Driving business outcomes as an HR leader: A conversation with Simone Berger, CHRO of Olympus

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Silvia Eggenweiler: Hello, I'm Silvia Eggenweiler, a partner in Heidrick and Struggles’ Frankfurt office, where I'm a member of our Healthcare &Life Sciences and Consumer Market practices. Today I'm delighted to speak to Simone Berger, CHRO at Olympus. Olympus is a global medical technology company with more than 100 years of history, dedicated to making people's life healthier, safer, and more fulfilling. Simone is an experienced global HR leader with a strong track record of leading people and organizational transformation across complex international businesses. 

At Olympus, she is helping shape the company's transformation journey, driving cultural change, leadership development, and talent strategies to support both innovation and long-term business performance. Prior to joining Olympus, Simone led senior HR leadership roles across a number of organizations, gaining extensive experience in business transformation, leadership effectiveness, and building high-performing, purpose-driven cultures. Simone, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.  

Simone Berger: Thank you very much, Silvia, for having me. Looking forward to our exchange.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: Simone, you've held senior leadership roles across a range of organizations before joining Olympus. Looking back on those experiences, what lessons have shaped your approach as a CHRO, and what has been the most different about leading people and transformation at Olympus compared to the others?  

Simone Berger: So when I look back at my career and the roles held, I guess there were three common themes across all of them. One was it was always an environment of growth and that, coming to the second theme, always brought transformation and organizational development requirements. And the third challenge each of those roles had in common is actually the role HR would play in these circumstances. 

When I look now at Olympus, I would say the three themes are again the same. But what is very different for Olympus, obviously, is the cultural setup that we are having with the strong Japanese heritage of the company. And then, in addition, I think the company has done some major transformation already in the past from being a consumer goods company [and] actually taking a very prominent move to become a med tech company. And for me, it's a great privilege to be in that environment and actually to bring my experiences in growth transformation and the pivotal role of HR into that environment.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: That sounds very exciting. Many HR leaders are being asked to spend less time inside the function and more time focused at work on enterprise priorities. How has your own agenda evolved, and where do you believe CHROs can create a greater strategic impact? And also, I would be very interested in knowing what does it mean today for HR to truly operate as a strategic partner to the CEO, the executive team, and the board.  

Simone Berger: Yes, that's a great question, and I can tell you how I approach it. I always say when I sit in our executive committee meeting, I'm actually 70% an enterprise leader and only 30% a functional HR leader. Of course, when I am in my day-to-day interaction with my team, it's the other way around, I'm 70% the HR leader and only 30% enterprise leader. But that mindset going into executive committee meetings, board meetings, has actually really helped me to shape HR as a true business function and to make sure that whatever I do, whatever the function delivers, really creates value for the business. So that rule is something I'm also passing onto my teams, and I think looking at it from that perspective really shapes going out of the enabling and support function of HR into a true enterprise leadership function.

Looking a little bit at your second question, Silvia, what does it mean to be a true sparring partner to the CEO, to the board, to the executive committee? First and foremost, for me, what I've learned [is] it's super essential that HR and the CEO are fundamentally aligned on the core values, the core positioning of HR, of culture and people in an organization. And I can only recommend to any other HR leader, don't take the job if there is no fundamental alignment with the CEO on that, because otherwise it's going to be hard to be a strategic partner and to make the impact and the change that we all are looking for.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: And looking at the last couple of years, you've definitely been aligned very well with the CEOs you've worked with. I would be very interested in learning about what you have learned about the increase in personal effectiveness of HR leaders in ensuring that HR is seen as a driver of business outcomes rather than a support function. Because as you correctly said, you're a business enabler, you're not just, you know, a supporting function. You've never been. So, what do you need to do? What do you drive to make sure that happens? How do you do it?  

Simone Berger: Yes, actually, I would love to take it one further. I also don't like the enabling function too much. What I tell my teams is to always really be part of the business. We very much talk about the support function, service function, enabling function. We talk about HR business partnering. I think HR is a fundamental part of the business because it's all about people, it’s all about culture. We know that this is a key driver of performance, so this must really be set at the core of the business. And what I think really helps is, one, always push to raise the bar, push to raise the bar in terms of [the] skills, capabilities, talent, culture that are brought into the organization, and second, be strong enough and be confident to hold the mirror also towards the executive team, the board, and really make sure to have that independent voice, and maybe sometimes a little bit of that different perspective that brings a new view to the teams.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: If we look a little bit into the leadership development pipeline, we have noticed, of course, that leadership succession has become a board-level priority. In your experience, what differentiates organizations that take a long-term strategic approach to succession from those that view it as a periodic exercise?

Simone Berger: Yes, it's a very timely question. Just last night, we had a discussion with the board on succession planning and strategic succession planning, and I read an article that a company who does that well will be 1.5 times more likely to financially outperform the market. So it's a very relevant question that that you are asking. My approach is actually to look at it very holistically. When I look at succession planning, I look at three different areas of succession planning. One is the typical internal succession planning, which I think we are all used to and we all know. Nevertheless, we also know that when it really comes to the moment of succession, very often the internal successor I previously named might not be ready and might not be the right one. 

That's why I think, second, the succession planning always should also look at external succession planning, and in those circumstances, I believe it's really the role of senior leaders to constantly network, to constantly also meet potential future candidates out of the network to make sure a strong external pipeline is readily available as well.

And then the third one—and I think that's a new one we all need to look at—is what is AI-agentic succession? Are there roles that might not be there in future anymore because they might be replaced by AI? So these are the three areas I think, from a strategic perspective, we as HR leaders need to always have in mind when we think about succession planning.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: As Olympus looks to the future, what qualities do you believe will define successful leaders, and how are you identifying and developing those capabilities across the organization, especially when not everybody is going to be able to follow through and develop those?  

Simone Berger: I think it's a very important question for the future that any company currently has but, of course, we at Olympus as well. So my approach is that I always go back to the strategy and to our strategic priorities and derive from that the capabilities needed for the future. When I look at Olympus, we have three strategic pillars: innovation-driven growth, accountability, and simplicity. So defining key capabilities of leaders and employees in the future, I will make sure that we always link back to the three strategic pillars and make sure that we have very concrete skills actually linked to any one of them.

In addition, it's also very important for me to link back to how something is done to the core values of the companies. So that's the second lens I would take to look at what capabilities we need in the future to be successful as an organization.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: Looking to the future, Olympus has been undergoing significant transformation for a couple of years. You are still pretty new in your role, so how will you ensure that leadership development and culture evolve alongside business transformation?  

Simone Berger: I can tell you that there is a clear understanding by the CEO, the executive committee, and the board that leadership development and culture is a key enabler for the future success of the company. So I would say it's really my task to make sure to design fit-for-purposes programs and initiatives around that. But I feel very lucky and privileged to be in an environment where there's a fundamental understanding of the importance of culture, of leadership, of people for the future success of the company. 

Silvia Eggenweiler: We talk about AI; AI is, of course, a topic that we cannot escape, and so AI is rapidly reshaping organizations and the way we work. From your perspective, what does it mean to build an AI-enabled workforce, and what role should HR play in helping organizations adapt at the pace of technological change?  

Simone Berger: So, look, I believe that HR should play a very leading role in that because in the end, it's not about introducing a new technology, in my point of view, but it's really about a change of ways of working and behaviors. I believe, actually, to reach to an AI-first mindset as an organization, it needs a rewiring of how we work. We need to make it the default starting point for everyday work, not an afterthought to think AI first. And therefore, again coming back to it all starts with people, it all starts with behaviors. I really think that we need to approach it from a change management and HR lens rather than from an IT and pure technology lens only.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: There is an increasing discussion about how AI may reshape management structures and redefine the role of middle managers. How do you see leadership roles evolving in the coming years?  

Simone Berger: There is no doubt that change of managers, but also change of roles of employees in general, will happen in a fast-paced way, and I believe it's extremely important that we all embrace AI rather as a colleague than as a tool. I believe that AI can significantly help everyone to reduce a task that we actually don't like to do so much–call it the reduction of ugly hours–and rather move and shift our time to more value-creating tasks.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: Many organizations are enthusiastic about AI, but adoption often comes down to culture and trust, and I have the impression that many organizations still don't trust the AI. How can leaders create an environment where employees see AI as an opportunity and not as a threat?  

Simone Berger: Yes, absolutely, and I think this will differentiate successful companies leading through AI from not so successful companies. And in the end, I believe it's a leader's role, first and foremost, to be honest. Being honest means to say that jobs and roles and skills required may change, that some jobs also may go away, but that there's also opportunity for personal growth and, as we said before, for shifting, actually, to more value-creating tasks. And the second thing: I think it's a leader's role, really, to help rewire, to help put our mindset differently, to make sure that whenever we approach a new situation, we think, “How could AI help us in that situation?”  

Silvia Eggenweiler: I have a very personal question now, Simone. You have had a really impressive career so far, and if you had to give a piece of advice to HR leaders aspiring to increase their influence at the highest levels of the organization, what would it be?

Simone Berger: Probably two things. One thing that really has helped me to speak the language of the business and to make an impact is, whenever I go into a meeting, I try to put my mind into the highest-ranked person in the meeting and think,”What would this person try to expect as a best outcome from this meeting?” This has really helped me not to think in my HR silo or my HR language, but to really think enterprise-wide.

And the second thing I see, unfortunately, here and there, that HR tends to jump on a lot of trends out there, but not all of them really are needed and wanted and required by the business. So my advice is: Clearly focus on what creates value to the business.  

Silvia Eggenweiler: Wonderful. Simone, thank you so much for making the time to speak with us and giving us so many great insights in the way you do HR and how you are a business leader. Thank you so much.  

Simone Berger: Thank you so much. I enjoyed that, Silvia.  

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About the interviewer

Silvia Eggenweiler (seggenweiler@heidrick.com) is a partner and co-leads the global Life Sciences Tools & Services sector; she is based in the Frankfurt office.