Corporate, from the Inside
Aerospace wasn't the goal. What it did was: connecting people, connecting places, moving the world around a little. I came in while still at uni, on the technology side, working on what airlines do when the operation falls apart.
The opportunity that changed my career came some years later, when I was asked to head the CEO Office. I was chosen for what I had built by then, and the role placed me on every question the company faced — corporate strategy, including business models we had never operated in; the rebuilding of M&A from opportunistic deals into a programmatic practice; the people strategy; the company targets.
I shaped the transformation around three things — culture, systems, and expectation — and it had to hold for employees, customers, and the board at the same time, three rooms that rarely want the same thing. Soon after, the company grew faster than it had before.
Transformation gives you a view little else does: the strategy, the executives, and the people, all at once, all visible. This is why I'm conducting my PhD research at ESCP on how people cope when the ground moves under them.
Every transformation reaches the same moment. Interests collide, then agendas, then — the dangerous one — power meets power. The transformation experts are the ones who can steer when it does. I did that through shielding by steering.
Connecting people and connecting places continue to be the goal. This is why I am building a start-up that will do just that.
Emotions, during time of Change
You might have sensed it — you might feel it intensely: the world is moving faster than your ability to keep track of the changes, let alone adapt to them. AI, new generations and new worldviews, new ways of doing business, migrations, aging, global uncertainties. The list goes on, yet the reality is simple: change is permanent.
We invest enormously in managing change — in strategies, structures, and systems — yet we consistently overlook the most fundamental variable that determines how well we navigate it: our emotions.
I have observed this in corporations - I have led massive transformations but I have been equally managing change at every level. I have observed it across communities. Many of us are fluent in talking about emotions, but very few of us understand the emotional experience itself. The mechanism is universal: when an emotion arises, it automatically activates a coping response. And both — the emotion and the coping — were formed in us long before the moment that triggers them.
I have come to believe that understanding this most fundamental dimension of who we are is one of the most fundamental conditions for excelling through change — any change, personal or professional. This is why I am conducting my PhD research on emotions during times of change. If you work in a similar field, or simply want to know more, feel free to connect with me. You can see my current work here.