Barbara Martin Coppola
Appearances
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
The first one is time to market. We can test and go fast and understand, you know, whether the creation resonates or not. You can go and control your costs much better because of the huge volumes, you know, being able to negotiate the prices and materials and the production. So the affordability of both IKEA and Decathlon is linked to that. But then there is the sustainability aspect.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Because of the end-to-end, then one can control the CO2 emissions in an absolute way, choose the right materials, choose the production partners, and therefore control and even do the right thing, diminishing while growing the company and doing the right thing for the planet. There is many, many advantages when the company is digitalized.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Because now in the age of AI, imagine being able to control the end-to-end and putting all of this in connection to the service of creating value for the customer. Now, the caveat of that is that it takes a lot of alignment. We're talking about companies over 100,000 people plus for both examples.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And so the alignment of the end-to-end is really important for reaping the benefits for the companies.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
There's different aspects that were important to prepare for the top position at a company. I think one is about adaptability. Having worked in a mosaic of different industries and different countries, the more diversity of experiences you have, the more you can connect the dots to be able to have answers, business models, different thinking to any setting.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
But I would also say there's two other aspects. I worked in digital industries for a long time, and there is a philosophy of working in digital places that I think can be applied to any company. One is the fact of having cross-functional teams, having test and learn, and having this agility being applied to any company. I think it's really important to get to know and to use for other companies.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And the last part, I've been involved with two huge transformations of complex environments, both at IKEA, at Decathlon, but also at Grubhub. And the most important thing in transformations is people. So the last thing that I would say to become a CEO is there is a rational side on strategies and movement,
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
But there is an emotional side that is equally important, the human aspect of inspiring people and creating movement so that, you know, companies as large as 100,000 people follow and create and thrive into, you know, the new era for the company.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
It's a great question. And I'm a deep believer in innovation. And I think any business that does not innovate is a recipe for failure. There's different types of innovation. There is the innovation on the everyday, the incremental innovation, if you will. And that is important. Now AI is going to be bringing productivity, for instance. How do we get better operationally?
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
How do we have better products, et cetera? But there is the big thinking innovation, too. And the big thinking innovation is important to create budget, time, and people in order to meaningfully move the lines and reap the benefits maybe longer term. But this is the type of things that could be cut when there is cost-cutting exercises or when the benefits are not immediate.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And I think that's really a mistake for companies that do that. It's really protecting all these areas because they are diversification of revenues, because they help actually the company continue its evolution and reinvent itself. The thing that is important as well is to know the strategy and to know why we are here.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Because in the big thinking, I believe companies can lose themselves into creating into areas that are completely foreign to the strategy and that North Star that I was describing before. So there is a bit of consistency.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And a lot of culture as well, to make sure that people dare and that are empowered to take the risks and that get into that framework of the strategy, but with the freedom to know that they can actually meaningfully create for the good of either now or the future.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
First, the voice of the people working in the organization, both at Google, IKEA, but also Decathlon, Grubhub. Every quarter, the voice of people would actually be heard. It will be heard through questionnaires, it will be heard through comments, and there will be informal gatherings to actually voice.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
If within the culture, you know, everything that is empowerment and entrepreneurship is present, then that means that, you know, and people feel it. That means they can actually use it. That's a very good sign already for somehow the environment being conducive to that.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
The second thing is purely the budget in a very rational way is making sure that no matter what and agreed with the board, that investment will be put aside. And put aside, which doesn't mean to not have accountability on the budget. So the follow up actually on this big thinking and definition of success and the metrics are really important too.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And so defining that together with the board and seeing how things are coming back and it gives at the end, I believe when success comes, a lot of pride to the rest of the company. is disruptive innovations that redefined sport or something incredible in terms of services in circularity that is really growing and having benefits for the planet and for society.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
All of those examples are shining stars of the possibilities and energy for people to actually want to create more.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So I'll start with both Decathlon and IKEA, which have an advantage somehow because both companies are the first experience. For instance, when you start living on your own, many people go to IKEA. Yeah. And when people start doing sport, especially in Europe and Asia and other places, they actually start with decathlon. There is an emotional connection associated to that.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
The issue of these companies is to actually move and evolve with people through their lives. When I was single and setting up my apartment with IKEA, right? Then later in life, I'm a mother of two. The needs are different. And then one day I'll have different needs with my husband because we want to do different things. IKEA needs to adapt to my life, to the stages of my life. Same for Decathlon.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I'm starting with a sport. Now I've got my kids. We need something else. So it's about personalizing, but over a lifetime, There is an important element, of course, in this relationship with the customer, which is what the company makes you feel. When you go and interact with these brands, every single touch point needs to be seamless and needs to make you feel something.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
The values of the company, the brand, the ethos, but also rational aspects such as I'm getting what I need at the price that I need it. And I'm getting it delivered, you know, in a flawless way. So it demands quite a bit, you know, if you think about an iceberg from the company, the customers are going to see the tip.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
But there is a whole thing in the company of orchestration, of excellency, digitalization, but also creative and aspects that are a lot more intangible that need to be put into place in order to have this excellent customer experience. The final thing that I would say is brands are part of people's lives today. And they can give hope or not.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And so I'm a deep believer of what a company does, not only rationally, but emotionally too. And going with, you know, people's lives and being actors, you know, in the society through the way they behave and the way they provide service to people around the world.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Yes. The North Star produced a whole evolution of the brand for Decathlon, and then that was implemented into an evolved customer experience, not only through the stores online, but also innovating different business models. And one thing that we really put in place was renting equipment secondhand and a lot of different forms of, you know, creating business, but in a different way.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And we've been astonished to see how successful those businesses are. The repairing equipment, the renting bikes instead of purchasing new. It's an incredible phenomenon. And when you think about it, there is a positive aspect on the deglobalization of the circular business unit. But there is also a good aspect for the planet. So I'm a deep believer on circularity overall.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So there's been a huge movement, putting into place this new brand, this new experience, and actually seeing how positive of an effect it has been with people in different places, India, UK, Spain, and France. Really great reaction to what we have implemented.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
It's a good question. I believe enough people around the world are concerned about what is happening in the planet. So beyond the governments, I think there is the movement on people, consumption, you know, parents and their kids and wanting to build a better world actually for the generations to come.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I believe there are many businesses that are doing the right thing, decarbonizing, investing in materials that are the right ones. I see different business models. I see innovation that is going in the right direction.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Both in IKEA, at Google, at Decathlon, I found many, many people wanting to do the hard work to reinvent the business models and actually decarbonizing, but going even beyond decarbonizing into reinventing business models. So I'm leaning in the side of hope and I'm leaning in the side of having the responsibility as a leader to carry light, carry hope, not just through words, but through actions.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And so what has happened recently within Decathlon, for three years, we've been building the business in a positive growth trajectory while at the same time, having minus 13% on CO2 emissions over the last years. It is possible. The question is, how are we going to be scaling this? And especially, how are we not going to fall into cynicism and negativity? Because this is not the moment to do that.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
On the contrary, It's the moment to actually bring light, hope, and actions because many people around the world want this. And so I believe in the power of many people moving.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I deeply believe in the role of education more than ever. The way we educate might be changing, but the role of education continues to be as important as ever. We can learn the skills or the theory, if you will, as well, in different ways. But I think it's really important to put it into action as soon as we can. So learning a new concept, we can learn in different ways. But how do we apply it?
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
How do we apply it through case studies, through group work, through internships? And so getting actually this hands-on experience, I think, is really important. And that's what I see in institutions such as INSEAD. There is also another role of education, which is to learn to manage, lead people through difference.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So the diversity that we have in the world and preparing leaders for tomorrow, good citizens, means that there is also an education on understanding the differences, respecting them, and being able to lead through that.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I remember when I was in education at INSEAD, I thought some of the truths that I had were like 100% there and nobody would actually put a doubt on it until other cultures started to speak. And I saw that my absolute truth was actually not that absolute. It needed to be interpreted through the cultures and through the history and the experiences of people.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And this is invaluable once in the real world. It's actually the ability to change perspectives, the ability to work with people that are not the same as yourself, and the ability to put into practice working with people a lot of the concepts into real life.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Are you?
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
No.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I will come back to Madrid, my hometown. Wonderful. What was your first job? My first job was in Paris, in CGTEL. I was doing an internship on quality engineering stuff. And it was a critical moment because somehow I decided that I didn't want to be a technical engineer. So I switched and pivoted into business. So it was a very important part of my life.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Headspace, about meditation, and I have Decathlon Coach, which is about training physically a lot of different parts of fitness.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
My favorite part would be all about Chopin. I'm a romantic and idealistic person. And I express a lot when I play Chopin. So I really like it.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I played tennis quite a bit when growing up and I love actually the quickness and the strategy around that. So that will be one. But then I deeply enjoyed dancing. And so, you know, fitness and dance intersection, I absolutely love. And that's what I've been doing mostly, you know, for the last three years because it helps my mind and it helps my body too.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
To just throw myself in the swimming pool without fear, because you can learn to swim, adapt yourself, and never regret not having taken an opportunity because of doubts.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Success is a life well built where I can see my kids every day, where I can contribute through my work to creating a better society and preserving the planet. It's a life where I can honor my parents and be with my friends. It's not only professional, it's actually all of it together having meaning and being able to be aligned with my values with everything that I do.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be with you.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Thank you so much for the introduction. I'm delighted to be here with you.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
It's a great question, Marla. The more I advance in my career, the more I'm searching for places with purpose. And, you know, I grew up doing sport, and Decathlon is very much about democratizing sport. I really do know how sport can be beneficial for one's health, one's well-being, but also creating communities and well-being in societies.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So I joined and I have seen how beautiful it is to be working on something that you really deeply believe in. And then the other thing is I had, you know, switched industries quite a bit. And I'm a big fan actually of having impact and hopefully bringing all the best that can be brought to people, society's planet. And the role at Decathlon was very much the case.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So it's been actually a privilege to be serving for three years.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Yes. There is one moment that I remember deeply and that taught me so much. And it was when I was based in South Korea working for Samsung. And I remember I was a minority for the first time in my life. We were only two white people in a large department of Korean teammates. And I remember actually to... not understand everything that was said verbally.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
During that time, I started spending a little bit more time observing and feeling the emotions that I could sense around me. It actually taught me very important lessons on leadership through influence, and also the fact of being able to do so much without completely understanding all the verbal aspects of the communication. And I also learned somehow that being different could be a positive.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
You know, woman, young, I was a married back then, and somehow turning that into a positive. I was entrusted with risky projects. I had nothing to lose. And I could play by the rules in a little bit different just because of not being like everybody else. So another interesting moment of reflection on how the difference can actually be a positive.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I think it was more of a mental shift for me. Back then, I had been reporting, interestingly, to women in tech, which was very, very rare. Samsung, I was reporting to the first woman VP in the history of Samsung Electronics. And by observation, first I had examples that I could follow.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
But also the mentorship that they gave me, I could understand that I couldn't actually very much compete if I was playing by the same rules. Not play by the rules and still bring what I could bring uniquely mine to the table. And giving myself permission mentally to do that was a really important shift. And so somehow it's a liberation of one's mind that allows to go and take risks.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And at the end, see that it's actually very positive. And it's positive not only for me, but it opens the door to many other people as well.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
What I see is many women somehow don't give permission to themselves and are holding back to be ready one day to tackle this job. It's actually thinking if others can do it, why not you? And somehow having the step into the unknown, taking the risk. And it's interesting because it's never how we thought it would be.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Once you are walking, then you start experimenting, learning, and you verify that you are more than able to do the jobs and to face the different situations. By definition, nobody is ready before a new job because it's a new job. And so it's actually giving a little bit of a, OK, let's go.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
to then have a full life, lean in, and somehow having through experiences and no regrets, you know, while looking back that, oh, I didn't try because the fear prevented me from doing that.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Listening deeply. For instance, at the job at Decathlon, I spent a couple of months visiting different countries, different stores, warehouses, different functions, and just listening. Listening to the verbal aspect, but also to the cues that were given through things that you can feel.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And so little by little, you start defining not only the culture and feeling it, but also some assumptions that you have in your mind and somehow saying, OK, is this assumption right or is it not right? And somehow through that, you start drawing a strategy and starting to have a bit of an iterative process into the clarity of the strategy to then define it together with other people.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Yes, through this period of listening to people within the company, I realized that there was a lot of capabilities, a lot of skills, and a lot of dreams that were not being embedded into the mission as it had been defined until now. So what we did is, imagining a playing field, what we did is amplify it.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So it contained the mission as it was defined, but we went wider with move people through the wonders of sport. From that, we wrote the North Star. The North Star is like a manifesto. It's an inspiring piece of video and narrative that will project people into the future of what Decathlon can do for societies and for the planet alike. And that moment was really inspiring.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I remember standing as a woman CEO coming from the outside in front of all the leaders of the company and presenting the North Star. And I knew it had resonated because the eyes were actually tingling. I don't know how you say that, but there was something special. And so it was this very heartfelt moment that I very much loved. And then from that, we started defining the strategy.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
So we knew where we were going long-term as a North Star, and somehow that inspired and widened, actually, the playing field for Decathlon to start writing the strategic pillars.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
Yeah, North Star was widening the field, so that meant that we needed leaders that will build and create new things, that will go into the unknown while at the same time having the ability to improve the existing.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And so the leadership was somehow more demanding than before, as it meant to really create new business models, a new brand identity, a new experience, circular processes and business models overall.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
a more demand, if you will, and also a lot of excitement as we were expressing somehow the next frontier, the next era for Decathlon without losing the roots and without losing, you know, the culture and values that were so important for Decathlon.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
I saw how different companies were defining their visions and their purpose. I had done two rebrandings prior in my experience, one at Google, and then I worked at Grubhub and did another one. And every time it was important to dig deep into why do we wake up in the morning? Why are we here? And what is the reason to have all the energy in the world to reinvent and transform oneself?
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And that is about contributing to more than a bottom line. This is about societies. This is about people. This is about a bigger sense. And that's the inspiration and experience that I brought into Decathlon in order to do that. Somehow there is a rational side, but there is also an emotional side.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
And it's important to play with both so that, you know, people go and lean in into the new strategy and transformation with a lot of energy.
Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
It's a big, big differentiator. So imagine both at IKEA and at Decathlon, it starts with creating, designing the products, and then having the materials and understanding not only the quantities, but deep knowledge on what to use to the production, the supply, the transport, the logistics, and finally the stores. So the control end to end can mean a lot of different advantages if done well.