"Education is important, but the culture of hard work, solidarity and sacrifice is essential, even in the business world." This was one of the comments made by the president of AC Hotels, Antonio Catalán, during a talk he gave as part of the Global Leadership Series on February 15 on IESE’s Madrid campus. Catalán told EMBA students that common sense is fundamental to any business. He also talked about teamwork and said that trusting other people was a basic necessity in order to bring any business project to successful fruition.

Born in Corella (Navarra) in 1948, Catalán is an international figure in the hotel sector. He is the father of six children, a keen cyclist (22 years ago he completed the Camino de Santiago on a bicycle) and a modern art enthusiast. He understood from a young age that he wanted to set up his own business.

After getting a degree in business studies at the former Escuela de Comercio at the Navarra Public University and working in a roadside hotel that belonged to his father, at the age of 29 he opened his first hotel in Pamplona. He had three million pesetas from his family when he embarked on his project. Within two years he had recovered the investment. This is how the NH Hoteles chain was born.

Common Sense

"I had very little experience and it was a perfect time to make mistakes. I had little to lose. I used common sense, a desire to work and a dose of courage but that’s all," he recalls. Those were years when he was learning but also having fun. "The team I have worked with in my projects has always been fundamental to my life. I’ve always had good relationships with my people," he said.

"I see myself more as an entrepreneur than a business person," he said. He realized this when he went into alliance with the Italian magnate Carlo de Benedetti the main shareholder in the Cofir group. It was in the 1990s and, after a series of changes and discrepancies within the financial group that he had set up, Catalán ended up as the main shareholder in NH and sold all of his shares. He drew two conclusions from this: that trust between partners is fundamental and that sometimes you can’t do without risk capital but you have to decide what is the best option.

When he sold NH Hoteles in 1997 he acquired a fortune of 16 billion pesetas. He also ended up with two hotels. These provided the seed for the second and current business adventure, the AC Hoteles chain. Far from being cautious, he invested all of his capital in the new project. "We took a blank sheet of paper and I started to think, along with my partners, how we should and how we wanted to work. We learned from and corrected past errors. We executives have a problem, we cling to our errors. We have to try to correct them as soon as possible and know how to accept that we’ve made a mistake. This doesn’t undermine your authority, on the contrary."

A Different Culture

His team set out to work. "Sometimes business isn’t that complicated. Sometimes it’s enough to have three or four clear ideas and to focus on them," he said. For Catalán the three key factors of his business are the product, the people and the technology. He is convinced that AC Hoteles has created "a different business culture" and has succeeded in "demystifying authority." "We have our own way of focusing on Human Resources," he says. The aim is for employees to feel comfortable in their work. "Making things easy means people perform better," he says.

He admits that recent years have been particularly difficult for his business, given the consumer spending slump in Spain. In 2008, and after raising more capital in order to save the chain, Catalán had to rethink everything from top to bottom. "In times of crisis you have to know how to take difficult decisions," he said.

In 2010 he formed an alliance with the American giant Marriott International. Catalán is vice president of the AC Hoteles group that is part of Marriott. Today the group has hotels all over the world and the business, despite the difficulties, is functioning. "We’re at the end of a cycle and we have to adapt to what there is. We’ve got some difficult years ahead," he predicted. He ended his talk with the comment: "Not everything is important in this business. It’s not just a case of results and balance sheets. People are always important."

News in the February edition of "Eye on IESE": The annual meeting of the Executive Committee of IESE's Alumni Association, Winter Career Forum, IESE is 7th in the world Financial Times ranking of MBA programs. Agenda: Prof. Nuria Mas discusses what works in healthcare and why, Paddy Miller: how to get people to be more innovative.

Participants in IESE's Program for Management Development (PMD) Munich gather this week in Germany for the second residential module of the program,"Getting Ready for What Lies Ahead."

During the module, executives will explore the dynamics of business ecosystems, their components and how they contribute to businesses that thrive. Participants also address areas such as marketing management, corporate finance and innovation.

The PMD Munich is designed for those preparing to take on greater responsibility within their organizations or take their careers to the next level. The 6-month program includes three core residential sessions in Barcelona and Munich, followed by an IESE Short Focused Program (SPF) of the participants' choice.

In between modules, executives engage in collaborativeand individual learning.The final step of the program, participation in an SFP, allows executives to deepen their understanding and knowledge of a specific business topic or geographic area.

Designed to integrate conveniently with global professionals' schedules, the program has drawn high-potential leaders from numerous top firms in Germany such as BASF, Henkel, SAP, Siemens and Volkswagen.

For more information.

More than 50 globally-minded managers and entrepreneurs are boosting their advancement potential through IESE’s premier degree program for working professionals - the Global Executive MBA.

The program, which began this month, hinges on six 2-week residential modules held in Barcelona, New York City, Shanghai and Silicon Valley. The program also includes an elective module, allowing participants to tailor their program and expand expertise in a key area such as finance, trends in the new world, managing complexity and the context of Silicon Valley.

Finally, participants take part in a closing module and graduation ceremony, held at the school’s Barcelona campus. An in-company project and a business plan are also carried out during the program, allowing executives to put the knowledge and skills they gained during the program into practice.

Representing 26 different countries, participants in the current edition of the program work in 17 sectors including consulting, financial services, manufacturing, information technology, distribution, aeronautics, transportation and robotic engineering. They hold positions such as assistant general manager, area manager, global supply manager, sales & marketing director and vice president of global and strategic accounts.

IESE’s Global Executive MBA, which has a general management focus, is an intensive learning experience that covers essential business areas. It is designed for working executives seeking to deepen their knowledge of global business issues, while improving leadership skills and growing personally.

The chance for MBA students from around the world to share common experiences and perspectives is just one of the many benefits of the IESE-Roland Berger Case Competition, which marked its 18th edition this year.

Organized by IESE's Consulting Club, the competition has become a highly anticipated event among top business schools. Held February 14-16 this year on IESE's Barcelona campus, it provides a unique chance for MBA students to create strong bonds with candidates from other leading business schools, while sharpening their analytical and presentation capabilities.

How does it work? Teams of students from top business schools gather to delve into a case and present their analyses in various rounds of competition. At the same time, they have ample opportunity to exchange viewpoints and experiences as MBA students and future business leaders.

"Discussion during lunches and dinners was about each other’s MBA experiences, professional experiences and the job searches they were all in, which made the competition not only a challenging weekend, but also a weekend full of new perspectives," said organizer Robert Van Den Breemer of IESE's Consulting Club.

Dinners and social activities are organized to foster interaction among all the participants, he said. The final phase of the program features presentations that are attended by all the teams. During this session, students more openly discuss how they viewed the case, highlighting diverse solutions to the key questions posed by the author, he said.

This year, London Business School won the competition, with IESE coming in second. Other schools taking part in the event were Tuck, Yale, Chicago, HKUST, CEIBS and INSEAD. The 4-person winning team received internships at different Roland Berger offices around the world.

This year's case, written by Prof. Julián Villanueva of IESE's Department of Marketing, dealt with strategy and focused on the global retail chain Primark. Serving on the jury were two Roland Berger partners; Patrik Wallen of IESE Career Services Department; Prof. Villanueva; Lilliana Cabal, communications expert from IESE; and María Aracil, IESE graduate and retail expert.

Students gain multiple benefits from the MBA Case Competition, namely the chance to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained through their programs in a supportive yet competitive environment, say organizers.

The four highly coveted internships at Roland Berger are an additional reward, said Van Den Breemer. Members of the winning team "started checking where Roland Berger has offices immediately after their victory to see where they would want to go."

The case "Voltium, Inc.," written by IESE professors José Ramón Pin, Guido Stein and Juan Carlos Vázquez-Dodero in collaboration with Eloy del Potro, has been recognized by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) as the best publication in the 2012 Case Writing Competition in the category of "Responsible Leadership." Winners of the prize were announced today.

The case analyzes the influence of circumstantial and cultural factors in making certain types of business decisions. It is based on a real experience of a participant in IESE's Executive MBA program who consulted his "Making Prudent Decisions" professor about the situation described in the case. After that consultation, professors Pin, Stein and Vázquez-Dodero, in collaboration with Prof. Joan Fontrodona, decided they should turn the story – highly instructive from a management point of view – into an IESE case.

According to Prof. Vázquez-Dodero, the most difficult aspect of writing the case was "reflecting on the African continent’s situation, which can only really be described by someone who has experienced it first-hand."

In addition to questions of discretion, he said, perhaps the greatest challenge was to help the reader understand a scenario so fundamentally different from our own, in terms of values, points of reference and social organization - an environment in which global executives must nonetheless increasingly learn to move.

For Prof. Pin, "the knowledge accumulated by IESE over many years of studying business cases focused on ethics was fundamental in writing the case." The story also has the freshness of the real experience of a student, "who knew how to see that a business venture is an educational path, if one has adequate moral cognizance and the courage to apply it."

Prof. Stein stressed that the case "provides important insights on personal risks that are sometimes assumed without proper analysis," when confronting financial, commercial, operative and even ethical challenges in business.

The work of the entire faculty

The three professors agreed that the EFMD prize underscores the efforts of IESE's entire faculty to re- view a series of principles that place people and their real needs and dignity at the center of business activity. As Prof. Vázquez-Dodero explained, "it is not easy to renew concepts, many of which have been around for 2,500 years. The disorientation we have fallen into requires us to revive some essential fundamental conceptions of the human person, society and work."

Winners in the different categories of the prize now aspire to be awarded the "Best of the Best" prize, which will be announced at the end of April and will be presented at the 2013 EFMD Annual Conference, June 9-11 in Brussels.

In 1985, when the German appliance maker Liebherr agreed to enter a joint venture with the Qingdao General Refrigerator Factory, one would have been hard-pressed to foresee the stellar rise that the Chinese company, later to be renamed Haier, was to experience over the ensuing decades.

Haier may now be a household name for appliances and white goods, but in 1985 it had narrowly escaped bankruptcy. The joint venture with the German company had one important aim for the ailing company: the transfer of technology in order to produce quality refrigerators.

Since then, Haier swiftly established itself as China's leading maker of refrigerators. It also began to take advantage of the incremental opening up of the Chinese economy to expand beyond its national boundaries. By 2011, Haier had become a global leader in home appliances, with annual sales reaching RMB 151 billion (well over $20 billion).

"Difficult First, Easy Later"

Under the visionary leadership of Zhang Ruimin, Haier's internationalization strategy was founded on the principle of "difficult first, easy later." In other words, Haier opted for developed countries, such as the United States, before entering countries with potentially easier access to the domestic market, such as India.

Zhang's rationale was that "only by playing chess with the grandmasters can one make progress." By competing with world-class companies in mature markets that demanded strict product requirements, Haier was forced to up its game and improve its own technical capacity in the process.

Haier also invested heavily in local R&D and design centers, in order to boost product localization. In Pakistan, for example, the traditional garbs and large families there meant that standard washing machines were unable to meet the needs of local consumers. This led Haier to develop a washing machine that could handle more than 30 large garments at a time.

Besides product localization was the localization of management. Many multinational companies initially staff their foreign operations with expatriate managers from headquarters. Haier, on the other hand, selected experienced local staff to manage each foreign operation from the outset. To ensure proximity and attention to local customers, Haier believed that the company needed local people, who understood local customer needs, to develop its sales and distribution channels.

Big in Japan?

In 2011, Haier raised the stakes when it acquired Sanyo's white goods business in Japan, which also covered Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The person who would oversee the new company's transition was Du Jingguo, a long-serving Haier executive.

Although he was Chinese rather than Japanese, Du had managed a previous joint venture with Sanyo and had lived in Japan for many years. He understood that the success of Haier Japan hinged on his ability to integrate Japanese culture with Haier's corporate culture -- a blend of Western management theories, infused with ancient Chinese philosophy, and executed according to local practice.

Du quickly realized he had his work cut out. With pressure on him to hit ambitious sales targets, he faced a host of challenges. How could he streamline Sanyo's homegrown organizational culture? The Japanese focus on seniority, lifetime employment and annual salary increases irrespective of individual performance stood in stark contrast to Haier's management system based on performance.

Japanese workers were accustomed to a paternalistic style of management. How would they adapt to Haier's inverted triangle approach, which put opportunities, responsibility and rewards in the hands of self-motivated employees?

Sanyo's employees were given the choice to join the Haier venture or stay with Sanyo as part of the Panasonic Group. How could Du dispel the general mood of distrust among Sanyo's employees and convince them to sign up to Haier's vision, especially against the backdrop of deteriorating relations between China and Japan?

Even though Haier had previous experience of entering firmly established markets, it didn't mean that the process of breaking into the Japanese market was going to be any easier, especially given the strength and dominance of the local players with which Haier would be going head to head, including such household names as Hitachi, Panasonic, Sharp and Mitsubishi.

What would it take for Du to fulfill Zhang's vision of making Haier the No. 1 home appliances brand in the world?

Post a comment.

Some 550 people gathered on IESE’s Barcelona campus on Friday and Saturday for the 10th Doing Good and Doing Well conference. This year the theme of the annual student-run conference, which focuses on responsible business practices, social entrepreneurship and sustainability, was "The Power of Collaborative Advantage."

Some 104 speakers took part and there were 15 panel sessions as well as a collaborative fashion competition and the Cleantech competition in which entrepreneurs with proposals for clean technology get to pitch to venture capitalists.

Among the keynote speakers was Laurent Freixe, executive vice president of Nestlé Europe, who spoke via a video link-up on "Water Scarcity: Paramount Problem for the Food Industry." He said that in recent years, "it has become commonplace to criticize the European Union for its slow economic growth, lagging competitiveness and bureaucracy. But this negative perception, without denying the challenging European environment, should not lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Every crisis is an invitation to fundamentally rethink our ways of working," said Freixe. EU members must agree on the long-term targets, objectives and reforms for creating economic and social development, he said. "In that sense, I strongly defend the Commission's "Europe 2020" vision for smart and sustainable growth as a starting point. This is a vision that I am convinced the rest of the world will embrace sooner or later."

Another speaker was Douglas Tompkins who, while he made his name by creating The North Face brand of outdoor clothing, is equally well known for his conservation work in protecting wilderness areas in Chile and Argentina. The theme of his talk was "The Next Economy: from Globalization to Eco-Localization."

Economics and the environment are one and the same, he said. "What is good for the world is good for us, not the other way round. Growth is a dead end street."

He argued that beauty is intrinsic to the ecological paradigm and that aesthetics inform everything we do. "Beauty is the essential notion," he said.
He added that we must demystify the dogma that technology is our savior and we shouldn’t just welcome all technologies without considering their impact on culture. "It is impossible to determine what the carbon footprint of a mobile phone is," he said.

As part of the 6th Cleantech Venture Forum, 11 companies from around the world pitched their business ideas in front of 10 of the biggest venture capitalist funds in Europe. The VCs gave first prize to the Norwegian firm Graphene Batteries, with the Switzerland-based ActLight coming second. Venture Capitalist funds represented on the jury manage more than €3 billion in investments and the cleantech entrepreneurs were seeking a total of €14 million in funding.

In the social investment competition, sponsored by CaixaBank, five teams from the Oxford, IESE, ESADE, HEC and INSEAD business schools and 10 venture capitalists judged the pitches made by five social entrepreneurs from Spain, Switzerland and the UK. The teams from from Oxford and IESE who were joint winners.

In the Collaborative Fashion Competition nine teams, including seven from IESE, competed for the chance to implement their project in collaboration Intermon Oxfam and Hoss Intropia.

Shakeouts are a common feature of nascent industries. IESE Prof. Luís Cabral proposes a novel explanation for shakeouts based on sunk costs and technological uncertainty. Fearing they will back the wrong horse, firms initially invest conservatively, only expanding to their optimal capacity once the winning technology emerges, thereby triggering a shakeout.

In 1908, 206 firms were active in the U.S. auto industry. By 1920, this number had dropped to 126, and to 24 a decade later. By 1942, there were just eight active firms in the industry.

Such "shakeouts" – that is, dramatic drop-offs in the number of active market participants, which often occur during phases of rapid market expansion – are a common feature in the early development of nascent industries, from automobiles and video players, to computers and mobile phones.

Theoretical explanations for shakeouts have varied, but one common thread they share is that, at some point, the winning technology's marginal cost decreases, paving the way for larger firm sizes. If the increase in firm size is greater than the rate of market expansion, a shakeout takes place.

So far, so logical. But in the paper "Technology Uncertainty, Sunk Costs and Industry Shakeout," published in Industrial and Corporate Change, IESE Prof. Luís Cabral proposes a complementary explanation for shakeouts based primarily on sunk costs.

Read full article on the IESE Insight website.

"Entrepreneurs are people who have passions and are prepared to make sacrifices for them. If money is your objective, you’ll ruin the business. The joy is in making things happen and the more you do it, the more you learn about the pitfalls and how to avoid them," Magnus Melander, CEO and founder of B3 Connect Computer, said on February 26 on IESE’s Barcelona campus in the Continuous Education session "Parallel Entrepreneurship: A Firsthand Account", which formed part of the Entrepreneurial Initiative Cycle. The meeting was organized by IESE Alumni Association and moderated by Prof. Aninyda Ghosh, assistant professor of entrepreneurship at IESE.

Melander calls himself a parallel rather than a serial entrepreneur because he likes to be involved in many projects at once. At present these range from his company, which he describes as being between a consultancy and an incubator, sitting on the board of a network operator and training a girls’ football team. After working for IBM and Apple, in 2000 he became VC but found that he didn’t enjoy it so he started up some companies.

Timing is crucial, he said. "It’s not hard to figure out what will happen but very hard to figure out when. If you miss the wave, close the company. It’s too late."

Melander believes the Internet has changed the world more than electricity. "It has changed everything, including in terms of efficiency." He predicted that as technology is now so commoditized, governments may take it upon themselves to bring manufacturing back home in order to create jobs rather than outsource.

In this new world, perception is reality. This means that trust is a bigger factor than ever in doing business. If you can’t be the cheapest, he said, you have to be either the first or the best. "You need to test the market from the start, not wait till product is perfected and then go to market," he said.

"People won’t pay for things they don’t use," he added. "This means that products will become services." Products should be flexible and able to evolve, instead of being discarded and replaced by newer models. For example, he said, Rolls-Royce sells airplane engines as a service, depending on how much the airline uses them.

The fifth EMBA Alumni reunion was held yesterday on IESE’s Madrid campus. Dean Francisco Iniesta welcomed those taking part in a meeting that discussed various aspects of the current economic situation. During his speech, Prof. Iniesta congratulated the EMBA program for its “consolidation,” making it IESE’s “star attraction” in Madrid.

The professor used the occasion to remind his audience that five EMBA clubs have been set up on the Madrid campus. These groups cover five professional areas (finance, energy, entrepreneurship, aerospace and healthcare) and “through their extracurricular activities, help to complement the education received in IESE’s classrooms.” After highlighting the consolidation of the Global Leadership Series and the establishment of the Executive MBA Brazil, the professor underlined the success of the Continuous Education Program sessions and announced the creation of a special cycle on the economy to be held within these sessions.

The first speech at the fifth EMBA Alumni Reunion, titled “the Economic Situation”, was led by IESE professors Juan J. Toribio and Javier Díaz-Giménez. Both experts agreed that there was little cause for optimism in the short and medium term.

Reforms to Get Out of Crisis

Prof. Díaz-Gímenez pointed out that in 2013 the global economy will grow by 3.5% thanks to emerging countries such as China, Brazil and India. But the outlook is different in the eurozone and, specifically, in the Mediterranean periphery (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece). These four countries are likely to have negative growth this year. On the other hand, Ireland’s GDP will grow by 1%. “In the medium term it’s very difficult to maintain such large differences of competitiveness as those demonstrated by these rates of growth,” he said. To overcome this, “deep and serious reform” is required. “With more public spending cuts we’re not going to get beyond where we are now,” he said.

In the professor’s view, the future of the euro depends on establishing banking and fiscal union. “The European economy is very weak and vulnerable to events,” he said.

Prof. Toribio said that at present there was a feeling that the current situation is better than that of a few months ago. This is based on three factors: the consolidation of the euro, which has had positive effects in Spain such as the repatriation of capital; changes in the private sector that have improved competitiveness and an equilibrium in the balance of payments as well as cleaning up the banking sector.

“But there are still problems: a high level of unemployment, low growth, the lack of credit in the financial system and high public debt. It’s impossible to raise consumer spending when there are six million people out of work and almost three million who are not receiving any money at all,” he warned “Have we hit bottom yet? The answer is no,” Toribio said. Nevertheless, he said “it is probable that things will get better during this year and that by 2014 we will have some positive numbers.”

In conclusion, he emphasized the need to take stronger measures “to reduce the structural deficit of the Spanish public sector” which would involve reforming the pension system, public services and the public administration. “We also have just take more steps to reform the labor market but this requires a change of outlook and culture,” he said.

Diversification and Internationalization

The second session, titled “The Innovation, Diversification and Internationalization Process in a Industrial Group” was moderated by IESE Prof. José R. Pin. The CEO of Grupo Villar-Mir and president of the Madrid Alumni Chapter, Tomás García-Madrid, gave a talk.

Diversification and internationalization are the two key factors behind the success of this industrial group that now has a presence in 40 countries and has 27,000 employees around the world. With a turnover of €6,8 billion in sales in 2012 and EBITDA of €1,514 billion, the group is involved in a variety of different businesses (steel, real estate, fertilizers, energy, concessions and construction). “This diversification has allowed us to grow, reduce risks and take advantage of opportunities,” he said. The same could be said about internationalization.

In regard to innovation, he said that R+D+i was fundamental for the group’s growth. “We develop our own technology whenever possible because it leads to better productivity and it gives us a wider management margin,” he said. In any case, he said that in business it isn’t a case of anything goes. “Integrity, honesty and ethics mark the limits of our playing field and all aspects of our activities.”

The next Global Alumni Reunion will be held on the Barcelona campus on November 7 and 8.

Is it possible to determine the impact of an increase or reduction in public spending on the economic activity of a country? This is precisely what the fiscal multiplier does, measuring the effect of changes in public spending on the GDP. As IESE Prof. Rolf Campos explains in this interview, a drop in public spending during times of recession can reduce economic activity more than expected.

Against the backdrop of the World Mobile Congress, held in Barcelona February 25-28, hundreds of executives from the mobile sector attended the IESE Continuous Education session, "The Mobile Environment in Western Europe: A General Vision on Local Trends and Global Strategies."

User trends and patterns

Within the framework of the General Management-Digital Marketing Series, held on IESE's campus, the session featured speaker José Luis Pulpón (PDD ’06), Industry Leader Telecom & Tech & Local, Google Spain.

Following an introduction by IESE Prof. Carlos García Pont, Pulpón described key trends and the current context of the mobile market in Spain. Mobile is taking major strides and by 2014 it is predicted that there will be more mobile internet users than PC users, he said. By 2016, traffic through these devices will have multiplied 17 times. Internet searches via mobile already make up 22 percent of the global total.

Pulpón discussed the current navigation patterns of users, which revealed some relevant statistics: 65 percent of purchases start with a smartphone, as opposed to 25 percent which start with a PC and 11 percent with a tablet. The use of mobile phones and tablets will rise notably as compared with television viewers, and will continue to expand steadily in terms of purchasing, he said. Yet mobile advertising is not keeping pace with the growing number of users, he noted.

Adaptive strategies

When setting out a mobile strategy, what is most important is to ask what asset the company seeks to develop: sometimes the goal is not financial, but related to client experience.

Pulpón discussed five types of assets: increasing store traffic, using a call center as a means of closing a sale if it cannot be done via mobile phone, attracting clients by mobile to close a sale on a PC, sales applications and direct sales via a mobile website (hotel and restaurant reservations, for example).

In conclusion, he outlined several examples of companies that have been successful in reaching their advertising objectives, incuding  Nike+ Running, Privalia, Coca-Cola, Banco Popular and Meliá.

IESE Business School’s U.S. Advisory Council, which comprises a diverse group of senior business and civic leaders, held its annual meeting this week on the school’s Barcelona campus.

The primary role of the council is to provide guidance to the school for its activities in the United States, which are led from its New York Center in Manhattan. In addition to its annual meeting, various members of the council met with MBA students in special sessions to share their views on topics relevant to the U.S. business and economic context.

Prof. Eric Weber introduced the session titled "Global Business Outlook: How Global Companies Look at the World" in which the panel was made up of Bill Baker from Channel Thirteen, Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sony Corporation, and Chris Vollmer, head of global media at Booz & Co.

Much of the discussion focused on the global media industry. Bill Baker said that "for a long time you couldn’t lose in media even if you were a bad manager, but those days are gone." Sir Howard Stringer said that Sony’s overseas movie revenue is growing in relation to U.S. income with the latest Bond film Skyfall being the biggest box office success in Sony’s history. The content business is still a good one, he said, adding that Hollywood is resistant to change and "we’re still playing by the old Hollywood rules of paying actors and agents too much."

Stringer also said that new technologies are disruptive in many ways. "Our smartphone business is destroying our camera business and our tablets are destroying our DVD player business," he said. Chris Vollmer added that research shows that countries that are taking a holistic approach to digitization are benefiting in terms of GDP and social well-being.

Stringer joked that "running a big company is like running a graveyard. You’ve got thousands of people under you but no one’s listening" and advised his audience of first-year MBA students to avoid large companies and start up their own businesses. "It’s going to be hard to follow a traditional career," he said. "You have to look to each other and use social networks, but you have more control over your destiny than my generation did." Speaking about his experience in Japan, he advised his listeners to learn the language if they plan to be a manager in another country.

U.S. Politics Impact Business

In a parallel session, titled "U.S. Economic Policies with the New Obama Administration," council members reflected on how the president’s second-term policies are affecting companies in the United States and then fielded questions from MBA students.

The panel, which included council members Ed Reilly, president of the American Management Association; Carmen Di Rienzo, V-Me Network; and John Sturm of the University of Notre Dame, was introduced by IESE Prof. Carlos García Pont.

The current administration has placed more emphasis on social policy than creating an environment in which businesses can thrive, said panel members. Addressing the U.S. budget sequestration, council members agreed that the inability to compromise and take effective action by lawmakers in Washington has fueled uncertainty that is having an impact on investors, companies and consumers.

Reilly said that a changing regulatory environment and new tax conditions have led to a situation in which "American companies have become too risk-averse."

New regulations have burdened companies with new costs, hindering their ability to compete in a global context. The situation has become particularly acute since, over the last 20 years, a significant number of countries have embraced capitalism and become new players in the global marketplace. Given this important shift, U.S. companies face new challenges, particularly in the manufacturing industry, he said.

Money that firms currently spend on meeting new regulations would be better spent on activities such as product development, expansion and hiring new employees, said Reilly, whose organization, the AMA, is dedicated to the development of human capital in the U.S. and around the world.

Di Rienzo said her two main concerns were the impact of economic uncertainty. and rising regulatory costs. Uncertainty "quashes" entrepreneurial momentum in two ways, she said. "One the one hand, investors lack the confidence to place their bets in a big way," while heavy regulation leads companies to hire fewer workers, particularly those with benefits.

Sturm discussed the impact of various actions taken by the Obama administration since the president was elected, stressing that much more needs to be done in areas such as job creation.

"Unfortunately, our growth rate does not appear to be robust enough at the present time to sustain the creation of enough private sector jobs" that would reduce the unemployment rate in the long term, said Sturm. He argued that the U.S. government seems to lack a long-term vision for the domestic or global economy.

Nevertheless, the panelists pointed to several reasons for optimism in the U.S., most importantly, the slowly expanding economy.

"The fact is we went through the most difficult financial crisis in 80 years and 92 percent of the people are still working. GDP has been consistently growing, capital structure of business is stronger, and productivity measures are at record highs over the last 14 quarters," Reilly said. Energy is also a "success story," with U.S. energy independence expected to be achieved in the coming years, which will have both geopolitical and military implications.

Reilly said that the U.S. business community has not been given enough credit for navigating rocky terrain since the financial collapse of 2008. "There is a strong and competent business community in the United States, which is in some ways succeeding in spite of some difficulties that I don’t think need to be there."

In another session, members of the council discussed the topic of technology and new media. Members taking part were Gerry Byrne, Penske Media Corporation; Alan Glazen, Glazen Creative; Tom Kane, CBS Corporation and Kate O'Sullivan, Microsoft Corporation.

There is a sense of déjà vu at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, says Prof. Javier Zamora. The mobile market is entering a mature stage with companies trying to extract value from a market created by Apple and Google. However, we are entering a new era in which people use mobiles not just to get information but to use new services from the Internet of things.

Watch video.

FINAVES IV, IESE's venture capital fund, leads the capital expansion of the company Onbile, founded by Víctor Sánchez (PDD '11). The company focuses its activities on the development of an online platform that permits the creation and/or adaptation of a website to any mobile device, regardless of its technological environment, through a cloud computing service.

Only a small percentage of web pages in the world are adapted to mobile phones. Onbile was launched to solve the problem of adaptability in a simple and fast manner, without the need for programming knowledge. Its online platform permits the creation of mobile websites through a variety of templates with a high level of design and which have been designed to improve natural positioning in the main search engines.

Víctor Sánchez, CEO of the company, said that onbile will cover a new need in the marketplace, while providing important social value: "We have created a platform that will allow everyone to communicate their brand in the most efficient manner possible through any type of mobile device, and at the same time, permit users to enjoy their experience while they navigate the Internet on their mobile phones."

FINAVES IV, is one of the four funds managed by FINAVES, IESE’s main center of funding for new ventures. FINAVES IV is supported by IFEM, business development organization of the Institut Català de Finances (ICF), and private investors who share the mission of promoting and supporting the creation of new business initiatives led by IESE alumni. Since its establishment in 2000, FINAVES has participated in the launch of more than 30 ventures led by the school’s alumni, including Aïta, Advance Medical, Nexenta and ForceManager.

Adapt, take risks and learn. These were the three main ideas anchoring a talk given by Aegon’s general manager in Spain, Jaime Kirkpatrick, on March 1 on IESE’s Madrid campus.

During his presentation, which was part of IESE’s Global Leadership Series, Kirkpatrick encouraged participants in the Executive MBA to flee from conformity, to be courageous in facing risks and professional challenges and to confront leadership tasks with humility and credibility. "The inability to know how to overcome each stage of life amounts to a kind of intellectual death," he said.

Born in 1971, Kirkpatrick has been a tireless traveler since his childhood due to the fact that his father was a diplomat, "I had the great luck of living in many countries as a child, and in a way, this has influenced my life," he said. After earning a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and working almost two years in Germany, Kirkpatrick decided to refocus his career. He embarked on the MBA at IESE’s campus in Barcelona in 1996.

"I loved studying engineering, but when I began to work as an engineer I saw that it was not for me. It’s important to resist conformity in life, and know how to adapt to circumstances and the people around you," he said. The ability to adapt is fundamental on a personal, as well as professional, level since "only in this way can you get the best out of the people you work with, including those who have difficult personalities."

A personal project

After graduating from IESE, Kirkpatrick spent eight years in consulting. The work was fun for him, and gave him the chance to get to know clients and take part in interesting projects. "But, deep down, I was not satisfied. I wanted to have a more balanced life. On a personal level, it did not fulfill me. And on a professional level, I missed having a project that was truly mine, that I could feel was my own," he said.

At this turning point in his life, Kirkpatrick decided to get into the insurance industry and was hired by Aegon in 2004. "It was the most rewarding decision of my life. I took a risk and it wasn´t easy because I was full of uncertainty," he said. With no experience in the insurance business, he took over a brand-new business unit - life insurance. "You have to have the courage to change and take risks. At the same time, you have to know when you have ended a stage in your life. If you believe you have arrived at this moment, you should consider looking for other alternatives," he said.

He also stressed the importance of "learning to lead, above all in complicated moments." A year and a half ago, Kirkpatrick was appointed general manager of his company in Spain and he decided to implement management changes. In his opinion, leadership has two facets: intelligence and talent management.

Be credible

In his new executive role, he had to learn how to manage talent. "It’s basic to develop the human facet, be closer to the people around you, nurture interpersonal capacities," he said. He also noted two keys for carrying out this task successfully: sincerity and clarity. "You have to lead through authenticity. You should communicate continuously and always tell the truth, no matter how difficult it is. Credibility is basic. You should also know how to delegate, to know what you should dedicate your time to and what you should not," he said.

However, leadership also has a colder side, which is related to intelligence and being "able to take the right decisions."

"This is a solitary job, a difficult one, because in the end the decisions you take are yours alone. Even though you are surrounded by the best team members, when you get to a certain point, you always have the sensation of vertigo, of loneliness," he said.

In 2012, in view of the precarious situation of savings banks which were Aegon partners in projects, Kirkpatrick decided to move quickly.

"I decided to communicate how we were doing sincerely. I described the scenario as it was. For circumstances we could not control, the business was collapsing. We took cold, hard decisions. We saw that part of our sales strategy had reached its end and we needed to look for new alliances."

Finally, at the end of last year, Aegon announced an exclusive agreement with Santander that will allow the company to grow more than 30 percent in Spain. "Work, constancy and patience are necessary elements for overcoming adversity," he concluded.

Las empresas del Ibex-35 rozan ya la media europea de mujeres en Consejos de Administración, tal y como muestra el estudio "El peso de las mujeres en los consejos del Ibex-35" presentado esta mañana en Madrid por el IESE e Inforpress. El informe analiza la presencia de consejeras en las compañías del Ibex-35, que en 2013 alcanza el 12'75%, cifra que se aproxima a la media de los países europeos, situada en el 13’7%.

Entre las firmas con más mujeres en sus Consejos están FCC y Caixabank con cinco consejeras; seguidas de Acciona y REE con cuatro; y Abengoa, Banco Popular, Iberdrola e Indra con tres mujeres en sus órganos de poder. Aun así, la media de mujeres por Consejo del Ibex-35 es todavía baja. Del promedio general de 14 miembros en los Consejos del Ibex, tan solo 1’88 son mujeres. Entre las empresas cuyos Consejos son más equilibrados encontramos a Red Eléctrica (siete hombres y cuatro mujeres), Acciona (nueve y cuatro), FCC (13 y cinco), Caixabank (14 y cinco), Inditex y Viscofan (cada uno de ellos con siete varones y dos consejeras).

El estudio muestra como las compañías están realizando un esfuerzo por "fichar" más mujeres consejeras. 15 mujeres están por derecho propio como dominicales en los Consejos y este año hay dos presidentas (hace un año había una) y cuatro mujeres ejecutivas (dos el año anterior), lo cual muestra que poco a poco el "techo de cristal" para llegar al top management también comienza a desaparecer.

Mucho trabajo por delante

Nuria Chinchilla, profesora del IESE y co-autora del informe, subraya "la importancia de que la presencia de las mujeres se extienda más allá de los Consejos de Administración, y llegue a los Comités de Dirección; porque esa es la vía natural para que las mujeres lleguemos a ser consejeras. Y porque si ahí hay un techo de cristal o de cemento, no estamos atacando el problema de raíz, sino solo yendo a los indicadores".

En este sentido, los datos muestran como todavía hay cuatro empresas que no tienen ninguna mujer en sus Consejos. Pero hoy, según la profesora Chinchilla, "ya no caben argumentos como los que apuntaban que hay sectores tradicionalmente masculinos". Como ejemplos, destacan REE y ACCIONA, que son las compañías que más mujeres no ejecutivas tienen en sus Consejos y las que están más cerca de cumplir con las recomendaciones de la Comisión Europea.

Más información.

This week marks the start of the Spring Edition of IESE's Program for Leadership Development (PLD) on the school's Barcelona campus. One of IESE's signature programs, the current PLD has drawn participants from countries such as Iceland, Oman and Syria, who work in 11 different industries. Roughly 30 percent of the class comprises female executives.

Since its creation, the PLD has attracted managers and specialists from a wide range of leading firms. Among the global companies represented in the current program are Adam Opel AG, Antonio Puig, BASF, Gallina Blanca, Medtronic, Rijk Zwaan and Xerox.

The PLD is a transformational learning experience for executives seeking to take on new professional challenges and maximize their leadership capabilities. Centered on three core modules, the program takes a general management perspective and covers fundamental areas such as accounting, competitive strategy, decision making, marketing, innovation, corporate finance, operations and leading people.

A unique benefit of the program is the opportunity to take part in either a Short Focused Program, which examines a specific business topic, or the school's newly-created Fast Forward Program. This final stage of the program is carried out after completion of the three key core modules. Led by IESE's acclaimed faculty and with participants from all over the world, the PLD provides an unparalleled opportunity for networking and high-level discussion with other talented professionals.

Versions of the program are also offered in New York, Munich and Sao Paulo.

For more information.

Globalization is changing the corporate context and the corporate imperative. This has given rise to new and complex challenges for business leaders. Developing leaders with the capabilities to navigate the complex challenges of globalization has become an urgent issue for business schools and corporations alike.

In Leadership Development in a Global World: The Role of Companies and Business Schools, IESE Dean Jordi Canals, along with deans and professors from other top business schools around the world, outlines ways to bring leadership development up to speed with the demands of this new era.

If the 20th century was "the American Century," then the 21st will be "the Global Century," marked by the increasing influence of high-growth economies such as China, India and Brazil, says Nitin Nohria, the dean of Harvard Business School.

New growth markets like these urgently need to develop their local talent with a global mind-set. Moreover, they need to develop global leaders who are capable of managing across cultures and complex and uncertain environments, adds Prof. Canals.

Read full article on the IESE Insight website.