At a time of major digital and societal change, how can we reinvent our management models? The AION 2025 Forum, co-organised by Aion, Beci, EEN and the CCI France Belgique, opened the debate in Brussels.
With AI, trust, geopolitical tensions... and love itself, the question is no longer ‘who’ leads, but ‘how’. On 24 April, experts and managers met in Brussels, at the Mix, to examine leadership in a world of uncertainty. For the third edition of the AION Forum, an annual meeting dedicated to economic and managerial transformations, three panels marked out the day, focusing on one common theme: rethinking managerial models in an era of societal and digital change.
Homo Digitalis
‘Your customers are no longer Homo Sapiens, but Homo Digitalis’. The tone was set by Thierry Geerts, CEO of Beci, during the first panel devoted to digital change. In his view, leaders need to adapt their companies to today's world. Artificial intelligence, he says, can increase team efficiency by up to 80%, provided it is fully embraced. He adds: ‘We are in the fourth industrial revolution. Those who don't adapt are the only ones really threatened.’
Chris Peeters, CEO of Bpost Group, makes the same assessment, calling on governments to create a framework favourable to progress, while businesses rethink their way of doing business. ‘As a leader, you have to think about the comfort of the people you work with’, he summarises. Valentino Megale, professor at Rome Business School and entrepreneur, agrees: in the age of AI, ‘the message is the question, not the answer’. He calls for clear regulations and reminds us that the human being must remain at the centre.
Towards trust-based management
The second panel of the third edition of the forum called for a genuine ‘culture of trust’. A message echoed by Laurent Provost, CEO of Automation & Robotics SA: ‘Without trust, no strategy is sustainable’. According to Diane Faybsztein, director of communications & Market Intelligence at Nestlé, participatory management remains central, without guaranteeing success: ‘Just because we're sure it will work doesn't mean it will go as planned.’
For Olivier Onghena-'t Hooft, CEO of Ginpi, it's time to rethink our priorities: ’Most leaders are obsessed with results, not with how we achieve them. It should be the other way around.’ He even takes it a step further: ‘True leadership is knowing how to love people.’ Not in a naïve sense, he points out, but in the ability to support, carry and elevate others.
What ambition for Europe?
Finally, the third panel looked at European competitiveness. Is it still possible to create continental champions? Here again, managerial adaptation is at the heart of the matter. For Nico Bogaerts, director of strategic development at SD Worx, success hinges on the ability to adapt one's management style to the different local realities: ‘The secret is knowing how to adapt your management to each country. A single model is no longer enough; you have to understand and respect national contexts.’
In summary, the AION 2025 Forum showed that given the current changes, leadership must evolve. More human, more flexible, more attentive.