Career Archives - IESE Standout

CEO transitions in disruptive times

IESE Standout — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 10:34:12 +0000

In a world of relentless change and rapidly emerging new challenges, the CEO role has never been more demanding. The result? More CEOs are leaving their posts — and more boards are confronting high-stakes succession decisions.

The data tells a clear story. CEO departures in the largest listed firms reached a new global record in 2025, rising 16% from the previous year and 21% above the eight-year average, according to indices tracked by Russell Reynolds Associates, a U.S. headhunting firm.

Meanwhile, the length of time CEOs remain in the role has dropped to an average of seven years from just over eight years in 2021.

The bottom line is that CEO tenures are getting shorter, while expectations are rising – and tolerance for missteps is diminishing. In unpredictable times like these, the need for boards to have robust succession plans in place is a strategic imperative.

Many departures are the result of disciplined planning, as companies take the opportunity to enact orderly and carefully thought-out transitions.

But companies should think hard about the trend for increased and more rapid CEO turnover and their response to it, says IESE Professor Guido Stein.

“The turnover has a lot to do with the culture of the company – if we prioritize short-term results then we get short-term CEOs,’’ he says.

Once they make their choice of CEO, companies must work with that person so that they can grow in confidence and become as effective as possible in the role as quickly as possible, says Arturo Llopis, a partner at Spencer Stuart who holds an MBA from IESE.

“Adaptation is one the biggest issues in high level appointments,” says Llopis, a former professional basketball player for FC Barcelona.

Why the right choice of leader matters more than ever

Professor Jordi Canals, who leads IESE’s Center for Corporate Governance, argues that shorter CEO mandates reflect the challenges stemming from increasing technological, and also geopolitical, disruption.

Choosing the wrong successor can damage earnings, morale and reputation. Selecting the right one can reposition the company for its next chapter.

Yet success is far from guaranteed. Research cited by McKinsey shows that two years after CEO transitions, between 27% and 46% are considered failures or disappointments. That’s a sobering statistic for boards — and for executives aspiring to the top role.

As IESE Professor Josep Tàpies notes, the goal of a successful transition should be continuity of purpose, combined with renewal. Each CEO change should be an opportunity to redefine what kind of leadership the company needs next, says Prof. Tàpies.

To that end, boards should ask:

What stage of development is the company at?
What capabilities will be required over the next five to ten years?
What kind of predecessor is stepping aside — and what kind of successor is emerging?
Is the company itself prepared for succession in terms of governance structures, management systems and clarity of roles?

Practical steps for handling leadership change

So, what can board members do to prepare for, enact and ensure smooth and successful leadership transitions? Here’s a list of Llopis’s recommendations:

1. Have a clear role specification

Determine what the role is, what you want the CEO to accomplish, what experience and skills the ideal candidate has, and what specific leadership capabilities the person will need.

2. Identify internal candidates

At least two years before the CEO transition takes place, identify who in the organization has, or might develop, the selection criteria you need.

3. Develop internal candidates

After measuring your candidates’ potential to grow and evolve, craft a development plan for them. As well as skills such as strategic thinking and people management, focus on specifics such as politics and board management.

4. Check the market benchmark

About developing your internal candidates for about 18 months, it’s time to check what external CEO candidates might offer. Compare the level of potential internal, and external, leaders.

5. Choose the right successor

After completing and reviewing the previous steps and carefully assessing your internal, and, if relevant, external options, it’s time to make your choice.

6. CEO acceleration

As well as managing the company’s team, culture, strategy and the board, new CEOs also need to manage themselves carefully, especially in the first six months in the job. Adaptation is key to a new leader’s success, and boards should be ready to support them through this process.

A responsibility for everyone

A change in leadership is not just a boardroom issue – it affects executives at every level. Understanding how leadership transitions are managed within your organization — and how talent is developed — is critical for anyone on the executive ladder.

Companies that treat CEO succession and executive development as a strategic priority will have a decisive advantage. Handled well, a successful leadership transition equips organizations to renew themselves — and to lead confidently into the future.

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Feeling held back at work? When your potential outgrows your role

IESE Standout — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 11:03:09 +0000

Many leaders don’t feel stuck because their work is monotonous, but because they sense that their own potential is evolving faster than the opportunities implicit in their current role. Recognizing that gap can be a first step toward progress.

Monday morning. You walk into your office, look at the week ahead and know you can handle every challenge ahead of you. And yet, something feels off. You’re performing well — even exceptionally — but you don’t feel a real sense of progress. That hesitation before you begin doesn’t come from fatigue. It comes from the intuition that you could be contributing far more than your current role allows.

These moments often emerge after a period of success, once you’ve already proven your value but still feel constrained by a role that isn’t evolving at the speed you think it could. It may be a lack of strategic opportunities, limited autonomy, or the sense that your leadership skills are not being tested to their full extent.

But in the rush of daily execution, it’s difficult to know whether you’re truly stuck or simply transitioning into your next phase of growth.

This short questionnaire is designed to help you pause and assess your situation with clarity. It will help you identify early signs of stagnation, understanding where your current ceiling might be, and determining whether you need a significant shift or just a small adjustment to regain momentum.

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Data strategy for AI success: Winning the race against time

IESE Standout — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:46:34 +0000

Want to champion AI? Start with your data

How can you win the race against time to mine your companies’ data resources and translate them into higher efficiency and productivity?

That is one of the defining challenges facing executives as they seek to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) for business growth. While AI promises to transform industries, its power ultimately depends on the quality of the data that fuels it.

“Data is the gasoline of artificial intelligence,” explains IESE Professor Luis Ferrándiz. “If you incorporate into your algorithms data that isn’t good enough, the outputs won’t be good enough either.”

Why data quality matters

Investments in digital tools will fall short if the underlying information is inconsistent, incomplete, or poorly structured.

When AI models are trained on flawed data, the resulting decisions are fundamentally compromised. That’s why your company must not only review the quality of its existing data sets but also examine the robustness of the processes it uses to collect and administer information.

“High-quality, consistent, and well-governed data is the essential foundation for building reliable and scalable AI models that can deliver real business value,” says Ainhoa Alonso, an IESE Executive MBA holder who is now Chief Data and AI Officer at PagoNxt, a payments firm.

Five steps to put your data plan on track

Here are some steps that managers like you can take to align your organization with a strong data strategy:

1. Create a data-driven culture

Cultivating a corporate culture that recognizes the importance of reliable data is critically important, says Ferrándiz. That means making sure data is accessible on a company-wide basis and making sure employees are properly incentivized to use it. Only then can firms plan investments with confidence and take the bold decisions needed to execute a long-term digital strategy.

2. Educate and empower staff

Companies need to move beyond pilots and embed AI into business processes and work practices, according to a team including IESE Professor Evgeny Káganer at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research. Creating AI-ready teams means providing opportunities and resources for reskilling. Breaking down silos between departments and ensuring data sources are seamlessly linked is also key.

3. Deploy the right systems

Take care to put in place the right modular, interoperable platforms and data ecosystems to enable a free flow of intelligence across the organization, urges Káganer. Choosing the right architecture is a strategic decision that will shape the flow and reliability of data.

4. Establish consistent definitions

Make sure to put in place and maintain a common semantic framework that standardizes data definitions across all business units, says Alonso of PagoNxt. This will enable consistency, interoperability, and a shared understanding of key business and operational concepts across the company.

5. Strengthen data governance and quality

Reinforce the data governance framework to guarantee accuracy, lineage, and trust in the information that powers decision-making and AI models, says Alonso. Governance and ownership of data administration should be in the hands of Chief Data Officer, with a clear mandate to implement rules and oversee levels of access, urges Ferrándiz.

From strategy to competitive advantage

For business leaders, the data challenge is both technical and cultural. Winning organizations will be those that invest in robust processes, empower employees to value data, and act decisively before competitors outpace them.

In today’s environment, where AI is reshaping competitive advantage, the question is not whether to act, but how quickly you can turn your company’s data into a catalyst for productivity and growth.

Hungry to know more about the AI transformation, or prepare to take your career to the next stage? IESE’s Artificial Intelligence for Executives focused program, held at our Munich, Madrid, New York and Barcelona campuses, will help you sharpen your skills and learn how to become a more effective leader in the age of AI.

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How teams can flourish by harnessing the skills of different generations

IESE Standout — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 09:18:09 +0000

How do you manage the dynamic between younger and older team members to build stronger and more productive collaboration?

It’s a challenge that leaders like you have always faced – but now the task becomes trickier. With AI advancing rapidly, many of the roles once filled by junior staff are being automated. And that shift comes with a hidden cost.

If those early-career roles disappear, so does a vital learning channel—the transfer of experience and know-how from senior professionals to the next generation. Without it, you risk losing not just technical continuity, but the very culture and identity that make your organization unique.

“Having that range of ages helps you pass on institutional knowledge – if you don’t maintain this flow, there are clear downsides,” says IESE Prof. Sebastian Reiche. “The only way to survive and develop as an organization is to have new junior staff learning the culture and adapting it – that’s how you keep the culture alive and dynamic.”

The transformations wrought by AI mean companies face challenges that can’t be solved with software alone. As firms confront the urgent need to redefine skills for a new era, they face a challenge that goes beyond adopting new technologies, according to a new study by IESE’s María Luisa Blázquez, Mireia Las Heras, and Jordi Canals.

Here are some of the steps you and your company can take to make sure teams work effectively as you tackle the disruptions, and grasp the opportunities brought by AI:

1. Rethinking the role of teams

If firms have teams fully staffed by juniors doing technical work, it’s time to rethink that model, says Reiche. Managers should look at opportunities to ensure teams include junior and more experienced staff to ensure that the learning and mentoring process works in both directions.

2. Reverse mentoring

Pairing tech-savvy novices with expert staff who may have less knowledge of how to apply AI is a way to make sure that new ideas get circulated and experience is shared, says IESE Prof. Evgeny Kaganer. Firms may want to look at pairing up younger and more seasoned staff in a formal “buddy system” so that knowledge can circulate, says Reiche.

3. Reimagining work design

The traditional model in many firms has been for junior staff to carry out simpler, more technical roles of the kind that can be done by AI, but it doesn’t have to be that way, says Reiche. One solution could be to encourage more opportunities for juniors to carry out more project-based work that enables them to broaden their contacts and develop a broader set of skills more quickly.

4. More flexible career paths

Companies and employees need to be more flexible as they consider future career paths, says Reiche. Those in the early stage of their careers can try to build up their skills with project-based work in different companies that they can later transfer to larger organizations. Under this more patchwork model, younger workers can build up a portfolio of skills to take with them into new corporate roles.

5. A sense of adventure

More experienced staff members should ask themselves how they can explore the potential of technologies like AI by thinking of new ways of doing their job with the powerful new tools at their disposal, says Reiche. This means encouraging a more experimental mindset where older workers are encouraged to see AI not as a threat but as an opportunity to be exploited in a creative and fruitful way.

Here are some tips for people at different stages of their careers trying to navigate the evolving landscape of work:

Leverage your AI and digital skills
Become fluent in AI and think hard about how you can use it in a work setting. “Try to bridge the gap between how things are currently done and your knowledge of the way they could be done if they could be infused with the new ways,” says IESE Prof. Sebastian Hafenbrädl.
Take a hard look at your skill set
The question everyone needs to ask themselves is are they going be a complement to AI or will they get substituted by it, says Kaganer. One aspect to consider is that AI is effective at comprehending knowledge and applying it to solve problems and even carrying out creative tasks – but is less competent when it comes to using judgement to evaluate challenges and solutions.
Develop your soft skills
Amid the focus on AI, develop your capacity for critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, adaptability and teamwork – soft skills such as these will always be valued by employers, says Reiche.
Think creatively
Younger staff can deploy their AI skills to deploy business-linked projects while they scout for a formal position. “Potential entry-level employees have huge resources they can use to showcase themselves to organizations,” says Hafenbrädl.

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5 qualities top recruiters are looking for

IESE Standout — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:05:29 +0000

If you’re on the hunt for a new job, you may have notice how the hiring process has entered a more stable phase. Following the hiring boom seen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly in industries like consulting and technology—economic trends have leveled out. However, with global uncertainty still a factor, companies are now taking a more strategic and measured approach to signing up fresh talent. As a result, hiring trends are shifting, with recruiters placing greater emphasis on adaptability, digital expertise, and an international mindset.

The competencies companies want

A major trend reshaping recruitment is the move toward skills-based hiring over traditional function-based roles. Rather than focusing solely on job titles, more employers are prioritizing specific competencies and transferable skills, making the hiring process more fragmented, and in some cases, more time-consuming. As a job seeker, you’ll need to understand what recruiters are looking for and make sure you position yourself to ensure you stand out in this evolving landscape.

Stay ahead of the competition by focusing on these five must-have qualities that recruiters are actively looking for.

1. Skills-based hiring

Traditional hiring models that focused on job titles and a linear career path are being replaced by skills-based hiring. As well as individuals who can demonstrate adaptability, dependability, and the ability to tackle complex business challenges, companies want leaders with specific technical and leadership skills, with the focus increasingly on digital and AI fluency. There’s growing demand for candidates with proven technical know-how, and those who can integrate sustainability into business models.

2. AI fluency and the digital transformation

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into business processes is creating demand for tech-savvy professionals, and it’s up to you make sure you tick all the right boxes. Companies want candidates with a deep understanding of AI’s potential, not just from a technical perspective but also in terms of making sure it gets embedded in corporate strategy. As Prof. Javier Zamora explained in a recent article, there’s a need for roles who “orchestrate the cultural shift necessary for this technology to be integrated across the organization.”

Organizations need leaders who can leverage AI tools to enhance decision-making, assess talent, and drive innovation. But more companies also want managers both with the technical competencies to exploit the new technology and the leadership skills to direct the human teams that are deploying it.

3. Agility and entrepreneurial mindset

Startups and scale-ups have long favored candidates with hands-on experience and a proactive approach to business challenges. Now, larger corporations are also seeking individuals who embody an agile entrepreneurial mindset. This means being comfortable with ambiguity, taking ownership of projects, and proactively identifying growth opportunities.

Companies will expect you to show you can respond quickly to a changing business environment as they face increasing volatility and disruption in their industries. Volkswagen, for example, says it wants “versatile profiles and people full of energy, willingness to learn new things, able to face everyday challenges. There are a lot of positions where we need the combination of soft skills, product/project management and technical knowledge.”

4. Generalist expertise

While specialist skills are key, companies will also expect you to show a broad range of competencies and prove you can adapt to multiple roles and challenges. As industries evolve rapidly, employers find that generalists who possess a diverse knowledge base and know how to think critically often become the most effective professionals. As strategic thinkers with a broad perspective, they know how to break silos, adapt across industries, and make the most impactful decisions.

MANGO, for example, says it values the global vision, leadership and analytical skills of IESE’s MBA students, as well as their training in strategy and decision-making. “They bring innovation in sustainability, operations, and customer experience.”

5. Global business exposure

Another aspect you should be aware of is how recruiters, in an increasingly global market place, are putting a high premium on international experience. Professionals who have worked across different markets, managed cross-cultural teams, or studied in diverse environments bring unique perspectives to organizations.

Skills that are particularly valued include:

Cross-cultural communication
Understanding international regulations and market dynamics
Ability to adapt strategies for different global audiences

Advice for MBA talent

In today’s competitive job market, MBA students must stay ahead of evolving recruitment priorities and adapt their skill sets accordingly. Companies are continuously refining their hiring strategies and placing ever greater emphasis on new competencies and technologies.

According to IESE’s Career Development Center, here are some of the steps you can take to prepare your strategy for navigating the job market:

Highlight transferable skills: Showcase your ability to work across functions, solve complex problems, and lead diverse teams.
Leverage AI and digital expertise: Demonstrate familiarity with AI tools and digital business trends to hone your appeal to potential employers as an innovative thinker.
Emphasize global experience: An international background helps you to stand out from the crowd. Highlight your language skills and your ability to adapt and thrive in different cultures.
Network strategically: Engage with your industry peers through alumni networks and business events, and make full use of tools such as LinkedIn to promote and refine your personal brand.
Adopt a lifelong learning mindset: Employers favor candidates who continuously develop their skills through certifications, micro-learning programs, and hands-on experience.

The future of recruitment

As recruitment continues to evolve, job candidates must adapt to a shifting landscape that prioritizes flexibility, technological literacy, and a global outlook. Companies are seeking individuals whose skills extend beyond purely technical expertise, and who can demonstrate resilience, collaboration, and an entrepreneurial mindset.

As you hunt for a job, make sure you stay competitive by embracing continuous learning, leveraging AI tools, and cultivating a strong mix of soft and hard skills. The hiring process may have become more fragmented and take longer in some cases, but for those who can navigate its challenges, the opportunities have never been greater.

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Elevator pitch for a job interview: how to condense 20+ years into 3 minutes

IESE Standout — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:26:02 +0000

You walk into an important job interview after two decades of experience, and you need to deliver an elevator pitch—a concise speech that sums up who you are and sells yourself. What a challenge! It can be a double-edged sword: while you have a wealth of achievements and lessons that set you apart, condensing them into a three-minute speech is no easy task.

This elevator pitch exercise is crucial for capturing your interviewer’s attention from the start and maximizing your chances of success. In this article, we’ll explore how to design a powerful three-minute pitch that clearly and effectively summarizes your 20+ years of experience.

1. What is an elevator pitch and why does it matter in an interview?

An elevator pitch is a brief, direct presentation that summarizes your professional value in the time it takes for an elevator ride. In an interview, a strong elevator pitch can help you:

Make a positive first impression.
Steer the conversation toward your strengths and experience.
Highlight what sets you apart from other candidates with similar backgrounds.

This approach is particularly valuable for executives and professionals with long careers, as it allows you to present your most relevant accomplishments without overwhelming your interviewer with details.

2. Identify your value proposition: what makes you unique?

With over 20 years of experience, it’s easy to fall into the trap of listing multiple roles, achievements, and projects. However, the key is to identify your central value proposition: What can you contribute that few others can? Ask yourself:

What has been the overarching theme of your career? Think of a skill or focus that has been a cornerstone of your trajectory: crisis leadership, digital transformation, resource optimization, etc.
Which achievements or projects had the most impact? Highlight accomplishments that exemplify your unique skills and knowledge.
Which skills are most relevant to the role? Tailor your pitch to emphasize the skills and experiences that are most valuable for the position you’re seeking.

Example: “I’ve dedicated my career to leading operational transformations that deliver a positive impact on financial results and organizational culture. In my last role, I spearheaded a restructuring initiative that increased profitability by 30% without impacting headcount.”

3. Key structure for your elevator pitch in the interview

An effective elevator pitch follows a structure that organizes your narrative and keeps your audience engaged. Here’s a guide to structuring it in three main parts:

a. Opening: introduction and positioning

Start with a brief introduction that highlights your current role or specialization. Be clear and direct to grab attention. Avoid long titles or detailed descriptions of past positions; instead, use a powerful phrase that establishes your expertise.

Example: “I’m an executive with over 20 years of experience leading teams in [specific industry], where I’ve honed a unique ability to transform processes and improve organizational efficiency.”

b. Key achievements: showcase your results

This is your opportunity to present one or two specific accomplishments that demonstrate your capabilities and align with the position. Whenever possible, include metrics or measurable outcomes to emphasize the impact of your work.

Example: “In my previous role, I led a digital transformation project that reduced key process execution time by 40% and generated annual savings of $1 million for the company.”

c. Closing: connect your experience to the future

Conclude by explaining how your experience has prepared you for the role. Draw a clear connection between your abilities and the company’s challenges or goals, demonstrating alignment with their vision.

Example: “I believe my expertise in [specific relevant skill, like organizational change management] will allow me to bring immediate value to [company name] in its efforts to [mention a relevant company goal].”

4. Practice and refine: the importance of brevity

Once your content is defined, the next step is to practice—and practice again. Remember, the key to a great elevator pitch is fluency, which only comes with rehearsal. Here are some tips to perfect your presentation:

Be concise: Keep your speech to 2-3 minutes and avoid technical jargon or unnecessary details.
Use clear and confident language: Confidence in your message is just as important as its content.
Practice in front of a mirror or record yourself: This allows you to analyze your expression, pacing, and clarity.

5. Adapt your speech to your interviewer

Every interviewer and company has different priorities and cultures. Before the interview, research the company and the profile of the person who will interview you. Tailor your message to their interests and needs to show that you’re the missing piece for their team.

Tip: If the company emphasizes innovation, highlight your experience leading transformation projects or adapting traditional processes to new technologies.

6. Avoid common elevator pitch mistakes

In an interview, there are frequent pitfalls that can weaken your pitch. Avoid these missteps to ensure your presentation is clear and memorable:

Being too vague: Use specific examples to illustrate your skills.
Overusing jargon: Simplify your language so your message is clear and understandable.
Trying to cover everything without depth: Focus on two or three specific achievements relevant to the role. Less is more.

7. Prepare for follow-up questions

A strong elevator pitch will spark your interviewer’s interest and likely lead to additional questions. Be ready to expand on specific aspects of your accomplishments or skills. Have three or four additional examples prepared to complement what you’ve already shared, which you can elaborate on if asked.

Follow-up example: “In addition to the digitalization project I mentioned, I also led the implementation of a digital skills training program that accelerated the adoption of new tools within the team.”

Summarizing 20+ years of experience into three minutes is a complex task for a job interview, but not impossible. A well-structured elevator pitch that highlights your value proposition and key achievements can open the door to a deeper conversation about your capabilities and vision. Throughout the process, remember that clarity, confidence, and relevance are your greatest allies in standing out.

Are you ready to take the next step in your career? IESE’s executive programs can help you sharpen your skills and consolidate your leadership. Learn more about strengthening your professional profile in a global, transformative environment.

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Collaborative Leadership Test: Assess your team-building skills

IESE Standout — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:14:38 +0000

In today’s dynamic business world, being a successful leader means much more than managing tasks; it’s about inspiring, collaborating, and empowering your team.

Take our Collaborative Leadership Test to evaluate your skills and receive personalized recommendations to enhance your leadership style. Whether you’re an experienced leader or an aspiring one, this test will help you discover your potential and elevate your team to new heights. Ready to uncover your leadership profile?

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What does a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) do?

IESE Standout — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:03:52 +0000

There’s no longer any debate about it: Change is accelerating in companies and sustainability is now one of its main drivers. It’s a context in which new positions and opportunities are emerging, and that of the Chief Sustainability Officer is one of the most important in recent years.

Sustainability is more than an economic activity. It is a commitment made by organizations to improve the wellness of the communities where they operate. Environmental impact is one of its most important dimensions, but it’s not the only one. Sustainable businesses aim to generate shared value among all stakeholders and improve the lives of the people around them. It’s been years since sustainability was grounded in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is still necessary, but a commitment to communities and the environment requires more than corporate philanthropy. An executive position was needed to integrate sustainability into organizations’ commercial and financial strategy: the Chief Sustainability Officer or CSO. In this article, we tell you what their roles and responsibilities are and why companies value them.

Chief Sustainability Officer: Much more than corporate social responsibility

It’s natural for there sometimes to be a bit of confusion around the difference between corporate social responsibility and sustainability. They share some of the same fundamental objectives:

Both seek a social contribution that goes beyond a company’s purely commercial activities.
Both adopt a long-term horizon, or one that is at least longer than a quarter or financial year.
Finally, both require companies to not merely take into account the interests of employees, shareholders, and clients.

The communities affected by a company’s activity are very relevant to both CSR and ESG. But that’s where the similarities end and the more significant differences begin:

Mission: CSR focuses on values and philanthropy, while ESG identifies and evaluates risks and opportunities for the business.
Initiative: ESG responds to pressure from investors and regulators, while CSR responds to the company’s needs.
Metrics: only ESG has impact indicators for business decisions and for not making them soon enough.

Plus, unlike the former CSR managers, the new Chief Sustainability Officers increasingly report directly to the CEO. Why? Because the boardroom is starting to understand that sustainability has a direct impact on the balance sheet and market valuation.

What type of companies need a CSO?

The figure of the Chief Sustainability Officer has started to appear particularly in large multinationals, which have a more developed structure and also a bigger social and environmental impact.

They tend to be organizations with diversified ownership because they are publicly traded. This means no family or small group of investors can easily control them, they are on regulators’ radar, and they receive strong competitive pressure.

Among these multinationals, those that most tend to have a CSO figure meet these six criteria:

Urgent adaptation: The company’s structure is evolving much slower than the world around it and they need a wake-up call, and fast.
Necessary balance: It’s not easy to juggle sustainability and profitability, and someone has to come up with new solutions.
Dissatisfied stakeholders: The communities impacted by the business are influential and demand changes.
Disordered desires: The firm, meanwhile, must also attend to the demands of its main stakeholders and is having difficulty prioritizing.
Relevant risks: The boardroom sees that the risks associated with sustainability are so big that they require their own focus.
Interested investors: Finally, investors and shareholders are increasingly concerned about sustainability and it now goes well beyond the bottom line.

We’re currently in a time of transition. Some companies have made great strides in the area of ESG criteria, while others still don’t know the difference between corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Every company should analyze its own situation and assess to what extent it needs a CSO in its org chart.

What exactly does a Chief Sustainability Officer do?

Basically, a CSO must be able to identify the company’s biggest stakeholders and build a strong relationship with them, understanding their primary needs and devising strategies to resolve them.

They also have to design or refine the satisfaction metrics for those needs and prevent the risks – fundamentally regulatory and financial – of not meeting them. Plus, risk and satisfaction indicators must be linked to an updated database. Keeping it up-to-date requires good coordination with the managers of the company’s other departments.

In parallel, the CSO must translate all this information and indicators into concrete proposals: strategies that align the company’s sustainability with profitability targets, available resources, the strength of the brand, and ESG best practices in the sector.

They also prepare reports and analyze the risks, costs, and opportunities of the proposed sustainability strategy. Finally, they support the CEO and other executives in their relations with leading sustainability investors and regulators.

What do you need to become CSO?

The position of Chief Sustainability Officer has evolved a great deal in recent years with new regulatory requirements, pressure from stakeholders, and senior executives who are increasingly aware of the financial risks involved with ignoring sustainability. That explains the growing number of job offers and responsibilities for CSOs.

But, if you are interested in this position, before you start scanning through LinkedIn or your contacts, it’s worth identifying which projects most attract you, what differentiates you from your competitors, and what is your value proposal.

To design your proposal, it can be helpful to know the most important characteristics companies are looking for in a CSO:

Communication and analysis skills, to identify the most relevant information and create indicators to share it.
Strategic vision, to transform the data and indicators into proposals that add value to the company.
Regulatory and financial knowledge, to track and estimate the risks of disregarding sustainability with their teams.
Leadership and bargaining power, to align the organization’s interests with those of its main stakeholders.

The training offered by IESE in its executive education programs, and in focused programs like Sustainability & ESG, will assist you in the transformation process you need to become Chief Sustainability Officer and help your company successfully face some of the most important challenges in the years ahead.

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How to raise your visibility at work

IESE Standout — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:18:58 +0000

Although many people may say they don’t care what others think, the truth is that we humans are social beings. And we need to be visible to those around us, both in the family setting and at work.

In the business world, that means you want them to see your work, appreciate your professional merit, and value your commitment. It’s not vanity, but rather a sense of belonging and motivation. At any level of an organization, we all need that recognition from our bosses and colleagues to feel useful and perform better.

In fact, a study done by IESE Professor Sebastien Brion notes that higher-status employees tend to work less on tasks that others don’t see. Whereas when they have an audience, they do better to measure up to expectations.

On the other hand, the expansion of hybrid work and growing diversity now present unprecedented challenges for boosting our visibility. There are new ways of doing things and getting noticed for professionals. And the presence of different profiles on a team means that not everyone is going to want to or be able to be seen in the same way at the same time.

Plus, visibility should be administered carefully. Although most of its effects can be very positive for your career, there are also some risks that you should keep in mind.

Benefits and risks of raising your visibility at work

Receiving greater recognition for your effort, your skills, or your commitment at work is essentially good news that can help you:

Grow your credibility and influence in the organization, which are two of the great pillars of leadership.
Access new opportunities or positions, from promotions and raises to new challenges and innovative projects.
Build a valuable network, making yourself known among higher-ups and managers from other departments.
Enjoy your job more, which can translate into more motivation and better performance.

Managing this recognition well – keeping your feet on the ground – will help you navigate the main risks associated with excessive visibility. Ultimately, you don’t want the pressure on you to multiply, nor for your workload to become untenable, nor to create serious friction with other professionals who may feel invisible by your side.

Why do you need to be seen in your organization?

In reality, no two people will want to achieve exactly the same thing by raising their visibility at work. The diversity of teams today also means there are very different agendas. That’s what makes it so important for you to clearly identify your objectives before starting to do anything to make yourself more visible:

Do you want to get a promotion or a raise?
Do you need a new hire approved for your team to be able to delegate part of your work and focus on where you add more value?
Do you feel stuck in your career and seek new challenges?

Your own agenda will surely vary a great deal depending on the stage of life or career you’re in. The objectives for raised visibility don’t tend to be the same for someone who just had a child, a young hire coming through at full speed, or a veteran professional who feels forgotten.

Keys to boosting your visibility at work

Once you’ve identified your objectives and analyzed the advantages and challenges of visibility, it’s time to get to work. These steps are a good way to get started:

Actively participate in meetings and projects. Your voice needs to be heard loud and clear. Do excellent work and strengthen your reputation as a reliable and necessary member of the team. Reach out to high-potential professionals who are also trying to raise their visibility. There’s strength in numbers.
Understand the priorities of the people who you want to recognize you. Stay a step ahead, listen to their needs, and give them what they most value at all times. Keep in mind that what they most value won’t always be what you think they should value.
Justify your visibility with new skills or a clear intention to develop them. You can demonstrate these skills with your work, building on qualities you possess but have never put into practice in the office, or with your willingness to take on new projects and receive training in strategic areas.
Be friendly, empathetic, and generous. Would you like it if someone tried to get your attention by being more aggressive with their colleagues? Neither would your bosses. That’s why a friendly, generous, and personable attitude will be much more effective in your strategy to raise your visibility.

The type of visibility that you need to cultivate is also going to depend on who you want to recognize you. Drawing the attention of people at a similar level to you is not the same as getting noticed by your boss or an executive. If your objectives are to raise your profile among the company’s top brass, you should keep a few other things in mind:

Try to establish relationships in the key leadership groups of the organization and be part of projects that affect several departments.
Seek and propose innovative solutions to long-standing problems.
Always think and act strategically.
Link your growth to that of your team and the organization.
Be prudent with your immediate superiors so they don’t feel betrayed.

How to become more visible in hybrid or virtual environments

Finally, you will have to adapt your visibility strategy to your particular scenario, depending on whether it’s fully in-person, hybrid, or completely virtual. Obviously, being face-to-face every day isn’t the same as basing your interactions on videocalls. In this context, you should adapt the previous recommendations to two particulars of your audience:

Are they in the office or teleworking? Know the times set for remote and in-person work at your organization. Remember, you want to make yourself visible to specific people and effectively convey your message. To do so, find out beforehand how you’ll be communicating.
How can I help? Every level of the organization faces different problems when working in hybrid or virtual environments. You can take advantage of them to improve your visibility with initiatives and gestures to make their lives easier:
Normally, top managers need to improve the strategic coordination of large and dispersed areas, as well as foster the well-being and commitment of all employees. Meanwhile, the priority of middle managers is to streamline certain communications, manage the productivity of their teams on a day-to-day basis, and address their concerns. Finally, the rest of the employees need to keep communicating and working together, maintaining a friendly atmosphere and avoiding annoying interruptions.

Navigating between the fear of selling yourself and fighting for the visibility you think you deserve isn’t easy. But you’ll never know until you try. If you don’t, you run the risk of your professional merit remaining obscured by your discretion. The IESE executive education programs will help you boost the visibility of your leadership qualities to continue advancing your career and have a greater impact on your organization.

Want more visibility? Cultivate your personal brand

Making yourself more visible in your organization inevitably involves developing and raising the profile of your personal brand: a strong and recognizable image that helps you build a reputation that conveys credibility and commitment. You can start by following these tips:

Find your essence as a brand. Ask yourself what is your purpose in the organization, your vision, your mission, and your values.
Identify your current brand. As for constructive feedback from your colleagues that will help you describe where you’re starting from.
Design your value proposal. Focus on what makes your qualities, work, and commitment unique.
Build your brand identity. Create a narrative about your professional self and a way of communicating it.
Develop a communication strategy. Think about what message you want to convey, who you want to tell it to, and in which contexts or channels.

The post How to raise your visibility at work appeared first on IESE Standout.

Senior talent: tips for making the last stage in your career the best it can be

IESE Standout — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:34:13 +0000

It is often said that everyone wants to live longer, but no-one wants to be old. In the business world, as in life, the passage of time inevitably has an effect on all of us. And when we enter the so-called senior stage – from ages 50 to 69 – a series of contradictions appears, which can be hard to manage.

On the one hand, we have lots of knowledge and experience, which gives us a unique perspective and more opportunities to add value and enjoy our work. On the other hand, it is also a time when tiredness and saturation can begin to take their toll after a long career. Furthermore, although this is often the era of recognition, and achieving roles that have greater responsibility and a greater impact, it is a relatively short era. Retirement is approaching, and the generational changeover is really beginning to rear its head.

In spite of all this, the dream of being useful to society can be difficult to shake. Some studies confirm that 75% of senior talent would like to keep working after retirement age. Other data show that, since 2008, senior employment is growing in all European countries, and that the majority of EU member states have more senior workers with higher education qualifications than with basic education – which is essential for avoiding unemployment in this stage.

But, are we prepared to continue working in this last phase of our careers at any cost? According to an IESE study, the answer is categorically no. There are at least three deciding factors that lead us to remain committed to our profession beyond the age of 50:

Feeling that we are adding value.
Receiving recognition for our labor.
Having a dream for the work we are doing.

Although the vast majority of the population is in salaried employment nowadays, continuing to work throughout the senior stage will involve, in many cases, being prepared to adapt to significant changes: whether that be devoting oneself to a different type of work, seeking employment in another company, being an entrepreneur, or even choosing to pursue unremunerated collaborations.

In any case, having a suitable plan is key to extending and relaunching the working lives of senior talent, even before retirement age. However, according to the same IESE survey, 75% of professionals do not know what steps to take, or are not adequately preparing for this next phase.

Debunking the myths that present the greatest obstacles in the senior stage

One of the greatest difficulties when it comes to entering the senior stage is how best to question and eliminate the prejudices that shape the general opinion on age that exists in companies. Perspectives which are widely accepted, and which reduce options and hinder the expectations of those who want to continue progressing after the age of 50. The most common are:

Retirement age. This seems to be an obligation, and even an aspiration for many workers, but for many others, it is not. It is simply a reference point.
Technological changes. This does not mean expecting older people to be experts in the latest applications and technologies, but with appropriate training, they can adapt very well.
Idea of happiness. It is a concept that has been widely debated throughout history, but for many people, happiness is more closely linked to making a contribution than to leisure or rest.
Reinventing oneself. You must not be afraid to transform yourself if you want to enter the senior stage with your best foot forward. Inertia will lead directly to retirement.

In this sense, the IESE professor Guido Stein makes the case that the vitality, satisfaction and motivation of the talent is not dependent on age, but rather on how we arrived at that age. And he states that, nowadays, “in general, we arrive at retirement age in better health than ever”. Therefore, some studies maintain that we should redefine our vision of aging and chronological age, as statistically, in countries like Japan, people who are 75 years old now have the same physical and mental capabilities as someone who was 65 two decades ago.

How to relaunch a senior professional’s career

In an analysis of the importance acquired by senior employees in organizations, the consultancy firm Bain examined how the interests and needs of workers evolve over the years, identifying the two profiles that are most dominant within senior talent, based on their motivations and priorities. We are talking about:

Artisans. Professionals whose main focus is their passion for mastering their trade. They want to do work that interests them, and they value autonomy above all.
Benefactors. Employees who identify with the idea of service. They feel rewarded when they see their actions having a positive impact on the lives of others.

According to the IESE professor José Ramón Pin, the long process of preparing for the senior stage should start with a step that is tricky, realistic and sometimes painful: considering your position, your identity and your role in the company, and in the world of work. “We need to honestly ask ourselves who we are, who we want to be, and who we can be in this new phase. In order to do so, it is necessary to take a strong step forward, with an emotional reset which convinces us that we can adapt to another professional life that will make us feel fulfilled”, points out Pin. For the professor, a good adaptation process should include these three points:

Being aware. Reconsidering what and who we want to be. Because, most likely, in a few years, we won’t want to, or we won’t be able to, continue doing the same old thing we had been doing. In seniority, there is continuity, but also a break. In some ways, it’s like starting over again.
Taking one step forward. Embracing the future with hope and energy. It is not enough to let yourself be carried along until you suddenly find yourself at retirement age. The future senior has been working on this since before the age of 50, hoping to be in good shape for at least 20 more years.
Designing a detailed plan. Tracing a route that connects our current location with where we want to be in the next 10 to 15 years. In order to move forward with this plan, we will probably need to extend our network of contacts, get training in specific areas, or negotiate the reorientation of our career with the company.

But the responsibility is not only in the hands of the professionals themselves. Companies also have a fundamental role to play when it comes to facilitating the transition of talent into the senior stage. Among other measures, organizations can apply the following:

Strategies for retaining and recruiting senior professionals: identifying what motivates them, according to their different profiles, and what positions they can occupy within the company.
Refresher programs: so that the senior employees’ skills respond to the needs of the business for the next 10-15 years.
Plans that are adapted to the strengths and priorities of the senior talent: with personalized suggestions. BMW, for example, offers senior employees part time roles guiding young people in their careers.

Compromise, planning, strategy, adapting, mentality, training… There are many other elements that are required in order to successfully overcome the challenges that confront both senior talent, as part of their transition, and the organizations that don’t want to lose the value that these workers provide. The IESE program Relanzamiento del talento sénior: nuevos horizontes profesionales helps senior leaders and professionals keep moving forward along their career path at a time where they have optimal experience and knowledge.

Senior talent management according to ATOS

The way older people adapt to new technologies does not depend on their age as much as it does on the willingness of professionals and companies to design and implement training and refresher programs. There have already been some success cases.

In 2021, ATOS, the global technology company, launched a program to close the skills gaps for the 21,000 of its workers who were over 50 years old. Since then, it is the employees themselves who need to find out what gaps they have and choose the courses and certifications they need to refresh their skills. ATOS also invites them to participate in training programs as teachers.

The post Senior talent: tips for making the last stage in your career the best it can be appeared first on IESE Standout.