David Cabero, general manager of Europe BIC Group : ‘In today's environment, leaders must understand macroeconomics to make better decisions’
‘In today's environment, faced with a challenging autumn, an open geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as high levels of inflation and an increasingly less global supply chain, leaders must understand macroeconomics to meet their objectives and make the best decisions for their teams and companies,’ explains David Cabero, general manager of Europe BIC Group in the latest of 'Matins Esade’ session entitled 'Deciding in a super-VUCA world'.
Despite the volatile, uncertain, and complex environment, BIC aims to increase its global turnover by 50% from €2 billion this year to €3 billion by 2025. To continue growing, the company is exploring less mature markets. Among them, Cabero has highlighted three new categories: human expression, flame for life, and blade excellence.
‘We are evolving our stationery category to focus on human expression, helping consumers to better share their ideas. In this area, we are integrating new markets such as semi-permanent tattooing and reusable notebooks. We recently bought the Canadian company Inkbox, and the manufacturer Rocketbook,’ said Cabero. In addition, he explained that the company may also attack other markets such as digital writing. In the ‘flame for life’ market the aim is to go beyond the traditional use of the lighter: ‘We are focusing on products for lighting barbecues and candles. Finally, in “blade excellence” we want to take advantage of our experience in razor blades to diversify and become suppliers of high-quality blades for other businesses, instead of exclusively selling razors to end-consumers,’ said the European head of BIC.
Five pillars of leadership
The company’s ambition has led it to adapt its strategy through its organizational structure, as well as rethinking roles and selecting the most suitable people to ensure growth – despite the risks in the current economic environment. In David Cabero’s opinion, the foundations of leadership have not changed despite new challenges. ‘The tools change over time, but the five keys for an effective leadership that continuously achieves positive results will always be: the ability to create a vision for your company or team; the ability to communicate this vision by creating commitment and credibility in teams; the ability to make sometimes difficult decisions; passion for what you do; and a genuine interest in people.’ He bases this list on his own experience as a leader of the BIC Group.
Sustainability at the core of its strategy
‘We take sustainability very seriously. The 4Rs – reduce, recycle, recyclable product manufacturing, and recovery of used products – are key for a company which bases most of its products on plastic,’ Cabero acknowledged. Among its objectives for 2030 is to reduce virgin petroleum use by half.
The general manager of Europe BIC Group was accompanied by Patricia Valentí, director of Esade Alumni, and Manel Peiró, lecturer in People Management and Organization at Esade. The ‘Matins Esade’ are sessions in which the leaders of companies and organizations discuss and reflect on corporate challenges and trajectories.
