Welcome to Behind the Click, powered by the E-commerce Berlin Expo.
How do you rebuild a company from the inside out, without cutting people, killing culture, or losing momentum? In this episode, host Janine Vanessa Heinrich sits down with Alexandra Szarmach, CHRO & Managing Director of flaconi, to unpack how she helped lead one of Germany’s biggest beauty retailers through a full cultural and operational turnaround.
When Alexandra joined in 2023, flaconi was facing tough times: low morale, high turnover, unclear identity, and no profitability in sight. Today, the company is thriving, growing, united, and celebrated for a people-first culture built on transparency, trust, and real leadership alignment.
Alexandra shares how flaconi rebuilt leadership foundations, redefined its values, brought teams back together after years of remote fragmentation, and launched a gamified culture program inspired by Harry Potter that employees genuinely love.
From honest communication to data-driven HR, from regaining profitability to embracing AI to kill repetitive work, this is a masterclass in modern leadership.
🟠 Interested in being a guest on our podcast? Reach out to us at pr@ecommerceberlin.com.
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