Transcription

• Speaker #0

  What does it take to lead sustainably? For yourself, for your people, and for the planet. My guest today is Delphine Donnet, VP and General Manager of Logitech's largest business group, Personal Workspace Solutions, a business worth over $2 billion. With more than 25 years in consumer electronics, Delphine has lived and led across China, North America and Europe, and she's one of just 29% of women in tech who reach executive level. But what struck me most in our conversation wasn't the scale of what Delphine leads, it was how she leads it. In our conversation, we talk about the three career moments that genuinely tested her, including getting close to burnout, and what she learned about herself each time. We talk about a single consumer insight that transformed her portfolio, grew her team from 28% to over 50% women, and delivered stellar business results. And we talk about the leadership lessons that have stood the test of time for her and for the team she leads. Enjoy the interview. So Delphine, it's great to meet you. It's wonderful to be here at Logitech. You have a great office here. And I'm just curious, because you've been working in tech your whole career, what do you love about working at Logitech?

• Speaker #1

  Well, first, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. I've been very lucky to work for 20 years at Logitech. And the most important thing is the people I work with, we all share the same passion and They have this common, there is this common thread about the humbleness and eagerness to help people feeling better, living better, having better experience. So what we do together is always pretty amazing as a team.

• Speaker #0

  Great. So it's a great passion and purpose and a great team. And what attracted you to... to going into the tech industry in the first place?

• Speaker #1

  I ended up in tech by accident, really. After my international economic studies in La Sorbonne, I moved to Canada and had an internship. I did a product management job for two years, and then I came back to Europe. And my first assignment in Europe was at Kensington Europe, which is a tech company. So I ended up more by accident. But my purpose in life has always been about making people's life easier, simpler. Life is very complicated and I don't have a lot of patience, so anything to make things easier is better. And I realized that technology is part of everybody's life and it evolves so much that there is always a way to make life simpler. Yeah, and it must have changed a lot also in the last 20 years. That's what is exciting about technology. There is not one year in my career that has been the same. A lot of things change, technology, what we can do, how you may dream of something five years before and engineering will tell you it's not possible. But if it's really a purpose to help people make an experience much better, we always find a way with technology to make it happen. So it's almost the impossible is always possible. And it's changing all the time.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. It's exciting to think about what could be possible and make it possible. And you are head of personal workspace. It's a business group that's part of Logitech. What do you cover in your role?

• Speaker #1

  It's a large role and that's also why I love it so much because it's very diverse. I'm responsible of the vision of the overall business of 10 different personal categories for Logitech, such as webcam, keyboard, speakers, headset. So it's a very large business. And I focus on developing the vision, the business strategy, and then the marketing, product development, innovation, all the way to go to market. And then the commercial teams take it and bring it to all the consumers and customers and companies that want to buy our products. and have a better setup at their desk and be more productive. So at the end, we are focused on helping people work better and work smarter as well and live better.

• Speaker #0

  And so you have a big... kind of organization with different functions, different functions working together to that end, right?

• Speaker #1

  Yes, it's what we call a cross-metrics organization. So I have teams that focus on certain categories or audiences, and then we work with so many different functions from design, hardware engineering, software engineering, marketing, creatives. We even have an ergo lab to fully understand the... anatomy of people and make our products as comfortable as possible so you wouldn't have any tension in your body. And we have specialists in sustainability and then we work with the commercial teams to bring this to the market. Very diversified.

• Speaker #0

  So very diverse and a lot of fun and you get to see your products actually in the market, people using them and so on. I'd like to ask you a bit about your career. Because, you know, the listeners of the podcast, they love to understand better how different leaders have navigated their career. And we all experience during our career periods of growth and also periods of challenge. And in fact, you know, it's one of those things we know in leadership that we need both safety and challenge in order to grow. And I'm curious what have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced during your career and how those challenges have maybe helped you to grow.

• Speaker #1

  I would say I've had three really big challenges, like tough times from a work perspective. The first one was when I worked at Epson, it's a Japanese company. I was responsible for the European business of the laser printer. Exciting for me because I was traveling and learning about the business. I was traveling across Europe and every six weeks I would go to Japan at the head office. And it's a very male-oriented environment. So I would be very often the only woman in the room and the only woman at dinner. I won't go through some of the details, but it was really a time where I thought that no matter how good I am and what performance I deliver, I realized that at the end I was kind of reaching the ceiling and there will always be things that I would not be. treated equally with some of my peers. So at that moment, I decided to look around and I loved Logitech as a brand already when I worked at Epson. I also felt it was a Swiss headquarter, French speaking, as well as a Californian headquarter. And at the time, it made a lot of sense from a personal life point of view. And I did everything I could to come in and I was recruited.

• Speaker #0

  So in terms of that challenge where you're in a a very male environment and a very maybe also culturally challenging if you're going to Japan and complex in that way too. What did you learn? How did that help you to grow do you think? Obviously you chose to leave which is was the right decision for you at that time but what did you learn about yourself?

• Speaker #1

  The most important thing I learned is that it's very important that what I do is fully aligned with my values.

• Speaker #0

  Okay.

• Speaker #1

  And I made the conscious choice. of not becoming political and being a different person at work than I am in the personal life. And that's why when I joined Logitech, I felt I could be myself. It's a very inclusive company, and we all have different styles, and working in an environment with so many different cultures, backgrounds, it helps you to get a very good perspective. For example, resolving problems and solutions. But it's also so much better when you work in an environment fully aligned with your values. So that was my first lesson.

• Speaker #0

  That's the lesson that a lot of people learn when there's a misalignment with values. What other challenges? Because you mentioned three.

• Speaker #1

  Yes. The second one was, I was in China at the time. I was the head of a China product development group that we had. created.

• Speaker #0

  In Logitech, right? At Logitech,

• Speaker #1

  yes, that we had created to compete in China. And Chinese consumers are very early adopters and there is a lot of creative competition. And we decided that now China was big enough to reorganize and I was offered the role of head of marketing for China, which was amazing because at the time I had never done more com. I didn't speak Chinese. and I was more focused on portfolio, business development and product development. So that was a big learning. And when you work... In a local role, in marketing or sales, the speed and speed of what you do is very different from when you work in a global department where you look more long-term, and when you're local, you focus very short-term. So you have to manage 30 projects at the same time, and if you miss your deadline, it can be the revenue of the quarter that is impacted.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, exactly.

• Speaker #1

  So that was, I would say, a bit overwhelming at the time. And it was a huge learning on how to manage priorities and your own emotional level when you manage a team and how actually people look at every signal of your own behavior to feel reassured and as you said, psychological safety and to find the right way to challenge the team, but also encourage the team. So it was a great learning.

• Speaker #0

  Right. And I can imagine that you're learning so fast. I've worked in a local market and there are things, as you say, they move so fast and you've got to understand the market. You've got to rely on people who know the market because you're not from there and there's always that feeling. It must have been quite a challenge.

• Speaker #1

  It was a challenge, especially it was at the time where there was a full turnaround in the market between retail and the little mom and pop stores in China to the complete transformation of retail, JD.com, Alibaba and so on. So in the space of three months, I had to completely change the strategy priorities and transform half of the team into experts of retail marketing. And there was not many talent in the markets because everything was so new. It was an amazing journey of transformation and growth. Yeah, I keep really good memories of that time.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, fantastic. And the third challenge that you wanted to mention?

• Speaker #1

  The third challenge was very different. It was when I moved from China back to the US. It was to help the integration of a startup, Logitech Headboats, called Jaybird. It was based in Utah. And it was a completely different environment.

• Speaker #0

  I can imagine.

• Speaker #1

  In China, things are actually very equal. Being a woman doesn't make any difference, or at least I never felt treated. differently with suppliers, partners. I've always, everybody's always very respectful. When you move to a startup and in Utah, there are so many different things from a culture and values that are different. And you come to integrate a company in a bigger company. And I've literally faced every challenge you can think of. People challenge, process. Innovation, building truly wireless earbuds is one of the most difficult things to do technically. And it was also at the time Apple also launched the great, you know, some of their airport. And it was 18 months, but the hardest 18 months I've ever had in my career. And I was lucky, I guess, that I worked. So much. I must have been working 70, 80 hours a week to make it happen. At some point, you are so focused on moving forward that you don't even see that you are providing too much energy and you don't take care of yourself anymore. You're giving in to a burnout. And Bracken Darron at the time was the CEO, could see how difficult it was and that was going to be... A long journey to make it stable. And he offered me to take another job, which was the role of general manager for what we call at the time creativity and productivity, which was three categories, personal, logitech categories. Now this group has become personal workspace with 10 categories. But it was a huge learning, and I would have never been the general manager I am now if I had not gone through this. hard learning of people management, processes, clarity of strategy and goals, and technology, certain testing you need to do no matter what, and understanding people or the design of the product more than anything. So our design-centric approach has been critical to everything we do, and it helped me drive this audience-led strategy. I've been leading now for a few years and has been pretty successful for our business.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to hearing about it, my next question. But I just want to check in with you because it sounds like that there was a huge learning about yourself in terms of recognizing your own signals that you need to replenish your resources, your inner resources. Am I right? Is that something you learned? Yes,

• Speaker #1

  absolutely.

• Speaker #0

  And how have you changed your approach since then?

• Speaker #1

  First, I always block time in my calendar now. From seven to nine, I'm a single mom. And from seven to nine, when I'm not traveling, it's time with my kids. I never take any phone calls. I am with them. And that's important. And going to the gym twice a week and not always having an excuse for not going. And having time where you can... Really enjoy something not related to work because it actually helps you become more creative. Even if it's walking around the lake or decorating a new room or going for dinner with your friends and family. So I've privileged this way more than I did at the time.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, it's actually quite a bit of research on that that shows that leaders who have something, who do something completely different from what they do at work are not only... better in their own well-being, but they also are more creative. It's a real boost to our creativity to change and do something completely different.

• Speaker #1

  And if I may add, so there is the portion of managing yourself first and understanding your limit and also knowing how to potentially tell your boss, I need to pace or prioritize or we're going to have to do a different way. The second part is how you organize the team around you.

• Speaker #0

  The talent you have,

• Speaker #1

  how you grow them, how you delegate better, and how you partner with your team to pace yourself while having ambitious goals, but as a team and organize it to be able to deliver to the best of your ability.

• Speaker #0

  It sounds like that's... Them understanding how you work, but also you giving them the space to work the way that's right for them.

• Speaker #1

  Exactly. Really important. And I would say that I've learned this even more. There was a time I faced really difficult personal situations. And I reorganized again the team to grow my leaders. It all kind of happened. at the same time. At the beginning, I needed to do it because the business was growing. We had great opportunities we wanted to go after. But it's only later that I realized that because I had certain personal challenges and I organized the team and the team was growing, it gave me the room to not only having the headspace to manage everything I had to manage that was happening at the time. But it helped me lead from a strategic point of view at a higher level. So I was no longer as much in the details or, you know, I was trusting, empowering. And it was a very different way of managing. So you see these different curves of what you learn help you grow as a leader.

• Speaker #0

  It's like there was a step change in your leadership because you structured things differently and you took yourself. out of certain situations so that you have more headspace to think strategically and the people could then also step up and step into what they were good at.

• Speaker #1

  Exactly.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah. How do you recognize you're at that point? Was it obvious to you that you needed to change or?

• Speaker #1

  Sometimes certain things happen that force you to change. I had no choice. I had to continue working, taking care obviously of my kids. making sure I'm not going to have a burnout and still deliver good results for the company. So there are times where you face a real situation where there is no other choice and you don't quite make this as a conscious decision that you're going to lead differently. It's only after a few months you realize that you've actually gave more room to your team, that they were so happy to get the chance to help me and grow and show they can do more right and they also appreciate it that could give more strategic guidance instead of you know being more in the details right it's a great learning isn't it when we when we get that i

• Speaker #0

  want to ask you about a project or a breakthrough you led which you're particularly proud of? Because we've talked about challenges. I'd love you to tell me something you're really proud of. It can be about products or people or whatever you like.

• Speaker #1

  I'll give you two examples, but they are a little bit connected. So when I took over what I call the creativity and productivity business group, we had just launched the MX vertical mouse. It was our first vertical mouse. And I love... products. I love touching the product. I love the design. So of course, no matter what, at some point, we always have good discussions with the team. I could not even touch the wheel. I have the smallest hands of the team. And it was a pretty big mouse for me. And then it made me think and look around. And all our products were black and full size. And when you are small like I am, it's not always set up. And at the same time, we had started to build. what we call an ergo lab to better understand anatomy of people and comfort to help people work smarter and live better and not having neck pain at the end of the day. And I decided I'd make the story short, but after various conversations and workshops with the team where I realized that we all have biases, whether it's women or men, on what it means to develop a product for women, I set up a small team. to develop a vertical mouse for women. It led to a lot of learnings around our target audience, women who were buying less products. So we started tracking the data and set KPIs for increasing the diversity of our sales. It led to realize that we did not have enough women in the team because if you work on a product for women, you need a good mix of men and women with... specific capabilities, but people who are open to challenge themselves, but having very different points of view. So at the time I had about 28% women. Now I'm at 53% women in my group. Great. So it's led to a lot of diversity in the team and not only women, it's about, you know, we are half and half between people who have been at Logitech a long time and some who have joined. More recently, very different background, culture. So that's also helped to the building the diversity of the portfolio. So if you see the portfolio we have now, it's very different from where we were at the time. And it helped us increase the total value of our business, our market share, attracting different type of users, the way we do marketing. I could go on and on. I'm not going to. give you more explanation but having this experience focusing on one product for women which became the Logitech Leaf Mouse which is one of our most successful ergonomic product right really helpful for people who have a little bit of pain on their hand has really led to the transformation of the business and the diversity of our business and our leadership and the quality of our innovation.

• Speaker #0

  I love that. As someone who used to work in Consumer Insights, it's right up my street. Like Consumer Insight leads you to really completely rethink how you're managing your portfolio because women are 50% of the population, right? Exactly. Approximately, at least.

• Speaker #1

  And how you communicate, how you reach out to your audience, how you sell. In parallel, pretty much at the same time, the company had an ambition to reduce our carbon footprint by half, I am. 2031. And we had goals, but it was up to the general manager to evaluate and decide how we were going to execute this. And nobody kind of knew how to start. And I recruited someone to focus only on sustainability in our team. And long story short, she worked. very closely with all the leaders and product development teams. And we started with none of our products being made of recycled plastic to now more than 80% of our products are made of recycled plastic. All our packaging is recyclable and made of recycled materials. We use low energy aluminum and we are now Logitech is in the 1% top. sustainable company and we are also helped us to lead to more innovation better design and actually did not increase the cost of our product contrary to what many people think yeah well congratulations

• Speaker #0

  because what my first podcast episode was with Virginie Elias. I don't know if you know her. I also worked with her before. And, you know, that was her biggest insight that got her into sustainability was that there is a win-win-win here for the company, for consumers and for the environment. And we have to look for that. So that's really great that you have looked at how you can include more diversity in your team to create better products for consumers. And you said your passion is really about... making people's lives simpler but also more comfortable more you know having a better experience of something that they really need to use every day for their work so yeah and we very often underestimate the impact of working directly on a laptop on a table that may not be at the right height right how much pain you can start building over time and months and years and

• Speaker #1

  i i'll share with you you Also, one of the personal stories when I started as the general manager of this business group. So I had been traveling a lot, visiting the markets, the different R&D center, and I was moving to Switzerland from the US. And I had so much pain in my neck, arms, you know, carrying your bag in airports and working on different hotel rooms without the full equipment. And it was at the time we were creating this Ergo Lab.

• Speaker #0

  Right.

• Speaker #1

  And the ergonomist came over and he said, let me look at your setup. And he was immediately telling me, your keyboard is too long. It makes your hands being in the wrong position. Your mouse is too big. And it was a mouse I developed years before. So I was very attached to this mouse. And it's been a very successful mouse. But I had to use a smaller one.

• Speaker #0

  Right.

• Speaker #1

  And Lower my desk, increase the height of my monitor. And it may sound very simple changes, but within three days, it removed all the pain that I had and I've not had pain ever since. And I have the right setup at home and in the office, except when I'm like today in a meeting room and it's made a huge difference. And every time I advise my friends on just changing a few things on the setup and having the right accessory, they realize how much they can work faster, better, and they feel better at the end of the day.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, fantastic. We're going to have to draw a conversation to a close. I could talk to you all day, but we're running out of time. And just to close, I want to ask you a little bit about the leadership lessons you've learned throughout your career. Because obviously... You're working in a very fast-paced industry that's changing all the time. We're living in an increasingly fast-paced world and increasingly complex, but some lessons stand the test of time and they continue to the next generation. What are the key leadership lessons you've learned that have stood the test of time?

• Speaker #1

  The first one is you have to be passionate about what you do and you want to achieve your goals as a team together. Before you think about your own promotions and elevation, because if you are focused on what you like doing, the results generally are much better and people notice. That's the first one. The second one is perseverance is the most important. If you are impatient, you're going to make a few wrong decisions or you're going to rather few people the wrong way. And building your career is not a sprint. It's really a long journey and you'll have step back. But every step back you have will be a learning that will make you stronger in the next phase. And finally, I would say you need to obviously take care of yourself.

• Speaker #0

  It's critical because you never want to go to the verge of burnout. But you also need to understand when you lead a team that everybody has a life. Everybody is facing certain personal challenges. So be nice, be kind, and try to have the right open conversation and create a safe environment for people to speak up and sometimes challenge you. Take the time to engage with your team, to make them believe in the vision and go there together.

• Speaker #1

  And it's interesting because all of the three things you've mentioned, you mentioned them for yourself and your team. Whether that be the passion includes your team, whether it be perseverance, it includes, you know, persevering with your team and taking care of yourself and your team, being open to listen to what the needs are and find ways to improve how things are working. Yeah,

• Speaker #0

  it's a teamwork and we can move mountains together. Thank you.

• Speaker #1

  Thank you very much. It was wonderful speaking to you.

• Speaker #0

  Thank you.

• Speaker #1

  Before I let you go, I want to sit with those three things that Delphine left with us. Passion for what you do, perseverance, taking the big picture view of your career, and kindness or compassion for yourself. and for the people around you, because everyone is carrying something. What struck me is that all three of these things apply equally to how you lead yourself and how you lead others. And you need to start with yourself. You can only lead from genuine compassion. You can only really see what your team needs, hold space for their challenges. and believe in their potential when you're not running on empty yourself. That's what I mean when I talk about a healthy leader creating a healthy team. It's not a nice idea. It's a practical reality. When you're grounded, when you take care of your own inner resources and you do your inner work, you have access to a quality of leadership that simply isn't available when you're you always running from one crisis to the next. Most leaders don't take the time to do this type of work. Delphine learned this the hard way, to be sure. From working 70 to 80 hour weeks, being close to burnout, she came out the other side with a very different relationship to boundaries, to delegation, and to what it means to lead herself and others well. And the results speak for themselves. She started leading not only differently, but at a completely different level. If this is landing for you, I'd love to continue the conversation. So subscribe to the podcast or book an appointment if you'd like to discuss how I could support you and your team.