Leading Audacious Change

How an empathetic CEO wants to optimise for effectiveness and resilience after COVID-19

July 07, 2020 Marcus Druen Episode 6
Leading Audacious Change
How an empathetic CEO wants to optimise for effectiveness and resilience after COVID-19
Show Notes Chapter Markers

This interview really moved me. Today I am speaking with André Stark, CEO of Capita in Germany, a leading outsourcing business for customer care with 6,500 employees.

You will hear how André has led his business into company-wide remote working during the COVID-19 lock down, which seemed impossible before the crisis.

We dive into the needed shift away from optimising for efficiency towards optimising for effectiveness - and resilience.

In the last 20 minutes, André opens up and shares his views on capitalism, consumerism and making micro-changes at the level of self - all with a degree of humility and sincerity that is a a beacon for a new type of leader that is emerging in the 2020s.

Andre's opening statement and (episode) intros
André recaps how he led the migration of 6,500 people mostly in call centres into working from home during lockdown
The link between good leadership during a crisis, employee engagement, trust and team spirit at Capita during lockdown
The purpose of Capita: creating better outcomes for customers - and how good customer service design and AI can and help to get there, especially for the German Mittelstand (medium businesses)
Marcus' account of his most abysmal customer service experience with his bank and why good data is key to make it better - and why AI won't make everyone redundant in customer care
Frederic Lalou's book "Reinventing Organisations" and how its tenets of "purpose" and "wholeness" can make a difference for employee experience at Capita - especially at the team level
The dead horse of optimising for efficiency in a customer-centric world - and why optimising for effectiveness will create more consumer loyalty, and that optimising for resilience means protecting the vulnerable part in supply chains: humans
André vision for a better capitalism, why focussing on long-term KPIs is key and needs courage, and the micro-shifts he is already making as CEO
How André thinks we as consumers also have a responsibility to nudge busineses to become more sustainable and conscious - and Marcus's annecdote how he became a vegatarian in an instant
"If Corona could speak, it would tell us to not be like such a virus" - and how André came to this view by quoting Mr Smith in the movie The Matrix
André speaks very openly about his insecurities and his advice to other leaders on how to overcome this - and why showing this degree of vulnerability and humility is EXACTLY what companies need to have more true purpose