Today’s Leaders Must Be Determined to Inspire

All of us who at some moment in our lives made the decision to start a new company did so with the best expectations and the illusion of transforming the world as we know it, and why not? With the idea in our head of ​​being our own boss (whatever that means), if today we are here, leading a company, it means that we are achieving.

Yet, no matter how long we have been in charge of a company, the feelings and emotions that come from building an organization are always the same: sometimes it can be exciting and sometimes it can be scary. There is only one thing that always happens; we always learn from all the experiences we gain on this path and without a doubt, the most valuable lesson we can take with us has to do with all the people around us and our company.

This is especially important during these times. We are living in a new era where the challenges are beyond our understanding. We are all trying to adapt to constant changes. The effects of the pandemic, the new way in which we interact, communicate and consume and the threat of war, added to the recent economic recession, will be the leading issues in the coming years.

This environment creates a permanent state of tension, uncertainty and fear in all of us, which is absolutely understandable. The worst is that sometimes we forget that it is not necessary to face adversity alone, when isolated from other people, believing that we must try to solve our lives ourselves.

This is where the people who are in charge of the companies have a great opportunity to contribute to improving the conditions in which we will be facing these challenges, to once again include all the people in the support networks that have allowed us to progress over our history. We must return to our first principles, remembering that companies are not empty souls whose sole purpose is to generate the maximum economic benefit but, rather, human organizations with the fundamental purpose of maximizing value for all their stakeholders in a sustainable way.

Historically, companies have been key to the development of society. Virtuous dynamics between people and organizations are an essential factor to improve people's living conditions and encourage young people to continue educating themselves. The labor market is growing at an ever-increasing speed and in these times of high uncertainty, it is necessary that our values ​​and a human perspective remain valid.

Every day we take a step forward to overcome with facts the idea that companies are entities guided solely by the search for economic benefit at the expense of society. Finally, together, we are creating a new approach where organizations are successfully incorporating a new generation of social, human and economic values.

The new generations increasingly demand that companies be more responsible for the impact they generate on society and the environment, that economic benefits are complemented by sustainable models, decent jobs that are respectful of diversity and human rights, that brand value be based on the company’s level of commitment to these needs and that its reputation is associated with the role that the company assumes within its value chain, including its suppliers and partners.

On the other hand, organizational culture today is more important than ever before. The mechanisms for attracting talent and retaining employees have had to be transformed to align with these new requirements. Organizations need to permanently promote a culture that foments the development of people in all dimensions of their lives and that is genuinely committed to improving the conditions of society and the environment.

The people who are in charge of companies become social actors who pursue the creation of value from a wide perspective and with a sustainable approach toward common interests with the society around us, with a transcendent and shared purpose by all people. This sounds like a dream but reality is about being a key agent in the creation of sustained and distributed value, creating better life opportunities for all people and contributing to social development. This is really the challenge to which we committed ourselves when we began this journey.

Personally, I am very optimistic that we are in the best moment to show to all that from our position at the front of our companies, we can be transformation agents and the protagonists in the construction of a more ethical and human society, building alongside the people who trusted in our project a virtuous circle that allows us to face the challenges that are ahead and achieve a better world for future generations.