(source: Amrop Slovakia)
We are honoured that this exceptional professional and trusted advisor to many international CEOs and boards congratulated us personally on our anniversary that also marks 25 years of human capital consulting in Slovakia. During his visit J. I. Leyún was the guest of honor at our traditional Meet the New Chiefs event – where Amrop introduces local as well as global leaders to the Slovak business community. We are happy to share with you the main ideas from his interview with a focus on Leaders for What’s Next and what distinguishes them in a world with so many variables.
(source: Amrop Slovakia)
The world today offers many challenges. If you write the word crisis with Chinese characters, there are two signs – danger and opportunity. Do you perceive the word crisis as having this dual possibility?
In any crisis, like on a coin, there are two sides. One could be considered a risk, but obviously there is also another side that is an opportunity. These days we face some very tough situations from many points of view. And I would agree with the Chinese approach, meaning that in every crisis there is always a risk but as well an opportunity. We can take the lessons from the risk during crisis and say that those who survived the crisis – at the end of the day – are in a much better position for future challenges.
You are giving advice to businessmen and to their businesses. So from the business point of view are you saying those who surrender to danger will perish and those who persist and are innovative will survive?
Absolutely. We need to find new solutions for the new situation we are facing; the world is changing constantly and the speed is much higher than before. To handle those situations you need to be flexible, you need to be persistent, you have to be innovative, and you need to take a completely different approach. The old recipes and the old solutions don’t apply anymore and you have to take an innovative mindset to really face and survive those situations.
Is there a chance that the financial crisis could return or is it over and the solutions are perfect?
These days, because of how society is evolving, nothing is definitive, nothing is guaranteed, and nothing is finished. The markets will evolve, so I think this is just the temporary solution that has been found in this moment in time for fixing the problems that we are facing today. This is something that will be very present in our lives from now on. Everything is changing, and no solution will be definitive. We cannot assume that the problem is completely fixed. Tomorrow we will be facing a completely new situation and new problems, and we will have to be flexible and open-minded enough to really face them.
In this regard do you think there are opportunities to find long term solutions for companies you are advising?
Some of the problems are really significant problems. They are very good reflection of how the society and the world are evolving these days. And it is also somehow a reflection of the problems that our customers are facing. Companies are constantly under threat, because their markets, customers, products and competitors are changing constantly. Globalisation is affecting all of us in many ways, so what is happening in political terms is also a reflection of what is happening in the corporate world. Our customers, our managers, in changing environments they need to adapt constantly, and they need to face new problems and find new solutions. Globalisation is underway everywhere and is affecting all of us. And the closer we are to our customers the more impact we have, the more in demand we are to really give them support and advise on key issues. So this is the new game.
Do you think that this could go another way and that globalisation would slow down or stop at one point because of these problems?
No, on the contrary, I expect globalisation will become deeper, bigger and faster. Any company in any sector will be significantly affected more and more each day because of globalisation and access to information, to the internet and to everything. I expect the globalisation to continue to be the key issue for all of us. Now every single business and every single issue can be really taken to the global level, and therefore you cannot think only locally, you have to think globally. Even if local knowledge is important to your market, globalisation will be very high on the agenda for any corporation.
How and where do you search for future leaders and directors? Does your search include for instance startups or other businesses?
Our obligation whenever a customer retains our services is really to look for the best talent no matter where they are, so I would say that for us whatever company works on is not a restriction. We are always looking for certain characteristics from a personal and professional point of view. Therefore, we do not disregard people, whether they are working in a state-owned company, a privately owned company, family owned company or a startup business. We are really looking for talent in no matter what form or where they are working. One of the advantages that we provide to our customers when we do a search is to really do the best possible mapping and provide them information that demonstrates how deep and wide we have done our work and research. And at the end of the day we come to some conclusions and some names that are the most talented people to fix the problems that the customers face.
So you are searching for individuality and personality and not for human resources?
Well, one could be an approach and one could be a definition. At the end of the day we are looking for people according to our customers’ needs and their definitions. So from that point of view whether we call it human resources or talent it’s similar. But what is really important these days is that companies are looking for a certain profile of people, because of what is happening in terms of globalisation and the speed of changes. The type of profiles that we are looking for have changed significantly when compared to previous years. Now, companies have to face different problems and therefore they need to find different talent, different resources and handle them
Are you convinced that invention and good ideas are the things necessary for a good business?
Definitely. These days what you can really get easily is money. What we are missing, what sometimes is really missing, is the idea, is the positioning, is entrepreneurial spirit, and the innovation. But if you really have the good idea and the good approach, money will come. What we are grappling with these days is a significant scarcity of talented people – finding the right people for solving problems or bringing new ideas, innovating in the business, doing the things in a different way… We need new approaches; we need different people with new competencies, because now the environment is so different that we cannot do things the way it used to be done before.
Do you think also that investors are thinking this way and are ready to invest to good ideas?
Today there is a clear move to develop what are called startups. There is a clear move to putting money in new ideas and into new businesses. The best example is what is happening in California in Silicon Valley. There you really see how people are willing to invest into new ideas, new plans, and new projects. And by the way, if those ideas, those projects do not work or fail – nothing happens. They just close them and start something new again. The approach to a failure and how to handle those situations is changing as well. Failure is not taken any more as a key issue and just because you failed does not mean you have to fail again. In fact, just the opposite – sometimes, the more you fail, the more you are likely to succeed in the future. So that type of thing is happening in Silicon Valley and it can be taken and is already exported to other countries. One of the lessons of the recent crisis is that we will need to take new initiatives and new approaches; technologies are driving our life these days, so anytime there is an invention, technologically driven, it immediately receives support. This is the trend and it will be clearly a trend for the future development.
Prepared by Igor Šulík, Managing Partner, Amrop
The interview of J. I. Leyún for TA3 television and for Forbes as well as other information from Mr. Leyún’s visit in Bratislava can be found at www.amrop.sk.
José I. Leyún (source: Amrop Slovakia)
JOSÉ I. LEYÚN is CEO of the Amrop and a Member of Amrop's Global Executive Board. A Partner of Amrop Seeliger y Conde in Spain and Head of Amrop's Global Leadership Assessment Practice, he has a track record of exemplary professional service, as trusted advisor to the Boards for a range of international clients.
Amrop Slovakia (source: Amrop Slovakia)
Amrop is a leader in Executive Search & Leadership Consulting in more than 50 countries. It is a member of AESC and is its longest active member and remains the only member with a fully-fledged office in Slovakia since 1990. Our unique Context Driven approach to executive search helps our clients find Leaders for What’s Next – top talent, adept at working across borders in markets around the world.
The firm approaches consulting projects using its own model of Amrop 3D Practices based on a combination of sector knowledge, functional expertise and the ownership specificities of the client organisation that enables our consultants to effectively address even the most difficult challenges and problems for Boards, C-suite managers and highly skilled experts.
Amrop delivers consulting solutions in following business areas:
* Executive Search
* Professional Search
* Board Advisory
* Leadership Services
* Executive Coaching
For more information go to www.amrop.sk.
