A more minimalist approach to business strategy

Abir Haddoud grew up in a small village in Algeria and moved to France alone at the age of 16 to pursue an engineering degree at a top French engineering school. After graduation, she joined a business strategy consulting firm and a few years later took a leadership position at a global animal nutrition company, becoming the youngest executive at the $2 billion company at the age of 27.

These two career experiences gave her an outside-in and inside-out perspective on business strategy. “When you’re in consulting, you’re an outsider, so you give a different perspective—you have a global view,” she told Convening“But when you’re inside the company, you see things in a different way, and you’re really engaged in the day-to-day work.”

For her, it’s the strategy around mergers and acquisitions — and, she added, the “transformation of the company.”

At 30, Hadood decided on her next step: starting a strategy consultancy. A few years later, she continued her entrepreneurial journey by starting an edtech company “centered around what I call ‘how,’” she says. “Strategy for me is kind of a combination of ‘what’ and ‘how.’ What is to be done, and then how to do it, how to do it. The whole goal of my edtech company is really to get back to basics and explain how to do simple things, how to strategize, how to be successful in business, how to make more money.”

Ahead of her keynote address at the EMEA Conference in Barcelona on October 2, Hadood shared her insights on specific strategic brands and how masculine and feminine traits relate to them.

Some people would say, how Your approach is a tactic, not a strategy. But a plan is useless if you don’t know how to implement it, right?

That’s right. To me, when we say how, we are also making decisions and trade-offs because in how we do it, we have limited resources and we need to choose which resources and where to focus them. How is very important in strategy. How I distinguish between strategy and tactics is more a matter of timing.

To me, strategy is more short-term focused. You develop your strategy. You develop how to achieve your goals, which is part of the strategy, and then when you go about your day-to-day work, you might have some setbacks, some problems, the market is very volatile, and you might have to deal with some things. To me, strategy is more about day-to-day short-term arbitrage, but in a global strategy that covers the what and the how, that is more for the long term.

Now I’m getting into the education part, which I really, really like. I think essentially, Raw Scallops (The purpose) is more about the education part.

How does your approach differ from that of other strategy firms or consultancies?

I’m going to answer this question on different levels. The first level is about definitions, and the second level, I’m going to answer this question in the context of talking about women and men, which is another topic I love. In my consulting work, I’ve been focusing on a somewhat unusual principle in today’s world, which is less is more – or minimalism – because I think this strategy is often over-complicated. Companies end up doing too many things and not getting the results they want.

My approach is really about helping companies focus on what really matters, whether that’s identifying their core strengths, streamlining operations, or making careful trade-offs. The key is developing a focused and actionable strategy.

The actionable piece is also really important because we want to figure out how to do it and make sure we have the resources to do it, rather than what we see today – a broad, very fragmented strategy.

What sets my approach apart is simplicity. My priority is helping clients cut through the noise and make strategic decisions that will have a measurable impact.

I think this is even more important in the post-pandemic world when VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) is heightened. We have never seen such complexity. We need to eliminate noise.

I think we’re feeling a lot of fear as well. It’s employee fear, it’s company fear. They’re really struggling with trust. Trust is key in this new hybrid model. You can see companies like Amazon, which recently announced a new policy to return to the office five days a week, struggling with this dimension and this value.

How do you use your engineering background?

Engineering has given me a very structured way of thinking about strategy. Engineers are trained to basically solve problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. That’s basically what engineers do. I really apply that same way of thinking to business strategy, which means that instead of looking at the entire business landscape at once, I help companies narrow their focus down to the basic components and see what’s really driving value and what’s hindering value. It’s like simplifying a complex system into a more efficient functional form.

The business events industry is dominated by women, but women are a minority in leadership positions, so I’m very interested in your work and research on female leadership as you are writing a book on the subject which will be published next year.

I truly believe that women bring many strengths to leadership and business, but their talents are often underestimated. I’ve noticed that we women are always trying to find balance in a system that is inherently male-dominated. For me, this is not just about labor – capitalism is a male-dominated system.

It’s always about action, it’s always about delivery, it’s always about moving forward, it’s always about growth. It’s never about taking time, being patient, and taking the long view. We as women try to find balance within this model or this male system. We often think of our feminine traits as our weaknesses, when in fact, I truly believe they are strengths.

We all have a mix of masculine and feminine qualities. Women may be better at using feminine qualities, while men may be better at using masculine qualities. For example, one of the key qualities women have is empathy. Women tend to be better at understanding and managing people, which is critical to building strong, motivated teams. We are also better at collaboration. We are more innovative and inclusive in our decision making. I believe today’s best leaders balance masculine and feminine qualities.

Decisiveness, confidence, and action are more on the masculine side—and when you combine those three, you make a more well-rounded, adaptable leader. I think people are starting to value traits like vulnerability and emotional intelligence in leaders, which were once seen as weaknesses.

We’re certainly not there yet, but I think we’re shifting toward creating more space for women to take on leadership roles and celebrate their exceptional qualities.

Can you think of any examples?

“The former Prime Minister of New Zealand (Jacinda Ardern) was amazing because she managed to do a very difficult job while respecting her femininity. We saw her cry, we saw her hold her baby while working, and I really respected that.”

Changing the subject, what role do face-to-face events play in an organization’s strategy?

I’m a firm believer in in-person events. Even in a hybrid world, I firmly believe that in-person meetings still have tremendous value, even in this post-pandemic world. The energy and connection of in-person interactions is something that can’t be replicated in a virtual environment. I think as humans we thrive on the personal interactions and spontaneous conversations that occur at in-person events. I think in-person really can lead to breakthroughs that you could never achieve over Zoom.

Nonetheless, the pandemic has made us rethink the way we work. Flexibility is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. Hybrid and remote working are here to stay, but I think the most successful companies are the ones that can balance real face-to-face interactions with digital flexible working. I think workplaces are now becoming more adaptive, more digital, but hopefully also more human in terms of supporting employees.

What do you hope the EMEA Convening audience will take away from your conference?

I think the biggest takeaway that I want to leave the audience with is the power of focus. My entire talk is going to show how focusing on fewer things can actually help you achieve more because as we mentioned, we’re in a complex world. I think the world is really overwhelming. People are overwhelmed by so many things and so many different choices, and I want to keep them in the power of focus and explain that strategy is not about doing everything, it’s about doing the right things and making the right choices.

What I’m saying is that I hope they walk away in a way that feels empowered to simplify their strategy and focus approach and drive value, not just in the business realm. For me, that starts with our own lives. Strategy applies to life, and then to business. I also hope they see that strategy is not just a business tool, but a mindset that can be applied to all aspects of life, and that when they focus on what’s most important to them, they can create more impact with less effort.

Michelle Russell is convened.