Redefiners
Leading with a North Star: Former Decathlon CEO Barbara Martin Coppola’s Blueprint for Bold Change
04 Jun 2025
Born in France almost 50 years ago, Decathlon has grown into the world’s largest sporting goods retailer with over 1,700 stores in more than 70 countries. On today’s episode of Redefiners, Simon Kingston is joined by our new co-host, Marla Oates, as they sit down with former CEO of Decathlon Barbara Martin Coppola. Barbara takes us through her globe-hopping journey in leadership roles across several industries, including technology, home furnishings, food delivery, and consumer electronics before she came to the CEO role at Decathlon. She talks about the need for a clear North Star to enable transformation, creating a culture of innovation, driving a circular product strategy, and redefining Decathlon’s customer experience in-store and online. Plus, as a member of the board of directors at INSEAD, she shares her insights on how educational institutions’ next generation leaders need to redefine what skills will be needed in a rapidly changing world. We'll also hear from Pam Fitzpatrick, Global Head of Sustainability at Russell Reynolds Associates. Pam will discuss key insights from our 2024 Sustainability Report and the commitments we’ve made as a firm. Four things you’ll learn from this episode: How a North Star and guiding purpose can shape overall business strategy and leadership development How to build a culture of innovation while maintaining a clear vision of quarterly, annual, and longer-term goals How a circular product strategy impacts product life cycle from design and distribution through end of life How educational institutions and young people need to redefine the skills needed in a rapidly changing world If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like these Redefiners episodes: Paws, Purpose & Profit: A Conversation with Pets at Home CEO Lyssa McGowan Leadership Lounge: Beyond Handshakes – How to Build Trust and Transform Executive Team Performance Unpacking Leadership Lessons with Marriott International President and CEO Tony Capuano Leadership Lounge: What do top-performing teams have in common? Outwork the Competition: Jordan Brand’s Winning Strategy with President Sarah Mensah Leadership Lounge: How to develop your personal leadership brand
Full Episode
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Redefiners. I'm Simon Kingston, a leadership advisor here at Russell Reynolds Associates. We have a really wonderful episode in store for you today with a fascinating guest who we're going to hear more about in a moment.
But there's additional very exciting news, which is we have a new co-host of Redefiners, who it's my great privilege to introduce. But before we do all of that, just a quick reminder to our listeners that you can find all of the episodes of Redefiners and the Leadership Lounge on YouTube.
So if you're currently watching on YouTube and you haven't subscribed to the show, make sure you hit subscribe button just below the screen. And for our audio listeners, don't forget to rate Redefiners wherever you get your podcasts. And please share your feedback on each episode with us. We'd love to hear anything you have to say to us or indeed suggestions for other guests or ideas for the show.
As I've mentioned, I'm joined today by a new co-host, Marla Oates.
Hi, Simon. It's so great to be with you today.
Now, Marla, lots of our listeners will have heard the term farm to fork in relation to restaurants and food, but you're a consultant who represents a farm to boardroom journey. Why don't you take a few minutes and tell us a bit about it?
You bet. Well, Simon, that's all true. I grew up on a rural farm in Canada, just north of Calgary. We had cattle, horses, chickens, cats, dogs. It was a really wonderful upbringing and taught me the value of hard work. From there, I went into investment banking. I was in Toronto, then went to your side of the pond. I spent a number of years in London.
I moved into private equity where I spent a decade, again, spent a lot of time in London, and was eventually recruited to Russell Reynolds. So here at the firm, I have the privilege of being a partner in our CFO practice and really helping our clients find excellent CFOs and finance talent. I live in Austin, have two little girls, and I'm also married to a Canadian.
Marla, thank you. It's going to be great fun sharing the mic with you over the The next little while. So let's kick off and get down to today's episode.
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