Banking on Success Wilbert Verheijen on Leadership Across Borders & CEE Growth
Canon Managing Director Wilbert Verheijen explains how cross-cultural experience and digitalization shape leadership and what makes the CEE region so special.
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the Caucasus, and Central Asia represent one of the most diverse and dynamic business environments in the world. For organizations operating across this broad geography, success depends on more than a strong regional strategy. It requires cultural awareness, local presence, operational agility, and leadership that adapts to the circumstances.
In the latest episode of our podcast Banking on Success, our hosts Elitza Kavrakova and Roman Ermantraut spoke to Wilbert Verheijen, Managing Director of Canon Central and East Region. He shared perspectives drawn from a career spanning Europe, North America, and Asia. His experience offers relevant insights for corporate and institutional leaders navigating transformation across complex, fast-growing markets.
Cross-Cultural Experience Shapes Better Leadership
Verheijen began his international career with Océ, which was acquired by Canon in 2009. Originally from the Netherlands, he took his first assignment in the United States after one year with the company. Over the following decades, he moved to a different country or market approximately every three to four years.
These experiences shaped his leadership approach profoundly. Working across cultures means learning that assumptions, communication styles, and expectations vary substantially — even between neighboring countries. Direct feedback, for example, may be viewed as a sign of friendship in Dutch business culture, while in other markets it may be considered inappropriate or overly confrontational. Leaders who apply their own cultural norms without considering local context can create conflict without fully understanding its source.
The central lesson is clear: Effective leadership begins with curiosity. Leaders must understand how people work together, what they value, and what enables teams to perform at their best. This is particularly important in regions where a single organizational approach cannot simply be imposed across every market.
Coaching Is a Leadership Tool, Not a Universal Answer
Verheijen’s cross-cultural experiences also naturally led him to coaching. As President of the International Coaching Federation and a trained coach, he sees coaching as an open way to understand different perspectives, work through conflict, and identify the strengths that diverse teams bring to the table.
However, he emphasizes that coaching is only one leadership style among many. It must be used according to the situation. In a crisis, leaders need to provide clarity and direction rather than begin an extended coaching conversation. Similarly, routine operational discussions may not require a coaching approach. The value lies in having coaching available as a practiced capability — a tool in the leadership toolbox that can help leaders navigate complex interpersonal or cultural dilemmas.
CEE: A Portfolio of Diverse Markets
Canon’s Central and East region covers 26 countries, from Austria to Kazakhstan and the Chinese border. Verheijen describes it not as one market, but as a portfolio of markets — each with distinct characteristics, opportunities, and risks.
This diversity makes the region attractive, but it also makes leadership and operating models more complex. Companies need an overarching strategy, while allowing flexibility in how that strategy is applied locally. “One size fits all” does not work across CEE, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Local teams remain essential for maintaining proximity to customers, distribution networks, and retail partners. At the same time, regional organizations can centralize selected capabilities and shared services to improve efficiency and consistency. For international customers, this model can provide a valuable balance: a coordinated regional offering combined with local market knowledge and execution.
Centralization and Localization Must Work Together
The balance between centralization and localization is one of the defining management questions for companies in the region. Centralization can support efficiency, shared services, standardized offerings, and coordinated procurement. Localization ensures that companies remain close to their customers and responsive to specific market conditions.
Vienna is an example of how this model can work. Canon has chosen the city as the base for its Central and East region, building on its established role in serving Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The location offers relevant expertise, infrastructure, and an ecosystem that supports regional operations, including trade-compliance capabilities.
Yet regional coordination does not mean that all activities need to be physically concentrated in one location. Shared services can be coordinated across the region while retaining the local presence needed for customer engagement and market responsiveness.
Agility Is Essential in Fast-Changing Markets
CEE has outperformed global growth for many years, according to Verheijen, and continues to offer significant opportunities. But growth markets also require companies to adapt quickly.
In European business culture, organizations may develop a long-term strategy and remain committed to it even when circumstances shift. In more fast-changing markets, however, the ability to revise decisions and redirect resources can be a competitive strength. This does not mean operating without a strategy. Rather, it means combining long-term direction with an agile mindset. Organizations need to be prepared to adjust when market conditions, customer needs, or external developments change.
This capability is particularly important across a region as varied as CEE and Central Asia. A challenge in one market may be balanced by an opportunity in another, reinforcing the value of managing the region as a diversified portfolio.
Digitalization and AI Are Reshaping Customer Needs
Increasing productivity and reducing costs are key priorities for many businesses in the region. Digitalization is often the starting point of these conversations. Verheijen notes that customers in CEE can move rapidly to newer technologies, in part because they may not carry the same legacy systems and processes as organizations in more mature markets. This can accelerate transformation, although infrastructure and service availability can still present obstacles.
E-commerce is one illustration of this momentum. In the discussion, Verheijen cited business conducted through e-commerce as being approximately twice as high in CEE as in Western Europe — around 20% compared with 10%.
Artificial intelligence is also increasingly part of the digitalization agenda. While its future impact remains uncertain, Verheijen views AI primarily as a tool that can support redesigned processes. Business and leadership, in his view, remain fundamentally about people.
The Foundation of Regional Growth
Technology, centralization, and agile strategies are all important. But the foundation of sustainable growth remains simple: the people.
Talent management is a significant challenge in fast-growing markets. As businesses expand, the available pool of experienced professionals must grow as well. At the same time, talent is highly mobile, increasing the need for organizations to create environments where people can develop and contribute.
For leaders, the opportunity is to build organizations that combine regional scale with local understanding, strategic direction with agility, and technology with human judgment. In a region defined by diversity and change, these capabilities will continue to determine long-term success.
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