By Ralph Pillot III
$5 USD to step into Monet’s world.
That was the approximate admission price when I visited an immersive Monet exhibition brought into one of our malls through a partnership between our local team and a curator.
The experience itself was memorable. Large-scale projections, color and movement allowed visitors to experience the paintings differently. At the end, guests could take a photograph and receive a digital image of themselves interpreted in Monet’s style.
But what interested me most was not the technology.
It was the decision behind the experience.
A retail space had temporarily become available as one tenant moved and before renovation began for the next one. The easy choice would have been to leave it dark until construction started.
Instead, I asked the local team a better question:
What could this space contribute while we have it?
Working with a local curator, they turned that temporary availability into something more people could experience. Admission during our visit was R$25, roughly US$5.
That may look like a small operational decision.
I think it represents something much larger about leadership.
A business operates inside a community
Executives spend a great deal of time thinking about customers, revenue, capital, operations and growth.
We should.
But businesses do not operate in isolation.
Our employees live in the communities around us. Our customers do too. The people running neighboring businesses, schools, cultural organizations, restaurants and professional services are part of the same ecosystem.
If we expect a community to support our businesses, I believe we should also think about how our businesses can contribute something useful in return.
That does not mean every company needs to become a charity.
It means leaders should understand that the decisions we already make about our people, properties, partnerships and resources can sometimes create value beyond the immediate transaction.
For a retail property, that might mean using transitional space for art, education, entrepreneurship or another community experience.
For a bank, it might mean helping local business owners understand financing, supporting financial education or making bankers more accessible to the people building businesses in the market. Trust me, I have implemented all of the above throughout my career with great success to our business and more importantly the communities we serve.
For another organization, the answer may be completely different.
The first responsibility is to listen.
You cannot lead a community you have not taken time to understand
Working across the United States, Latin America and Europe has reinforced something for me:
Experience travels. Assumptions should not.
When I enter a new market, I bring what I have learned throughout my career. But I do not want to begin by assuming I already know what that community needs.
I want to understand what people value.
Where do they see opportunity?
What do they believe is missing?
What frustrates them?
What would make a meaningful difference?
And then comes the part leaders sometimes miss:
What we learn should change what we do.
Otherwise, we were not really listening.
Community input can influence whom we partner with, how we develop local talent, how we use our spaces, which services we prioritize and what experiences we make accessible.
The art exhibition was one example.
A temporarily unused commercial space became an opportunity for more people to experience art without requiring a trip to a major museum or a high admission price.
That does not happen because an executive sitting somewhere else decided what the community should want.
It happens when local people, local partners and the organization are willing to work together.
Accessibility matters, but so does responsibility
There is also an ethical dimension to partnerships between commercial spaces and cultural organizations that leaders should take seriously.
Making culture more accessible is a good objective.
But accessibility should not mean treating artists, curators or cultural organizations as inexpensive decoration for a commercial property.
If businesses want to participate in this space responsibly, the relationship should respect the people who make the experience possible.
That means asking practical questions.
Are the curators and creators properly recognized?
Are commercial expectations clear?
Is the work being presented respectfully?
Is the experience accessible without diminishing its cultural value?
Does the community actually benefit, or are we simply using culture as another marketing backdrop?
And are the people creating the experience being treated as real partners?
Those questions matter.
Retail and cultural organizations can create value together, but only when both sides respect what the other brings to the relationship.
A shopping center contributes space, traffic, operating infrastructure and access to an existing community.
A curator or cultural organization contributes expertise, credibility, interpretation and creative judgment.
Neither contribution should be treated as incidental.
Good neighbors can still run good businesses
I have never believed that strong business performance and community responsibility are opposing ideas.
In fact, my experience has often been the opposite.
Strong businesses are usually built through relationships.
People want to work with organizations they trust.
Employees want to be proud of where they work.
Customers notice when businesses contribute something meaningful to the places around them.
Partners become more willing to collaborate.
Other organizations begin to participate too.
One business may make space available for an exhibition.
Another may sponsor an educational program.
Another may provide transportation, expertise, technology or volunteers.
That is how individual actions begin to build stronger communities.
Leadership can influence that behavior.
Not by issuing a press release saying we care about the community.
By making decisions that demonstrate it.
This philosophy did not begin in real estate
I learned many of these lessons much earlier in my career.
In banking, the strongest markets were never built only through products and branch locations.
They were built through relationships with employees, business owners, families and community leaders.
The manager who understood the neighborhood usually understood the business better.
The banker who knew what local companies were trying to build could have a very different conversation from someone simply trying to sell another product.
The same principle has followed me into every industry since.
Listen first.
Understand the people affected.
Give local leaders room to contribute.
Build relationships before you need something from them.
And make sure the business leaves something of value behind.
That does not weaken performance.
In my experience, it strengthens it.
Employees are part of the community too
There is another side to this that executives should not overlook.
We cannot talk about being good neighbors while being poor coworkers.
Community leadership begins inside the organization.
Do employees feel heard?
Do local managers have a voice?
Are people being developed?
Are we creating opportunity?
Can someone raise an idea and actually see leadership respond to it?
The same principle applies internally and externally:
When people see their input reflected in our actions, we give them a reason to trust us and participate in the change.
That is what made many of my teams successful in banking, multi-unit luxury operations and every industry I have worked in since.
People support what they help build.
Walk the community before you write the plan
For leaders, I would suggest a very practical exercise.
Before committing to your next local initiative, spend time with the people who will actually experience it.
Talk with employees.
Talk with customers or clients.
Talk with neighboring businesses.
Talk with community organizations.
Ask what they believe would make a difference.
Look for something the community is missing that your organization may already have the ability to help provide.
Then ask the most important question:
What decision should I change because of what I heard?
That is where listening becomes leadership.
The Monet experience was not important because we temporarily filled an empty space.
It was important because a team looked at an available asset and saw an opportunity to create something more useful with it.
That is the kind of thinking I want to encourage.
We should absolutely build strong businesses.
We should improve properties.
We should create returns.
We should grow.
But along the way, we should also invest some of our time, energy, relationships and resources into the people around us.
A good leader should help build a successful business. A great leader should also care whether the community is stronger because that business is there.
That is what being a good neighbor means to me.
And sometimes it can start with something as simple as asking what else an empty room could become.
Thought question for you: What has listening to your community changed about the way you lead?
About Ralph Pillot III
Ralph Pillot III is a renowned international strategy and operations executive with decades of leadership experience across banking, multi-unit operations, luxury and customer-facing businesses, investment strategy and organizational transformation. His work focuses on business development, client experience, leadership development, cross-border growth and turning strategy into executable operating models. He created the Client Journey for a bank network that became NYCs third largest and since has grown profits through great teams across several industries and Fortune 500 firms. His management style always puts people first and he shares his insights with teams around his operations philosophy, “Our locations are where strategy comes to life.”
