Seeing Royal Canin through a new lens

“I love your glasses”, I hear this many times, and I do not know why people think I have zillions of pairs. I actually don’t. When it comes to learning and perspective, having different lenses is very important. And when it comes to becoming the CEO of Royal Canin, I have made the very conscious decision to look at our business from a new frame and lens. Event though this is my 4th role on the Global Leadership Team, taking the time to consider the business from a new place was critical. It has been exciting. It has been challenging. It has been humbling. ?

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The key questions for me were: what is needed right now and in the years to come? What do cats and dogs need? What do our customers need to support pets and pet parents? What do our people need to thrive? What is my part to play and how do I empower my organization?

Listening, observing, learning, with these questions in mind, have been my action words for the first 90 days.

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Learning from 55 years of legacy

Strengthening our grounding

Taking the best forward

It is an honor and a big responsibility to envision the business from a new position. I am also very conscious I am stepping on a path that has been laid out by all who led this company before me. To have a strong sense of direction, it is important to know where you are coming from, where you are heading to, and what is your current position. That’s why I spent some time understanding the legacy of each former President. From our founder Dr. Jean Cathary who left us with his vision that nutrition could be the first medicine for pets, to Lagarde Henri who established the strategic choices that still enable the company today, ?Alain Guillemin who implemented clear and scalable operating frameworks,? Jean-Christophe Flatin ?who invested in the men and women of Royal Canin, importing the best practices of talent management from Mars and? Loic Moutault ?who propelled our business into the digital world whilst reinforcing our foundations. Each has brought something unique while staying the course of a consistent long-term direction. It is my intention to do so. To serve cats and dogs doing what we do best: transforming their health through nutrition, in partnership of pet professionals, and in support of pet parents.

Understanding our place from a time standpoint was powerful, and equally as powerful to understand it from a space standpoint. We are in Aimargues (South of France) for a reason, and that reason actually is Madame Cathary, whom I was very touched to be able to spend time with. The place where we are today belonged to her family, and she more than any, has been at the side of our founder to help him with kindness and plenty of support. Fast forward I also had the honor to welcome Carole Delga , the President of the Occitanie Region in France to Royal Canin Campus. It was very stimulating to discuss with Madame Delga about the importance of developing thriving businesses, that do good and do well, in the regions of France.

Leaning into our collective wisdom.

Embracing all our reality.

Nurturing our strengths, leaving what once served us yet doesn’t anymore

From board members to frontline Associates, I heard from over 200 individual perspectives about what made our business strong, and what could be improved. I sat down and listened from all levels of the organization, from all regions, from all functions, from long time standing Associates, and from recent joiners, from Associate Representation Groups.

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“In partnership with pet professionals” is in our mission statement. It takes a village to serve pet needs, and there are many high-quality professionals engaged in doing this, from our raw material suppliers to the vets, breeders and specialty retailers we partner with.

An enthusiastic onboarding tour took me from our HQ in France to the US, South Korea, Japan, India, Poland, Austria, which helped me understand our markets and supply chain better. I could see our incredible Associates from all regions in action, and in interaction with our partners to make a better world for pets. In India, I happened to visit during a very important festival called Dushara, and as all Associates were wearing amazing traditional clothes: I was gifted a beautiful green scarf so I could feel included. It made me reflect on those things that can be done every day to make everyone feel welcome, and that creating a more human environment can only enhance performance.

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There were very strong themes that emerged consistently from inside and outside the organization. I refrained from making any conclusion before I had listened to all. I captured pages of quotes. Unedited. Out of those I extracted towering strengths: our Purpose, our cats and dogs first culture, our products rooted in science and observation, our people, their passion, their diversity of expertise and background, and their team first spirit. Out of this also came a clear call out of things we needed to change. This led, for example, to the investment in the work on Enterprise Effectiveness that Sylvia Burbery is superbly leading. At a personal level, it made me also reflect on the strengths I could expand on and what I also shall recognize and leave behind because it is not serving me in this job. When you grow into a new job, you think first of capabilities you need to add in your backpack. I would argue the first job is to courageously make space and leave behind what no longer serves you. It is also very important to know which are the things that have always been there and need to stay through all times and context, with even stronger impact.

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Sharing back my learnings and initial directions with my team first, hearing from them what made sense, what raised questions, doing the same with my boss and then sharing with all Associates was a way to give back. Indeed, through my listening sessions and onboarding I saw how much care and commitment to our mission Associates were courageously sharing their own perspective of the company with their experience. This was a priceless gift. It was important that they heard what I had done out of this, and how it informed the directions we were taking. I will also never be grateful enough for the time my team has allowed me to take initially by stepping up and standing in for me in some areas.

Shaping the future: what now and next?

Even more Health through Nutrition.

With care.

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Now, deeply rooted in a rich history, connected to the present world, I can wear my new glasses and look decisively into the future. What is at stake? The job of transforming Health through Nutrition, started 55 years ago, is far from being done. Numerous puppies and kittens in the world are fed in a way that is not suited to their needs, which has impact on their ability to grow healthily, but also has consequences on their health and well-being as adults. Over 40% of cats and dogs in the world are overweight or obese, a condition that comes with associated diseases like urinary issues, diabetes, arthritis. Too many times cats and dogs are being diagnosed too late, in the case of renal disease for cats for example, diagnosing at stage 1 instead of stage 2 allows, with the right diet and care, a far better outlook in terms of quality of life and longevity.

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That is going to stay our job: to transform cats and dogs Health through Nutrition in partnership with pet professionals. Now we want to do this in a way that creates mutual value in the environment we live in and contributing to positive change for people and for the planet we all share. We have set out to become carbon neutral certified by the end of 2025, using the PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality, a robust and internationally recognized norm. This has pushed us to rethink how we do nutrition in a way that is most carbon efficient.

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It will take uncommon levels of innovation, partnership, and hard work. I have this in me. And I know our Associates have this in them, I can see how they rally and roll up their sleeves every day to find new ingredients, new sources of energy, and to work on regenerative methods. I will finish with them, with us, the Royal Caniners. There is a famous saying coined by Fran?ois-Regis Pon?on , built upon a very well-known one by an anonymous author: “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together, if you want to do both, go Royal Canin ”. As we grow as a company and cannot know everyone and everything anymore, our next frontier is to continue to live “the human adventure” at scale. The way into it is to nurture our joint vision, and then, team by team, to continue to welcome and celebrate diversity as our biggest source of innovation and resilience, and to leverage every opportunity we have to work together to show we care. For cats and dogs, for our partners, for pet parents, for the longevity, performance and impact of our business and for each others.