US$24 billion Dutch bank ABN Amro is cutting a fifth of its workforce over the next three years. So how is its CEO, Marguerite Bérard, mobilizing the team? Discussing these growing pains with employees during weekly lunches.
“Now I eat lunch earlier and at my desk,” Bérard told the Financial Times in a recent interview. “This is a big cultural change, because French meals can be long. That was one of my adjustments.”
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The bank has been impacted since the financial crisis, having previously been rescued from collapse — and, most recently, ABN Amro’s fourth-quarter 2025 net profit was below market expectations.
Last November, the bank announced a plan to raise its return on equity to at least 12% while keeping its cost/income ratio below 55%.
However, the attempt to reverse the situation required sacrifices, including the cutting of 5,200 employees between 2024 and 2028. By the end of 2025, 1,500 employees had already been laid off, ABN Amro informed Fortune.
Now, once a week, the French banker eats sandwiches with eight to 10 colleagues in an effort to “listen to their opinions about the bank” during the transition.
“Building consensus and alliances is often important in the Netherlands,” continued the CEO. “It’s something the French don’t always know how to do well.”
The gesture is essential to engage employees while the company reduces costs and headcount, explained the CEO, while trying to increase profits and remain competitive.
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Bérard said employees “understand” the reasons behind the company’s strategy and that the layoffs will be conducted in a “very responsible” manner, as the European bank has committed to helping laid-off workers find new jobs.
Still, it’s natural that not everyone will be satisfied with the plan, and Bérard is committed to moving forward gradually.
“[Mas] We also recognize that consensus can take time to build, and sometimes keeping everything as is is not a good option — you need to act quickly.”
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The ABN Amro CEO isn’t the only leader of a billion-dollar company who sits down to share a meal with employees; others are also using this simple moment as a powerful connection strategy.
Chris Tomasso, CEO of breakfast and lunch chain First Watch, has been reaching out to his employees through small gestures that make a big impact.
In addition to writing congratulatory letters to celebrate career milestones — such as 10, 20 or even 30 years at the billion-dollar company — the executive also likes to have lunch with employees. Tomasso states that it is essential that employees feel happy and valued.
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“I try to minimize the title as much as possible [de CEO] when I’m interacting with people,” Tomasso told Fortune in a 2025 interview.
“I eat lunch in the break room with everyone, which always, for some reason, surprises new employees—the fact that I just sit next to them, bring my food, and eat lunch with them. I think it’s a shame that that feeling exists.”
Even the leader of one of the world’s largest companies, the $3.8 trillion technology giant Apple, doesn’t always eat lunch in his executive office.
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CEO Tim Cook often sits with random employees in the company cafeteria during lunch — a change from his predecessor, the late Steve Jobs, who often lunched with design executive Jonathan Ive.
Duolingo leaders also like to meet with their executive colleagues — but in the public cafeteria, so they can interact with employees at all levels.
Severin Hacker, CTO and co-founder of the $4.5 billion learning platform, said these daily team lunches, which include co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn, are “fundamental to our company culture.”
According to him, connecting with employees is better than any engagement survey because they are more open about how things are going at the company: “That’s when the real stuff comes out.”
“Lunch is an opportunity for people who don’t normally work together to really talk. On any given day, Luis or I might be sitting next to someone just hired straight out of college. Or people from completely different teams,” Hacker wrote in a LinkedIn post a year ago.
“The important thing is that lunch allows us to hear what’s really on the team’s mind,” continued the co-founder. “There is no rehearsed feedback or polite updates—I hear things I would never find out in a formal meeting.”
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