March 15, 2023. Shanghai – The CEIBS Master Class series made an offline return at Shanghai Campus tonight, with Global CEO of Intertek and the author of Leadership with Soul André Lacroix joining a fireside chat with CEIBS Associate Dean (Global EMBA) and Professor of Economics Bala Ramasamy on cutting-edge leadership.

Aligning with Mr. Lacroix’s new book Leadership with Soul, the discussion challenged conventional leadership thinking and invited existing and future leaders to stop, think and reinvent their approach to become a good leader and to excel from being good ones to better ones.

Mr. Lacroix pointed out that “understanding people and what motivates them” with a humanist approach helped him lead his team to achieve many turnarounds and sustainable outcomes through his own leadership practices over last three decades in world-leading organizations such as Ernst & Young, Colgate Palmolive, PepsiCo, Burger King, Euro Disney, Inchcape, Reckitt Benckiser and Intertek.

He further explained how leaders can engage their people and practice 10 principles during daily operations that are summarized in his book.

For example, Burger King was making no money when he became the Country Manager in Germany in 1996. But soon, backed by supportive data and surveys, a strategy of developing drive-through rather than opening new restaurants was formulated and “the size of prize” of 10,000 Deutsche Mark was accurately identified. This clear, bold message was easy to understand across the whole country and gave people hope. By aligning everybody behind the objective, Burger King in Germany in 2003 became the most profitable and fastest growing operation worldwide.

This example not only highlighted the principle of “imagining the journey and painting the picture for all”, but also illustrated “ever-better branding glo-cally.”

“Faced with today’s geopolitical and “decoupling” challenges, CEOs must lead the organization to live the brand within and make sure that every employee is part of the brand before taking on differentiated strategies in different markets,” Mr. Lacroix said.

Mr. Lacroix also mentioned that he is confident that China’s manufacturing excellence and great customer services will continue to appeal to investors.

He emphasized that no matter the external circumstances, a good leader has to ask him/herself two questions every single day: “Are we doing the right thing to deliver our goals?” and “How do people feel about their actions?”

Mr. Lacroix also elaborated on examples of how to build “customer intimacy,” “sustainability” and “innovation” through Intertek’s activities.

As a Total Quality Assurance provider, Intertek has built these values into its culture. When values become the fundamental building blocks of the employee behaviour you expect to see every day, a company’s purpose is realized through operational process.

Amongst the strong values that drive organizations to make things happen through people, “courage” stands out from respect, integrity, passion and responsibility, Mr. Lacroix said.

“When a leader is not playing safe, not short-sighted by short-term goals and sincerely wants to lead the company from A to B by engaging his/her team in an ecosystem, this means he/she is turning purpose into something tangible and contributing to make the world a better place – leading with soul for good,” Mr. Lacroix explained, adding that this is why he wrote his book and invites every leader to continuously practice along the journey.

Today’s Master Class was part of a the Beyond Charity initiated by Prof. Ramasamy to push the CEIBS community beyond the boundaries of “charity facts” by learning from business leaders who have made ESG a strategic priority and have embedded it into their organizations’ business operations. The event was co-organized by the CEIBS Global EMBA Reading Club.