Ilias Arvanitis is Senior Consultant and Partner at Arfideco, an Athens-based consulting firm with over 30 years of experience in providing comprehensive business development solutions and the exclusive partner in Greece and Cyprus of Leadership Management International (LMI), one of the world’s oldest and most successful leadership development organizations. In this interview to Business Partners, he talks about effective leadership development, successful strategy implementation, and the key to innovation success.
You have been exploring, studying, and teaching various aspects of business management and leadership for over 25 years. What drew you to this field, and what are some of the defining moments that shaped your leadership philosophy?
The journey started long before I got to university. I would dare to say that it started in my early childhood, although, of course, the realization came later in life. Here I would like to make special reference to my father, Athanassios Arvanitis, with whom I have been working closely for the past two years at the family-run consulting firm, Arfideco. In a sense, he has been a sort of coach or private consultant to me throughout my entire life—something I came to realize in my thirties, when I first took on a managerial role.
Innovation can be a large, radical change or a small, incremental improvement
If I had to summarize in just a few words all the advice he’s given me, it would have to be: patience, perseverance, balanced risk, dependability, and continuous personal learning and development. Looking at him now that I’m in my forties, I can say he is a true example of a Total Leader, someone who is present and leads in all areas of life: financial and career, family and home, physical and health, social and cultural, mental and educational, and spiritual and ethical. That was the first milestone.
In addition, our school motto, “Non Ministrari sed Ministrare” (Latin for “not to be ministered unto, but to minister”), was deeply ingrained in me over my years of high school at Pierce College in Athens. This idea of serving a vision, a life purpose, rather than being served, set the foundations of a leadership philosophy with both visionary and servant characteristics. That was another significant milestone.
As LMI Master Licensees, we are results- and action-based internal development consultants and L&D providers
Later on, when I was a student at the then newly established Department of Management Science and Technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), I was exposed to an enriched perspective that combined cutting-edge international academic theories on management science and practice with new technologies and IT, and this nurtured in me a systems thinking approach to leadership and management. That was a third milestone.
The fourth milestone was working for Kumon, the Japanese global education company, for 15 consecutive years. Getting to work with students in class, visiting pioneering and best performing franchise study centers, discussing real case studies, very often alongside senior leaders and management from overseas, and even humbly preparing class for next day, not only helped me revisit my high school years and motto but also taught me the fundamentals of what strategy is and how leadership delivers added value to local communities and society overall. This precious experience of getting to know the product, i.e. the added value, well, and the respective call for humbleness and action at the same time, was very helpful, especially when leading a franchise network across a number of different countries in Southeast Europe.
Only when people are able to lead themselves are they truly empowered to be creative, innovative, and achieve the highest level of performance
Nowadays, having recently become a member of the global Leadership Management International family as Master Licensee for Greece and Cyprus, a whole transformative world of ideas, practical advice and tools lies in my hands thanks to the LMI programs and methodology. LMI teams succeed because they combine consultative selling, disciplined coaching-based delivery, and a culture of accountability to create measurable business impact for clients—and to me, this is proof that leadership is indeed an art that can be developed. This is why LMI encourages us all to walk the talk.
In today’s environment of rapid technological, economic, and geopolitical change, what do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for companies seeking sustainable growth?
I find that Amy Bernstein, Editor in Chief of the Harvard Business Review, in her From the Editor column in HBR’s May-June 2026 (Volume 104, Issue 3), best described the biggest challenges and opportunities in today’s environment: “The Thunder’s [NBA team from Oklahoma City] turnaround demonstrates that superteams are made—not born,” Bernstein wrote. “It just takes commitment to a specific set of behaviors to coalesce a disparate group of individuals into a unified whole that can keep learning, evolving and improving—which is good news for all of us who are competing in a world that’s moving a little too quickly.”
So, indeed, the speed of change is putting huge pressure on people and businesses not only to follow but also to adapt and to compete. The impact of rapid changes in IT and technology is largely known to the wider public, and was so even before the AI tsunami. The impact of geopolitics is also clear, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and even more so with the current conflict with Iran. All pressure resulting from these events is ultimately borne by ordinary people.
The biggest opportunity, maybe a first in the history of mankind, is developing leadership skills throughout all different industries, all different levels within companies and organizations, on both an individual and team level. There is plenty of evidence out there that relying on just a few enlightened leaders is an outdated model that no longer works. Especially given all the changes in technology, economy, and geopolitics, companies need to focus more on internal development and actions that impact direct results. As LMI Master Licensees, we are results- and action-based internal development consultants and learning and development providers.
As a business leader, how do you balance longterm strategic planning with the need to remain agile and responsive to constantly changing market conditions?
At the LMI World Convention in San Antonio, Texas, last year, Group CEO Randy Slechta cited Jeff Bezos, who said: “I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two—because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.”
It instantly reminded me of my added-value realization experience with Kumon. In a sense, by looking deep inside the company and crystallizing the added value your product or services offer, you get a compass that works well in muddy waters or turbulent times. But by no means should one rest assured that once this is clear, it’s a straight line path to success.
What I have found helpful in this regard, that is in executing strategy successfully, is the four levers of control framework, introduced by Harvard Business School Professor Robert Simons. These are:
Belief systems – mission statements and core values that define what people should do and how they should act as they strive for performance.
Boundary systems – codes of conduct and other formal systems that communicate what people should not do as they pursue their performance objectives.
Diagnostic control systems – formal information systems used by managers to monitor organizational outcomes and correct deviations from preset standards of performance.
Interactive control systems – formal systems used by managers to involve themselves in the decision activities of subordinates and focus organizational attention on emerging threats and opportunities.
In your experience, what distinguishes organizations that successfully transform innovation into business value from those that struggle to do so?
Innovation is a competitive advantage, a life-giving force for individuals as well as organizations. One could easily argue that it’s the lack of innovative culture in an organization that leads to the aforementioned struggle. Culture is a big word, heavily used and misused. For LMI, this is the adoption of a systematic practice of a structured process cycle, which in turn creates a relevant culture of innovation in the organization.
Innovation can be a large, radical change or a small, incremental improvement. The most important requirement of being an innovator is having an attitude of creativity and innovation. Of course, some people are more creative than others, but everyone can learn to be more creative and innovative. To become a better innovator, one needs to learn and master the six steps for effective innovation. By inviting diverse perspectives from different departments, different roles, different generations, and different customers, leaders can create an environment in which the best solutions can emerge. It is this collaborative synergy that leads to innovation success.
Leadership today extends beyond financial performance. How do you view the role of business leaders in fostering talent, shaping corporate culture, and creating a positive impact on society?
For businesses to become truly empowered, productive, and innovative enterprises and succeed in the 21st century, they must develop leaders throughout the entire organization. In fact, the organization of the future is an organization where everyone is a leader. It is only when people are able to lead themselves that they are actually empowered to be creative and innovative and to achieve the highest level of performance. This means leadership abilities must be developed in every team member. At the same time, leadership development is not an event, a project, or a program. Truly effective leadership development is a continuous, ongoing, lifelong process.
Hence, business leaders today are able not only to embrace a holistic leadership development approach but also to employ a complete, integrated, total leadership development process. This is why LMI has introduced the concepts of Total Leader® and Total Person®. More than a philosophy, the Total Person® concept is an action-oriented way of life that centers on goal setting and action plans in six vital areas: financial and career, family and home, physical and health, social and cultural, mental and educational, spiritual and ethical.
The Total Leader®, in turn, is a Total Person® who has developed the ability to manage themselves, manage their time, and manage their priorities to operate at maximum performance. They have also developed the capability to lead and motivate others, helping people continuously develop and use more of their full potential. They work through teamwork and collaboration to define and develop the purpose of the organization, the key strategies, the optimum structure, the right people in the right roles, and the most effective processes for an organization to succeed. In other words, they are strategic leaders who not only set the course but also follow through and execute the plan to completion.
Having recently become a Chamber member, what do you see as the main benefits of joining organizations such as AmCham Greece?
LMI was born in the US in the 1960s, and since we are now operating in Greece, there is no better community to join than the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce. We wanted this from day one of signing the Master Licensee Agreement at the end of 2024, as we strongly believe in networks, especially like that of AmCham. What they bring forward is a constant diffusion of best practices across industries, through the communication that is nurtured between its members at its various events. This way, people in key positions at companies that constitute the backbone of the Greek economy can exchange ideas, discuss challenges they face, share best practices and solutions, and also do business or create partnerships. This, in turn, not only reinforces a virtuous cycle of innovation, as the new ideas that travel within the network are filtered, revised, and developed further, but also further strengthens the bonds and the feeling of solidarity between the members of the Chamber.
