By Philippe Delpech, Sonepar President

At the head of a company with sales of over €32bn, serving customers in 40 countries, and with a clear purpose, I know I need to spend more time to think about, and anticipate, what future leadership will look like.

This is no easy task and, when doing it, there are two equal and opposite traps that leaders can fall into. The first is to focus too much on their traditional role, in areas such as keeping the company on track, selecting good people, and shaping the organization. Leaders like this are often aware that the world is changing but react to it by focusing harder on what worked in the past. 

The second is to look at the latest trends or fashions and then, announcing that the past is over, and they are moving “beyond the bottom line,” steer the company in a radically different direction. Here, concentrating carefully on their markets and profitability take a back seat. I have seen a number of companies do this without success. The main change they achieved was an increase in the number of calls from unsatisfied major shareholders.

Moving beyond these binary views involves seeing that the choice is not “this or that.” The roles of traditional leadership and taking the company into unfamiliar territory are intricately connected, making the real choice “both and.” As well as striking the right balance between old and new, successful leaders of tomorrow will be able to recognize the vital threads that run through both. 

Providing leadership on education must touch the whole workforce, and I believe we need to pay special attention to the differences in learning styles between our different generations, and especially our younger employees’ needs.

Making sure the workforce understands continuous education is a critical challenge. So much so that when I unveiled Sonepar’s Purpose to all our associates in 2023, we made Continuous Education one of the Six Bold Commitments it contained. For us, it is doubly important, because it is intrinsically linked to our sustainability goals, and therefore impacts both our success and that of our whole supply chain. We all know that climate change is a global challenge, but it is individuals and companies that must act – and that begins with awareness and education.

Simply realizing the importance of educating your workforce is good, but it has to be about more than a box-ticking exercise on how many people were trained on the company’s software. Providing leadership on education must touch the whole workforce, and I believe we need to pay special attention to the differences in learning styles between our different generations, and especially our younger employees’ needs. So, while the most natural thing is to focus on the “what,” successful leaders of tomorrow must also be thinking hard about the “how.”

The way that young people gain knowledge today is completely different to 30 years ago. They are used to scanning massive amounts of information very quickly. This is no better or worse than in the past – it is simply different. “Surfing” is a word that describes this well – and we are all doing more surfing as the digital revolution gathers pace. 

When I was with the elevator industry, safe working was a critical issue for technicians on the front line. We had hundreds of pages of safety manuals, which were needed to mitigate some profoundly serious risks. But as the demographic of the workforce changed, we found that people were struggling to absorb the details; an extremely dangerous position to be in. Our solution was to put the content into short videos. It worked far better overall but made things harder for those who still preferred their information in written form. A proof that, in education, you have to consider the needs of all generations – including format, content, and timing.

For us, the point about our commitment to Continuous Education is that it is what it says: continuous.

Senior players in companies tend to be older and are often more comfortable with tried and tested forms of communication. That means they may miss the need to focus on the needs of different generations in their company. At best, this is a missed opportunity and, at worst, a costly mistake for leaders to make as times change. We need to think about, and add in, new ways of communicating. These will need new tools and a genuine commitment to people’s different ways of learning. Leaders must also address the paradox that because there is so much free information, it is perceived as having little or no value. In the pre-Internet era, training materials were carefully taken back to the office for future reference and, as a result, probably digested better.

Intricately linked to all this is a trait that is probably in too short a supply for us all: patience. You may see it just as the driver behind “surfing” for information, but patience touches many areas of corporate life. For example, 20 years ago, the norm for someone wanting to work for Sonepar would have been one previous job, or two at most. Today, a candidate may have already worked for four or five companies – and might have in mind to work for four or five more, seeing it as the best way to climb the corporate ladder.

The result? The lack of patience erodes the concept of promotion and seniority gained through hard-earned experience – something that makes identifying high-potential employees more difficult. Even if you can identify them, and signal their value to them, they may not have the patience to gain the experience they need before moving on to their next company.

I strongly believe that our way of fostering education models patience and differentiates us from our competitors.

An old-fashioned HR problem? Not in my view: this too is fundamentally an issue of education. The question leaders have to ask is “How do we teach people to be more patient, and to value the learning and experience on offer to them?” At Sonepar, this is a theme on which we are heavily focused. For us, the point about our commitment to Continuous Education is that it is what it says: continuous. 

And that cannot be about an endless round of “attend today, forget tomorrow” training courses. It needs to be done in a way that evolves people's knowledge and experience throughout their career and keeps them engaged and committed. We are working hard to make all our training informative, but also capable of generating the ideas, actions, and commitment that associates, and the company need. I strongly believe that our way of fostering education models patience and differentiates us from our competitors. We put human connections at the center and take the time to train our people and provide a quality, relational experience.

We still have work to do at Sonepar. But, as the company’s leader, I am in a strong position to influence. I am proud that we were able to frame Continuous Education as one of our six Bold Commitments, and that we have a clear view that education is a leadership issue and one that deserves the patience to get right.

The CSR Report highlights governance and integrity as essential pillars of sustainable growth.

Sonepar is committed to the highest ethical, social and environmental standards. By prioritizing an inclusive work environment, skills development, quality of life at work and associate engagement, Sonepar reinforces its dedication to its People.

As a global leader in the distribution of electrical equipment, the Group has an obligation to promote renewable and energy-efficient solutions, while reducing its carbon footprint through an approach validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2022.

Sonepar’s 45,000 associates are committed to accelerating the world’s electrification and driven by a shared Purpose: Powering Progress for Future Generations

“Sonepar maintains a robust commitment to its CSR principles, which is only reinforced with the reveal of our Purpose. Working alongside our stakeholders and associates, we are affirming our role in the electrical value chain and fostering a company culture that is open to all and that transforms our differences into strengths in support of sustainable performance,” Sonepar CEO Philippe Delpech.

Corporate Social Responsibility Annual Report

Read our CSR report based on the Sonepar Group’s long-term strategy.

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Sonepar has been awarded the GEEIS-SDG Trophy for Gender Equality thanks to its professional insertion program for women in Chile.

The program, led by Sonepar Chile in partnership with suppliers Nexans and Schneider Electrics, along with local NGO RedMaestra, was first launched in 2022. During this first edition, 20 women who were seeking professional reconversion or financial independence were successfully trained as certified electricians in the Santiago area.

The women were offered training and certified as electricians in basic and advanced courses, workshops, internship programs, and attended inspiring talks from women of Sonepar on how to thrive in this market. All of them are now qualified professionals in the industry, working for companies or launching their own businesses.

In 2023, the program expanded to other regions of Chile, and now 60 additional women benefit from it. Inspired by the Chilean initiative, Sonepar Perú also launched, a similar initiative program together with Nexans called, “Soy mujer, soy electricista” (“I am a woman, I am an electrician”).

The GEEIS-SDG Trophy awards companies holding the GEEIS certification who not only respect local laws on gender equality, but go above and beyond by implementing equal processes and good practices.

Sonepar is committed to very high ethical, social, and environmental standards and ensures associates a diverse and inclusive working environment.

By Philippe Delpech, Sonepar President

Corporate interest in diversity and inclusion (D&I) is nothing new. When I worked as sales and marketing director for ABB back in the 1990s, it was already a forward-thinking player. It had targets to recruit more women engineers and enlightened initiatives like paternity leave. That was 30 years ago, and, given that companies recast their strategies every few years, you might expect gender balance to be a problem solved. But it is not: the period has seen some progress, but it is slow and patchy. 

Why is that? The key problem is that for many companies, D&I remains a paper exercise. Under pressure from investors and civil society groups, companies can announce high-minded aspirations but they remain just that – aspirations. 

External attempts to force these companies into action tend not to work either. When I worked in the USA, the stock exchange mandated companies to report on D&I KPIs. But not much changed – having indicators of performance does not always equal performance itself. Coupled to this are wider societal problems over which companies have little control. It is no good setting extremely ambitious targets to recruit women engineers, when women are heavily under-represented in our engineering schools. 

So how can we solve the problem? After observing D&I efforts in a range of settings, I have come to the view that the solution is what I call the “snowball effect”. If you want to roll a snowball downhill, at first it simply will not roll. However, if you put in an intense initial effort to help it gather snow, once it reaches a critical size it begins to move and accelerates quickly. Taking such an approach has two advantages for organizations. First, while making an organization fully diverse and inclusive might be a 10 to 15-year journey, intense effort can deliver tangible results in the space of two to three years – helping the snowball gather pace. Second, early successes signal clearly to managers and others where the organization is headed in D&I terms; if they do not like that, they tend to move on – no bad thing and one less blocker to progress. 

We see our role as creating an organization that can leverage our associates’ differences as the strengths to drive forward sustainable performance. 

There are three keys to achieving this effect: 

Make D&I a strategic issue: To make any real progress on D&I, it must be a strategic priority championed at board level. That might seem obvious, but in companies that I have seen make this change, the effects can be profound. Senior management has to be convinced that D&I matters and that it can contribute to competitive advantage. 

Develop an action plan, communicate and be consistent: The buy-in of senior management must be clear at all levels in the company, right down to the shop floor. In my experience, D&I is an overarching issue – it is not just about managers or HR departments. There should be a clear and practical roadmap that contains both short and long-term interventions. Short-term progress is especially important to show employees that ground is being gained. This must involve clear internal communication at all levels, absolute consistency across the organization, and repetition and reinforcement. 

Change the management culture: The classic hierarchical company structure was almost universal 50 years ago, and it worked well in a world where change was slow and corporate planning departments thought they could see for decades ahead. Today younger employees – in many ways the key to a diverse and inclusive organization – expect to be able to speak to senior management directly. I have had two recent experiences of this, in questions asked of me at internal events. In both cases, the communication from young employees was free and frank – far from disrespectful but challenging all the same. I cannot imagine anyone daring to do this when I began my career – but I welcome it, and it is certainly efficient! 

If you have a stake in D&I in your working life, I invite you to reflect on your organization’s own snowball: how big is it and how fast is it rolling? 

I believe we are making good progress in all these areas at Sonepar. We see our role as creating an organization that can leverage our associates’ differences as the strengths to drive forward sustainable performance. This means building an inclusive, safe, and caring environment where associates can realize their full potential and customers feel valued. That is why we have made D&I central to our strategic plan. We have developed a specific D&I strategy drawing on experts in the field and –most importantly –sponsorship from our Executive Committee and shareholders. These efforts were recognized recently when Sonepar entered the Financial Times’ 2024 Diversity Leaders ranking for the first time. 

This strategy flows into our D&I Roadmap. It is an essential tool to raise awareness among associates and managers, and it also serves to consolidate and communicate D&I initiatives across all the countries where we operate. Having diversity at all levels of the organization is accelerating the snowball effect as people who feel represented at all levels will be most likely to be willing to join, stay and evolve in the organization. It goes beyond internal changes too: we also aim to engage our suppliers in Sonepar’s D&I journey and work closely with external communities whose people are marginalized and excluded. A good example of this is Sonepar in Chile partnering with both NGO RedMaestra and our suppliers Nexans and Schneider Electric; to create the first community of female electricians, now providing around sixty Chilean women with a certified training program. 

If you have a stake in D&I in your working life, I invite you to reflect on your organization’s own snowball: how big is it and how fast is it rolling? If your answer is not as encouraging as you would like, perhaps it is time to review and work on your senior management buy in, action plan, and management culture.