— Culture Transformation
— Leadership Transformation
— Learning & Development
Case study
Rexel Group — Powering up leaders to transform a business
In a nutshell.
In a rapidly shifting global energy market, Rexel Group recognized that strategy alone wouldn’t future-proof its business—its leaders had to transform too. We partnered with Rexel’s Global Talent team to launch Energize: a bold leadership program designed not just to train, but to radically shift mindsets, behaviors, and business outcomes across 19 countries.
In just twelve months, 114 senior leaders have already delivered over $175m in value—launching ventures, securing new revenue streams, and embedding innovation across functions and regions. Energize is reshaping Rexel’s culture and business: building accountability, sparking cross-border collaboration, and empowering leaders to drive change with confidence.
This is not a story of theory and models. It’s proof of how Artgym turns leadership development into measurable business transformation, helping organizations like Rexel to unlock talent, accelerate strategy, and win in complex, fast-changing markets.
5 key insights.
- Leadership transformation drives business transformation – Shifting mindsets and behaviors across the business enabled Rexel to turn strategy into measurable results
- Practical, practice-led development creates impact fast – By focusing on real-world strategic initiatives, leaders generated over $175m in value within one year
- Global scale requires local sensitivity – Tailoring the program across cultures, languages, and market maturities ensured both consistency and relevance
- Embedding accountability and collaboration accelerates change – Energize built a culture of feedback, innovation, and cross-border teamwork that directly fuelled change
- Leadership programs can deliver ROI, not just learning – Energize proves that when development is linked tightly to business strategy, it becomes a powerful driver of competitive advantage
The strategic context.
Rexel’s transformation imperative
Rexel Group is a global leader in energy supply solutions, with 28,000 employees and €19bn in revenue across 19 countries. By 2021, the company faced a dual challenge: Capturing unprecedented demand for electrification products while navigating mounting complexity and disruption from regulation, interconnected technologies, and evolving routes to market.
In response, Rexel launched PowerUp 2025—an ambitious, mid-term strategy focused on digital transformation, supply chain innovation, and an ESG-led positioning.
The challenge.
Business change demanded leadership change
Strategy alone was not enough. Rexel’s collaborative culture was a strength, but its leaders were too anchored in short-term sales and operational delivery. The success of the business transformation depended on the ability of 800+ senior leaders worldwide to shift their focus towards driving enterprise-level change. Building this leadership capability was not optional—it was a strategic necessity to translate PowerUp 2025 into measurable business impact.
The Group Talent team identified five critical leadership shifts as non-negotiable: Build a future-focused pipeline of senior leaders capable of driving innovation; align behaviors to a new global competency framework; embed accountability and feedback as everyday practice; accelerate cross-regional, cross-functional collaboration; and strengthen talent attraction and retention to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market.
Without these shifts, the PowerUp 2025 strategy would stall at the execution stage.
Our solution.
A program driving strategically aligned change across the business
Our starting point was to get an in-depth understanding of Rexel’s existing culture and business. This revealed that regional variations in skills, culture, and market maturity needed to be considered alongside the drive for global standardization. It also highlighted a disconnect between company and team strategy, a lack of external benchmarking, and a preference among leaders for practical, hands-on learning.
Guided by these insights and our Mindset+Practice=Results methodology, we partnered with Rexel to co-create Energize—a bold new leadership program focused on delivering tangible, strategically aligned change across regions and functions.
It was structured as an intensive four-month experience. And unlike classroom learning, it provided a live platform for leaders to experiment, stretch, and deliver results.
Throughout the program, Artgym’s coaching team guided participants beyond their comfort zones, ensuring development translated directly into business outcomes.
Key elements included:
- Targeted diagnostics – Self-assessments to help participants identify development needs and track progress against Rexel’s global competency framework
- Immersive leadership bootcamp – A high-intensity, 2.5-day event to practice critical skills such as feedback, collaboration, and storytelling
- External benchmarking – Through a Research Your Market challenge that brought in external best practice to raise ambition and expand strategic horizons
- Strategic initiatives – Participants translated insights into action by designing and launching roadmaps aligned to the PowerUp 2025 transformation priorities
- Senior stakeholder engagement – Sponsors and senior leaders acted as catalysts, reinforcing alignment and creating visible momentum at the highest levels
- Impact showcases – Final presentations demonstrating measurable outcomes and securing executive buy-in for the strategic initiatives
This practice-led model ensured that Energize was more than a leadership program—it became a mechanism for accelerating Rexel’s strategy, embedding a culture of accountability, and generating tangible value across the business.
“I feel like I’m part of big wave inside Rexel. Not just a training program but a true company mindset change.”
Rexel France participant
The outcome.
Culture-driven business impact
Within twelve months of launch, Energize is already transforming Rexel’s culture and business. As of March 2025, 114 leaders across 13 countries have completed the program. Early outcomes signal a step-change in performance:
- Cultural transformation – Senior stakeholders and HRDs across all regions have reported significant increases in feedback, accountability, innovation and cross-functional collaboration
- Business acceleration – Leaders are translating new capabilities into tangible results. Examples include a new customer platform in Italy, a sustainable technologies venture fund in Canada, and millions of dollars in sales growth in Australia
With a further 270 leaders set to graduate annually, the program is building a powerful global pipeline of leaders delivering real, transformational impact. In short, Energize is powering Rexel’s ability to adapt, innovate and lead in a complex, fast-changing energy market.
114
new strategic initiatives launched
$175m
in additional financial
value created
“The program has created a stronger, collective voice and a cross-functional group that is now building a new target operation model.”
Rachel Nixon, Head of People Partnerships, Rexel UK
“The program is creating a direct and transformative impact on Rexel that will have a ripple effect for years to come. The short-term, operational focus of our leaders is now being balanced with the strategic, innovation-driving perspective needed to navigate the challenges of tomorrow.”
Talar Sarafian, Group Talent Director, Rexel Group