CEOs analyze leadership

During Label Summit Latin America 2011 in Sao Paulo, a panel of label converters from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Spain discussed their managerial experiences. James Quirk reports

The conference panel session, which took place in Brazil in May during Label Summit Latin America, brought together Iban Cid of Spanish converter Germark; Luis Maria Garcia of Multilabel, which has factories in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico; Aldo Gonzalez of Cameo in Chile; Fabian Silva of Etiquetas Anro in Mexico; and Jaime Yoshiyama of Peruvian printer Kuresa. Below is a transcription of the topics discussed.

L&L: What are the two characteristics that you believe every leader should possess?

Aldo Gonzalez: To choose just two, I would say discipline and emotional balance. Combining these, I think that one can correctly lead a group of people.

Luis Maria Garcia: For me it would be charisma and passion for what you do. Charisma because to be a leader nowadays, you must be aware of a person’s soul and heart – a large dose of psychology is needed. Passion, because it’s the only way to convey to a group that the need to fulfill an objective is not only driven by salaries or by command. A leader must have followers, not subordinates.

Jaime Yoshiyama: It is important to have a clear vision of your goals, as well as being optimistic and maintaining a sense of humor. Things happen, and you must face problems with a positive attitude, otherwise you won’t be able to handle so much pressure.

Iban Cid: Empathy – a leader must be able to put himself in the shoes of who he is dealing with, whether it is an employee, a business partner or a client. And something that we sometimes forget: honesty. A leader must be an honest person, in order to be able to ask for honesty of those above, below and alongside him.

Fabian Silva: A leader must not only have a vision, but a creative vision about the future in order to make a difference. I also agree with Aldo: one must maintain emotional stability.

L&L: How would you say your personal style of leadership has evolved throughout your career, and what have been the main influences on this style and its evolution?

Aldo Gonzalez: Leadership style changes with the maturity that one acquires over time. If I compare my style of ten years ago with that of today, it is very different. Then, it was more ego-centric; now it has evolved to the understanding that everyone in the team is linked to the success of the rest and everyone has something to contribute.

Luis Maria Garcia: I agree with Aldo. One learns with maturity. A leader must think about those whom he manages, not in himself. Every success must be transferred to his team, and this is learned with time. The other change has to do with technology and the internet: one must be able to adapt to these advances.

Iban Cid: You also learn that you cannot handle everything yourself. You must create a team. When I became a director, the team had been put together by the previous boss, so I had to work with them while I could. But one must then create one’s own team and share ideas with it.

Jaime Yoshiyama: If I consider myself to be in the middle of my career, I am sure that in the years to come the style will continue to change. One must get involved, in order to get the best out of people and to make decisions after analyzing various points of view. This style has been influenced by my family. Ours is a family business, and I worked from a young age with my father, who helped me learn about different leadership qualities.

Fabian Silva: At the beginning of my career, I was very influenced by the American ‘make it happen’ attitude while working for Proctor & Gamble. The other major influence has been family. Nowadays, I feel I am much more aware of my surroundings: every decision you make, you must know that it will have an impact on the things around you.

L&L: Luis Maria Garcia, in your experience of managing people in different countries, do you think leadership is a universal language or do different cultures have to be taken into account?

Luis Maria Garcia: I think that leadership is a universal language, but you must remain flexible and adapt to the idiosyncrasies of each place. It is not the same to lead people in Argentina as it is in Brazil. They are distinct cultures and personalities, and each group needs something different to get results, to feel praised. That’s an important function of the leader: to make people feel important. A manager delegates; a leader acts.

L&L: Aldo Gonzalez, you have experience of managing through the merger/acquisition process. What are the challenges of integrating established external teams of people into your own company culture?

Aldo Gonzalez: I’ve been involved in 12 such processes, of which six resulted in mergers or acquisitions. There’s a big difference between this integration before and during the acquisition process, compared to afterwards. Before or during the acquisition, you must align certain ideas. For example: what are the things that add value to a company? In each of the companies we have acquired – family companies – the things that are valuable to them are different to what financier sees as valuable. In the old days, companies were bought because of their activities, their machinery, their sales. Today, there are financial concepts that dictate the prices of companies, and these are strictly related to organized data which can be studied. Therefore, the initial alignment of these ideas happens when the buyer and the seller begin to speak the same language and agree on what brings value to the company. Ninety percent of the time, this is the most difficult thing.

This leads us to emotional intelligence. In a conference session yesterday [at the Summit], I heard the speaker say that during mergers and acquisitions, things speed up and people want their money fast. But this is a process that must not be hurried. The internal workings of a company are different to how someone else would view them from the outside. I can say that I have no problems with my workers, but technically I do. What happens is that I know them so well and they look up to me, so I think I will never have a conflict with them. But the person who buys the company might not have the same relationship with them. In the same context, there is the family question. An acquisition is not magic: it doesn’t solve family problems that have existed for 30 years. These conflicts have to be resolved before the merger process; the people who arrive from outside are not going to be able to do it.

After the merger, two things change immediately. The first is measurement: a series of efficiency or effectiveness indicators are brought in that weren’t used before. The company was an interesting candidate for acquisition because it was already successful in the way it was run. But you now have to add elements to allow someone who is in New York or Hong Kong or Australia to evaluate if the company has the right tools for its future development. In this context, the second element that changes is the reporting, by which I mean the intelligent reporting of the old and new performance measurements that the company must deploy. Half of the companies that I have studied did not have audited accounts. They had an old accountant with his way of doing things, and because he’d been there for 30 years everyone was happy with it. But someone who comes at it from a distance will not necessarily have the same trust. There are usually some bumps while these processes are established, so the leader must keep things running smoothly.

L&L: Fabian Silva, what are the challenges of leadership within a family run business? Is the process facilitated or complicated by close personal relationships?

Fabian Silva: Family relationships can both help and also makes things more complicated. The ideas of each family member are influenced by their personalities and their ages. In a family business with two generations, you will have two distinct points of view, so you must create a shared and unified vision out of these differences. You must choose a leader who above all sets an example. And you have to remove all sentimentality and measure real results.

L&L: Luis Maria Garcia, how do you encourage creative thinking within your organization?

Luis Maria Garcia: Creative thinking must be promoted at every level. Firstly, by knowing the names of all your employees, you let them know that you have them in mind. Secondly, by taking the time to speak to them all, irrespective of seniority, to see how they think their role might be developed with more efficiency and less costs. This has given me very good results, as ideas have emerged from all areas to improve the company. One of the products we manufacture is promotional labels, which are complicated. In this case, I organize a meeting between everyone involved, from the material purchaser and machine operator to the plate producer and the supervisors. The staff feel consulted, not that they are merely carrying out orders. This achieves two things: the product is sent out; and, because everyone is committed, there are no obstacles.

Iban Cid: We also greatly encourage innovation. This can happen through meetings, of course, but we also do something slightly different. When there is a mistake, we never look for someone to blame: we look for a solution. This fosters team spirit. I don’t care who messed it up; we’re going to fix it together.

L&L: Fabian Silva, What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

Fabian Silva: I keep abreast of global trends by visiting other countries and building relationships with industry innovators. From a personal point of view, leadership allows you to evolve and see life in a different way. You cannot only influence the area in which you are working: you must be aware of what is going on around you, in your country, in the environment.  

L&L: Jaime Yoshiyama, how do you help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

Jaime Yoshiyama: When we bring in someone new, we ensure he is inducted into all areas of the company for around a month before taking on any major responsibilities. This allows time to be integrated with the company and familiarized with the people, and reduces the risk of 

L&L: What do you like – and hate – about leadership?

Aldo Gonzalez: The daily challenge of keeping abreast of what’s going on and what might be coming in the future is an enriching experience. I take satisfaction in seeing an idea turned into action, especially when it comes to people: investing time and money in preparing a young person who can bring something to the company. That is what I like most. What I like least is accounting, bureaucracy, and when – as in some countries – politics become a barrier to investment.

Luis Maria Garcia: I most like being able to act and create; to see results and run risks; to implement systems within the company and see their effect. What I like least is the stress that one lives on a daily basis and time spent away from family.

Iban Cid: I like to watch my company grow – not just in terms of results, but with regards to the people. I like to take on a kid and watch him become plant manager. And the worst is on a human level, when a crisis comes and you have to wield the knife and draw blood. No one likes that and it is very hard.

Fabian Silva: I like to have a positive impact on society, to create and innovate. What I like least is wielding the knife, but most of all, firing someone who is apathetic towards life. I don’t like to fire anyone, but less so if it is because of attitude, because it means I couldn’t do anything to help.

Jaime Yoshiyama: The most interesting part is the satisfaction of seeing an idea made into reality. What I like least is firing someone when things aren’t going as required. And also constantly worrying about the company, even if you are away. But in general I like it all; the positives outweigh the negatives.

Pictured: Iban Cid of Spanish converter Germark was among the panelists

This article was published in L&L issue 4, 2011