Jose Ruiz - Executive Recruiter

Executive Search in Mexico

Specializes in recruiting in Mexico for US companies with a strong focus on bilingual and bicultural candidates

Jose Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles' Monterrey office and is a member of the global Industrial practice. His professional experience includes over 13 years in engineering and operations management working for manufacturing organizations in the United States and Mexico.

Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles, Jose was a Managing Partner for a boutique executive search firm based in San Diego, CA serving multinational clients in the US and Mexico. As an executive recruiter he has worked on executive search projects for multinational clients in technology, industrial sectors and consumer markets.

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com


Blog - Executive Recruiter

Heidrick & Struggles Names Eric Olson to Lead Global Leadership Consulting

December 13th, 2011

CHICAGO, Dec 12, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., the leadership advisory firm providing executive search and leadership consulting services worldwide, announced today it has named Eric Olson to the role of Global Practice Managing Partner of Leadership Consulting. He will serve on the firm’s operating committee and report directly to CEO L. Kevin Kelly.

“Eric possesses a rare combination of functional experience, client focus and a true passion for people. Over the past decade he has successfully led several international leadership consulting firms and will have a strong business impact on both our firm and clients,” said Heidrick & Struggles’ Chief Executive Officer L. Kevin Kelly. “Under Eric’s direction, our global Leadership Consulting team will be in a solid market position for strategic growth.”

Olson joins Heidrick & Struggles from Oliver Wyman Leadership Development, where he led their European consulting operations. As an accomplished business strategist, Olson has worked closely with many Fortune 500 companies. He also served as CEO of Health Address, a UCLA-based company providing online specialty services between the US and international medical centers in the Middle East. In addition, Olson has taught several change and complexity courses at UCLA and UC Irvine Business Schools.

Olson holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, CA, an MA in Complexity and Organizational Change from the University of Hertfordshire in England, and an MS in Counseling Psychology from Central Washington University.

About Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.,  is the leadership advisory firm providing executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment, talent retention management, executive development, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers globally. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com .

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The Path To Becoming A Fortune 500 CEO

December 5th, 2011

Forbes.com | Guest post written by Jeffrey S. Sanders

Jeffrey S. Sanders is Vice Chairman and Managing Partner of the North American CEO Practice for Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search and leadership consulting firm.

While we all know stories of legendary CEOs who seem born to the role, most CEOs are not born, they are made. People who aspire to the role have to seize the opportunity and set a path: to manage their career choices and craft their experience to make them a likely CEO candidate.

Interestingly, consulting, at four percent, ranked as the least common early career experience among CEOs. Nevertheless, some highly successful CEOs have come from that world. John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, started as an associate consultant at Bain & Co. and rose to become the firm’s Worldwide Managing Director. DirecTV’s CEO Michael White, after graduating from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, worked at Andersen Consulting and then spent five years at Bain. Both Jerry Storch, CEO of Toys ‘R’ Us, and Russ Fradin, CEO of SunGard, worked at McKinsey, and Indra Nooyi spent six years at The Boston Consulting Group in the beginning of her career (she was eventually appointed CEO from the CFO position).

Settle In – Eventually – and Climb the Ladder

More than three-fourths of today’s top leaders were appointed internally. When evaluating CEO candidates, companies tend to favor internal appointments, as opposed to external appointments, because internal candidates understand the company culture, are familiar with the key stakeholders, and are known to the board members and other members of the executive team. Given that internal executives know and are well-known to the company, promoting the internal executive often poses less of a risk than hiring someone from the outside.

However, while more than three-fourths of today’s top leaders were appointed internally, less than a third of CEOs were “lifers” (people who spent nearly their entire careers at the company they now lead). The average time to CEO appointment for those who rose through the ranks at
their company is 16 years, but the average age at time of appointment is 50. Therefore, when executives reach their early thirties, they begin to settle in at one particular company to rise through the ranks. While companies value executives who understand the company culture, they also recognize the importance of executives who have spent time at multiple companies. Experience at several companies provides CEOs with an outside perspective and enables them to draw best-in-class practices from a broad range of companies.

Time to CEO Appointment

While the average time to CEO appointment is 16 years, it differs from industry to industry. Not surprisingly, technology appears to offer the fastest path to the CEO chair, while industrial companies appear to offer the slowest. Technology companies make up about 10 percent of the Fortune 500, but comprise 15 percent of the CEOs appointed before age 50. Industrial companies, making up about 37 percent of the Fortune 500, have only 30 percent of the under-50 appointments. Similarly, average time to CEO appointment for internal appointments at technology companies is close to 14 years, whereas average time to CEO appointment for internal appointments at industrial companies is closer to 18 years. Also of note is the fact that technology companies appoint almost 20 percent more external CEOs than industrial companies.

Board Experience

About 45 percent of CEOs served as non-executive directors on public company boards before being named chief executive of the Fortune 500 companies they lead today. Executives typically look to join boards before becoming CEO because they view board experience as a form of professional development. Serving on a board provides them with the opportunity to learn from other high-caliber executives, see the CEO role through the board’s lens, and gain corporate governance experience. While serving on a board can often help with an executive’s professional development, there is also an opportunity cost associated with joining a board given the time commitment required. Executives who would like to become CEOs should be mindful of this and should join a high quality board where they can develop their experience, exposure to corporate governance, and visibility.

While this portrait of a CEO could shift in the coming years, most of the attributes reflected in our findings are likely to become only more pronounced with the passage of time: financial acumen will continue to be important in an increasingly globalized and economically interdependent world, companies will place a high value on organizational and cultural knowledge, and an increasing number of executives will look to board service as a way of gaining a broader perspective prior to becoming CEO.

What does that path look like? To find out, the CEO & Board Practice at Heidrick & Struggles analyzed the careers of all current Fortune 500 CEOs.

Here’s some of what the study discovered:

Develop Financial Acumen

About 30 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs spent the first few years of their careers developing a strong foundation in finance. This is by far the most common early experience of today’s CEOs. As the second-largest constituent, CEOs who started out in sales and marketing roles account for only about 20 percent of the current big company CEO population.

The prevalence of CEOs with a strong financial background points to the fact that large companies prefer CEOs who can create value for the company and who understand the company’s financial drivers. Typically, companies are looking for CEOs who can develop a strategy and understand the financial ramifications of business decisions.

A foundation in finance is an important building block for a career. However, only about five percent of these CEOs were promoted directly from the role of CFO – more than half were appointed from the role of COO or President. Though the prevalence of Fortune 500 CEOs with strong financial backgrounds underlines the importance of developing financial acumen, above all, companies value a strong operator.

For example, while Oshkosh’s Charles Szews spent the majority of his career in a variety of finance roles, prior to his appointment as CEO in 2011, he spent three years as COO. Similarly, Patricia Woertz began her career as an accountant, and then rose through the ranks in the finance departments at Gulf Oil and Chevron before she was rotated into broader operating roles and eventually appointed CEO of Archer-Daniels-Midland in 2006. At the other end of the spectrum, the CEO of Pfizer, Ian Read, began his career in the finance department, but transitioned into general management after a comparatively short 10 years in finance roles.

With a few notable exceptions, such as Marcel Smits at Sara Lee and Bill Delaney at Sysco, executives very rarely move directly from a finance role to the CEO position. Rather, over three quarters of these CEOs came from an operating role. Though they often began their careers in finance, the executives who have made it to the top are those who have successfully used their financial expertise to become excellent operators.

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10 years of experience or 1 plus 9 of the same thing?

February 9th, 2011

3 years after graduating from college I accepted a position as a Design Engineer with a company that built custom HVAC equipment. I had been invited by an Engineering Manager who had also just joined the company but had many years of experience in the industry. 

In our first staff meeting he began talking about changes in the department. He spoke of creating design standards and changing the way we did things towards a more structured approach that would foster continuous learning and improvement. Half way through his speech one of the guys that had been there for a long time interrupted him and began to say “In my 10 years of experience…”, and that was really as far as he got before he was interrupted and harshly told “Jack (let’s just call him that), before you continue, let’s get this straight: You have one year of experience and then just 9 more doing the same thing. At some point you’ll learn the difference”. Uncomfortable silence followed and the meeting continued. 

It was a truly unforgiving statement but with a lot of truth in it. Forcing ourselves to learn continually is hard and we tend to gravitate towards our comfort zone. 

In his book Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin mentions Noel Tichy’s illustration of concentric learning circles. Tichy, former chief of GE’s Crotonville management development center, labels the inner circle the “comfort zone,” the middle circle the “learning zone,” and the outer one the “panic zone.” It is well documented that we acquire knowledge and experience by developing activities in the learning zone, but this is only one part of the equation. 

Getting back to the career theme, learning for the sake of learning can be a waste of time and learning as a simple reaction to what we face can lead us in the wrong direction. 

Consider every lesson, every interaction, every position and every experience as a building block of your potential. High performers build on solid foundations that allow them to focus on elements that average performers don’t even consider or notice. They begin to make decisions and execute at a higher level. 

Consider the analogy of learning to play hockey. You need to start by knowing how to skate. Understand the objective of the game, the rules and the broad strategy. As you keep learning you start to develop speed and instinct that allow you to react at a high speed and at some point, at a high level, predict.  If any of us mortals is placed in front of a hockey goal and we are asked to block a shot, it’s very likely that we will focus on the puck. A professional will be looking at the shooter’s eyes, shoulders and hip movements. He will know where the puck is going the moment it is touched by the stick.   

These same principals apply to business. To achieve a certain level in an organization or as a business owner you need to know where you want to go, how you need to “build yourself”, understand the building blocks and most importantly take continuous and persistent steps towards getting it done. 

I’ll make an emphasis on continuous and persistent because it does not happen overnight. In fact, it will not happen over a few years. Studies have shown that people on top of their game have been focused on it for more than a decade. 

If you are not paying attention and not working towards a firm goal, by the time you realize it, you may find yourself with scattered building blocks of knowledge and experience that are no where close to being aligned to where you wanted to be. 

So, do you or will you:
a) Have 10 years of experience
b) Have one year of experience, and 9 more doing the same thing
c) Have 1 year of experience in 10 unrelated things.  


Jose Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ Monterrey office and is a member of the global Industrial practice and specializes in recruiting in Mexico for US companies with a strong focus on bilingual and bicultural candidates.
 
Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com

Career Development, Drive It (Book), Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters , , , , , ,

Is Talent a Noun or a Verb? Follow the Logic…

February 4th, 2011

According to Merriam-Webster Talent is a noun. But bottom line, talent while defined as a noun is really more a verb, it’s about execution and performance.

Definition of  TALENT: “General intelligence or mental power : ability”

Definition of ABILITY: “Competence in doing : skill”

Definition of SKILL: “The ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance”

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Industrial, Energy/Natural Resources and Financial Services Sectors Expected to See the Most Growth in Executive Hiring in 2011

February 3rd, 2011

AESC, January 2011.- Optimism in the senior recruitment market continues with executive search consultants 68% positive and 30% neutral for the year ahead. The 2011 Outlook, released today by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), showed a peak in industry confidence since its low point at the end of 2008.

AESC President, Peter Felix, commented, “The New Year outlook by our members is most encouraging and confirms the renewed demand for executive search services that we witnessed in 2010. Our members are more confident about their pipeline of assignments and although not all markets around the world are recovering at the same pace the underlying trend is strong. This creates more positive planning support for the expansion of resources that in many cases were severely depleted in 2009.”

66% of respondents indicated that their search practices are planning to hire more consultants in 2011 – rising 18% from mid 2010 results – and 44% plan to hire more researchers.

Felix continued, “As the world economy recovers from the financial services trauma so the scarcity of executive talent in many sectors and regions of the world has become apparent again. This is most pronounced in the booming economies of China, India and Brazil where the talent gap is of critical proportions. However, the scarcity of talented general management executives persists even in the developed countries. Given these conditions the outlook for executive search consulting is bright.” Global findings revealed that the Industrial, Energy/Natural Resources and Financial Services sectors are expected to see the most growth in executive hiring in 2011. Consultants in the Americas held particular optimism (over other regions) for Financial Services, Technology/Telecoms, Energy/Natural Resources, Not-for-Profit, Private Equity/Venture Capital and Real Estate/Construction.

China, India and Latin America are expected to see the greatest scarcity of talent in the year ahead, while the functional outlook places General Managers, CEOs, Chief Operating Officers and Board Directors in strong demand in 2011 – suggesting an increase in high level search assignments as reported in the AESC’s third quarter 2010 industry report.

The 2011 Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) Member Outlook Survey of December 2010 totaled 210 responses from AESC executive search consultants worldwide, including 52% from EMEA, 30% from the Americas and 15% from Asia Pacific. A full copy of the report is available upon request to AESC members and the press.

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Talent is Not Enough. You Need to be a Speed Factor.

January 28th, 2011

The current challenge is to identify where you can be a ‘speed factor’ in your position, product and market and continue to build on what you have to increase your impact in a company or organization. 

Every day as I walk into my office I face the dual phenomenon of calls from talented people who do not have a job and of clients who are struggling because we can’t find the right talent. There once was a time when a good sales person was a good sales person. Now when clients call us they want a good sales person but with solid product and application knowledge and proven success in a specific market or channel.

There is no way around it. Companies want people that will come in and hit the ground running. They want great talent with experience in the position, the product and the market with little room for a learning curve. It has become more difficult, for both talented people and companies to match, as each one of those elements become more and more specialized.

According to Delloite Research in 1998 the average time to market for a new product was 18.1 months and on average a company’s revenue from new products was around 21%. In 2007 the average time to market had dropped to 12.8 months and the average revenue had increased to 34%. The reliance on new products and innovation is evident in every single industry. As Jason Jennings’ book title reads “It’s not the BIG that eat the SMALL, It’s the FAST that eat the SLOW”.

Fast and the speed of having ‘been there, done that’ is currently shaping the demand for talent. Fast learning is very important, but with a strong, solid knowledge and experience base.

The current challenge is to identify where you can be a ‘speed factor’ in your position, product and market and continue to build on what you have to increase your impact in a company or organization. 


Jose Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles’ Monterrey office and is a member of the global Industrial practice and specializes in recruiting in Mexico for US companies with a strong focus on bilingual and bicultural candidates.

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com

Career Development, Drive It (Book), Latin America, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters , , , ,

Stop Drifting and Start Driving Your Career

January 22nd, 2011

The ultimate purpose is to not just focus on the finish line but also understand the best method to get there and not hope or expect, but drive to achieve our career goals in the desired time. 

If you are reading this you must have an interest in business, management, leadership and your own role in an organization. As students of these disciplines we constantly seek and find stories of success as defined by academics and executives that we identify as examples of who we want to be and what we want to achieve. 

In many cases we follow those leaders of industry, who constantly grace the cover of magazines, are in the headlines of newspapers, and become the center of discussion in academic case studies to gain from their insight and experience. You could say we are obsessed with being amazed by their success stories, as well as documented failures, going through their experiences in an attempt to learn and duplicate their success, and avoid their mistakes in our own lives and careers. We cherish those experiences and they provide us with inspiration as we attempt to climb the corporate ladder and create our own success stories.  

I remember reading about Lee Iacocca and his resurrection of Chrysler. About Roger Enricco and how he took on Coca-Cola as CEO of PepsiCo proclaiming victory in the cola wars. The magic of Michael Eisner in turning Disney into an entertainment power house. The constant feed of articles and books as Bill Gates, a Harvard drop out, built a software empire while his nemesis Steve Jobs took Apple from an icon of personal computing into a lust driven power house of digital music and iconic consumer electronics. For years I obsessed with how Jack Welsh transformed General Electric and used applied statistics to create one of the most successful operational excellence models in recent history based on Motorola born six-sigma. This week I just can’t stop reading about “Steve on leave” and the impact on Apple.  

Over time the reading has provided me with many aha moments, knowledge, and inspiration.  In many cases, some conscious, some unconscious, I have snuck knowledge tidbits and game plan pieces into more than one strategic plan or business presentation. But in the end, is it just that? Pieces of knowledge and information? Pieces of insight? How can we use that information to plan and drive our own career?  

We know who they are and we can ask ourselves how they got there. In fact, we can read most of their biographies and analyze every step of their careers. Studying their thought processes, their decisions, and the outcome can be very useful and insightful. However, in many cases reading through it can be no different than looking at a collection of solved Sudoku or cross-word puzzles. The result can be obvious and understanding how to achieve it is a challenge but executing it and getting it right is a whole different thing.  

We also tend to be selective observers. As we read through case studies and stories of success we tend to focus on the highlights of the story line, the center character and the end-result. But as Boris Groysberg points out in his book Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance, “No one works alone”. Boris challenges the notion that outstanding performance is simply the result of a combination of innate talent and good educational preparation. His research points towards additional key factors for success that are typically taken for granted as we admire profiled executives and their success stories. Groysberg identifies outstanding performance as heavily dependent on an organization’s culture, resources, networks and colleagues. In the end, tell me where you work and I’ll tell you who you are.  

As an Executive Search Consultant (as we call ourselves), or headhunter (as most people call us), I speak to hundreds of senior executives every year.  By the time we speak most executives are at a point where they are willing to consider a move or are faced with the need to find a new position. Very few have a clear understanding (or are willing to express) which elements of their achievements can be attributed to their specific experience, individual talent, competences and traits, and which are a product of the organization, the culture, their teams and the specific challenges that they faced. It’s critical in order to predict future success.  

If you have been on a commercial flight lately, and browsed the in-flight magazine you have probably come across the Chester L. Karras ad promoting his seminars to improve negotiation skills. Prominently at the top it reads “In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” A bit radical, but somewhat true. While we don’t get a chance to negotiate everything and we don’t get to choose when it comes to the limitations that life throws our way, we do get to choose where we want to be, and we decide if we want to drift or drive to attempt to get there.  

Most executives will tell you that they do have goals and they do know where they want to be. But when they consider career planning most focus on climbing the ladder. Looking for the next step and working hard to perform where they are to achieve key promotions. Career planning tends to be title driven, and most often than not, little attention is paid to how each position contributes to key factors for future success. Those factors include leadership competencies and skills, that as Boris Groysberg identifies in his work on talent portability, fall into one of two categories: Transferable and Company or firm specific. What you do is just as important as when you do it and where you do it.  

Multiple factors influence the success of a career. Starting with the inevitable, ever changing definition of success. We all have one based on our goals, and those tend to change as we grow, mature, face different challenges and define our needs based on our desired work/life balance. A career plan today will likely be different a year from now. They key is to obtain and maintain a heightened awareness of how every step of this career marathon affects its outcome.  

The ultimate purpose is to not just focus on the finish line but also understand the best method to get there and not hope or expect, but drive to achieve our career goals in the desired time.  

Realted Reading: It’s Not You, It’s Not Me, It’s Just Not Meant To Be 


Jose Ruiz is Principal and Executive Search Consultant in Heidrick & Struggles. You can share your views of this article or aything related to manufacturing or executive search at:jruiz@heidrick.com 

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com

Career Development, Drive It (Book), Leadership, Mexico Executive Search, Mexico Recruiter, Mexico Recruiters , , , , ,

The new breed of CEOs in Mexico

December 23rd, 2010
Category:Latin America; Chief Executive Officer
The new breed of CEOs in Mexico
22 December 2010

The CEOs who lead the top 100 companies in Mexico’s ‘Expansion 500’ list, not only impact the Mexican economy, they also populate the financial and social pages of their newspapers and magazines. These CEOs routinely make decisions that affect millions of people, influencing economic, social and environmental outcomes. As the country continues to change rapidly, what are the common characteristics of today’s CEOs and how will the new breed of CEOs be defined? How do these CEOs compare to their peers outside of Mexico?

Building on previous research undertaken by Heidrick & Struggles, we explore the transatlantic comparisons of top business leaders against CEOs in Mexico. From the analysis is a compelling snapshot of the new breed of CEOs emerging in this ever-changing environment.

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Sucesión de CEO: ¿Cuál es la mejor opción?

December 20th, 2010
Portafolio ColombiaPortafolio (Colombia – Publicado el 19 de noviembre de 10)

Por Jose Ruiz

Alrededor del mundo, el papel que cumple el presidente de una compañía es determinante para orientar la misma al éxito en cada proceso, y que sus funciones trasciendan en óptimos resultados logrados frente a las demás organizaciones. Tanto en empresas del sector privado como del público, en donde el presidente, por cualquier circunstancia que se presente, deba ser reemplazado, es difícil pensar y determinar quién será su sucesor, debido al alto nivel de exigencia, responsabilidad y diferentes competencias que debe reunir el nuevo candidato para enfrentar los retos estratégicos de la compañía.

Un buen interrogante en cuanto al sector público es, ¿cuál debería ser el papel de un presidente en este entorno? Dicho tema ha despertado gran interés actualmente, ya que la persona que venga a ocupar un cargo con tal visibilidad, necesita tener un amplio grado de conocimiento de la empresa, y habilidades que le permitan manejar situaciones complejas y lograr los resultados esperados. Cuando en un país se presenta esta situación de estar frente a una vacante para la presidencia de una entidad pública, a la ciudadanía le agrada y siente mayor confianza que estos altos cargos se le designen a un ‘peso pesado’ por su trayectoria y experiencia; sin embargo, de acuerdo a una investigación realizada entre 250 presidentes, un poco más de la mitad afirmaron que prefieren promover a un ex CEO que a una persona extraña dentro del gremio.

Por otra parte, se debe tener en cuenta que los ex directores generales no serán siempre la mejor opción, y no todos cuentan con las competencias necesarias para ser presidentes, pues este debe ser una persona visible, que está de cara al público y a los accionistas, mientras que un director general trabaja en la solución de uno o varios problemas; ciertamente, ser muy bueno en esta labor no necesariamente implica serlo en las demás competencias de un presidente, para ser su sucesor.

No se debe dejar de lado que el presidente debe anteponerse a la solución de los problemas, realizando y promocionando estrategias en conjunto con otros ejecutivos de alto nivel y actuando como enlace con los accionistas y la junta directiva, la cual debe tomar un papel cada vez más activo dentro de cualquier organización. En este sentido, unos consideran que el director financiero puede ser el mejor candidato para suceder al presidente, por las competencias que desarrolla en su cargo, por su naturaleza de asesoramiento y por su conocimiento de la compañía y el entorno. Cada vez será más difícil reclutar a los mejores candidatos para cargos de tan alta importancia. Por ende, es creciente la necesidad de que las empresas inviertan en la gestión y el desarrollo del talento interno, estableciendo planes de sucesión bien estructurados, alineados a los objetivos estratégicos de la organización, pero flexibles ante los cambios del ambiente empresarial.

Actualmente, ni los ex presidentes quieren regresar al trabajo, y si lo hacen, no son necesariamente la mejor opción. Conocer bien a sus talentos internos, tener claridad de la dirección estratégica y cumplir con antelación las etapas de los planes de sucesión son las únicas formas de minimizar los riesgos de equivocarse a la hora de elegir el nuevo CEO.

Publicación portafolio.com.co
Sección Editorial – opinión
Fecha de publicación 19 de noviembre de 2010
Autor JOSÉ RUIZ / Socio Director de Heidrick & Struggles, Monterrey


Jose Ruiz is Principal and Executive Search Consultant in Heidrick & Struggles. You can share your views of this article or aything related to manufacturing or executive search at:jruiz@heidrick.com

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com


Latin America, Leadership , , , ,

Bicultural Executives Have an Edge

September 15th, 2010

The term globalization has been thrown around for decades but it has never applied as much as it has in recent years as organizations become more focused and specialized within a specific industry or product, and reach beyond their traditional regions of business. Globalization has evolved from being a commercial exchange to a multifaceted integration of many aspects of the business.  This trend has created a need for strong leaders who can manage a complex environment with a high level of interdependence.

When we looked at background of the top 100 CEOs in Mexico our analysis showed that fifty-four percent of the newest CEOs have performed assignments outside of Mexico and 53 percent hold Master’s degrees from institutions outside of Mexico. But Robert Grosse, Dean of EGADE Business School, cautions: “overseas experience is not the same as overseas business experience…Mexican executives could still benefit from more overseas experience in business activities”.

Executives who have been successful in international assignments have usually excelled in understanding the environment, leading visionary change and results, as well as mastering complex business problems. These competencies, coupled with already acquired industry expertise, translate into a small learning curve and quick results.

According to research performed by William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, and Carmit T. Tadmor (Harvard Business Review, September 2010, p24) people who have international experience or identify with more than one nationality are better problem solvers and display more creativity. This based on measuring the ability of these managers to see and integrate multiple perspectives on different issues. In these studies bicultural managers scored higher than monoculturals. Their research also suggests that people with international experience are more likely to create new businesses and products and to be promoted.

Senior executives of successful organizations are a more diverse group than ever before and the impact goes beyond the leadership teams. Middle managers and staff members are being exposed to global management techniques, metric-driven environments and matrix organizations that are preparing them to be the next generation of leaders.


Jose Ruiz is Principal and Executive Search Consultant in Heidrick & Struggles. You can share your views of this article or aything related to manufacturing or executive search at: jruiz@heidrick.com

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com

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Jose J. Ruiz | Executive Recruiter
Heidrick & Struggles | Executive Search in Mexico