30 de April de 2019
Talent, the challenges posed by digitization, organizational changes and the new skills required by professionals were some of the aspects covered in this Business Networking session held at Caixa Forum in Madrid. Organized by APD in collaboration with EAE Business School, the event included presentations by experts in management and Human Resources and a discussion panel in talent and soft skills.
Ignacio Pausa, the Director of Organization and People at APD welcomed the participants to the conference on new technologies and talent. In Ignacio's opinion, we have to "raise the level of digital competences and adapt to the competences required by the market". Digital transformation should be an integrating force within and between societies and executives have to lead this transformation, providing their employees with the necessary tools.
Pilar Llácer, the Executive Career Advisor at EAE Business School, chaired the event and emphasized the importance of education in the field of digital transformation. "We have to grasp how digital systems work and, from there, understand how to adapt them to our work". In the HR expert's opinion, the future of employment is defined by the present of education and our capacity for lifelong learning.
Andreu Vilamitjana, the General Director of CISCO in Spain, gave a presentation entitled "Digitalization, innovation, talent and new business models". In Andreu's opinion, digitization is an unstoppable force. "In an accelerated world, we need new tools. Within this new context, in which 4 out of every 10 market-leading companies will disappear, we have to invest in Artificial Intelligence. Technology should be seen as an opportunity and, at CISCO, we see it as a competitive advantage in three respects: costs, the employee experience and the capacity to generate an ecosystem that helps the company's employees and customers. With respect to the relationship between people and machines, Andreu believes that we have not developed software to replace us, but rather to make us into super humans in the most perfect world that has ever existed. In the end, it is a matter of culture, human societies and deciding how best to embrace this opportunity that we are presented with. "We have to keep striving to make this the best possible world", he concluded.
"Diversity and inclusion as a driving force of innovation" was the title of the presentation given by Cristina Aranda, the Co-Founder of Mujerestech. In Cristina's opinion, innovation begins with culture and it has to have people at its heart. The way we work has changed and there is a greater emphasis on collaborative work, an approach in which ideas are generated and we work as a team. The Professor of Linguistics focused on the role of women in the business environment and highlighted the idea of cognitive bias. "Technological companies are increasingly realising that they have to integrate diversity and inclusion. Moreover, it is a really important KPI in terms of generating business", she explained.
The participants on the Discussion Panel at the Business Networking session included Eva Cantero, the Founder of The Cross Experience EC, Jerónimo Corral, the Corporate HR Director at Cars JC, and Luis López, the Human Resources Director at Deloitte. The panel discussed talent, competences and diversity management. In Eva Cantero's opinion, the competences required in organizations are the same because there is a much greater degree of democratization. "The environment and the ways of performing in organizations have evolved".
Other aspects discussed in the forum included the differences between senior and junior profiles and the development of more emotional competences based on knowledge, self-control, self-awareness and empathy. At Moove Cars, the workforce includes 105 different nationalities and they consider diversity management to be "a facilitator for capitalizing on the talent of the people in the team". At Deloitte, they place great importance on the need for companies to focus on retaining talent, "We have to learn from our youngest team members and keep people interested with projects that challenge them". In terms of the competences required by leaders, Pilar Llácer underlined the importance of leading by example and consistency, while Luis López emphasized the emotional connection with their teams. Eva González added generosity with respect to diversity, which she described as a super power that makes people better at building based on their strengths.
The Business Networking session came to a close with a presentation by Julio Linares, the President of the CEOE's Digital Society Commission. Entitled "We will be digital or we won't be at all", Julio's presentation qualified decarbonization and digitization as historic challenges, describing the latter as a "real issue in which our country's future is at stake". We are witnessing the third revolution, digitization, which is going to increase in significance and will be accompanied by a complete shift in terms of process and also culture. Within this changeable environment, digitization has to be seen as an opportunity and a need. Although Spain has improved to some extent in terms of technology, we have to keep improving and embrace technology in our political agenda, especially considering that the country's last digital plan was drafted in 2013. "We need a digitization plan for the Spanish population".
At the CEOE, they developed a 2015 digital plan based on three key players: citizens, companies and public administrations, as well as three pillars underpinning sustainability: education, entrepreneurship and innovation. Within this framework, the role of leaders has also changed. New executives need to be flexible, creative and agile. "It is not the strongest or smartest who survive any more, it is those who best adapt to the environment". In this context, the most important quality is creativity, which takes on even greater significance in the digital setting. "Leaders have to place the focus on talent".
In his seventies, Julio emphasized that not a single day has gone by on which he has not learned something. With this in mind, he highlighted the importance of education, which has hardly changed in the last three decades. "Our future is at stake", he explained. He also mentioned the significance of the four Cs: creativity, curiosity, cooperation and communication. To bring his presentation to a close, the President of the CEOE's Digital Society Commission focused on people, because it is through them that change can happen. Turning to the future, he stressed the need to build a bridge between the present and future of work with education (lifelong learning) as a point of connection. Education has not changed in the last 30 years and this represents an enormous challenge because our country's future is at stake.