What Leading in a Global Group Really Teaches You

Bridging Cultures, Building Networks, and Creating Value Beyond Your Own Unit

There is a moment in every career when the scale of an environment forces you to rethink not only the way you work, but the way you relate, influence, and create value. For me, that moment came when I transitioned from leading a smaller country entity into the center of one of the world’s largest financial and insurance groups.

People often assume that the biggest lessons come from the technical complexity of the sector or from the size of the profit and loss statements. Those matter. But what truly transforms you is something different: the human architecture of a global organization, the network, the trust, the bridges you build, and the humility required to thrive in an ecosystem where you are no longer the sole driver of the agenda.

Across my journey as a junior employee, as CEO of a national operating entity, and later as an international executive holding groupwide responsibilities, one truth became clear: large organizations don’t reward the loudest voices; they reward those who know how to create collective value.

This article is a reflection on what I learned working at the heart of a global insurance leader and why these lessons matter now more than ever for executives navigating transformation, cultural complexity, and strategic alignment.

Landing in the Center: Magnitude Changes Everything

When you grow up professionally in a smaller, more agile, more familiar, more intimate unit, the jump into a global center is profound. Suddenly, you enter a world where:

• Talent comes from every geography

• Perspectives collide in the best possible ways

• Diversity is not a concept, but a lived daily reality

• Informal influence becomes more important than hierarchical authority

You find yourself surrounded by ambitious, bright people with different educational backgrounds, different cultural expectations, and different interpretations of what “good” looks like. It is exhilarating and humbling.

The first lesson is simple but essential: you must be open.

Open to new ways of working.

Open to having your assumptions challenged.

Open to reshaping the leadership identity that served you well in smaller contexts but is no longer sufficient.

I had to evolve quickly. Coming from a business where partnerships defined success and where negotiation was transactional, anchored in revenue, control, or influence, I entered a world where value was not measured by the business you personally brought to the table but by the bridges you built across the entire group.

In a global center, hierarchy is less useful than your ability to connect. Decisions happen through influence, not authority. And your success depends on your capacity to establish networks rooted in trust, not in power.

The Power of Informal Networks: Coffee as a Strategic Tool

One of my fondest and most instructive memories is of the group’s internal “coffee place,” a deliberately designed space where employees were encouraged to meet, mingle, and connect.

This was not a perk.

It was a strategic infrastructure.

In large organizations, the informal channels often matter more than the formal ones. Passing by someone’s office for a quick chat has its limits. But stepping into a shared space where you naturally meet colleagues from other departments, other countries, even other functions you would never have interacted with otherwise, that changes everything.

A good coffee (and it was truly good) becomes the medium for stronger collaboration, faster problem-solving, and long-term trust.

What impressed me most is how intentional this was. The leadership understood that connectivity is not a luxury; it’s the backbone of group coherence.

Over time, these informal relationships become part of your leadership capital. When those individuals move to other roles, other countries, or other business units, the connection remains. And in a global group, that continuity is invaluable.

This is why I’ve always believed that trust must be given before it is earned.

Not the opposite.

I know this contradicts many cultural norms “Trust must be earned” is a common refrain, especially in more traditional contexts. But in a multinational ecosystem, waiting for others to prove themselves before extending trust is a recipe for stagnation.

Extend your hand first, and most people will respond.

Set the tone, and we work together to build the type of collaboration that lifts everyone involved.

Create openness, and collaboration flourishes.

This mindset enabled me to navigate complexities that transcended language, culture, and hierarchy.

Cross-Cultural Collaboration: The Willingness to Go Beyond Differences

I remember working with Japanese partners who tried, with admirable commitment, to adapt to what they perceived as European business behavior. We made countless mistakes on both sides, misreading each other’s intentions, body language, or communication patterns.

But none of those mistakes mattered.

What mattered was the shared willingness to move beyond the cultural gap and establish a direct, human, business relationship.

And this is one of the most under-estimated leadership skills in global environments:

You don’t need to understand every cultural nuance; you need to demonstrate the intent to bridge the gap.

People forgive mistakes when they see that your intention is sincere.

They respond to openness.

They meet you halfway when you show you’re willing to walk toward them.

In today’s globalized insurance and financial industries filled with multicultural teams, remote leadership challenges, and transnational operations, this ability is not optional. It is foundational. Executives who cannot flex across cultures simply cannot succeed.

Creating Value for the Group, Not Just for Your Unit

Another major shift when entering a global center is understanding the nature of value creation.

In a smaller business, you focus on optimizing your own P&L, your customers, your partnerships, and your market. Your success is clear, measurable, and contained.

But in a group environment, your brilliant idea may not create value for the group.

It may:

• Increase capital requirements at the wrong moment

• Conflict with strategic priorities

• Duplicate efforts already underway elsewhere

• Create operational complexity in the broader ecosystem

• Fail to integrate into groupwide platforms or processes

This can be frustrating, especially for entrepreneurial leaders who are used to driving initiatives with autonomy. But understanding the broader ecosystem of stakeholders transforms frustration into foresight.

Once you see how your work fits into a portfolio of priorities, not just a local agenda, you begin to navigate more strategically.

This is where creativity actually expands:

When you understand the constraints, you can design solutions that don’t just work in your unit but lift the entire organization.

Real value in a global group is created when your project unlocks value for others.

When your stakeholders benefit, the group benefits.

When the group benefits, your work becomes sustainable, scalable, and recognized.

This is one of the most important lessons leaders can learn in large organizations:

If you want your work to matter, it must matter beyond you.

The Currency Before Currency: Goodwill

In financial services, we naturally default to thinking in terms of monetary currency. But before any financial value can be realized, another form of currency must be built: goodwill.

Goodwill comes from:

• Shared successes

• Trust accumulated over time

• Consistency of intention

• Emotional reliability

• The sense that you lift others, not just yourself

When you have goodwill, projects move faster.

When you lack it, even the simplest decisions become bureaucratic battles.

Executives underestimate how much emotional currency is required to move complex initiatives across borders, functions, and cultures. Yet goodwill often determines the difference between a project that flies and one that dies.

And goodwill is only built one way: by giving more than you take.

Building Communities: Leadership Is Not an Individual Sport

One of the responsibilities I felt most strongly as an international executive was not only performing well in my own role, but ensuring others could succeed. Every year, talented professionals from different countries joined our group center, often arriving from smaller units or very different cultural contexts. To help them start with momentum rather than hesitation, I relied on a simple principle: Hospitation.

Not a formal program, but a mindset.

Hospitation meant offering newcomers the opportunity to shadow, observe, and connect, opening doors, facilitating introductions, and helping them access the informal networks that truly make a large organization work. In a complex ecosystem, this early exposure is invaluable. It prevents isolation, accelerates integration, and ensures people feel part of the community from the very beginning.

Supporting their Hospitation was, for me, a way of giving back to the organization that had once welcomed me. And over time, I saw the multiplier effect: those who benefited from early connection later became the ones who created it for others.

This is how large groups transform from corporate machines into living organisms.

Why These Lessons Matter Today

Insurance, reinsurance, and financial services are entering one of the most transformational decades in their history.

Digital acceleration, regulatory shifts, talent mobility, AI adoption, M&A consolidation, and generational leadership transitions are altering the industry’s fundamentals.

In this environment, leaders cannot rely solely on expertise, frameworks, or P&L ownership. They must excel at something deeper:

• Cross-cultural fluency

• Building trust at scale

• Navigating stakeholder ecosystems

• Creating value beyond their own perimeter

• Leading with clarity and emotional intelligence

These are not soft skills.

They are strategic skills.

And in a world where AI will consolidate the insurance industry, where digital twins and data transparency will reshape underwriting, and where organizational efficiency will depend on interconnected systems rather than isolated units, the ability to operate across networks becomes a competitive advantage.

The leaders who succeed will not be the ones who shout the loudest.

They will be the ones who know how to bring people together.

The Essence of What I Learned

If I had to summarize what working in a global group truly taught me, it would be this:

• Be open.
  Every interaction is a learning moment.

• Give trust first.
  Most people will meet you with the same intention.

• Value the informal.
  Coffee can achieve what meetings cannot.

• Think ecosystem, not ego-system.
  Create value that lifts others.

• Build communities, not silos.
  Leadership is a collective role.

• Bridge cultures with humility.
  Differences are not obstacles; they are opportunities for richer collaboration.
  

These lessons have served me far beyond my years in the group. They shape how I lead transformations, how I build organizations, and how I develop cultures where people feel empowered to contribute their best.

And they remain, to this day, the foundation of how I approach every new challenge in my professional journey.

François Jacquemin

P.S.: Want to watch the video version of this article? Go to https://www.francoisjacquemin.com/covered/building-bridges-in-a-global-group-trust-networks-and-shared-value