Lessons in Transformation: Insights from Olympia Group’s CEO Antreas Athanassopoulos

Endeavor Greece hosted the first CEOs Dinner of the season, welcoming Mr. Antreas Athanassopoulos, CEO of Olympia Group, as our guest. The evening brought together founders and leaders from across industries for an open conversation on leadership, transformation, and the realities of steering organizations through change.

Transformation as Open-Heart Surgery

Athanassopoulos compared corporate transformation to “open-heart surgery.” By nature, transformation is stressful, short-term, and cannot be permanent - otherwise, organizations and people “burn out.” The key, he stressed, is knowing when and how to intervene: mobilizing the best people inside a company, but also making sure they are supported with the right incentives to balance their daily responsibilities with the demands of transformation.

Why Transformation Happens

He distinguished between two types of transformation:

• Necessity-driven: triggered by external shocks or declining performance, often with survival at stake.

• Proactive: initiated when companies are healthy, to prepare for upcoming challenges.

The latter, he argued, is the most effective - but also the hardest, because it requires convincing people to change when everything seems to be going well.

Strategy Over Buzzwords

In his view, transformation should never be reduced to “buzzwords” like digitalization. Technology is important, but without a parallel business repositioning, change doesn’t take root. He advised leaders to keep goals clear, simple, and tangible so teams understand what the transformation means in practice.

The CEO’s Role in Transformation

The CEO, he noted, should not be the one directly running the transformation. The day-to-day dual focus on “perform and transform” creates confusion. Instead, the role of the CEO is to enable and support a dedicated transformation leader, protect them from internal resistance, and ensure alignment across the leadership team.

Culture, Reporting, and Ownership

Equally important are the “soft” elements: transparency in reporting, resilience against fatigue, and giving younger employees ownership of initiatives so they feel part of the change. “When you see everyone smiling during a transformation, it means there is no transformation,” he joked - underscoring that true change is uncomfortable but necessary.

Takeaways for Founders

From his personal journey - across academia, banking, retail, and now leading an international investment group active in energy, retail, software, and distribution - Athanassopoulos highlighted a central message: successful transformation requires timing, simplicity, and courage. It is about knowing when to adapt, how to mobilize your people, and why staying focused on fundamentals often matters more than chasing trends.