20_10_09_CS

A physicist and a mathematician have been exchanging views for years on what tomorrow will hold for companies and professionals in a future characterized by uncertainty, speed and volatility. But that tomorrow they have been talking about for some time has arrived all of a sudden because of COVID-19. Francisco Pérez Botello, president of Volkswagen Group España Distributionand Rosa García García, former CEO of Microsoft and Siemens and current member of the Board of Directors of committee . Mapfre, Sener y Tubacexshared their reflections in the online dialogue 'Adapt to Succeed', organized by Career Services of the University of Navarra.

Paco Pérez Botello and Rosa García, in addition to their training in science, are united by a long and fruitful professional career in the industrial and technological world. Their experience leads them to reflect on a question: is the world as we know it going to disappear? "It is very difficult to know where we are going. The executive has to be able to manage and live in this uncertainty. There are a number of things that we don't have to worry about, but that we have to take care of. For example, the health of our employees, improving productivity, not losing the relationship with our clients... We have to be attentive to see which of these things that are happening are here to stay," says Rosa García. Paco Pérez Botello is clear: "This is not the end of the world. We have been saying for years that tomorrow's world will be characterized by volatility, uncertainty and speed of change. Companies will end up adapting.

 

Society is putting at test that adaptability that Paco Pérez Botello talks about in his field staff and professionally. But who will succeed? "The companies that succeed will be those formed by people with an enormous capacity and speed of adaptation. For me, the development of adaptability is a process that has two phases: first, self-knowledge, be very honest with yourself and identify what you are good at and what you are not so good at; second, expose yourself in a controlled but constant way to everything in which you are not particularly brilliant. You will probably not become a crack in that skill in which you are not so good, but in this process of expanding your circle of comfort, your adaptability will increase and with it also your chances of succeeding in your professional degree program ", he advises.

In such an uncertain scenario, boosted by COVID-19, it is normal for fear and despair to arise, but Paco Pérez Botello has a committee to overcome these feelings: "We must not look at uncertainty with pessimism, because if there is one thing that characterizes it, it is opportunities. It is very important not to be afraid of making mistakes and to be very quick at learning, but even quicker at unlearning. There are many more opportunities out there than it seems". Rosa García also agrees with Pérez Botello's advice: "It is very important to believe in yourselves, go out and look for opportunities or create them, because they are not going to come to your house. They will only appear if you are caught working, looking for them".

Soft skills, the protagonists of the future

It is clear that the world is becoming increasingly virtual, more technological. As Paco Perez Botello reports, several programs of study state that 70% of the work jobs that we will have in 10 years' time do not exist today, and that automation will take over 50% of the jobs we have today. "In this scenario, soft skills will be the most important, because what will be very difficult to automate is empathy. In a very technological world in which it seems that the only careers with a future are mathematicians, physicists or engineers, I believe that there has been a resurgence of the human sciences. We probably need more philosophers and anthropologists than we have now. For example, we have many anthropologists working on the definition of the autonomous car".

According to Rosa García, Education has a role to play core topic in training professionals who cannot be replaced by machines: "What machines will not be able to do is innovate or empathize with the customer. The human act of communicating will continue to be very important. We have to adapt Education to the new requirements, because otherwise children will always be beaten by machines that will be able to remember more and calculate better".

Transparent leadership

The landscape of change that we have been witnessing for years with technology, automation and globalization has been spurred by the emergence of COVID-19. All these factors and challenges have also influenced the way companies are led. "Today leadership has to be more authentic and genuine, there can be no difference between what you say and what you do. It's something that society, technology, social networks... are asking for. All this has torn down the concrete walls of companies and institutions and replaced them with absolutely transparent glass walls, so that, today, everyone not only sees what you look like, but really sees what you are," says Paco Pérez Botello.

Decision-making in large companies has also moved from the top to the area closest to the customer. "The world has become so complicated that no one has all the answers. We executives have had to take a great deal of humility and assume that we don't know everything. We new leaders want when a team member thinks we're making the wrong decisions, we want them to tell us. I will thank him, I will ask him why with interest, and I will also consult with more people so that we don't make wrong decisions and find the solution together," says Rosa García.