Stendert Krommendam is the chief people and sustainability officer at Ecotone, a leading private equity–backed company in Europe for organic, vegetarian, healthy and fair-trade food. Krommendam, who has built a dynamic career at the intersection of people, sustainability, and business, was formerly an HR leader in Unilever and Ahold Delhaize. In this interview, he discusses his new leadership model that embeds sustainability and systems thinking as core leadership qualities, describing what healthy leadership means in the context of Ecotone’s mission of biodiversity. He also shares the leadership qualities he believes are critical for balancing performance, purpose, and sustainability; how he fosters a purpose-driven culture; and his perspective on the balance between long-term sustainability commitments and the growth and profitability expectations that are typical in a PE environment.

Below is a full transcript of the episode, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Welcome to The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of diversified solutions across senior-level executive search, leadership assessment and development, team and organizational effectiveness, and culture shaping. Every day, we speak with leaders around the world about how they are meeting rising expectations and managing through volatile times, thinking about individual leaders, teams, organizations, and society. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Aleid de Boer: Hello, I'm Aleid de Boer, a partner in the Heidrick & Struggles’ Amsterdam office, and a member of the global Consumer Markets and Healthcare & Life Sciences practices. In today's podcast on my favorite subject of healthy leadership, I'm excited to speak with Stendert Krommendam, chief people and sustainability officer at Ecotone. 

Stendert has built a dynamic career at the intersection of people, sustainability, and business. Before Ecotone, Stendert was an HR leader at Unilever and Ahold Delhaize, honing his expertise in leadership and organizational transformation, before he joined Ecotone. His journey reflects a deep commitment to driving positive change within purpose-driven companies. 

So Stendert, a warm welcome to you, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. 

Stendert Krommendam: Thank you, Aleid, pleasure to be here. 

Aleid de Boer: It's wonderful to have you. So let's dive in, Stendert. You recently launched a new leadership model that embeds sustainability and systems thinking as core leadership qualities. Could you share what healthy leadership means to you in the context of Ecotone’s mission of biodiversity on your menu?

Stendert Krommendam: So, for me, what that means is basically the triangle between people, planet, and profit. All of those stakeholders are so relevant in the model. And that's also the model that we've used to build our leadership model, which is to build leaders, basically, that find the right balance between leading their own teams and their people, what is good for the planet and having that value chain system perspective in consideration when you make your strategic decisions, and also doing that whilst you're managing to return some profit to the company—because in the end we need to run a business. And creating the common value in that triangle is an essential element, basically in that leadership model, and that's what we train those leaders on. 

Aleid de Boer: And that's a challenging triangle to manage, right? What specific leadership qualities do you believe are critical for balancing performance, purpose, and sustainability?

Stendert Krommendam: If we look at our leadership program and the management teams that we support in that journey, then we are basically talking about three different things. First of all, we talk about empathy and the importance of empathy as a leadership capability. And I love some of the access I have to the research on this matter, where empathy for us means active listening, asking open questions, making sure that you contract, clarify, and decide with your teams, and that you give proper feedback and review with your team—all with that kind of caring support towards your team. That is more at the team level as a leader. But then, when we look at the planet, we try to give the leaders the awareness of what a system is, what an ecosystem is, and who belongs to their ecosystem in the work that they do. So, if you make a product—like in our business, a cup of tea—what is the total value chain of that cup of tea, going back all the way to the origin of where the tea is being produced? Who are those people working with you to produce the tea? What are the communities like, and what kind of value do you create for them beyond the salary or the premium that you pay? And that kind of awareness—to know exactly where the origin of your product is, all the way up to the consumer, and what kind of benefit you create for them—is what we call value chain or systems thinking. And in that process, there are many different actors. It's not only the producer at the origin, you also, of course, work with sub-suppliers in the system, you work with your customers, i.e. your retailers, and you work with your consumers, but also with your internal employees, and they all want to have a certain value in that process.  So, how do you create that balance between all those stakeholders? That is a model that we talk about and that we integrate into what we call strategic thinking as a capability for the future. So that is on the side of the planet, and also, as I mentioned before, on the profit side of things, we want to make sure that we're able to translate that back into financial value. How do you create financial value for the company, but also for all those stakeholders in that model, such that it is also a sustainable, forward-looking model? 

Aleid de Boer: So, how have you fostered that purpose-driven culture? What challenges have you encountered along the way? 

Stendert Krommendam: Yes, I think on your first question, Aleid, you rightfully talked about leadership. That starts with the leadership of a company—they create a culture— but culture is also created from the bottom up. And for some years, we have already developed the CARE culture, which was a concept that was developed by our own employees. So it's not so much words on the poster, but very much values carried by our employees, and they stand for Collaboration, Agility, Responsibility, and Entrepreneurship. And in order to really kind of make that real for every single employee in the company, we have integrated that in all the, let's say, people tools that you can imagine, starting from the target setting. 

At the start of the year, there's a whole section around the culture, the CARE culture, there is a section in the midyear check-in, and at the end of the year: How have you actually behaved as a leader? And it's taken into consideration when your overall performance review is done. 

But it's also very important to understand even before that, when you hire new people into your company, how they match vis-à-vis your culture, and do they match these core values, so to speak. So we also take [culture] into consideration in the assessment. So basically, in every aspect of the people tooling, we have integrated the core values. And at the end of the year, we also have a great CARE award ceremony where all the employees can submit examples and projects that exemplify the CARE values in action. And on average, we get something like a hundred and fifty projects to review every year, which is great to see, and we select winners out of that. So it's a form of celebration. So that's a way to bring it also down to a day-to-day business. 

Aleid de Boer: Combining those roles of chief people officer and chief sustainability officer creates such an opportunity to align your strategy and your talent strategy to your sustainability goals. So, how does sustainability feature in your talent strategy, and what unique approaches do you use to ensure alignment with Ecotone’s values?

Stendert Krommendam: Yes, that's spot-on, Aleid, because you build a culture obviously, but you also want to make sure that you retain it, specifically if you get new hires into your organisation, you want to make sure that they meet your values, your CARE values. But specifically, what I also look out for when I'm in recruitment conversations with new leaders is what their perspective is when it comes to what we call sustainability. To what extent can they display examples of how they have taken this more long-term perspective on matters, this value chain, or system thinking? And those questions you can ask in an interview, and the quality of the answers that you can get back, basically give you a very good indication of the maturity of that leader when it comes to the sustainability topic. How engaged are they? How much have they invested energy and time into some of these very important, let's say, climate topics? 

So that is an integral part of our leadership assessment tooling and something that we look out for in terms of the value chain and system thinking as a specific capability. 

Aleid de Boer: That's fascinating, Stendert, because development and engagement are clearly crucial to culture. And that leads me to my next question: How do you actually engage employees across different functions to ensure they feel empowered and connected to your mission, and what role does ongoing development play in that process?

Stendert Krommendam: When I took on sustainability, in addition to the HR agenda, that's what I actually started to discover more and more. Sustainability in itself is a very important topic, but can, for some people, come across as quite technical. And that is also true if you look at lifecycle assessments or legislation like CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), those are topics that come across as very technical. So, how do you bring that to the reality of an individual working in finance or someone working in a factory, and that's what we have worked on a lot, and that's where the people tools also help a lot. One of the first things that I've done is to develop an eight-week training with the team together, basically breaking out the food for biodiversity plan into eight different manageable sections. And from that, people could really get access to the information, and from there, we had several calls and conversations, so we really brought that topic and plan to life. That already helps a lot, but then you need to translate it into the daily reality of their job. And every few years, two to three years, every single employee in the company has a CSRD goal in their overall performance cycle. For most, that was a supplementary goal. But actually, beginning this year, every single management team member across the company now has an integral part of their core jobs directly related to the bonus system. And in those conversations when we set the goals, we look at relevant goals for your specific department. So for sales, it could be things like I need to talk to the customer about our food for biodiversity program, explaining what it's all about and how I can create strategic value for a common partnership? That's a very relevant example. But every department has its role to play in this food for biodiversity plan, and we make it very practical. And as a team at an individual level, we give examples of what those goals could look like.

Aleid de Boer: I like the practicality of this, Stendert, as you know, and that leads me to the question of how that works beyond leadership development. So, how do you ensure that sustainability is really embedded in the everyday decision-making across all levels of the organization? 

Stendert Krommendam: If you run a business, you often come across dilemmas that have to do with either cost or accessibility. We all know some of the rising commodities in the world, etc, etc. So the way we have managed that is really in the governance. So we have at Ecotone a separate Sustainability Committee, which the Chairman of the Supervisory Board is invited to, as well as some other members of the Supervisory Board. That is one. We're also a mission-led company, according to the legal statutes in France, and for that purpose, we also have a separate committee that looks after whether or not we meet the mission that we set for ourselves on food for biodiversity, also with some external experts. But then in the day-to-day operation, we have various governance forums within the organization. For example, if we want to create an innovation, there are a number of senior management team members who get together to look at the innovation, whether or not to meet certain thresholds, and so forth. But part of the contract is also whether or not there's an impact on the overall KPIs of our scorecard that directly link to the food for biodiversity program. In other words, for example, if they came up with an innovation that uses non-organically produced ingredients, then they need to notify that on their scorecard, and that automatically triggers us, from a sustainability perspective, to get involved, to understand the risks, and also to discuss and challenge the other opportunities. And we do that consistently, both for our new innovations into the market, but also on the packaging level, and also at the sourcing level, procurement level, of ingredients across the globe. That seems to work pretty well, but you need to really put it comprehensively in your governance at all ends to make sure there's always good checks and balances in your organization.

Aleid de Boer: That's so amazing, Stendert, how you've really made this part of your day-to-day business and how you do business. So I think the million-dollar question is, as sustainability rises on the CHRO agenda, what advice would you offer to other HR leaders who are looking to embed these responsibilities into their roles?

Stendert Krommendam: I'm an absolute advocate for getting more and more sustainability responsibility integrated into the HR and people agenda. You don't see the combination so often yet, but it doesn't mean that the HR leader cannot do anything. There's a lot to do from an HR standpoint. First and foremost, the social sustainability part is as important as the climate part of sustainability. Second, since doing this combined role for a couple of years now, I see a lot of opportunity for the HR community to step in because you do need the people tools to bring some of these topics on the sustainability agenda to life, either through training, which is a people tooling, integrating it in to target-setting, linking that to reward systems that you can use to put it in your, let's say, leadership assessment or leadership attraction of new leaders to the company. In all those areas, you need to drive sustainability forward, and the people tools give you the enabler and the accelerator to develop and deliver those sustainability plans. So I would say the advice really is to go hand in hand with your sustainability lead or department and help them to deliver on this very ambitious task. 

Aleid de Boer: Now I'm intrigued, Stendert, to learn how this really works in a PE-backed company like Ecotone. How do you balance long-term sustainability commitments with the growth and profitability expectations that are typical in a PE environment?

Stendert Krommendam: Well, let me first say that whether or not the company is PE-backed, or is on the stock exchange, or is family owned, I don't think the difference is that significant anymore. Every company kind of exists with a certain economic model and they need to make that economic model work. And I think if there's one thing that you can learn from PE-backed companies, it's that they're even more rigorous and sharper in how you really create value, what the definition of value is, and how you therefore become sharper in your return on investment thinking? So in other words, if I want to increase my spend on agricultural programs with farmers because it's better for the planet, which is something that we do, by the way, it means that there is an impact on my profit delivery, possibly. Either I get that back through the delivery of higher rotation on a certain SKU on any given product, so consumers understand and value what I'm trying to do, and are willing to pay for that, or buy more often. That could be one angle. But if that's not working, then you need to find another way, for example, by making some of the work at the arable land more impactful or more measurable and getting, for example, satellite imaging and getting an understanding of how a farmland has improved over the past five years because of your practices. And then getting that on the market and getting someone to buy some of the credits for that, which is what they call putting nature on the balance sheet. And those are emerging themes, but again, that creates value in the system and that helps you to prove your point and get that return on investment. If the scenario were that, I'm just going to simply invest more money and I get nothing in return, and it actually impacts my margin of profit delivery, you can sometimes take those choices on a certain occasion, but structurally, that is not a sustainable model. And if we go back to the start of our conversation, the model should always be around creating a common value between different stakeholders in your value chain. So the moment you continuously lose out on money because you invest, but you don't get anything in return, then over time, that's not a sustainable model, right? So it just helps you to be sharper on resource allocation and to always look for this return on investment methodology. 

Aleid de Boer: So you really see it as an opportunity as well, but what unique challenges and opportunities does this bring working in a PE-backed company?

Stendert Krommendam: Yes, I would say that there are no specific challenges. I think generally in PE you find very talented people, very sharp and constructive people, and I think what you can learn from them, to my earlier point, is how you create economic value that goes hand in hand with care for the planet, because they also find it of huge importance. If I look at our own PE partner, PAI (Partners), they are huge on sustainability. They ask all of their portfolio companies to contribute to various ESG initiatives. They were very supportive when we wanted to go for B Corp recertification, because they also believe it is the right thing to do. 

Aleid de Boer: So, looking ahead, Stendert, how do you see the role of the CPO evolving within the dynamics of a PE environment, and what key insights could you share with other leaders navigating similar challenges?

Stendert Krommendam: I think we're all in the same boat here, and in the same world. So, PE or not, the external world is moving so fast, be it on commodities, be it on politics; the geopolitical environment is so sensitive, and you continuously need to adjust to that. I think that is the biggest challenge and opportunity that we have as an HR community across all industries and companies. You need to foster this kind of change mindset, this always-on and change mindset, and it requires us in the CHRO community to look at organizations like an ecosystem, so something that continuously evolves all the time and can continuously adapt. So you also need to build organizations like that, through dynamic skill building, more flexible organizational models with less hierarchy, but more flexibility in the way they can maneuver from one priority to another, depending on the challenge. And finally, I would still say within that, and this is my hope for the future, we continue to build more sustainable leaders, people who have the mid-long-term to long-term perspective also in mind, even though there are many short-term challenges.  If you never look beyond the short-term challenges, I don't think you can build a sustainable model for the future for your organization. So that is also my hope, that we really shift gear in that space. 

Aleid de Boer: So more generally, as society's expectations for business continue to expand, what skills and capabilities do you expect business leaders will need to lead their organization successfully and healthily going forward?

Stendert Krommendam: Yes, I'd like to go back to the start. I think it's first and foremost about care. Do you actually care about the people working for you? Generally, do you have the empathy, and do you care for the next generation? You may have heard the principle of the seventh generation thinking, which is basically to say, ‘Are you building an organization that can last for the next hundred and fifty to two hundred years?’ and that sounds like very long away, but it's such a beautiful concept and helps you to really think a little bit longer-term. So, I think—back to your question on what are kind of the capabilities for leaders in the future—if you care and you show empathy, and if you have an interest and invest time in, let's say, a longer-term system thinking, and you combine that with driving accountability (that is also very important capability), so you keep yourself accountable within your teams and you stick to what you've said you will do, then I think we have a very bright future ahead. In today's world, I think we have, in my humble personal opinion, most of the solutions for many of the climate challenges that we have. The problem that we have is that often leaders say one thing, but then trade the day after, the short term over the long term, because there are other agendas and interests that they want to go after. And the more leaders we can kind of build or retain that have a more value-based, mid-long-term perspective in mind and stick to it, I think the better it is for our world. 

Aleid de Boer: Stendert, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. I'm so happy you joined us and shared your perspectives on healthy leadership and how caring is crucial. Many thanks for all your insights.

Stendert Krommendam: Thank you, Aleid, and thank you for having me. It was a really great pleasure to talk about this very important topic together. Thank you very much.

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About the interviewer

Aleid de Boer (adeboer@heidrick.com) is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Amsterdam office and a member of the global Consumer Markets and Healthcare & Life Sciences practices.