Blog
Reflections on leadership, trust and human relationships — what, beyond the numbers, holds an organisation and a business together.
Leading a team of 750 people is not built on authority, but on consistency: being present in the good times as much as in a crisis, holding the same line with donors, teams and beneficiaries alike. It is this consistency, more than any strategy, that builds trust over time — and it still underpins the way I work with my clients today.
Doing business between Southeast Asia and France takes more than a good translation: you have to understand what each side expects from a relationship before talking about a contract. In Cambodia, as elsewhere in Asia, the relationship often comes before the agreement; in France, the agreement structures the relationship. Building a lasting partnership means navigating both logics without betraying either.
Leaving an executive role to build your own companies means accepting the discomfort of being a beginner again. What experience brings, however, is the ability to tell the urgent from the important, and to stop confusing motivation with impulsiveness. That maturity is what I try to pass on to the founders I advise today.