In this episode, Tony hosts Angela Qu, Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at Lufthansa Group. Angela’s more than 25 years of experience have focused on organizational transformation, people development, supply chain management, procurement, and management consulting.
Angela was recently named one of the most powerful women working in supply chain by SupplyChainDigital.com and was featured on the Procurement Power List for 2021 by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. As CPO of Lufthansa Group, her vision is to transform the procurement function to further enable the company’s success and create value for the customers, employees, and society as a whole.
Key Takeaways
Be a humble empathetic leader
According to Angela, workforce transformations related to innovation in ESG and sustainability always start with the people. In her over two decades working at Siemens, ABB, and Lufthansa Group, Angela has remained focused on leading with empathy and empowering her teams by hiring people who are sharper and more skilled in key areas and by serving those talented experts. To achieve success, she worked to create an honest, transparent, and fair team culture, which allowed her teams to perform at the highest levels through empathy.
Make an impact from a people perspective
While Angela’s achievements are extensive, she’s proudest of not only leading the highest performing units but also having the happiest people working in her organization. She attributes this success to raising leaders who care for their teams by fostering diverse and inclusive cultures that inspire and motivate employees to go the extra mile. Early in Angela’s career at ABB, she started a women’s development program within her function before it was rolled out globally. This program now serves as the framework for their entire DE&I program.
Build long-lasting trustful relationships with suppliers
Angela led her team with a strong focus to build trustworthy relationships with suppliers through fairness and respect. That does not exclude having high expectations towards suppliers. She encourages organizations to drive end-to-end solutions with ecosystem partners in the area of efficiency, innovation, and sustainability.
