Elio Vera has interviewed Guillermo Cisneros Garrido

Citation

(2014), "Elio Vera has interviewed Guillermo Cisneros Garrido", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 21 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCM-05-2014-0051

Elio Vera has interviewed Guillermo Cisneros Garrido

Article Type: Executive Corner From: Cross Cultural Management, Volume 21, Issue 3.

Berklee College of Music (www.berklee.edu) is the leading university in contemporary music education offering degrees in 16 majors, including performance, scoring for film and television, production and engineering and education. Berklee alumni have won more than 230 Grammy's and 75 Latin Grammys.

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido is leading Berklee's international efforts in launching its international campus in Valencia (Spain), the coordination of the 19 international partnerships, as well international educational programs in different countries. He is also responsible for Berklee Latino, the first effort of the College to offer education for creating music in Spanish, with activities in USA, Mexico and soon in other Latin American countries. He is the first senior executive of the College who is not originally from North America.

Born in Spain, he holds a doctorate in Business Economics from the University of Barcelona, as well as other postgraduate degrees from different international universities, including Harvard Business School, Texas A&M and Babson College. He is also a CFA charter holder.

The early part of his career was focused in the field of Marketing, in executive positions, entrepreneurial ventures as well as advising many national and international organizations. Since 1987 he has been a professor at ESADE. In 2000 he became part of ESADE's senior leadership and, as executive director, he led the launch of the business school campus in the Spanish capital, Madrid, and as deputy managing director of the school, he contributed to position it as one of the top international business schools in Europe.

In 2005, he joined financial group, Santander, as chief learning officer, driving the development of the group's Corporate University, the executive education and the group's training policy during its evolution from a multinational to a global organization. He then became senior vice president and chief learning officer of the international group FIAT in Italy.

He is trustee of FUNDIPE (Foundation of Human Resource Management in Spain) and has also served as trustee and director on the board of several institutions such as CUNEEF (a leading Higher Education Institution in Spain). As a business “angel” he sits on the board and has given support to diverse entrepreneurial initiatives, including the executive committee of ASFOR (Italian Association for Management Education) and the advisory board of CLIP (Corporate Learning Improvement Process), an EFMD initiative for the development of corporate education.

Elio Vera: What are the current cross-cultural management challenges within your organization?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: By definition, Berklee College of Music is a culturally diverse organization; we receive students from 110 countries, have affiliated schools in 18 countries, an international campus in Spain, faculty from all over the world, and programmes in eight different countries. Berklee specializes in contemporary music, which is permanently evolving and melting cultural traditions together with the creation of new ideas. Cultural diversity is the name of our game, we embrace it and it has been a wonderful experience for me in that aspect. Besides my experience at Berklee, I’ve worked in different international organizations, Grupo Santander, FIAT, etc. therefore, I have experience in diverse “industries” – manufacturing services, cultural industries, etc. – and communication, which is a bidirectional process otherwise it's just information, is the most important challenge when people of different cultures come together in a single organization.

A global mindset and cross cultural skills cannot be learned just by reading books or listening to motivational speeches, it is necessary to have a real personal international experience. The most important challenge that organizations face is to find managers that can work across cultures by exposing them to true international work challenges which can transform them as leaders.

Elio Vera: In your opinion, in the future what are the major cross-cultural challenges your company will face?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: All multinational organizations in which I worked usually faced the same dilemma when evolving to become a global corporation: they are rooted in a strong corporate culture which is tied to a national identity and they need to go further to become global without losing their cultural heritage.

When they still are in a multinational situation, the game is simple: everybody has to adapt to the organizations dominant national culture whether you like it or not. The challenge is both; to make the headquarters more permeable to others cultures to minimize clashes and to help the subsidiaries to embrace/adopt the dominant culture faster; and the power is concentrated in a single place, most of the top management have the same nationality. The evolution to be a truly “global” organization is much more complex. It means a distribution of power with corresponding organizational challenges, it also means going beyond the national identity in which the organization was created, something that is impossible to achieve without cultural diversity among the senior leadership, these leaders need to be people that really understand and embrace the core values of the company.

Elio Vera: Please share an anecdote or case you have experienced in managing across cultures.

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: I have many anecdotes, some of them funny, others not so much. However, I would like to highlight the case I’ve seen many times in multinational organizations, some of them even bragging to be very global. Top leadership and corporate HR tell the promising managers: as an organization we need and value international people, go away, take an international experience, help us to solve this particular challenge, prove yourself as a leader […] blah, blah, blah […] and you will have a great career. However, the crude reality is that in most of cases the people that stay in the headquarters, close to the power, are the ones that move up in the career ladder faster – it is logical, they are seen by the top management every day, they develop bonds and trust – while many of the brave that went abroad, to put themselves in uncomfortable situations, end in a cul-de-sac in their professional careers.

Elio Vera: Considering your experience working in a multinational company, what is necessary to encourage the creation of a feeling of mutual proximity, a spirit of group, a sense of belonging? Does it exist in your company as a specific programme or activity to encourage these attitudes?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: Basically, I consider that there are three basic elements: First, having shared goals, which represents a clear strategy and an engaging vision coming from the top of the organization; second, very good and permanent communication; and third, creating trust and better mutual understanding, which comes through personal knowledge and direct experiences with the people of the different countries.

Corporate education programmes are one of the most important instruments for achieving the goals I described. As former Chief Learning Officer of global corporations, I learned the power corporate universities have as a tool for cultural connection and the development of global leaders. It creates situations where people can have discussions around strategic topics in a different context apart from the organizational tensions. Moreover, it generates opportunities to get to know each other, not only sharing classrooms and assignments but also having fun together (fun is always important, makes things easier). This changes attitudes and creates bonds that can become a powerful “lubricant,” making the organization much more efficient at an international level. It also helps to put talent on the spotlight, people with great potential that are simply too far away from the central power to be considered.

Elio Vera: Which has been your experience to maintain the global culture in your role of CEO or manager, to whom people look at for guidance on behaviors and norms?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: As chief learning officer in global organizations I had to consciously deal with the development of a global culture by creating programs and activities with that purpose. In doing so, you should be careful not to get confused and try to create a global culture by imposing the local/headquarters culture to everyone in the organization. The most important challenge is to transform the executive leaders in the headquarters and for the dominant corporate and national culture to be open and have a global mindset. As I mentioned before, this is impossible to accomplish without HR policies that engage managers in real international experiences that help them develop the skills to deal with other nationalities, and the understanding of others. Leading effectively through influence is much more important than just exerting power to get things done.

Personally I believe that the only way of giving effective guidance is by personal example: having international exposure, taking the risks of working abroad, creating a team of people around you from different nationalities.

Elio Vera: In your company is a conscious effort carried on to develop the individual skills and to encourage the intelligence of the employees to express themselves regardless of nationality? In which ways are intelligence and personal abilities rewarded?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: I am lucky to work in a company that embraces diversity as a source of energy and competitive advantage, in which everyone can express themselves regardless of nationality. Moreover, we have an interesting impact on people: some students come to Berklee College of Music trying to explore American music and when they are here they undergo a process of rediscovery of their roots, giving a different meaning to them and a much more powerful expression.

In general, there is only one way in which organizations can reward and promote people expressing themselves regardless of nationality and take advantage of their different skills: by promoting them and including people of diverse nationalities in executive leadership positions. The soft approach is running events, publications, and speeches about this; however, without real organizational endeavors, this cannot be effective.

Elio Vera: Do you find that some national groups feel discriminated inside the group or in a subordinate position to the national reference group or other more important groups?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: Unfortunately, that may happen and I’ve seen it sometimes. This is why companies need to have active policies in diversity and educate leaders to have zero tolerance towards those situations. Discrimination is simply not acceptable and companies cannot afford and tolerate executives that discriminate others because of nationality, religion, sexual orientation, and any other aspect of the person.

Elio Vera: To what extent has the advent and fast development of new technologies helped or interfered, creating resistances in the organizational structure of your company? And which effect, positive and maybe negative, has this had on your personal experience?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: New technologies are changing the way we work every day: instant and permanent communication, video conferencing from your computer to anywhere in the world, tools for managing projects and sharing information, etc. all these instruments dramatically changed the way we work and created a new domain where any company, of any size, can become global at a very small cost. Companies need to educate their executives and their workforce in the productive use of this tools, personal knowledge and experience is also needed. You do not videoconference in the same way with someone you already know in person, than with someone that is only a remote relationship. In general, the impact of new technologies has been extremely positive and we are just at the beginning, it can be even more awesome in the future.

Elio Vera: In a foreign context have you been able to be considered as “one of them” or in any case/situation have you remained a “foreigner”? Which are the negative and positive outcomes of this attitude? Does it constitute a significant barrier for establishing an effective relationship with local people?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: There are different “levels” of foreigners in corporations: nationality foreigners (you are from a different national culture) and corporate foreigners (you do not belong to the corporate culture). In each case there are also various degrees of being a foreigner: you can come from the dominant national or corporate culture, you can come from an “admired” national/corporate culture, or finally, you can come neither from a dominant nor admired national corporate culture.

For instance, an expatriate that comes from the headquarters to serve in a subsidiary and belongs to the dominant nationality has to deal with the consequences of being a foreigner in a different way compared to the one that has been recently hired coming from a very unknown company (for instance another industry) and from a country different from the local site or the headquarters. The personal and psychological barriers are much more different in those situations.

Along my professional life, I went through some situations in which I’ve been partial and, sometimes, a complete foreigner experiencing the consequences. I must say that this is a very educative experience for anybody, especially for a leader in a global organization. It changes your perspective of life completely, of yourself and the rest of the people, and it helps you as a leader and executive to identify better with the situations in which people have limitations and help to find solutions to overcome the barriers they have.

I believe that there is a “sweet spot” you need to seek as a manager: when you are “one of them” without giving up to be a “foreigner.” In that case, being one of them is about embracing corporate values, being part of the group, and the foreigner “label” remains as a question of nationality, having a different cultural tradition, a funny accent, which is really an advantage you bring to the team.

Organizations with solid and healthy values can bring people together without making them lose their national identities. It is like good families, sons, daughters, fathers anyone can be different and should enjoy being different, but they share deep values that makes them feel and behave like a family by supporting each other and facing adversity together.

As said before, companies need to have active policies, educational programmes, and integration activities as well developing executive leaders able to remedy those situations. However, as an individual you have a lot of responsibility in managing those situations. If you want to follow an international career you should be ready to be a “foreigner” and to make an effort of understanding and integrating yourself in another culture while keeping the different perspective from the other culture. Integration is not something that others do for you, it is a conscious effort from your personal side involving learning the language, traditions, etc. and if you do not do it, what is the point of having an international job?

Elio Vera: Do you feel that the contact that you have had with so different cultures has brought to you important changes in your way of working and has influenced significantly your professional skills that a person without a multicultural experience could not get?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: Yes, definitely, contact with different cultures had a deep impact in my life at a personal and professional level. It made me a different person and therefore a different professional in the way I deal with people and situations.

For instance, it helped me to not underestimate the power of cultural differences for managing better the risks, and at the same time never prejudge people and ideas coming from different backgrounds.

It helped me to adopt a more rational perspective: logic depends on cultural framework, which for some cultures it seems a very logical way of doing things in a certain manner, while for others it is very awkward. One cannot take these cultural differences personally, otherwise you will be driven by emotions and lose control of the situation. Remember that I am Spanish and a Mediterranean, this is completely against my cultural background, very attached to emotions!

Finally, I try, if at all possible, to learn and speak the language (even though I am not very good at this) because without knowing the language it is very difficult to really understand the culture and how affects the way people think and behave.

I believe that the poem of Mark Nepo, summarizes very well the most important point when you go through a multicultural experience and the way need you listen others:

To listen is to lean in softly

With a willingness to be changed

By what we hear

Elio Vera: Is there any other topic not considered above but for you unexpected and very shocking in your experience in dealing with international groups of work, in a new IT world, like social networks and the “Cloud”?

Guillermo Cisneros Garrido: Social networks are having a huge impact in talent management and are essential for professionals in international careers. Companies today, have the challenge of spotting internal talent and the competence of their people if they do not want to lose them. The skills, experiences and competencies of these people are public through social networks when sometimes the internal knowledge about our own people is very low, creating a paradox. I remember cases in which HR had to use LinkedIn to find people within their own organization with very specific skills because otherwise it was impossible to find them with their current internal information. In the same way, the talent of any company is exposed to everyone and it is in relationship with many other people, it is better if we take more care to retain them.