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Entrepreneur, edtech founder, author, and thought leader Abir Haddoud will present “The Power of Focus: Why Less is More in Strategy ” on Oct. 2 on the Convening EMEA Main Stage. (Harcourt Paris)
Abir Haddoud grew up in a small village in Algeria and moved to France on her own at the age of 16 to pursue engineering studies at one of the country’s top engineering schools. Once she graduated, she joined a business strategy consulting firm and then a few years later, took a leadership role at a global animal nutrition company, becoming, at 27, the youngest executive of a $2-billion company.
The two career experiences provided her with an outside-in and inside-out view of business strategy. “When you are in consulting, you are an outsider, so you give somehow a different point of view — you have this global picture,” she told Convene. “But when you are inside, you have somehow another way of seeing things and you are really involved in the day-to-day job.”
Which, for her, was strategy around mergers and acquisitions — and also, she added, “the transformation of the company.”
As she hit 30, Haddoud decided on her next move: launching a strategy consultancy company and now, several years later, she is continuing her “entrepreneurial journey” by starting an edtech company “around what I call the how-to,” she said. “For me, strategy is somehow a mix between a what and a how. What is what to do, and then there is the how, how to do it. All the aim of my edtech company is really to go back to basics and explain how to do simple stuff, how to write a strategy, how to succeed in business, how to make more money.”
In advance of her Convening EMEA keynote on Oct. 2 in Barcelona, Haddoud shared insights about her particular brand of strategy and what masculine and feminine traits have to do with it.
Some would say that the how part of your approach is tactics, not strategy. But a plan really can’t stand on its own unless you know how to implement it, right?
Exactly. For me, when we say how to do it, somehow we are also making decisions and trade-offs because in the how, we have limited resources and we need to choose which resources and where to focus them. The how part is very, very important in strategy. How I differentiate the strategy and the tactics is more a matter of time.
For me, tactics are more short-term. You define your strategy. You define how to get there, which is a part of the strategy, and then when you are in your day-to-day job, you may have some setbacks, some problems, the markets are very volatile, and you might have some stuff to deal with. The tactics for me are more the day-to-day short-term arbitrage, but within a global strategy that encapsulates the what and the how, which is more made for long term.
Now I am getting into the educational parts of it which I really enjoy very, very much as well. I think at my core, my Ikigai [purpose] is more about this education part.
How does your approach differ from that of other strategy companies or consultants?
I’m going to answer that question with different layers. The first layer is more about the definition, and then the second layer, I will be answering it when we talk about the feminine and the masculine, which is also another subject that I love. In my consulting work, I’ve always focused on a principle that’s a bit unconventional in today’s world, which is less is more — or minimalism — because I think that strategy is often overcomplicated. Businesses end up doing too much without getting the results they want.
My approach is really to help businesses focus on what truly matters, whether it’s identifying their core strength, streamlining operations, or making deliberate trade-offs. It’s about creating a strategy that is focused and actionable.
The actionable part is also very important because we want to know how to do it and be sure that we have the resources to do so, rather than what we can see today — a broad strategy, very scattered.
What differentiates my approach is a blend of simplicity and clarity. I prioritize helping clients cut through the noise and make strategic decisions that lead to measurable impact.
I think it’s even more important in this post-COVID era when VUCA [volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity] is enhanced. We’ve never seen this amount of complexity before. We need to cut through the noise.
I think we also sense a lot of fear. It’s fear from the side of employees, but also fear from corporations. They are really struggling with the trust issue. In this new hybrid model, trust is key. You can see that corporations like Amazon [which recently announced a new policy of returning to the office five days a week] struggle with that dimension and struggle with that value.
How do you put your engineering background to work?
Engineering gave me a really structured way of thinking about strategy. Engineers are basically trained to solve problems by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts. That’s the job of an engineer, basically. I do apply that same mindset to business strategy, which means instead of focusing on the entire business landscape at once, I help companies narrow down their focus to the essential components and see what’s really driving value and what’s getting in the way. It’s like really simplifying a complex system into a more efficient functional form.
The business events industry is predominantly female but women are in the minority of leadership roles, so I’m interested in your work and research about women in leadership, since you are writing a book on that topic to be published next year.
I really believe that women bring so many strengths to leadership and to business, and that it so often goes underappreciated. I have noticed that we as women are always trying to find balance in a system that is at its core, male dominated. For me, it goes beyond just the workforce — capitalism is a masculine system.
It’s always about action, always about delivering, always about moving forward, always about growth. It’s never really about taking time and having patience and taking the long-term view. We are trying to find balance as women in that model or masculine system. Often, we think that our feminine traits are our weakness, whereas in fact, I truly believe that these are strengths.
Each one of us has both masculine traits and feminine traits. Women are more maybe in their zone of genius with feminine traits and males are more in their zone of genius with masculine traits. One of the key feminine traits is, for example, empathy. Women are often better at understanding and managing people, which is crucial for building strong, motivated teams. We are also more collaborative. We are more for innovation, inclusivity in decision-making. I believe that the best leaders today balance both these masculine and feminine qualities.
Decisiveness, confidence, action are more of the masculine side — blending them together makes a more well-rounded, adaptable leader. I think that people are starting to [place a higher] value on traits like vulnerability and emotional intelligence in leaders, which were once seen as a weakness.
We are definitely not there yet, but I think there is a shift opening up more space for women to step into leadership roles and celebrate these qualities that make them exceptional.
Any examples come to mind?
The former prime minister of New Zealand [Jacinda Ardern] is amazing because she managed to succeed in a very difficult job while honoring her feminine side. We’ve seen her crying, we’ve seen her with her baby working, and I really respect that.
Moving on to a different topic, what role do face-to-face events play in an organization’s strategy?
I am a true believer in face-to-face events. Even in a hybrid world, I truly believe that in-person conferences still hold tremendous value, even in this post-pandemic world. There is something about the energy and connections you make face-to-face that simply cannot be replicated in virtual settings. I think that as humans, we thrive on personal interaction and the spontaneous conversations that happen at in-person events. I think that in-person really can lead to breakthroughs that you would never get over Zoom.
That said, the pandemic has made us rethink the way we approach work. Flexibility is no longer a luxury. Now it’s a necessity. Hybrid and remote are here to stay, but I think the most successful companies are the ones that can balance the moments of real in-person connection with digital flexible work. I think the workplace now has become more adaptable, more digital, but hopefully, more human also in how it supports employees.
What do you hope the Convening EMEA audience will take away from your session?
I think the biggest takeaway I want leave the audience with is really the power of focus. My whole presentation will be about showing how focusing on less can actually help you achieve more because as we mentioned, we are in a complex world. I think the world is really overwhelmed. People are overwhelmed about so many things, there are so many different choices, that I want to keep them with this power of focus and to explain that strategy is not about doing everything, it’s about doing the right things and making the right choices.
I want them somehow to walk away, I would say, feeling empowered to simplify their approach to strategy and focus, to drive value, not only in business. For me, it starts with our own lives. Strategy applies to life and then to business. I want them also to see that strategy is not just a business tool, it’s a mindset that they can apply to every part of their life, and that’s when they focus on what matters to them most, they can create more impact with less effort.
Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.