A company's transformation depends on its ability to align leadership, culture and strategy. While tools and processes are essential, they are not enough without a deep commitment from leadership. Club Med and PayFit illustrate how to structure this transformation by involving all levels of the organization.

Club Med: getting on board before equipping

From tools to values

Club Med initially focused on equipping managers, without aligning top leadership with the core values. A discrepancy soon became apparent: local managers, who did not have the same experience as top executives, found it difficult to identify with the proposed approach.

To remedy this situation, Club Med decided to go back to basics by clarifying its values, in close collaboration with top management and based on feedback from the field. This work enabled us to identify the key behaviors associated with each value, translating them into concrete action at three levels:

• Individual: how each employee can embody them on a daily basis.
• Customer experience: their direct influence on customer relations and service quality.
• Company: their contribution to the overall vision and strategy.

Shared leadership to embody transformation

In 2024, Club Med launched a corporate conviction, driven by the Executive Committee and gradually spread to the field:

• Three pillars have been defined to structure the Club Med spirit and align employees and customers.
• Workshops on embodying our values enable each employee to reflect on how they apply to their day-to-day work.
• Responsibility for deployment is entrusted to operational staff rather than HR, to ensure real ownership.

This change has strengthened the commitment of managers and teams, ensuring that the transformation is felt and applied at all levels.

A three-stage leadership transformation at PayFit

Adapting the role of founders

Payfit's three founders were historically at the heart of the company's culture and decision-making. As the company grew, it became necessary to adapt this model to ensure the long-term viability of the organization:

• The founders were repositioned. For example, one of the co-founders, who was very innovation-oriented, left the operational functions to make better use of his skills.
• Managerial support was provided to structure this transition and preserve the company's culture while improving efficiency.

Structuring a senior leadership team

Today, the company's founder is fully involved in his role as CEO, surrounded by a senior leadership team with profiles from Tech and other sectors.

This transition has enabled :

• More distributed governance, with a Comex that structures strategic decisions.
• Better adapt to the challenges of growth, by integrating diversified expertise.

Investing in middle leadership

PayFit has chosen tointensify its support for the 75 top managers who structure the company on a daily basis. This effort is based on several axes:

• Organization of a two-day offsite to strengthen cohesion and share a common vision.
• Implementation of a management development program, to ensure cultural consistency and adaptation to new business challenges.
• Focus on middle management, to ensure an effective handover and preserve the company's DNA.

This strategic repositioning creates a more engaging leadership, capable of sustaining the transformation.

A company's transformation cannot be based on tools or structural changes alone. At Club Med, as at PayFit, it was in-depth work on aligning values, involving top management and empowering middle managers that led to successful change management. Leadership must be active, meaningful and involved at all levels to guarantee an aligned and sustainable transformation.

Would you like to delve deeper into these topics and provide food for thought? Discover the FORWARD 2025 replays and retrospective.