Grupo Carrefour Brasil

Viviane Gaspari

Viviane Gaspari brings three decades of HR experience to leading the people agenda for more than 120,000 employees at Grupo Carrefour Brasil. Her approach is grounded in the belief that people strategy cannot exist separately from business strategy and must translate business ambition into the capabilities, culture and leadership needed to achieve it.

At this scale, Gaspari focuses on balancing the complexity of the business with the individuality of each employee, recognizing their life experiences, aspirations, relationships and full potential. She sees HR’s role as connecting these dimensions to create tangible organizational value while fostering the conditions for people to grow, contribute meaningfully and perform at their best.

Aligning Transformation with Culture and Experience

Transformation and culture are not opposing forces. In fact, organizational transformation only becomes truly sustainable when the culture evolves alongside it. The ultimate challenge is preserving what makes an organization unique while having the courage to change what no longer serves its future goals.

This is exactly why the employee experience cannot be treated as a secondary initiative or addressed only after the business strategy is fully defined. People must be placed at the very heart of the transformation from the beginning. They need to understand what is changing, why it matters and their specific role in building what comes next.

In an organization of over 120,000 people, this requires absolute clarity, transparency and deep, empathetic listening. Culture is ultimately experienced in everyday decisions, leadership behaviors and those crucial moments that matter, not merely in presentations. When people understand the true purpose of change and feel actively involved in shaping it, transformation becomes a collective movement that strengthens both performance and culture.

Balancing Technology with the Human Side of HR

I firmly believe HR will become even more strategic and strictly accountable for tangible business outcomes. Technology and AI will radically transform processes and decision-making, but they will also make uniquely human capabilities that includes judgment, empathy, leadership, adaptability and trustbuilding even more valuable.

“Visibility opens doors, but substance builds a career.”

Latin American HR leaders will need to navigate immense complexity while simplifying organizations, leveraging data without losing the human perspective and preparing people for emerging jobs and future skills. The future of HR is not about choosing between technology and humanity. It is about knowing exactly how to use technology to make organizations more human, agile and highly effective.

Developing People Through Trust and Empowerment

Looking back on my leadership journey, what has influenced me most deeply is the experience of navigating complex transformation across different companies, industries, markets and countries. Over three decades, I have seen organizations fundamentally change, cultures evolve, people reinvent themselves and entire business contexts shift around us.

Those distinct experiences taught me there is no single magical formula for leading people through change. I learned that people do not necessarily resist change itself; they resist uncertainty, the lack of meaning and the frustrating feeling of having no voice. This profoundly shaped how I lead today: with absolute clarity and transparency, but also with active listening, genuine empathy and vulnerability. I learned to adapt my leadership style to different contexts while remaining highly consistent in my core beliefs.

It also reinforced my deepest belief about true leadership: developing people is not about having all the answers or creating dependent followers. It is about creating a safe environment where people feel trusted, challenged and fully empowered to discover their own strengths, take responsibility and grow. Ultimately, the greatest measure of leadership is not what happens while you lead, but what becomes possible because you were there.

The Energy and Courage to Make a Difference

My advice is to learn the business as deeply as you learn HR, but never underestimate the power of energy. Technical knowledge can be developed and experience comes with time. However, you cannot teach someone to have “sangue nos olhos” — that inner drive, ambition and determination to make things happen.

Be curious. Ask difficult questions. Have the courage to challenge the status quo and hold conversations that matter. Seek to understand the business, the market, technology and the world around you. Never stop reinventing yourself. Throughout three decades, I have learned that credibility is built through consistency: doing what you say, making difficult decisions, listening genuinely and delivering results. Visibility opens doors, but substance builds a career.

Simultaneously, never lose sight of the human being behind the title. People bring their whole selves to work. Finally, think beyond your own career. Develop people, create opportunities and leave every team stronger. Careers are built on competence and results, but lasting impact comes from the energy to transform, the courage to lead and the people you inspire along the way.