

Thank you to Efrat for speaking to Katie Insley, Associate Director in our HR recruitment team in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Elma Kapa is a Senior Program Manager, Xylem Innovation Labs at Xylem Inc. in Switzerland. She has a background in Indirect Procurement, having spent over ten years at Electrolux Professional.

As a senior manager within the Innovation team, you work with lots of new ideas. How do you balance risks and opportunity?

The true innovators need to take calculated risks, and they need to expand thinking beyond organizational walls.

What we do is to form partnerships in the key areas that represent the biggest pain points - and opportunities - for our customers. Every year, we evaluate - both technically and commercially - over 200 technologies.

We work with early-stage companies, to develop their technologies, geared towards commercial readiness. But we also work with later stage companies and start-ups that are looking to commercialize their technologically-ready product or services.

So, collaboration with external companies allows both parties to have lower structural costs, shared in-demand resources, and faster speed to market. This de-risks development, while accelerating the technology advancement and commercial scale-up.

I would say, alone, it would be extremely difficult to scale up and reach a global customer base, but together - in partnership - I think there's a huge opportunity for all of us.

Of course, we accept that some projects will fail; not all of them will fit our business needs, not all of them solve the problems our customers are trying to solve – and that’s okay. I think the failures are opportunities for us to grow.

So, the calculated risk is something that the Innovation teams need to take if they really want to advance breakthrough technologies on the market.

What’s the most exciting thing you've worked on recently or what is the most exciting part of your role?

When we think of innovation, we tend to link this to the cutting-edge products that enter a market and disrupts an industry sector completely.

Even if we think about the internet itself - that is part of our life almost in any aspect - it has taken over the world, forcing some industries to meet its standards. It has disrupted many of them: music, books, retail stores...

What I'm saying is: what would happen if we’re not able to deploy and test these technologies? This is a particularly relevant challenge in the industry I work for - the water industry - trying to serve the utility sector.

So, I would say that the most exciting part of the Innovation team I work with, in my role, is really to explore these new ways to join the dots between stakeholders and end users, trying to forge the creative alliances across the sector.

We must often come up with new business models. Developing these new models, trying to implement them in our organizational set-up, is one of the most exciting parts of my role.

To make a real change, to advance global industry, all players need to connect, need to play in partnerships. By this, I mean non-profit organizations, governments, consultants, distributors, everyone… Even collaborating with our industry peers is probably the way that we can change the perception and the approaches to new technology adoption.

I think it is very exciting when you expand your thinking beyond your organization and along with others in the network you collaborate to find a better way to serve your customers and solve their challenging problems.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your role?

The most rewarding part is when we get the parties working together, aligning all goals and promoting, supporting and pushing, internally and externally, the new technology, that alone would not be able to be deployed or tested.

In the future, what do you see as the biggest challenges for the business and also the businesses that you partner with?

One of the biggest levers a company has to drive growth is to bring new, breakthrough technologies to the market.

Large corporations struggle to keep up with the pace of technological advancement. Most corporations tend to create Corporate Innovation teams, as a proxy for or to supplement the traditional Research & Development efforts. The challenges we face with these Corporate Innovation teams is probably the challenge everyone generally faces when trying really to implement innovation, which is an unclear mandate and a lack of organizational alignment.

So, the primary way to support and engage in a third-party innovation is to reimagine the existing corporate innovation program.

Innovations requires long-term investments, and these require patience and incubation. These challenges are something that Innovation teams face every day, and the businesses we work with are facing every day. So, we need to work together, trying to accelerate the rate with which these technologies are brought in, adopted, and accepted in the market.

Your background is within Procurement & Supply Chain. Do you feel having that background has given you any advantages in your current role?

Absolutely, I would say that was crucial in this role. Understanding the complexity and the nuances of a multi-national organization and being able to influence the team members and stakeholders and third parties involved in the negotiation process and being able to translate the corporate objectives into the functional deliverables is one of the crucial skills developed within the supply chain experience and which you learn quite well.

I would say that this is also very important in my current role as a Program Manager, because you leverage those skills trying to support team’ project executions and closing the gap between the technology expertise and the way to bring that technology on the market.

I would say that, in the Procurement experience I had - mainly in indirect materials and services - almost every negotiation is a separate project, has a different scope of work, and you need to align end users and various stakeholders, with frequently different goals and functional needs.

Therefore, negotiation and influencing skills learnt in procurement are of extreme importance to bring various involved parties together and to align their common objectives to get to the deal. I’d also say that agreeing on terms and conditions is just the start of agreement deployment which without previous alignment and partnership work would never really happen.

Finally, what’s your favourite business motto and why?

This is a very good question. I would say that probably - because of my previous experience in Procurement, but also the challenges that we face in Innovation - my business motto would be “challenges are opportunities to grow”.

I'm saying this because we face challenges every day in different aspects - completely different from project to project- and failures, as well as successes, are not destinations, but represent really the way for us to evolve.

We all face moments when we are trying to accomplish something, and it doesn't work and we tend to give up, to say, this is not possible. We stop believing it's possible.

I think those are moments where we really need to push forward. Those are moments where we need to have the courage to continue, and to find the different ways to make it work, sometimes very different than what we thought at the beginning.

This is something I tend to remind myself when I’m facing challenges in my daily work; I like the approach of not giving up, very easily, on things.

Thank you to Elma for speaking to Charlotte Cruise, Senior Consultant in our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in Switzerland.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Frank Simons is the Vice President Human Resources at Allseas in Delft, the Netherlands. He started his HR career in 1995 at Fugro, before moving to businesses such as IBM, Burger King Corporation and Technip.

In your opinion, what is it like being the International Vice President of HR at Allseas?

First of all, it is an exciting time, I am really enjoying it still every day. As you know, we have faced some changes in the last year with COVID and the changes in the market, so there is never a dull moment. Facing all those challenges and adapting to all those changes makes my life as an HR professional very interesting.

The last 12 months, in particular, have been quite interesting, because of the many challenges in regards to the current economic climate. Initially we were forced to let some people go, but then, after six months, the world changed.

So, we are now in hiring mode and we have big challenges in relation to retaining our staff, and - at the same time - welcoming new staff; that makes it quite difficult to adapt when you’re faced with losing people and now welcoming people.

It’s a big change in a very short period of time, so you have to adapt quickly to a new environment and your business climate, which makes it a challenge - also for the team to adapt to those changes. It requires a change in your mindset and an ability to adapt to the changes around you, both externally and internally.

What does your organisation do to drive its sustainability agenda?

We invest quite a lot in reducing the amount of water in our ships to avoid waste. We have a small ship called the Catchy, which removes plastic from the rivers. In our business, we also remove oilrigs from the oceans, which we are not operating in anymore, so we do quite a lot - it’s high on the agenda.

We’re also looking to invest more and participate in other opportunities, such as wind. It’s quite important for us, because we would like to contribute to a new environment, especially in the current market with the energy transition. We would like to play a major role in this area.

In your opinion, what makes the Netherlands a good place to live?

First of all, it’s quite international, because we have the International Court of Justice located here in The Hague and we have many nationalities. Almost everyone speaks very good English. It’s safe, it’s quite interesting country from a cultural perspective, it’s a country with many histories, life is easy, and it has very good public transportation.

The economic climate is quite strong, and we have many open vacancies in all areas - mostly technical - but there are many opportunities.

In general, it’s a very good social climate. From a social security perspective, the government takes good care of you in case of illness or disability. There are many great universities like in Amsterdam and Maastricht. Overall, it’s a very nice country to live in.

What have you learnt as a leader over the past 12 months of being at Allseas?

What I have learnt is that even though the market is changing at a fast speed, you have to write plans to adapt to it. Don’t get in a panic, just take it as it comes, take a step back to adjust your policies, your processes, and strategy. I think that’s something I’ve learnt over the 12 months in such a crazy climate with COVID and the business going down and then picking up.

I think it’s very important that you stay calm to be able to adjust your strategies and policies, and also be a bit flexible, not only with myself, but for the whole team, in adapting to the new environment.  Adapt your terms and conditions with a remote working policy to secure the people still able to adapt to this new environment.

To reiterate, I think one of the things that I have learnt in the last 12 months is the need to be calm, take a step back and readjust your strategy, because the environment will require you to do so.

You also need to ensure, as an employer, that you invest in the leadership skills of your leaders, because managing a team in the office is not the same as managing people working from home. One of the things we have learnt as a company is that you do really need make these investments to allow your leaders to adapt to the new environment, as well.

How did you plan out your career development path?

I never had the idea of wanting to get to this level or that level - it was in my mind somewhere far away, but living abroad, working abroad, and eventually becoming a VP was never that strong on my to-do list.

I always took the approach of just doing a good job and, if I was appreciated, I would be notified and then be invited for something else, which always happened in my career. I was never ambition-driven. If the right people surround you, and you are fair and honest, and have the dedication, it will happen to you anyway.  

But again my career path was not ambition-driven. I thought, let’s see what’s happening, do a good job and see what happens. That approach as always helped me a lot.

If you weren’t in your current position or you weren’t working in HR, what other career path do you think you may have taken?

I started my career as a nurse when I was at university. I always enjoyed helping other people, feeding them, putting them on the toilet, washing them… But, after a certain point in time, I really wanted to do something that would help my life financially. I needed to pursue another career. I would say, in general, if that wasn’t the case, I would maybe still be working as a nurse.

Who is the most inspiring person in business for you and why?

That is very easy to answer, because I am not reporting to him anymore - it would be the founder of Allseas. His name is Edward Heerema and he founded this company almost 40 years ago. He had a vision, he had an idea and he built the biggest construction vessel in the world. The way he founded and grew this company - taking into account the technology to be innovative - is very impressive.

Two months ago he stepped aside as President and became Chairman of the company, but I really admire what he did. Driven by entrepreneurship and pioneering spirit, he built a global company from scratch without much money in his bank account.

He did it by always treating people with dignity and respect, and surrounding himself with the right staff, so I really have a lot of respect for him. He has been the gamechanger in the industry, as well..

I would love to know how you feel digital transformation will change the role of HR?

I think it really started a few years ago. There is a stronger need for efficiency and to sit down with business leaders to provide them with relevant data. You need to provide them with the right data to discuss and to support the business decisions.

From an efficiency point of view, I think there is room for improvement in optimising all the data we have held on different systems. We need to be able to provide data in a clear overview using a one-to-one system. With this, we can work more efficiently and cut down on the amount of paperwork we have, which I think is quite outdated in line with the current digitalised environment we have today. Overall, I think digitalisation will help us improve our HR processes and become more efficient.

However, we shouldn’t forget the people element. This is because I see many companies focus a lot on digitalisation and also - particularly in the HR profession - I think we shouldn’t underestimate that it is still a people business that we are working for and with; we need to secure the right balance.

There is room for efficiency and there is room for adaption. It is very important for the people who spend a lot of time with managers to supply them with the right data to support important business decisions. But, it is still a people-orientated business working in HR. In the people element, working remotely and the integration of face-to-face is still critical to carry out the job successfully. We are not robots, you know.

Ronald Van Es is a Chief People Officer, most recently at Macaw in the Netherlands, where he spent over 24 years. He started his career in the Finance discipline back in 1995, before moving into Human Resources.

How did you make the move from the Finance space into HR and what led to that?

I’ve worked at Macaw since 1998, where I joined as Manager of Finance and Facilities when it was just a small company of 40 people. For the first two years, I found myself doing all kinds of HR and recruitment stuff, because we wanted to grow and for that we needed to set up the HR function from scratch.

Funnily enough, I really liked that part of my job, because I realized that our people were at the core of the Macaw success. My favourite quote is one from Richard Branson: “Clients don’t come first, employees come first” - if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients. At Macaw, this always has been my guiding principle, and that also explains why this combination of Finance and People works.

We were out there to hire the best talent, to invest in them both professionally and personally, and, from a development point of view, invest in their wellbeing to help them become the best version of themselves. If employees feel safe, inspired and well taken care of by their employer, they will transfer that into their work for the customers, and take care of all the customers’ challenges, issues, etc. With that, you create happy, loyal customers that are also happy to pay the bill at the end of the month.

That full circle made Macaw grow into a financially successful company that can reinvest in its people and make the shareholders happy at the same time. I think a company that has such an employer vision is set up to be successful in the long-run. In the end, we decided to split the Finance and People roles, as they became too big to combine, and I was lucky to keep the People role.

What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges for your own role or from a business point of view over the next 12 months?

For the business - and for all businesses – it’s important to set out a steady course that is based on your vision or your purpose, because that enables you to face the volatile and uncertain times that we’re in.

As a business, you need to set that corporate compass, and be very transparent about all the decisions and actions you take, because that will lower the uncertainty for your employees, and will massively increase their engagement and loyalty.

The HR role is not that different. The People side of the business will be crucial for the future, with the scarcity of talent out there in a volatile outside world, and the changing way of work after COVID. Now, more than ever, it’s important to have a clear and transparent People vision, and you need to make sure that people feel safe, feel at home in your company, and feel facilitated to be their best, wherever, however, and whenever they work. I really believe that that’s the only way to attract and retain the best talent in your company.

Is there anything else that you think is changing in the discipline of HR or how it might evolve in the future?

It’s becoming clear to most companies that it is in fact the people that are making our companies successful and, whenever I talk about Human Resources, I really would like to advocate for removing the Resources part.

I believe more and more companies are understanding that our employees are not resources; you cannot be as efficient as possible with them, you cannot squeeze everything out of them between 09:00 and 17:00 without bothering to think about how they leave the office or workday, and if they have energy left for their private life.

I think - and I hope - that we have grown beyond "pay them well and they will work hard", "train them well and they will do a good job", or "instruct them well and they will do exactly what we want them to do".

Employees nowadays are looking for a workplace where they feel aligned and inspired with the company's purpose. They want to feel safe and be able to be their true self, and should have the feeling that their leaders facilitate them in doing their best work, in an environment that’s based on trust and autonomy.

People need to feel cared for in good times, but especially in these hard times. Always put your people first – I believe that care is the employee benefit of the future. Employees themselves really want to care about the company and what the company is about, and - in return - they also want to feel cared for by their employer.

I think that’s the future of HR, and this must be embedded in your company’s DNA, culture, and in your leadership, because this is not something that you can embed or enforce from the sideline by an HR team.

What advice would you give to aspiring leaders in developing their career in leadership roles?

Be a leader, not a manager! There is a big difference between the two of them. As a leader, you explain to people why you do things in the company and what we want to achieve. As a manager, you’re telling people how to do their work and when it’s got to be ready. Why would you hire great, talented people and then tell them what to do?

In being a leader, you need to provide your people with a clear direction, a compass, a vision… And then you trust them to decide on the best way to get the job done. At the same time, as a leader, you should always be there to support and coach whenever they need you. It’s more about guiding and coaching them, rather than managing or telling people what to do.

And the results will be way better, because a good team complements each other; everybody has their strengths and their weaknesses, and if you combine it well, that works magic. The results are not dependent on the person that is either the leader or the manager; it comes from the team. And, if you give them that freedom and that platform of trust, I think that’s the way to lead.

Do you think that skillset of a leader has had to change and evolve, given the hybrid world that we find ourselves in now?

I’m not sure the skills are different for hybrid work, but it’s a different way of having one-on-ones, or having meetings, or trying to bond as a team. I still think that, whenever possible, it’s good to physically meet up with each other.

However, if you’re spread across the world, and that’s not possible, you have to find a creative way around that to make sure that the team feels connected and that you feel connected to the team. That may take more time, effort and energy, but that’s your role. You’re there for the team - they’re not there for you.

From your perspective, what do you do outside of work to help with relaxation and achieving a balance in life?

We had a lot of vitality initiatives within Macaw, and there’s two ways to look at this. There’s this micro level, where you can help people with tips, tricks and education. And there’s a macro level. On the micro level, there’s all kinds of things that you could do to improve your work-life balance, be it on the physical dimension, or mentally or emotionally. I think a lot of these tips are all over the internet.

What I do myself is I try to go out every day just to have a walk after lunch, because otherwise I have this massive after-lunch dip in my focus. That works for me, but doesn’t necessarily work for somebody else; that’s why it’s hard to have these general tips that work for everybody. Funnily enough, I had colleagues that, if they go for a walk, they fall asleep afterwards, so it doesn’t work. Obviously, have a good night’s sleep, try to relax also during your workday, try not to sit too much, and try to change posture every now and then. I think those are things that can help you be more energized.

On a macro level, I think there’s a bigger secret for having a great work-life balance, increasing your energy level and maintaining that on a high level. During a leadership programme, I learned that you can also use Einstein’s formula for energy (E = mc²) for your personal energy.

Think about it. Why is it that people burn out? That usually happens if people have been doing something for too long that doesn’t match what they want to do or what they like to do. Or, it doesn’t match with who you are as a person; it doesn’t match your personality and you cannot be your true self at work. Or, it doesn’t match your capabilities. If you want to maximise your energy, do things that align to your own mission in life. That is the ‘m’ in the formula - it’s what you want. If the goal or purpose of your company aligns with your personal mission, that gives a lot of inspiration and fulfilment.

If you also do things that fit with who you are, your character (the first ‘c’) and personality, you can be your true self at work. If you feel valued for who you are and you don’t have to act out of character, then you feel safe and energetic at work.

And last, if you do things that match what you can do, you can use the full potential of your competences (the second ‘c’).

If you find an employer and a job where your m (what you want) and your two cs (what you are and what you’re capable of) fit, it will bring a tremendous amount of energy and fulfilment to your work life, and also to your private life. If you achieve that, you will probably not have to fix any issues in your work-life balance.

Thinking back to your career so far, is there something that stands out for you as something you’re particularly proud of or something that’s been particularly rewarding?

For me, it’s being able to work on building a great place to work - with Macaw, we were certified as a Great Place to Work in the Netherlands, Germany and Lithuania. For me, that means working in an environment that’s built on trust, and where people feel inspired, safe, and are empowered to thrive both professionally and personally, and basically making it able for them to finish their day fulfilled.

I really believe that if you are in a truly great workplace, people can end their workday with more energy than they started with.

I am very proud that I was the driver of such a culture, where you can see people being their true self and the best version they can be, and also get that feedback from them. That’s the highlight.

Thank you to Ronald for speaking to Katie Insley, Associate Director in our HR recruitment team in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Helmut Leitner is the Founder of Heliblick in Zug, Switzerland, a management consultancy that developed the iBsing framework. He is also a Board Member at CSCMP Roundtable Switzerland, after having a successful Supply Chain career in companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Sharp & Dohme and Smith & Nephew.

You have successfully developed the Integrated Business Sensing (iBsing) framework. Can you tell us more about this and, in particular, how it can be leveraged to manage complex transformations?

Around 20 years ago, I was offered the position of S&OP Manager at Johnson & Johnson. I did not know what Sales and Operations Planning was, but it sounded interesting. I found out that it was about balancing demand and supply in the three to 24-month horizon, and about connecting the Sales-silo with the Operations-silo.

Later, I found out that S&OP works much better if you combine it with Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE), which takes care of all the short-term challenges in the next 12 weeks. For many years, S&OP and S&OE were an extremely powerful tandem to excel organisational performance in a predictive business environment.

In the meantime, S&OP has further evolved to Integrated Business Planning (IBP). The objective is to support the organisational vision and organisational strategy by integrating all departmental plans: Commercial plan, Product plan, Manufacturing plan, Procurement plan, Finance plan. But can everything be planned and predicted? In the last decades, the business environment has changed. We know that not every change can be planned, because the world is more volatile, complex and disruptive; a lot of change is just emerging out of the moment.

Therefore, the “predict and control” approach in IBP is not sufficient for many challenges, and a “sense and respond” approach is required. Integrated Business Sensing (iBsing) is a framework that enables teams to take a helicopter view and to understand, what’s going on in this moment?, and to interact with the key values partnership, entrepreneurship and mentorship to find the optimal response. IBP and iBsing are a tandem to deliver excellent performance in the VUCA information flow.

With the implementation of S&OP, Supply Chain took the role of integrator of the different business functions. Going forward, I think that Supply Chain will take a key role in facilitating governance processes to consistently improve the framework of E2E decision-making. On the other side, Supply Chain has an important facilitator role to resolve business conflicts.

What advice would you give to someone starting their career in the Supply Chain discipline?

My advice would be: Be curious and be yourself! Supply Chain is an extremely broad and complex field. At the beginning of the career, it may be good to get a generalist overview and to understand processes and systems across the E2E value chain.

Since Supply Chain is all about people, it is also important to consistently improve leadership competencies in parallel. A special leadership feature in iBsing is the capability to take a helicopter perspective and to increase self-awareness, and also to understand personal needs of colleagues and business requirements of the organisation, customers and suppliers.

For anybody - whatever their own motivators, interests and skills are - you can specialise in Supply Chain and still be yourself.

People that like structure, and are interested in processes and digitalisation, may find great purpose in developing the process or system capabilities of the operating model. People that are more leaned towards the soft side of management may enjoy facilitating cross-functional conflict resolution for critical business challenges as part of the IBP process.

Whatever you are passionate about - communication, digitalisation, marketing, financials, problem-solving, team-building, learning about different cultures - it’s all needed in Supply Chain.

What is the most surprising thing that has happened during your career?

Some years ago, I had an exciting job - a lot of responsibility on my shoulders - and I was struggling with my workload. All my focus was on operational priorities, organisational changes, system implementations and team development. I asked my mentor for advice. I did not expect the answer: Nourish your external network.

I was super busy with managing relationships within the organisation with the team and internal stakeholders; I saw little benefit investing my valuable time into relationships with people who were not connected to my organisation and who were focused on topics not directly related to my daily challenges.

A few months later, my mentor invited me to build CSCMP Roundtable Switzerland, a non-profit organisation to foster networking and learning between Supply Chain professionals. With some doubts, I accepted the invitation, and we kicked off the initiative with other Supply Chain professionals.

A few years later, I know from experience that a strong external network is a source of inspiration and learning, opening your mind for new ideas and new initiatives, providing unexpected support and advice when needed, and building valuable connections and friendships.

How do you see the workplace changing, especially within Supply Chain functions, as we emerge from the global pandemic?

People will be working more from home in the future, but I also realize that there is a strong desire to have face-to-face interactions, especially from the young generation. At the end, there will be a good balance.

For the iBsing approach, teams are coming together every three months for a workshop followed by a small social activity, like a barbecue. Between those workshops, the team does interact via virtual meetings in weekly or biweekly governance calls. That seems to be a very efficient and effective set up. And, since teams are meeting at least once a quarter, a trustful relationship is evolving.

Your business, Heliblick, has gone from strength to strength this year. What has been a memorable moment for you in 2022 and why?

After two years of iBsing development, I had the opportunity to apply the iBsing framework for the first time at full scale at a big customer. I have been working with a fantastic team of 15 change agents.

A memorable moment was when the team presented the first target condition to the CEO, and the CEO wondered if the team’s intent was too ambitious. The team insisted in the discussion that the target condition is realistic – and, three months later, they delivered.

In the meantime, they have successfully completed the third target condition already. Every moment where I can see that the team members are fully engaged and enjoy the transformation is an energizing moment also for me.

Thank you to Helmut for speaking to Neil Cope, Associate Director in our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment division in Switzerland.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.

Giovanni Manchia is the CHRO at I-SEC International Security in Amsterdam. He started his HR career at Shell, before working at companies like American Express, Rabobank and dfcu Bank. Alongside working across various countries and jurisdictions, Giovanni’s career has also taken him to Africa. 

Tell me more about your organisation, I-SEC, and the culture there. 

I-SEC is an organisation mainly focusing on aviation security. We have more than 6,000 people across the world. We are based at a number of airports in different markets, where we can provide the services for making sure that you and your family are able to travel safely. 

If you look at our overall strategy, and also how we position ourselves as a business, we clearly say we are a people's business. I know this is a remark that a lot of companies are making, but in essence, this is the only thing we have. Our business is not about big machines, it's about people.

We rebranded our core values. We discussed the essence of our company and the things that really distinguish and characterise us – that was a big exercise. In the end, we decided on four different things.

The first was: People first. We said that people first is not only for employees, but also with our clients and passengers. Whatever we do and whatever anyone does in this company, it always needs to put people first. So, always make sure that if you need to choose between processes, systems or people, always choose people.

Secondly: Achieve impact. This means, whatever you do, make sure you have an impact on your colleagues, on your organisation, on yourself, and - most definitely - on our clients and our passengers.

Thirdly: Enjoying our work. We need to have fun, but we also need to make sure we do it together, because enjoying our work is crucial and we are part of a bigger community.

The final one was: Respect rules. Other companies will say, we bend the rules, but - if you're in the security area or the safety industry - people need to know where the thresholds are. So, we said, whatever we do, we need to make sure that we provide safety for everyone and that means respecting the rules all the time. 

How do you embed these values in the organisation?

To make sure that everybody acts in the spirit of these core values, you need to translate them into very tangible behaviours and make it as pragmatic as possible.  

One of the biggest challenges in every organisational is transformation and really making sure that you are focusing your organisation on the desired behaviour. It’s easier said than done, but what I've seen so often with HR people is they tend to like the first part - the design, the conceptual, the high level – but, how do you then make sure that it works in practice with everyone in your organisation? I would say a million mini steps help to ensure it will happen.

What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges over the next 12 months for your business and your role?

HR is quite fun in this organisation and this industry, because it really has an impact on the bottom line. Our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity for growth is making sure we get sufficient qualified staff. Perhaps that’s a no-brainer, but that’s either blocking or hindering our business.

If you talk about recruitment in this business, this is not about one, two or ten people; this is about hundreds and hundreds of people. It’s volume recruitment and, at the same time, you also have quite a lot of quality checks. By the time you have assessed and monitored everything, you don't have that many people left. 

You need to get large amounts of people into this funnel, and that's probably the biggest challenge that we have. Looking at how to we attract and retain these people, while also keep them motivated and happy, that is a challenge.

How would you assess the economic and business outlook?

Nobody can predict the future, but - if you look at the current projections now from the airlines and airports - the growth that they foresee is still quite significant. We're not yet at the 2019 levels, but they expect that we will be there in the visible future. 

Obviously, our business is specialised, so we had a really tough time during COVID, when all of a sudden everybody stayed at home, but people now are keen to travel. Business travel has picked up and people still want their holidays to foreign countries.

I was particularly interested in the time you spent in the Managing Director role for the business. Can you tell me how that came about and how it changed your responsibilities within the business?

I had operated for a long time in a dual role - I was the CHRO for the group and also the HR Director for the Netherlands.

At a point in time, the Managing Director, who I had a very close relationship with, was out of the business for a number of months. So, we decided - alongside our group CEO – that, for the interim period, I would take over that role. 

If you're in HR, in a people intensive business, you’re in the position to have an influence on the total enterprise, and it was a good opportunity for me to take over the whole ship. It was an interesting experience, because it happened at the time when travel picked up significantly and every airport in Europe, including Schiphol in Amsterdam, had these challenges. 

It gave me the opportunity to look at HR from a distance. As a specialist, you tend to think that everything is related to your specialist area. Well, now you need to do things in balance, so you need to look at things more holistically.

I know it's a cliché, but it's lonely at the top. At the end of the day, you need to make decisions, you need to say whether you go left or right, and often on insufficient data. You have to have the guts to make that decision and live with the consequences.

It was a very interesting, unexpected assignment and I enjoyed it.

For people that are developing their career in HR and are wanting to ultimately secure a leadership role, is there any advice that you could share with them?

If you like the profession and if you really want to make an impact, you need to understand the business. In HR, you have the fortunate situation where you can relatively easily move to different industries. I have worked in oil and gas, IT, healthcare, security, banking, and financial services, but you really have to understand what makes the business tick.

We can talk about talent management, succession, comp and ben , but how do you utilise and leverage the employees in such a way that it makes the most impact in your business? Start with that and - if you do that - then you can build up a trustful relationship with your leaders, because they know you understand their business.

Always treat yourself as an equal. That's sometimes challenging in HR, because you start in roles where you're junior from an age perspective compared to the leadership you work with. Stand by your principles and believe you are the expert. If you act more junior, they will treat you more junior.

Who do you admire most in business?

One person I still admire is Kenneth Chenault, previous CEO of American Express. I was fortunate to meet him a few times during market visits, and the way he was able to establish a culture of trust and partnership, while also focusing on customer service, clients and employee engagement, was extremely impressive.

I've seen many leaders at the height of their career start to become what I call presidential. What I found so remarkable about Ken is his ability to be so humble and charismatic at the same time.

What does the future of HR look like? How is the discipline going to change in the coming years?

What really strikes me are developments like the Great Resignation. What you now see is that people are really just moving out of the corporate life at various levels. Maybe we'll enter an economic crisis, but the fundamental challenge is that there will be a shortage of staff significantly across the western world in the coming years and organisations will be competing for scarce talent.  

When we talk about Human Resources, we need to think about how we can win the hearts and minds of people. It’s all about the employee experience and making a psychological connection with your employees. We will need to learn what they expect from you as an employer. 

How do you make sure that people run the extra mile for you and are loyal to you? 

If businesses are in a situation where there are signs of a recession, senior leaders often just fall back to primary behaviours and only think about cutting costs. There are a couple of English expressions I have always loved. “Penny-wise, pound-foolish” means you can make what sounds like a logical decision in the short-term, but that may hit you in the long-term. That's the one thing you always need to keep in mind: try to have a long-term strategy in this turbulent world.

Additionally, I realise that, from a business point of view, to be able to talk about the future, you'll first need to have a future, so that's always a balance you need to have.

I also believe HR analytics is key; it’s difficult to do anything successfully without data. If you really want to become the business partner, you need to understand the data and you need to quantify what the impact is on the business. The more you can do that, the more successful the HR function will be.

You’ve spent some time working in Africa. I’d love to hear more about that and what your remit was there.

In Uganda, I was introduced through Rabobank, and helped the board and the management team of dfcu Bank to develop a new operating model.

It was a phenomenal experience, not only from a cross-culture point of view, but definitely also from an intellectual point of view. To help such an organisation in such a distinct culture with transforming their business was one of the best experiences I had at that point in time.

At the Lion Heart Foundation in Sierra Leone, I did a voluntary assignment where I worked with the board to strengthen the organisation, which is a local rural hospital. We wanted to transition into sustainability to ensure the hospital was self-supporting in the future.

We were able to create a learning culture inside the organisation, to make sure that people felt empowered to really grow. We established things like scholarship funding to build up their capability and trained people from the community to become nursing assistants, which really embedded the organisation in the community, and they became a good employer.

It was not always easy, but it was a phenomenal experience.

If you didn’t have a career in HR, what route might you have taken?

I feel blessed that I choose this profession. It has brought me to many destinations in the world, and I could never have imagined I would do transformation projects in countries like Uganda or in Sierra Leone.

There have been many times where I have thought, this is unbelievable that I get to do this, and I get paid for it, as well!

I have the dual role, because I'm also in the academic world, so if I were to move in another direction, it would probably be further into that world.

How do you relax when you've got some time to yourself?

I love to travel and I love to spend time with friends and family - I get energy from that.

In terms of travel, if you travel for business, it’s a little different than if you’re travelling as a tourist; you see a subset of the country, because you deal with local people and you get to learn more about local cultures. 

I have developed a soft spot for Africa, that's for sure - it really gets into your skin. The energy and the vibe that you experience there is really contagious.

Thank you to Giovanni for speaking to Katie Insley, Associate Director in our HR recruitment team in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.