Dear Madame Kocher, thank you from Asia

I must admit I rarely write lengthy articles, or pen my thoughts and emotions down for the purpose of sharing it with people. Friends, family and colleagues who are close to me know that I am not a skilled writer and that I can get very emotional when it comes to business. While my opinions may not be very important, I felt a strong urge to share with you what has been on my mind lately: Isabelle Kocher, the CEO of ENGIE Group, is leaving her position, and I feel a tremendous amount of emotions with her departure. She is a leader that will continue to inspire me and many others in years to come, and I want to tell you why.

ENGIE is one of UnaBiz’ major investors. Formally GDF-SUEZ, the group has more than 150,000 employees worldwide and generates roughly 60 billion EUR yearly. Before it was rebranded, the common French only knew GDF-SUEZ for being a traditional utility company with activities in Gas, Water and Energy. No one could have imagined that within four years, ENGIE would transform itself into a fresh new brand that is disrupting the very idea of utilities and leading both governments and companies worldwide on an energy transition toward zero carbon emission.

Engie has shown us that even the most traditional businesses or industries can be transformed if there is a will. At ENGIE, that will came from none other than Isabelle Kocher herself. It was no secret that the tremendous effort of ENGIE to adapt and become sustainable in the shortest possible time was led by the passion and determination of their CEO, who made the necessary courageous and difficult decisions for the company in order to give ENGIE a modern and clean positioning.

I had the honor of witnessing this passion first hand.

In June 2016, during the Singapore Water Week, Isabelle Kocher came to Singapore and we met for the first time. Despite our humble beginning, she decided to attend UnaBiz’ Singapore launch. She could have sent anyone to attend the launch, but she decided to sit herself down with the very junior entrepreneur that I was to kick off our common project in Singapore. How many MNC CEOs would do have done that to support a young entrepreneur? https://www.unabiz.com/launching-sigfox-network-in-singapore/

Two years later, she came back to Singapore for an innovation workshop, where Engie committed to invest SGD80M. In her tight schedule packed with ministerial and management meetings, she decided to set aside time for a private meeting with UnaBiz again, to hear about the progress of our little startup. Instead of the arranged 30 minutes session, we talked for over an hour and a half. It was filled with interesting questions and feedbacks. After that meeting, she went straight on to the main stage to give a speech before walking the floor of exhibitor booths. I recall distinctively that her Chief-of-Staff was insisting that she should go back to her room and rest as she looked extremely exhausted. However, every time she was invited to take a picture, she would always accept the request with a big smile, although her red eyes were betraying her tiredness. She gave everyone the same passionate attention and interest that she had given us during our meeting.

https://www.edb.gov.sg/en/news-and-events/news/engie-invests-80-million-in-centre-of-expertise-to-drive-digital-and-energy-efficiency-initiatives-in-singapore.html

Isabelle has often been featured and laureate as “a woman leader”, however, I think she is more than that. She is my definition of a successful leader, period. Despite my brief encounters with her, she has shown me in more than one way how business leaders could be an example to the rest of us. I have seen many business leaders in action but few delivered the passion and strong sense of purpose that way Isabelle Kocher did. She has proven herself with nothing but her hard work and leadership, gender issues aside.

Isabelle is one of the most determined and courageous persons I have ever met. She put her dream and vision into action when no one else did. She does it not to protect her position nor her reputation, but because she genuinely cares. She cares not only for her investors and her company, but for her people, for the environment, and the planet. And with that, she has put her inspirations and dedicated all her time, mind and strength to achieve it.

As I express my gratitude and respect towards what she has done for UnaBiz and the world, I can only hope that her legacy will continue to inspire me to live by her values in my business.