INVEX transformed leadership through a culture shift

Back in 2024, Mexican financial group INVEX Grupo Financiero partnered with Cegos to deliver the Programa de Liderazgo Transformacional INVEX, a four-module programme designed to develop senior leaders capable of driving the bank’s cultural and digital transformation.

The programme helped transform 122 leaders and their teams. It has recently been recognised with a Brandon Hall Group Silver Award for Best Senior Manager Development Program.

For a financial institution, becoming faster and more digital is not only a technology challenge. It is a leadership one. By the time of the programme’s launch, INVEX had spent four years redefining its purpose and culture, so the key task was to incorporate that culture into everyday decision-making.

The group identified leadership as the most effective lever to drive this substantial cultural and mindset shift. Indeed, this became a true business imperative, not simply a learning one.

From paternalistic to transformational leadership

Founded in 1994, building on Casa de Bolsa INVEX, established in 1991, INVEX Grupo Financiero is a Mexican financial group spanning banking, brokerage, asset management, leasing and trust services, with more than 1,400 employees in Mexico.

Over the past decade it has shifted from a founder-led, personality-driven structure to a professional, institutional model governed by financial discipline and risk management. In that context, senior managers increasingly had to lead across functions, balancing speed with a discipline their sector demands. They also had to embrace soft skills such as showing more empathy and becoming better communicators.

However, that evolution exposed a gap. INVEX’s historical leadership style had become too paternalistic for a market now defined by growing digital expectations. Today, customers want less complexity and simpler, faster, branch-light experiences.

To meet this expectation, management set a clear ambition: to become a technology company that offers financial services, rather than a financial company with technological capabilities.

Reaching that ambition required leaders who could shift mindsets, guide teams through change and accelerate execution. The programme therefore set out to build transformational leaders who could give meaningful feedback, model the expected behaviours and lead confidently through volatility, uncertainty and constant change.

Without that capability, INVEX risked slowing its transformation and losing competitiveness.

End-to-end leadership journey

Cegos designed the programme as a continuous development journey rather than a series of isolated training sessions.

They began the design by aligning on needs with Human Resources and running diagnostics, which together shaped the four learning modules. The programme then moved on to workplace application, project presentation and ongoing monitoring of leadership indicators.

Baseline diagnostics taken at the outset gave each leader a personal starting point, against which progress could later be compared.

The pedagogy followed Cegos’ 4E model, weighting learning toward practice:

• Experience (35%): real business challenges and cross-functional projects
• Exposure (25%): feedback, mentoring and leadership visibility
• Education (15%): webinars, microlearning and e-learning
• Effectiveness (25%): diagnostics, NPS and behavioural indicators

Each module combined synchronous sessions, applied assignments, role plays, case analysis, group coaching and AI-based simulations. It was all hosted on the LearningHub@Cegos platform with progress dashboards, forums and gamified certifications.

A dedicated project manager supported each module, with personalised work plans, clear milestones, a WhatsApp engagement channel and continuous NPS measurement keeping the journey on track.

The four-module development experience

The programme was built around four progressive modules, moving from individual capability to organisational impact:

• Transforming People used the BEST personality framework (Bold, Expressive, Supportive, Technical) and SWOT self-analysis to strengthen self-awareness, communication and feedback.
• Transforming Execution applied the GROW coaching methodology to build accountability, delegation and psychological safety within teams.
• Transforming Talent equipped leaders to map capability with the 16-BOX model, distinguish potential from performance and build individual development plans.
• Transforming Strategy developed critical thinking, data-driven decision-making and the agility needed to lead in a volatile market.

Around the modules, participants followed a structured journey: pre-programme diagnostics, live sessions, 90-minute group coaching between modules, workplace application exercises, and a learning community for sharing best practice.

Engagement was continuously high, with leaders applying tools directly to live business challenges between sessions. The design deliberately reinforced learning before, during and after each session. It is this mechanism Cegos credits for turning content into sustained behaviour.

Measurable shifts in leadership capability

INVEX measured impact across four levels (adoption, participant experience, behavioural change and business application) rather than training outputs alone.

Adoption was strong. 122 leaders took part, with the change reaching roughly 400 of their direct reports, supported by a 98% attendance rate.

The behavioural improvement was also consistent. More than 85% of participants reported improved self-awareness and empathy, 78% greater clarity in managing team commitments, and 83% felt better prepared to align their people with strategy.

Seven in ten leaders implemented at least one development action within their teams. Satisfaction held up module by module, with Net Promoter Scores ranging from 75 to 89 across the four blocks.

Most tellingly, the learning translated into execution. Participants activated 35 transformational initiatives, and 360° leadership scores rose from 2.29 to 4.32 between 2024 and 2025. This is a substantial, organisation-wide gain in leadership effectiveness.

Reasons for success

Throughout, INVEX defined “what matters” as leadership effectiveness and strategic alignment rather than training volume. This kept measurement actionable and tied to the transformation agenda.

The learning community, established during the programme, continues to support peer exchange beyond it, and longer-term business results will be tracked over time as the next cohort launches this year.

Did you find this article helpful ?

Written by

Luis Jimenez-Alfaro

Learn more