Alexander Alonso

The through-line

Nearly everything Alexander Alonso says circles back to a single idea: growth happens when you take something on before you are demonstrably qualified for it, and a leader's job is to build the conditions in which other people can do the same. He puts the distinction sharply: "Ik heb nooit klaar geweest om die rol te doen, we altijd klaar geweest om die rol te nemen" [2]. You are never ready to perform a role perfectly from day one; the question is whether you are ready to take it and grow into it [2]. That conviction runs from his own first job interview at BD, where he asked the sitting GM directly what the path to his chair looked like [2], through to the round tables he now runs with employees half his age.

The second half of the through-line is that ambition without acknowledgement burns out. He returns repeatedly to the point that celebration is the most neglected part of achievement, that people book successes and then forget to mark them, and that unmarked success gives no energy to continue [1][2]. His stated goal is not personal advancement but institutional: "Ik zou willen zijn de beste werkgever in België worden" [2].

On being ready to take the role

Alonso's framing of readiness is deliberately permissive. Nobody arrives fully equipped, so the useful test is willingness to step in and learn on the job rather than a checklist of competencies already held [2]. He treats career ambition as something to be said out loud early, not hinted at: he voiced his intention to become General Manager in his very first interview at BD and credits open career blueprints and mentors with making that trajectory legible [2].

The pacing matters as much as the ambition. He argues for setting achievable bars in small steps rather than one distant high bar, and for regularly looking back at the bars already cleared, because a permanent chase after the next height makes you forget what you have achieved [2]. That habit of looking back is the same instinct behind his insistence on celebration.

On leadership as orchestration

He does not think the person leading the room needs to be the smartest one in it. "Soms ben ik de minst expert van iedereen rond de tafel, maar ik ben wel degene die de expertise van iedereen op tafel kan brengen op de juiste manier" [2]. The skill is convening and motivating people who know more than you do [2]. His definition of the job is deliberately modest in scope and demanding in manner: "Leiderschap is het liefst met een team van punt A naar B te gaan op een hele authentieke manier" [2].

On feedback and coaching upward

The mechanism he trusts for building a feedback culture is asking for it himself, in public, and then visibly acting on it. Told that a free-form presentation lacked structure, he redid it for an audience of 250 people, this time with slides, so that the correction and its origin were both plainly visible [2]. A boss who requests coaching feedback and is seen to change because of it makes it safe for everyone below to do the same [2].

He applies the same listening posture to the youngest people in the organisation. He runs round tables asking, in effect, if you were in my place, what would you change immediately, and then implements what comes back, including extended flexible opening hours of 6:30 to 19:00 [2].

On presence, flexibility and practising what you preach

As GM he keeps no fixed office. He organises his agenda so that presentations and calls happen from home, which frees office days to be spent walking the site and talking to people, around 10,000 steps a day [2]. The physical absence of a desk is the point: his time on site is for interaction, not occupancy [2].

The flexibility he offers only works if people believe it. So he shares mid-day cycling rides on Strava with colleagues, deliberately making visible that managing your own agenda and exercising during working hours is genuinely permitted rather than nominally allowed [2]. His own version of balance is not restraint: "Ik werk twee honderd procent en ik leef 400%" [2], and he justifies the whole approach simply with "Het leven is te kort om dat niet te doen" [2].

On the generation coming through

He is direct about the older executives who write off younger workers as unambitious: they are wrong [2]. The new generation is ambitious in a different way, driven by passion, and the demographic argument settles it, since by 2025 roughly 70% of customers and employees will have been born after 1985 [2]. The evidence in his own organisation is that flexibility and internal mobility are compatible with loyalty. Around 30% of BD Benelux's roughly 1300 employees are under 30, yet average tenure sits near 15 years, because people are actively encouraged to change jobs inside the company and build new competencies rather than leave to find them [2].

On decisions only you can make

Offered a lucrative GM role elsewhere, he agonised for three days and went to a mentor, who refused to decide for him on the grounds that only the person concerned can weigh their own drivers [2]. He stayed at BD and calls it the best decision he ever made [2]. The episode fits his general temperament: "Voor mij is het glas altijd halfvol" [2].

On celebrating what you have already done

This is the point he makes most insistently, and the one he chose to leave people with. Celebrating success is the most neglected part of achieving it; success you do not celebrate is forgotten and returns no energy for the next effort [2]. Too many people book their wins and never mark them, and the marking is what regenerates the drive to continue [1].

Takeaways

• Treat readiness as a decision, not a qualification: "Ik heb nooit klaar geweest om die rol te doen, we altijd klaar geweest om die rol te nemen" [2].
• State your ambition to the person who holds the job you want, in the first interview if necessary, and ask what the path looks like [2].
• Set a sequence of achievable bars and deliberately look back at the ones already cleared, or the chase erases the achievement [2].
• Lead by convening expertise rather than owning it: the least expert person at the table can still be the one who gets everyone's expertise onto it correctly [2].
• Build a feedback culture by soliciting coaching on your own performance and visibly redoing the work, as with the reworked presentation to 250 people [2].
• Make flexibility credible by demonstrating it personally, including publicly shared mid-day rides on Strava and a GM role with no fixed office [2].
• Ask junior employees what they would change immediately if they held your job, then implement it, as with the 6:30 to 19:00 opening hours [2].
• Encourage internal job changes: 30% of BD Benelux's ~1300 employees are under 30 and average tenure is still around 15 years [2].
• Schedule the celebration. Success that is booked and never marked is forgotten and yields no energy for what comes next [1][2].