Building your identity as a manager – Marie-Joséphine Beguin – Marketing Director Europe

Legitimacy and resourcefulness: don’t pretend

Marie-Joséphine reminded us of the importance of legitimacy: telling yourself you’re there for a good reason, having proven yourself, and not playing a role that isn’t yours.

“You mustn’t pretend to be someone else—it shows”, she insisted. Coming from a technical background (HVAC engineering, LG) without being an engineer, she emphasized on-the-ground diagnosis, listening to sales teams, and knowledge transfer rather than top-down management. Her advice: prove yourself, provide a vision (the “why”), and don’t be afraid to keep learning—including from your colleagues, who are experts in their field.

Closeness and objectivity: the right distance

In marketing, closeness with teams is strong (events, projects). Marie-Joséphine explained how to keep the right distance: stay close to people while remaining objective as soon as there’s an issue or work isn’t done properly.

“Whatever relationship I have with team members, I will be objective. I give constructive feedback so the goal is achieved”. She refuses the idea that the manager is the one who resolves every conflict: she pushed teams to become the “witches” themselves—to step in with agencies and partners—to gain autonomy and legitimacy.

Multiculturalism: adapt without standardizing everything

With very diverse teams (Korea, Russia, the United States, China, Italy…), she highlighted the importance of adapting your communication: avoid being too direct with Koreans, accept the Dutch bluntness, and find a middle ground between very direct French-style feedback and the more rounded American approach. She gave the example of branding for a trip to Tanzania: she hated the design proposed by two colleagues, but chose to go with it because it was coherent for them and for the project—and the clients loved it.

Centralization and global needs: the department’s survival

To lead European marketing across 17 subsidiaries and Korea, she explained her survival rule: don’t handle things case by case. Every local request must be assessed as a global need; otherwise, the department gets overwhelmed. At the same time, she bans “no people”—those who systematically say “no”—and encourages always looking for a way to meet the need within the red lines.

All Stars and indirect leadership: the value proposition at the core

The LG All Stars program aims to retain and train thousands of installers in Europe. For Marie-Joséphine, the challenge is to continually rebuild the message to deliver useful things to these professionals—training, documentation, online reputation, cash flow management—and to go beyond the manufacturer’s role to address what gets these people out of bed in the morning.

“We’re interested in the humans behind the professionals”: their day-to-day lives, their problems, their desires.

In a nutshell…

• Legitimacy through proof and vision; don’t play a role, find your own formula, and keep learning.
• Closeness and objectivity: keep the right distance, give constructive feedback, empower teams rather than centralizing everything.
• Multiculturalism: adapt the message and feedback without standardizing everything; sometimes ease up.
• Centralization: global need before acting; no “no people”; All Stars in service of the value proposition and meaning.

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