“Culture Is Built, Not Imposed” Jean de Crane on Trust, Ownership and Lasting Impact

“Give People the Keys.” Jean de Crane on Trust, Ownership and Building Teams That Last 

• How do you create a culture where people truly take ownership? 
• What makes teams embrace change instead of resisting it? 
• And why is trust the foundation of every successful transformation? 

In this episode of Boardroom Conversations, Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens, Chief People Officer at SD Worx and co-author of Join the Club, speaks with seasoned business leader Jean Decraene about leading organisations through growth, acquisitions and cultural change. 

Drawing on decades of experience in scaling technology companies and transforming established businesses, Jean shares why leadership starts with trust. Rather than replacing people or imposing culture, he believes in involving teams from the very beginning, co-creating strategy and giving individuals the autonomy to make an impact. 

Together, Bruce and Jean explore how leaders can enable people instead of controlling them, why failures are essential for innovation and how staying calm in challenging moments helps organisations move forward with confidence. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

•  Why trust is built by doing what you say you will do 
• How ownership creates stronger engagement and better results 
• Why involving teams in strategy leads to lasting change 
• How to integrate different cultures after acquisitions 
• Why leaders should focus on enabling people rather than directing every decision 
• How perspective and resilience help teams navigate uncertainty 

This edition of Boardroom Conversations is packed with practical insights for business leaders, HR professionals and entrepreneurs who want to build organisations where people grow, teams thrive and long-term impact follows naturally. 

Transcript

0:01

Good morning, Jean. You are a very welcome guest here in our Boardroom Conversations. Thank you for being here. With pleasure, Bruce. Jean, could you tell us a little bit about yourself in a few key moments? Oh, who am I? Jean De Crane, now a little bit more than 60 years old. I built my entire career in IT software companies, primarily in Belgium, where I did everything you can imagine in software companies, primarily in the financial industry, for banks and SMEs. Going from startups to scale-ups to international organizations. And recently I decided to make a 180-degree turn, becoming active for philanthropic foundations. So totally different. Which we can talk about later if you want. Tell us a little bit about which companies you've been scaling up. I started my career at a company founded by Michel Ackermans, well known in the Belgian sector, called FICS. It was a tremendous experience, in the sense that it was the '90s and you were basically growing in responsibilities because the company was growing at such a pace that you had to keep up. Starting with 60 people, we ended up with 600. It was an incredible journey in that respect. I had the opportunity to redo a similar journey with Michel Ackermans, this time at Clear2Pay. A more recent and better-known company, where I eventually became COO. Once it was successfully sold, the CFO and the CEO left, and the buyer said,"You need to stay and make it happen." And did you stay? I stayed for two years to make it happen. What you forecast when selling a company and the reality are sometimes a little bit different. But we did manage to do that in a very good way, which is not always easy when you're in an acquisition track. I've been on both sides of the fence — being acquired and acquiring — and there's a lot in between that you need to address to be successful. So it was quite a good experience. I also led a turnaround of a time and attendance company in the early 2000s, called Captor. Basically a competitor of ProTime at the time, which was later acquired by Kronos, a US-based company. And more recently, drawing on all that experience in startups and scale-ups, I spent seven years transforming a legacy company: the Isabel Group, a B2B payment provider. We had the opportunity to do a complete transformation of strategy and culture, executing a buy-and-build approach that ultimately led to splitting the company in two and completing a very successful sale to Waterland. So that was a great journey in that respect. And now I'm basically restarting to scale up a federation, which is something I've never done. It's funny, because most of my career I organized, strategized, delegated and motivated teams. Now it's just a federation of two, where I have to do everything myself. Usually people start from there and grow the other way, while I'm doing the journey in reverse. It's energizing to hear all those experiences. Yes, it is. I'll come back to a few of them because it's super interesting.

But first: 4:20

how do you define impact? What you're doing now — a federation, two people. What does impact mean to you today in the world of philanthropy, compared to impact in startups and scale-ups? Is the definition of success different? I think the core principle is the same, and it's a somewhat generic statement: say what you're going to do, and do what you say. Whether it's a startup where you need to convince people of your strategy, they expect you to follow through. If you want to motivate people, you build confidence — not only with your employees, but also with your stakeholders, such as your customers. That creates a relationship of trust, which allows you to get the most out of people. And that is essentially what creates impact. You try to create impact on your environment and on the people around you, so that ultimately they will get the job done. I've seen this in many transformational contexts. It's the same when you do an acquisition. You've probably been through that yourself. When you acquire a company, people look at you and say,"They're going to buy us.""They're going to change everything." They're somewhat skeptical. Well, we did an acquisition when I was at Isabel. I acquired a company called Clearfacts, which is now a leader in platforms for the accountancy sector. The management team told us,"We decided to go with you not because you had the best price — you didn't.""But we believed in your story.""We believed in your vision.""What you were saying at the time was also what you were delivering." I'm always proud of being able to keep people on board, even in difficult situations. Because when you announce something, deliver on it, and build trust, people will go the extra mile for you. Because of that relationship. What I really enjoyed is that in most of the companies I acquired, the management teams stayed within the organization, even if their roles changed. Because if you're an entrepreneur who built your own company and went through difficult times — and you will — you have a different spirit and mindset than someone who isn't the owner of their own destiny. But I still try to make sure everyone feels like the owner of their own destiny. They adapt, they change their roles. And when it comes to culture, what we try to do is build the most adequate mix. Culture is not something you can impose on people. It is built by the people themselves. At Isabel, we evolved the culture based on the teams themselves, which created a lot of cross-fertilization. And that cross-fertilization is what excites me about this type of work. It's working with people and helping them discover what they're capable of. I hear you say it, and I hear the word"people" giving you energy, Jean. It's interesting — having been through this myself with my own startup, which was acquired about four years ago. The day after the acquisition, our CEO offered me a different role. And I think it was important for me to take it and stay. Otherwise it would have been more of the same in a different context. You need to give people a bigger mission — a reason to keep going. Changing roles is one of the key ways to do that. You also touched on people being the ones who actually shape the culture. I think that's right. At the end of the day, the sum of the people is what the culture is. Tell us a bit more about the teams you've worked with and built. If you think back to your best teams, the ones you led or were part of, what made them high-performing? Essentially, they believed in what they were doing. They knew why they got up every morning, went to work, and did the job — because strategy and vision were aligned with their daily work. And how do you achieve that alignment? How do you do that? You work together with them. The last exercise we did at Isabel, for example — if you know the context — it was primarily a company geared toward the banking sector, working with banking processes. A very strictly regulated environment, with banks as shareholders. So you can imagine that the processes in that company were strongly shaped by the banking industry. The board and shareholders wanted to move the company in a new direction. So we did an exercise together, asking: what is our strategy? We involved people from the start in shaping that vision and journey:"Where do we want to go?" Even for teams that were skeptical —"We've been doing this for 20 years, the banks will never go along with it" — we brought them on board. We know what to do. We brought them along on the journey, and it was hard, because on day one I joined the company, we were finalizing the acquisition of CodaBox, which was a totally different culture — essentially a group of young people who had set out to compete with Isabel and even put them out of business.

So you can imagine: 11:19

you acquire a disruptive company and integrate them. Bringing those two together into a shared story, a shared vision and ambition — that's how it was done. You brought the people from both sides together and together you baked a new cake. A new cake. We created a new vision of what we wanted to achieve. I have to admit it was a cultural clash in the beginning. But we worked through it together and created a shared vision. Driven forward through the organization by the management teams themselves. And I decided not to change the management teams.

I said: 12:10

we will define a strategy, design a vision and set objectives. Then it's up to you — since you helped define it — do you want to stay? If you want to stay, you deliver on it. That's an interesting approach, because many people ask:"Do you need to change people who don't believe?" But you gave them the keys. You built it together, then you handed over the keys. Do you want to drive, or would you rather not? How many of them left, Jean? Well, there was one who left. So very few, really. But when I arrived, the message I was given was:"You're going to have to change the whole management team."

And I said: 13:03

"I'm not going to do that. What I will do is build trust.""I'll see what I can do with the team that's here, because they have far more experience than I do. They run the business." They know how it works. There's probably more to unlock — more enthusiasm, more drive — that simply hadn't been tapped yet. So we went through that process together. One thing we did was bring in an external party to assess the full management team.

People were nervous: 13:36

"They're going to assess me, find my weak points, and decide to let me go or reassign me."

I said: 13:48

"No, I'll do the same assessment myself. We're trying to find the right mix, the right balance." We wanted to identify where you can grow and what you still need to learn, so you're aware of it — and I'll help you develop in that area.

My approach is: 14:05

I trust you and I give you the keys — unless you show me otherwise. That's interesting, Jean. In the book that Collin, our CEO, and I wrote, we say in chapter one that building an impact culture starts with building great top teams. We also did an assessment with our top 250 leaders and all management teams at SD Worx. Not to judge you, but to give you insight into your strengths. More interestingly, we spent days with each team showing the differences. But those differences are complementary. They're your strength. You can build a shared vision — but it takes a lot of time. How much of your time did you invest in this? How personal did you go? What did you do? Did you take them somewhere? What was your magic?

I think it's the main job of a CEO: 15:05

enabling teams. Pushing them to do the work, while avoiding doing it yourself. Enabling teams — I love that.

It means saying: 15:17

"What I'm doing with you as a team" — because the executive committee is a team and must function as one. It's not just the head of this or that division who goes home after the meeting. We have shared objectives and we need to work together as a team, which isn't always easy with different business lines. Why would I help a colleague doing something completely different? You need to find common ground for the team. Push them, give them a mandate, and tell them:"What I'm doing with you, you need to do with your teams." Of course. But it's an ongoing process. For some teams it goes fast, for others it takes much more time, depending on legacy and context. From experience, I compare it to a campfire. If you don't keep adding wood or kindling, the fire will go out. In the beginning it takes a lot of work to get it going, but you still need to keep fuelling it. I think we sometimes underestimate the capacity of people. We put them in a box by saying"this is your job." But if you give them the keys, some people are afraid of that.

They say: 16:39

"Give me my objectives.""No, you're going to define your own." Did you understand the strategy? Do you know where we want to go? Then tell me — you know your job. I don't want to tell you what to do, because if you genuinely don't know how to achieve the strategy — especially if you co-created it — then you're probably not in the right place right now. But giving people that autonomy can be frightening."You know, I'm not going to pay you for the hours you put in. I'm paying you for the realization of your objectives — and you have to organize your own work." Some people can handle that. And that's where you see the difference between those who can become leaders and those who prefer not to. And that's fine too, because if you only have leaders, nobody's going to do the actual work. But you quickly see who is there to grow and who prefers to specialize —"Let me do my thing, and I'll do it 100%." You also mentioned trust. As CEO, building trust is part of my role as well. For me, trust is something you can feel the moment you walk into a company. Sometimes people walk in smiling but feel heavy inside. The air feels polluted. And sometimes you walk through the door and it's fresh air, full of energy. How have you been able to build trust as a key enabler of culture in your teams? What is your secret recipe?

As I said earlier: 18:26

do what you say. That is truly critical. Do what you say. Being close to people. How close do you go? Do you go personal? Or does it depend on the relationship you have with each team member? I try to get as close as possible. With all due respect — by genuinely trying to understand what people are doing. Managing by walking around. I was extremely frustrated during COVID because I couldn't do that. There was nobody at their desks. That must have been very hard for you. It was hard, because I love contact with people. I love talking. People notice when you come to their desk.

Sometimes they're nervous: 19:20

"Why is the boss asking what I'm doing? Is he checking up on me?" No — I'm genuinely interested in what you're doing. Try doing that remotely, behind a screen. It's very difficult. Especially when you can't animate team meetings in the same way. I think most leaders have a kind of charismatic, hard-to-define quality that transcends to people — something that makes them move. And that quality is of course much easier to convey face to face. Much easier, in that respect. That's primarily how we make it work. I also want to touch on another topic, especially in startups and scale-ups: speed is everything, you want to move fast. But what is the right balance between going fast, fast, fast — and sometimes slowing down to make the right decision?

And on the other side: 20:23

when your company grows from 60 to 600 people, how do you maintain the right pace and keep decision-making flowing? How do you avoid decision paralysis, matrix structures, agile coaches — all those buzzwords that in the end don't really work? That's correct. It is difficult. When you're in a startup and doubling your team within a very short timeframe,

people will say: 20:59

"We're growing, so we need to set up procedures to maintain control." But by the time you've defined and tuned those procedures, the company is already two levels ahead. So you need to be able to operate in an organization that is in constant development. How do you manage that uncertainty? How do you keep evolving instead of getting stuck in a system and saying,"This will work for the next three or four years"? Forget it. It won't. Hence the importance of delegation. If objectives are clear, the strategy is clear, the vision is clear, and people commit to their objectives, they will do what needs to be done above and beyond any procedural framework. Procedures are still needed sometimes — don't get me wrong. But delegation helps you adapt to changing circumstances. And you need to create an environment where failure is not the problem. You learn from failure. I think you learn much more from failure than from what you get right.

You need to tell people: 22:17

"There's no problem if you fail."

Because otherwise they say: 22:22

"I won't take the risk — if I fail, my next review is going to be bad." You need to explain that failure is part of the process. I once heard someone boast that more than 90% of their investments had been successful. Successful.

And I thought: 22:51

"Okay, that's fine. But did you take enough risk?" Because 90% success doesn't really seem right, does it? Of course. But again, that's a cultural aspect. And these are elements we've worked very hard on, spending — I mean, you're also in HR now, spending a lot of time on enablement and engagement. I was in a situation at a company where both parameters were below the floor.

They gave me a mandate: 23:31

"You need to bring this up within two or three years." I said: "Okay, we'll do that." That was the primary objective — for me and for my executive team — much more so than for the people themselves. You can't impose an engagement or enablement objective on teams. It's management that needs to create the conditions. If you give people the right enabling environment, aligned with a clear vision and backed by concrete actions, you increase engagement. And that drives the further growth of the company. At Isabel, we acquired a company every 18 months. A different pace from SD Worx, but it means you constantly need to rethink. You have to rethink everything. You have procedures defined at the operational level that ensure the company functions well — especially toward customers. But beyond that, you're constantly in an adaptive mode. I sometimes compare it to a household. It's constant evolution. Your kids are three — married with three kids. They're all different, and it's a constant evolution. And then suddenly you have two, and then three. You have to adapt. You can't control their character or emotions. It's part of the family, and at a certain age they go their own way, and you have to let them. You can see similar dynamics in a company. You have to live with it. Yes, absolutely. Jean, I have two final questions. What has success really meant to you throughout your career? Was it the startups? The next sale? Or was it actually building ownership, culture and energy in people? It's probably more the latter. And we always say leaders have big egos, but my fuel was appreciation — from the people I worked with. That's what gave me the most energy. And then the outcomes — selling, growing, staying — those follow. But the real source is the people. And what comes from that can be a sale, growth, or continuity. And I think that's beautiful. The nicest reward I ever received had nothing to do with money. The nicest reward was people coming to me and saying thank you. There's one experience that still resonates deeply: when I finished my role at Isabel. There was a town hall, and the chairman thanked me and introduced my successor. I had never experienced that before. I received a standing ovation from the entire team in the room for five minutes. We couldn't stop them. It was overwhelming. That's a moment of real emotion. And I said to myself: "Job well done." That's a reward nobody can take away. It will resonate for as long as possible. Much more than anything else. I still get tears in my eyes when I think about it — as you can see. And I think it's beautiful, and it's a powerful message for companies: if you build a culture of impact and a culture of ownership, anything is possible. Anything is possible. And it's human. Is it ego? Is it love? Maybe it's a mix of all those things. That's one thing.

And the second: 27:39

I've had many people grow beyond themselves under my watch — creating their own companies, achieving extraordinary things.

When someone told me: 27:49

"I'm going to leave and start my own company" — okay, fine. We'll handle the transition properly and find someone to take your place. Well done. But I'm very proud of having been able to allow people to grow, to build confidence in their capabilities and go do something remarkable. This is fantastic, Jean. This is what we live for. An inspiring moment for you. My pleasure. So many takeaways here — ownership, people, culture, sharing, creating a shared sense of purpose. Is there anything else you'd like to say to the CEOs, managers, HR leaders and new leaders listening to this podcast? Any final hint or tip — in life or in work?

I would say: 28:45

the capacity to relativize. In French we say relativiser. The ability to put things in perspective. To take a step back and not take things too seriously all the time. I've had people in total panic, and I'd say:"Take a step back. Relax." Are people's lives at stake? No, they are not. As a leader, being able to demonstrate that you can step back and look at things with a calm, measured view — without getting carried away — can also reassure the people around you. Not getting overly excited can calm and reassure those involved. And I have to say, this is something I truly learned from working two years in Africa, in Ivory Coast. I learned that there is a different way of approaching things.

They say: 29:47

"You white people have watches. We in Africa have time." And you know what? They're probably right. When you see the environment they live in and how they live it — and you compare it to how we in Western culture get completely worked up over things that don't matter — you don't have to tell your employees they're getting excited over nothing, but having embraced that mindset yourself — that calmness, that relativity — and being able to pass it on to people: that's important. Especially in today's economic climate. You need to be able to take a broader

perspective and say: 30:25

"Maybe this isn't that important." And sometimes a little slowness and reflection is also good. Thanks a lot, Jean. My pleasure, Bruce. What a great conversation. I loved it, and I think you've energized a lot of our listeners. Thank you. My pleasure.