LTP interviews executives and top managers about the position and strategy of their organization in a rapidly changing world. Purpose is key in these organizations. Why, actually? What is its importance for the organization and for its leadership? And what does purpose mean for the executive or top manager personally? ‘To win as one’ Jean-Paul van Londen and Marian de Joode inter- view Abbe Luersman, an American and CHRO of Background Royal Ahold Delhaize. Luersman, named CHRO of the year in 2018, guided the merger of the Dutch Abbe Luersman supermarket group Koninklijke Ahold NV and the Position: CHRO at Ahold Delhaize Belgian Delhaize Group. Together with 370,000 Strength: Connected / Always on! colleagues, she laid the foundation for a new Purpose: Creating communities to win as one company with a new culture and purpose: Eat well. Lifestyle: Motivated! Save time. Live better. How do you bring purpose Hobbies: Sports, Travel, Spending time with to a very large and complex organization such as family & friends Ahold Delhaize? “Culture does not arise in a day. Culture is a journey, Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize… something that evolves. And everyone influences that …operates more than 6,700 stores and carries 19 culture, not only by words, but also – and perhaps local brands in Europe, the United States, and even more – by unspoken actions. Before the merger Indonesia. The multinational with its head office in 2016 we were two companies, each with its own in the Netherlands serves over 50 million mission and vision, its reason to exist: Ahold and customers a week in their stores and over 20 Delhaize. Neither organization spoke boldly about million online, with 372,000 employees or purpose. Then we came together as a combined associates worldwide. Royal Ahold Delhaize was entity and had to form a combined identity. We really created in 2016 through a merger of the Dutch wanted to shape our new aspired culture. And we supermarket group Koninklijke Ahold NV and the wanted to know why we existed. Our purpose.” Belgian Delhaize Group. 1 “It was enormously exciting, because how With the merger behind us, the question became: why often do you have the opportunity to create a do we exist as a company and what do we stand for? new company? When we defined our first What impact do we want to have? We shaped five purpose, it was about creating a new organi- potential themes, which, as an ExCo, with help from zation. Almost all our associates were enthu- our Communications and Human Resource teams, we siastic and involved. Thousands participated.” shared with our associates. Our associates then acti- vely engaged and voted for their favorites or evolved How did you define the purpose? with potential enhancements or changes. Post their “The Executive Committee, ExCo, took it on full feedback, we narrowed it down. We extracted the key charge. We asked how our associates – when I say elements from their feedback: what is really impor- associates, I mean employees – would define their tant to us? Together these key elements formed our current culture. What did they value and what was it new purpose: Eat well. Save time. Live better! they didn’t like? How would they like to see the new Each brand has its own purpose, in keeping with its company, the aspired culture? We also made a cultu- own brand promise. Because of course, as Ahold ral diagnosis of the companies, pre- and post-merger. Delhaize, we are also talking about our collective pro- Before the merger, Ahold and Delhaize were both big- mises. There are three: a better place to shop, a better time operators: large, successful, and influential place to work, and being a better neighbor. After all, companies who really cared about what they were we serve the local communities, we are a meeting doing. But we also saw that our associates wanted to place. That’s why you increasingly see a kitchen table have an organization with greater courage, more in the store, to drink a cup of coffee together...” innovative, with more fun, learning, and meaning. It seems a difficult task for such a large and Then the ExCo started to shape shared values and therefore complex organization as Ahold beliefs, and started to define the aspired culture. We Delhaize to implement purpose in all the came up with five shared values: courage, teamwork, organization’s layers and countries. And espe- care, humor, and integrity. These were the drivers for cially to help people find their own purpose... our new, aspired culture. So how do we continue to amp these up? It was all about integrating the two “That is why we have developed a program for which organizations. To take the best of the best from both, we partnered with Harvard University: Purpose to and be the best for the customer. Better Together: Legacy. It’s a week-long experience. From Sunday to our strategy. How could we define it as a purpose? Friday, more than 300 of our leaders, to date, have Together, we build Great Local Brands, bringing Fresh had the opportunity to discover their purpose and Inspiration Every Day.” their contribution to the greater whole: to the company and society.” However, you now have a new definition... “This way we get purpose throughout the “Yes, our purpose was skewed. Now, two and a half entire organization very quickly. And it is years later…Then we were kind of internally focused. also very cost effective.” We were focused on merging and becoming a new company, while at the same time running the day-to- “Now we have developed a director level program to day businesses to best serve the local customers and allow 3,000 associates around the world to follow this communities. Now, we were ready and had the same course. This is done in four modules, over four opportunity to evolve our strategy. We moved from months in which they are virtually connected for 90 Better Together to Leading Together? We want to be minutes each week. It’s… ‘Avatarish’. Real time and at the forefront, make bigger societal contributions. interactive, so no webinar! One of the Harvard profes- And thus, our purpose, had to evolve. sors will be in the center of the classroom. They can address and challenge us directly and we can respond immediately, while we are at our laptop anywhere in 2 the world. You see everyone else in the room and have “I had the opportunity to reflect about the a classroom, lifelike experience. I love it!” key moments in my life, crucible moments: the events and decisions that actually define How important is purpose for you personally? who I am.” “A good CHRO, as I have said before, is a driver of The big question of course: what is your purpose and culture. I really want to make sure that personal purpose? everything I do relates back to my purpose. I also want to make sure that I can actually fulfill my purpose in “My purpose then and my purpose today is ‘creating the companies I’m a part. That doesn’t mean I don’t communities to win as one’. It’s a life purpose.” want to have another purpose alongside it. Ahold Delhaize also has a company purpose as we discussed, A life purpose? and I need to make sure that I “fit in” with my beliefs “Yes. Whether it was at Whirlpool, Unilever, Ahold or and can fully contribute. That’s when I’ll be able to Ahold Delhaize: my career cannot be described in give my best and as well, be the most fulfilled. It needs terms of education and profession. It is much wider. to be a reciprocal relationship, that’s how it should The personal aspects in and around my career are work.” important: how I live my life, the contributions I make to my friends and colleagues, to society... It is about Have you always felt that personal purpose? life experiences and interactions, not just those in the “No, because until 2008 I did not really have a con- workplace.” sciously defined purpose. But I did remember – and that is a very early memory – that when I was about Why do you think the concept of ‘purpose’ is six or seven years old I asked my parents why I existed. so immensely popular at the moment? What my role and contribution was to the family. Of “Research shows that purpose-driven companies course I used different words, but apparently I wanted outperform those that aren’t. Associates want to to know how I could add value or make a difference. I know why they do something, what their role is, how wanted to contribute to something bigger. And that they fit in. They want to be part of something and related back to the concept of purpose.” contribute to something bigger. These are charac- teristics that are now being expressed in organi- How did you discover your ‘conscious’ or zations more than before. And that leads to results.” defined purpose? “Unilever, the company where I went to work in 2007, The logical next question: why are came out with a pretty bold purpose: doubling the organizations with a purpose more size of the business while reducing its environmental successful? footprint. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, wanted to “Let me first say how we measure the effect of make sure all people were aligned to it. So they rolled purpose, so that you know how concrete it is. We out a leadership development curriculum and model measure it through our engagement survey, and have around discovering your purpose.