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I by IMD Podcasts

Slawomir Krupa, how can a 160-year-old bank reinvent itself?

March 10, 2026 • by Jean-François Manzoni in I by IMD PodcastsPodcast availablePodcast available

Societe Generale CEO Slawomir Krupa on turnaround decisions, fintech pressure, and why long-term discipline beats short-term noise....

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What does it take to restore confidence in a 160-year-old bank that investors had stopped believing in?

 

In this episode, IMD’s Jean-François Manzoni speaks with Societe Generale CEO Slawomir Krupa about rebuilding a major institution from the inside out: stronger capital, more cost discipline, harder strategic choices – and a leadership culture of clarity and accountability.

Krupa does not frame transformation as storytelling. He frames it as work. He says the bank inherited “weak foundations,” warns that dismissing challengers such as fintechs is “a recipe for disaster down the road,” and explains why some painful decisions were made because “it was the right thing to do.”

Expert

CEOdialogue-CEO Dialogue-SlawomirKrupa-IbyIMD-Cards-5_3-1250x725

Slawomir Krupa

Chief Executive Officer, Societe Generale

Slawomir Krupa became CEO of Societe Generale in May 2023 after spending nearly his entire career at the bank. Before becoming CEO, he held senior leadership roles across Corporate and Investment Banking, served as CEO of Societe Generale Americas, and led Global Banking and Investor Solutions. Under his leadership, the bank has focused on restoring capital strength, simplifying the portfolio, and repositioning for sustainable growth.

Authors

Jean-François Manzoni

Jean-François Manzoni

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Development at IMD

Jean-François Manzoni (JFM) is Professor of Leadership, Organizational Development and Corporate Governance at IMD, where he served as President and Nestlé Professor from 2017 to 2024. His research, teaching, and consulting activities are focused on leadership, the development of high-performance organizations and corporate governance. In recent years JFM has also been increasingly focused on finding ways to ensure leadership development interventions have lasting impact, particularly through the use of technology-mediated approaches, and on closing the growing managerial “knowing-doing gap”, i.e., the gap between what managers kind of know they should be doing and the extent to which they actually behave that way in practice.

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