Leading through uncertainty: Insights from the general counsel of Atos

In this podcast, Heidrick & Struggles’ Matthieu Galian speaks to Alexandre Menais, executive vice president, group head of M&A strategy and corporate development, and group general counsel at Atos, a world-leading international information technology company listed in the CAC 40 Index. Menais shares his views on how leadership skills for success have changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and what skills will be required in the future. He also discusses how companies can build and maintain a thriving culture while ensuring that culture remains aligned with the organizational strategy.

Some questions answered in this episode include the following:

• (1:12) Last year was a complex year for everyone, and this year is turning out much the same. How have recent challenges refocused your priorities as GC?
• (2:24) What leadership skills have been essential for you and your team in order to thrive?
• (5:26) In your experience, how can a company more effectively build and maintain a thriving culture and ensure it remains aligned with the organization’s strategy?
• (7:32) Given the accelerated pace of digitalization and technology innovation in the last 18 months, how has Atos’s strategy adjusted to the current disruption and what does this mean for the leadership capabilities Atos will need most going forward?
• (9:33) How do you see the role of the general counsel evolving in the next 5 to 10 years? What will the potential challenges be?

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

Welcome to the Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. Heidrick is the premier global provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Diversity and inclusion, leading through tumultuous times, and building thriving teams and organizations are among the core issues we talk with leaders about every day, including in our podcasts. Thank you for joining the conversation.

Matthieu Galian: Hi, I’m Matthieu Galian, consultant at Heidrick & Struggles and a member of the Corporate Officers Practice. In today’s podcast, I'm talking to Alexandre Menais, executive vice president, group head of M&A strategy and corporate development, and group general counsel at Atos, a world-leading international information technology company listed on the CAC 40 Index. Alexandre joined Atos in 2011 from Accenture, where he spent two years as head of legal, France and Benelux. Alexandre also serves as a board member of the French Competition Authority.

Alexandre, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.

Alexandre Menais: Thank you, Matthieu.

Matthieu Galian: Well, Alexandre, 2021 was a complex year for everyone, and the beginning of 2022 is complex as well. How have recent challenges refocused your priorities as GC?

Alexandre Menais: It was indeed complex for everyone, as you perfectly said, Matthieu. However, it has been an opportunity because, for general counsels, so much has been reinforced on the strategic side over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for a process that was already taking place, one in which the activities beyond the day-to-day business of a company, in my view, demonstrate the value of a general counsel. In this situation, I saw that my role was required to take a more strategic approach and provide input into decisions which sometimes had no link at all with legal matters, but which were embedded in managing the COVID-19 strategy. In other words, we took part in a decision-making process at the highest level of the organization—that's why I say that the challenges of the past few years have reinforced the role of general counsel.

Matthieu Galian: That's actually very important. Leaders who are agile have navigated the pandemic—and now the Ukraine crisis—with more ease. What leadership skills have been essential for you and your team in order to thrive?

Alexandre Menais: It’s not easy to categorize them, but I believe that empathy—the capacity really to be close to our people—and building a kind of resilience, even if it was complicated, were essential. I also believe that courage and your personal and organizational agility are important—and by that, I mean the ability to seek new and innovative ways to solve problems. We needed to be able to do that. And also, it’s helpful to be able to view disruption as a challenge but not automatically as a threat. In other words, for me, it’s now more about the capacity to manage uncertainty, and this is what we are looking for and expecting from leaders.

Additionally, this new landscape of leading hybrid and virtual teams, for the teams and for the managers, requires a dedicated strategy for communicating digitally first, as well as being capable of adapting to effectively manage your people and meetings remotely and, probably on a long-term basis, managing hybrid relationships between companies, employees, and stakeholders.

Matthieu Galian: Not all teams can do that, and having the right people is critical to the future success of every company.

What is your advice to attract, retain, and develop talent?

Alexandre Menais: I don't know if there is a single recipe for that but, as you know, with the next generation of workers, team members are looking for the search for meaning, “la quête de sens,” in French. And we’re seeing today that it’s more than the next generation; it affects all generations. So, having said that, as a leader of an organization, I think you need to give them a vision, despite any uncertainty. And it’s also important to acknowledge that this uncertainty exists. You must communicate with strong storytelling and set up an ecosystem made up of different stakeholders, all of whom will support the meaning behind your actions. I think that's very important, and it includes all your partners—your GC, lawyers, providers—and it shows very strong consistency to your team, your talent, and your future talent. I strongly believe that the pandemic has reinforced the trust of employees in themselves as well as in their companies. So that's a huge opportunity indeed, to build up a culture around this meaning and to attract talent and retain your key people.

Matthieu Galian: I know this is a key question for you because you wrote a very interesting book on the topic. Building a purposeful, thriving, and engaged culture is now, more than ever, key for a business to fully thrive. In your experience, how can a company most effectively build and maintain a thriving culture and ensure it remains aligned with the organization’s strategy?

Alexandre Menais: That is indeed a key topic, in my view, for companies. A sense of purpose can help companies to be more aligned. Your company cooperates, you know, on civil KPIs, civil ID components, the brand, the strategy, financial KPIs, but you may realize that some of them are totally misaligned or totally, you know, contradictory. So that's why you need that something that keeps you consistent between all those components, and this is where a sense of purpose helps. In my view, it’s critical for a company. And, of course, it’s important that leaders live that purpose, and that employees also have the opportunity to live that sense of purpose day-to-day.

Matthieu Galian: Atos’s purpose is “to help design the future of the information space.” Given the accelerated pace of digitalization and technology innovation in the last 18 months, how has Atos’s strategy adjusted to the current disruption and what does this mean for the leadership capabilities Atos will need most, going forward?

Alexandre Menais: We have seen that the crisis has definitely strengthened the sovereignty of the state and that it has now become unthinkable that the production of certain goods or services should take place in low-cost countries, so we have to adapt to that.

At the same time, COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation and having the right digital offerings was key during this period because if you did not, it was not good for the customer. Of course, some situations are a bit more complicated than others. But we must adapt to the needs of our customers.

Finally, we have been able to make sure that 96% of our more than 100,000 employees were able to work at home. And it was also, I think, a good opportunity for companies to decentralize their decision-making process. I was in charge of that, and it was impossible to decide, you know, the size of the mask in Buenos Aires or in Singapore while I was based in Paris, right? It makes no sense at all. So, it’s a good trend, in my view, the decentralization of the decision-making process.

Matthieu Galian: It’s that saying, “think global, act local.”

How do you see the role of the general counsel evolving in the next 5 to 10 years? What will the potential challenges be?

Alexandre Menais: I think the uncertainty of the world that we were discussing will be challenging, and the fact that risk factors for a company are increasing—the human risk, the risk of war, the risks of digital transformation within social networks, and the metaverse. The increase of non-financial criteria in the evaluation of a company’s risks and the subject of sovereignty are crucial to calculate. The general counsel will be more and more central in the organization because it is necessary to deal with increasingly transversal problems despite the fact that we are more and more vertical sometimes in business. I believe that with digital, we are entering a world of creativity rather than pure financials. Clearly speaking to the value of human capital will be critical, and leaders need to take care of their people and not only the financial KPIs.

So, it’s a huge opportunity for the GC but it’s also a threat, meaning that it will be key for a general counsel to be able to manage his or her people. In addition, I believe that at this moment, the main risk for a GC is becoming too powerful. We have to deal with that. The status of the general counsel in a company will be called into question.

Matthieu Galian: In terms of independence?

Alexandre Menais: Definitely. Because the more power you have, the more the risks increase. I believe this will be an important question in the future. I know that in certain jurisdictions this question is not really a key topic right now, but it could become, in my view, particularly in Europe, more and more important, you know, to set up a common status.

Matthieu Galian: And what's the most important way your organization is building on the lessons of 2021 and now, early 2022?

Alexandre Menais: It’s decentralization, for sure. Empowerment—this is what people are looking for. And courage—this is really what leaders need to bring. Empathy is critical with this uncertainty. And, finally, kindness. Due to the fact that we are facing so many things today, kindness is, for me, a strong value that we need to have in organizations.

Matthieu Galian: It’s true, it’s really something common with all great leaders. Well, Alexandre, thank you very much for making the time to speak with us today.

Alexandre Menais: Thank you very much, Matthieu. Thank you for the time.

Thanks for listening to the Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Podcast. To make sure you don’t miss more future-shaping ideas and conversations, please subscribe to our channel on the podcast app. And if you’re listening via LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube, why not share this with your connections? Until next time.

About the interviewer

Matthieu Galian (mgalian@heidrick.com) is a principal at Heidrick & Struggles and a member of the Legal, Risk, Compliance & Government Affairs Practice; he is based in the Paris office.