André Lacroix returns to Hong Kong on a market visit
André was thrilled to return to Hong Kong and visit The University of Hong Kong to discuss the most topical leadership challenges with MBA students.
He hadn’t visited Hong Kong since January 2020 and was very much looking forward to meeting his colleagues and customers at Intertek. He loved being back in one of the most vibrant cities in the world, where doing business at the speed of light is the norm.
Following the publication of his book, Leadership with Soul, André was invited to a discussion with the MBA students at HKU. He found the discussion truly invigorating and was pleased to see that Leadership with Soul had created a platform to debate some of the most topical leadership challenges for the students.
Here are some of the leadership questions that were posed to him:
- You have worked at Burger King, Pepsi and now you are the CEO of Intertek. The business models are very different. What are the common skills or principles that you have applied? Are there any other principles other than the 10 that you mentioned in the book?
- People are changing all the time. Will there be any consistent leadership idea or principles in your book that can inspire us to be good leaders?
- When you were a young manager in Paris, were you ever in a situation where you gave up on your team because with your education background and expertise, it might be easier for you to finish your job on your own or maybe just with two or three intelligent teammates?
- Have you ever been in a situation when you had to manage senior staff who were a similar age of your father or grandfather? He might look at you and think “Look at this kid, how much does he know about the world?” How did you cope with that?
- I am leading a sales team of 300 people in an insurance company. Recently some very senior teammates have been making excuses saying that the drop in margins relates to Covid-19. How would you deal with your senior teammates in this case?
- What is your advice for leading diverse teams or diverse organisations? Not just diverse in culture, but in age, political inclinations, and other factors that can make choosing the right leadership approach difficult?
André thanks Ms. Jeinan Han, Director of HKU, for inviting him and Prof. Dicky Shek, Vice Chancellor of the Greater Bay Area Business School and Professor of PolyU, for moderating the debate.
#LeadershipWithSoul #PeopleAtTheHeart
