TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal Índice Title: Triumphof Talent Maria daGlóriaRibeiro 9 Editing: Ana Rita Ramos Alexandra Ribas 11 Texts: Teresa Ribeiro Margarida Pedrosa 12 Design: Mário C. Pedro Martinho Tojo 13 (marioeditorial.com) Nuno Lopes 14 Phot Luís FilipePereira 15 AFFP; AMROP andprovided ography: FilipePombo/ Filipe Ferreira 21 Graphic production Hugo Martins 23 and printing: VRBL Cir João Lopes 25 July 2018 culation: 2.000 Ricardo Gonçalves 26 Legal Deposit: Stephan Morais 27 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pedro Cruz 28 Ricardo Vargas 29 Esmeralda Dourado 30 Luís Conde 31 Cristina Marques 37 Eelco vanEijck 39 Pedro Pina41 António Casanova 43 Isabel Barros 45 Daniel Traça 47 Luís Rodrigues 48 Carlos Rodrigues 49 STARTING FROM SCRATCH 4 Paulo Azevedo 55 LEARNING TO GROWLEARNING TO 16 Rui Miguel Nabeiro 56 Paula Carneiro 57 WORK INPROGRESS 32 Sofia Tenreiro 58 AND THE FUTUREIS Pedro Almeida59 Cláudia Portugal 60 AROUND THE CORNER 50 AROUND THE Jaime Esteves 61 30 ans déjà !

Lorsque Maria da Glória m’a demandé d’écrire la pré- face de ce livre, j’ai été touché par la fidélité de son souve- nir et me suis retrouvé brusquement transporté en 1988. 30 years have already gone by! A l’époque, le Groupe que j’avais créé existait déjà de- prefácio puis plus de dix ans. Au plan international avec le réseau When Maria da Glória asked me to write the preface Amrop que j’avais cofondé et, en France, avec Sirca que for this book I was indeed moved by the faithfulness of her j’avais décidé de développer au sud de l’Europe. Je cher- memory and, suddenly felt like I was back in 1988. chais quelqu’un de talent pour ouvrir notre filiale à Lis- At that time, the Group that I had created had already bonne. been around for more than a decade. Internationally, with Je me souviens très bien de mon premier contact avec the Amrop network, which I co-founded, and in France with Milo. Ma décision en sa faveur s’était imposée à moi im- Sirca, which I had decided to develop in Southern Europe médiatement, malgré sa jeunesse, tant j’avais été frap- as well. At that time, I was looking for someone talented to pé et séduit par son leadership, son énergie, sa déonto- open our subsidiary in Lisbon. logie et son intelligence de notre profession I remember my first contact with Miló very well. et de son marché. J’ai le sentiment que nous My decision to select her was almost immediate nous sommes mutuel-lement choisis pour when, despite of her youth, she captivated me engager ensemble cette aventure entrepre- with her leadership capacity, her energy, ethics, neuriale à Lisbonne. intelligence e know-how of our profession and Recruter Milo comme Directrice Générale est of her market. I feel like we chose each other to l’une des meilleures déci-sions que j’ai prises be a part of this enterprise in Lisbon. au cours de ma vie professionnelle. L’autre Recruiting Miló for the General Manager po- bonne décision qui a, de façon déterminante, sition was one of the best decisions I made influé sur le destin de nos activités est, trois ans plus throughout my professional life. The other good decision, tard, d’avoir confié à Milo notre marque Amrop dont elle and one that had a major impact in the fate of our activity a fait un succès au Portugal, no-toriété et leadership was, three years later, when I trusted Miló with our Amrop sur le marché, services diversifiés, équipe compétente et brand, which she turned into a success in Portugal, through recon-nue. notoriety, market leadership, diversified services, and a Deux décisions heureuses, rien de plus. competent and renowned team. Nous nous sommes ensuite toujours parfaitement en- Two happy decisions, that was it. tendus et je lui ai laissé, en pleine confiance, une large We could always understand each other perfectly and ulti- autonomie, efficace et toujours loyale. Tout le reste, c’est mately, I gave her total autonomy, with the utmost trust in donc elle qui l’a réalisé. Avec sa détermination, son ima- her efficiency and loyalty. Everything else she achieved by gination, sa vision juste de l’évolution de notre profes- her own merit. With her determination, imagination and ac- sion, concrétisée sur un marché fortement concur-ren- curate vision of how our profession should evolve, she con- tiel et souvent difficile. quered a highly competitive and often hard market. Bon anniversaire, longue vie à Amrop Portugal et féli- Happy Anniversary, long live Amrop Portugal, and my most citations amicales et admiratives à sa créatrice, à son sincere congratulations, esteem and admiration go to its âme depuis trente ans.• creator, the soul of the company for the past thirty years.• Jean-Pierre LEGUAY Jean-Pierre LEGUAY S TARTING FROM SCRATCH TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

Amrop is an acronym. It means America and Europe, the markets where, upon its foundation, Amrop International wanted to establish itself. Nowadays the group has 70 offices in more than 50 countries, but in the late ‘80s many of them still didn’t exist. That was the Portuguese case.

UP TO THE MID 80S, the social-economic conjunc- consultancy company, Maria da Glória Ribeiro, ture had discouraged foreign investment in Por- Founder and Managing Partner of Amrop Por- tugal. The 1974 revolution, followed by the PREC, tugal, admits that the day she met Jean-Pierre had dried the economy in such a way that it re- Leguay marked her life. Somehow, Amrop In- quired a “desert crossing” of about ten years for ternational’s responsible for Europe saw in her the recovery to happen. the features he was looking for and challenged Only in 1988, Jean-Pierrre Leguay, then Managing her to lead the small office he was preparing to Partner of Amrop International for Europe, lands open in Lisbon. in Lisbon. Two years earlier Portugal had become She did not hesitate. She felt that she “could be a part of the EEC, and those new European winds valuable piece in the achievement of a goal” and brought the promise of business opportunities. that was enough to mobilize all her energy. Soon His objective was to study the implementation of after that, she found herself alone at the head of Amrop in the Portuguese market via Madrid, but the entire operation from an office at António he soon realized that the distance separating the Augusto Aguiar Avenue. Puny, in her early twen- two Iberian countries should not be measured in ties and with little experience, the not so obvious kilometers, but in cultural traits. He concluded bet of Jean-Pierre Leguay had the mission to con- that such different cultures justified having au- quer the Portuguese market for executive search tonomous offices, with identities as different as from scratch. fado and flamenco. “The economic environment was too poor for Still very young, having just completed her Psy- those who had the ambition of developing a ca- chology degree, and doing her internship in a reer connected to the business world,” Maria da

5 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

Glória Ribeiro admits, 30 years later. “In several fast moving consumer goods, which already used sectors there were only public companies, nec- search in other markets, and with international essarily committed with political agendas. Even banking and some industry, apart from the phar- beers were public! Telecommunications had no maceutical industry”. At first Amrop was only a expression, private banking was only beginning known brand among multinational companies to emerge. Industry had no new investors, there that integrated expatriates, or Portuguese people were some older, solid ones, who had resisted the who had already worked abroad and were famil- PREC”, she completes the picture, with eyes set iarized with executive search. To all others its con- far away, fixed on her starting point. cept and purpose had to be presented, which in It was in this scenario that she presented herself many cases resulted in unforgettable situations. to the world. Early on she reported to the Paris of- fice, under the guidance of Jean-Pierre, but soon after she received her own wings. Portugal was the “You want to hunt my head?” first Amrop office that started from scratch: it was Margarida Pedrosa, General Manager at MBA not born from a merger, association or acquisi- Consultants, a company that develops its activ- tion, and it operated alone in the market. The first ity in the Human Resources sector, has known competitors only arrived in Lisbon about a year Maria da Glória Ribeiro since their college days. after Amrop Portugal had opened its doors. Colleagues during the Psychology degree, they Maria da Glória recalls that, by the end of the kept in touch mostly because they followed con- 90s, the Portuguese executive search market was verging professional paths, both focused on the essentially b2c: “We worked with multinational world of organizations. companies in the consumer products area, the A privileged witness during the first years of Am-

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rop Portugal’s activity, as a friend of Maria da were to propose an interesting work alternative”, Glória, but also as her regular associate, she is she explains. the bona-fide depositary of some of the most fun In the 90s, with the market economy still start- memories of a time when executive search was ing to crawl and a work culture for which con- seen with suspicion by many local companies. cepts such as mobility and career management “I remember some people calling me to ask if I were still new, “people had a hard time assum- knew a Maria da Glória Ribeiro, someone who ing that they were receptive to leave the compa- was basically meddling in the lives of companies, ny they were at”, Margarida Pedrosa points out. wanting to know more than she should”, she There was a mentality that resisted, skeptical, to shares, laughing. the changes that slowly came from Europe, much Her activity as consultant and coach favored admired at the time, but in many ways still hard proximity relationships with clients. Additional- to assimilate. ly, in Porto 30 years ago, everyone knew each oth- “After considering head hunting, people would er, so there were a lot of people who knew they often ask me: ‘You want to hunt my head? And af- had studied together. This conjunction of factors ter that? Won’t you also get more people from my placed them, at the eyes of their interlocutors, in company?’”, the general Manager of MBA Con- an ideal position to clarify doubts and interme- sultants shares, amused. Additional reservations diate states of mind, something that from their were added to these apprehensions, she says: point of view was totally attendable: “People “The fact that we were psychologists. That there felt uncomfortable, because they weren’t used were psychologists interacting as consultants and to having someone they didn’t know wanting searchers in the corporate world”. to learn about their skills and abilities, even if it Head-hunting, coaching, executive search, as-

7 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

sessment were, during those years, expressions ber receiving resumes from Portuguese people from a strange dialect, that even at the highest who had been in South Africa, which pointed out level, in differentiated institutions like banks, ‘white race’. Something that would be unthink- had to be translated by Amrop Portugal. On the able nowadays”, the Managing Partner of Amrop Portugal describes. The particular issue of discrimi- HEAD HUNTING, EXECUTIVE SEARCH, nation has driven her. Convinced COACHING, ASSESSMENT, that she was right and with prog- ress on her side, she made a point 30 YEARS AGO THEY WERE ALL of introducing, at a time when no EXPRESSIONS FROM A STRANGE one else was doing it, mixed short- DIALECT THAT HAD TO BE TRANSLATED lists for all-male areas. And be- cause the women she chose “had BY AMROP PORTUGAL to be winners, otherwise it would be useless to select them”, she was topic of that difficulty people at the time had un- successful in many cases. She did the same with derstanding what she did, Maria da Glória tells regards to racial discrimination, but confesses one of the most emblematic episodes she lived, that in this case she was not that successful. while leaving a meeting with the president of one of the largest Portuguese private banks. “In this meeting, where I was asked for a shortlist to fill an Maria da Glória’s hook important position, there was a very senior gen- During Amrop Portugal’s first decade, the core tlemen who, as soon as he was alone with me by of its’ activity was executive search. Assessment, the elevator door, told me in a very paternal tone: the evaluation that all people used to be subjected ‘Look, I know everyone, so when you have your to before entering an organization, had been re- shortlist send it to me and I will tell you if those duced to a technicality that had no connection to are the ideal gentlemen or if others will be more the complexity of organizations. For that reason, suitable.’ And, after all, the truth is that he only in the 90s, those techniques started being used knew one person from that shortlist”. almost exclusively for the recruitment of juniors, Everything still needed to be done. In alignment people whose capacities could not be evaluated in with distrust and misinformation there were also any way other than tests, because they did not yet some practices that needed to be fought, namely possess a professional curriculum. during recruitment processes: “In the 90s, no at- Designed to identify top candidates, Amrop’s tention was given to inclusion policies. I remem- Lisbon office was not an exception and set its

8 Simply the best

MARIA DA GLÓRIA RIBEIRO never launched a startup, but who recruited her 30 years ago to lead Amrop Portugal saw in her the the qualities that are vital for an entrepreneur. When she began presenting herself in the Portuguese market as an executive searcher, a lot of people in the business environment were not even aware of the concept. It took a lot of perseverance and boldness to establish herself as one of the players of reference in her area of activity. In 1988, when the office opened its doors, the Portuguese economy was still licking the wounds caused by PREC. Everything had to be done, but that was good news to those who, like her, liked to “operationalize”: “I never imagined myself having a corporate job in a large company, with a very pre- designed work and spending my daily routine that way”, she states. The daughter of a lawyer, she studied Law but quickly changed to Psychology, her element. Those who worked with her recognize in her an inherent ability to unravel people. They say, jokingly, that her eyes are like a scanner and ensure, with a more serious tone , that, when it comes to discovering talent, she is ... simply the best. Outside of the office she likes to surround herself with beauty in its multiple forms, especially through the erudite world of entertainment: music, painting, poetry, theater, ballet. “The music of Swan Lake is probably the most beautiful music in the world”, she says. Then there’s the world, from which she can’t get enough: she loves traveling.•

NAME: Maria da Glória Ribeiro CONNECTION TO AMROP: Managing Partner of Amrop Portugal SENTENCE: “I never imagined myself having a corporate job in a large company, with a very pre-designed work and spending my daily routine that way” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

focus on search. However, due to her academic The relationship between Isabel Barros and Maria education with a postgraduate degree in Orga- da Glória Ribeiro does not end in supplier-client nizational Behavior and assimilated practices of dialectics. By sharing the Human Resources pro- assessment, Maria da Glória, as in so many other fessional area with the leader of Amrop she has aspects of her life, swam against the flow and de- had the opportunity of observing other sides of cided to not totally dismiss a more in-depth eval- her. From that wider picture she highlights the uation. When the trend was to recruit based on ability to leave her personal mark in everything hard skills, she also researched soft skills, antici- she does and her talent to anticipate trends: “She pating an orientation that only claimed its place brought the concept of network to this area. Even many years later. before that methodology was established, Maria Isabel Barros, Human Resources Director at Sonae da Glória was already doing the mapping of the and a client of Amrop Portugal for many years, market through her network. You can tell that she has always done it naturally. Is a way of being, a way of life: map- EVEN BEFORE THAT METHODOLOGY ping everything, knowing where WAS ESTABLISHED, MARIA DA GLÓRIA people are and how they relate to each other”. WAS ALREADY DOING THE MAPPING She says that before she met OF THE MARKET THROUGH HER her, she already knew her. Be- NETWORK cause she is one of those people of whom you can say that fame precedes her. The first time she remembers well what distinguished the assign- heard her name she was still a student, about to ments that came from Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s make her debut in the work world. She knew her office: “In a time when everything was based on from hearing colleagues who, like her, aspired a technical evaluation of the profile and on very to a successful career: “Everyone in the market hard elements, she was already looking at a set wanted to be caught by Maria da Glória’s hook. of more soft aspects, and even beyond what we It was known that she only worked with the normally call soft skills. I mean the more cultural best, so much so that the great employment aspects, the values of people. When she looked the opportunities weren’t even made public – she market for a candidate she was already oriented had them. And, at the time, there was no Linke- towards a set of characteristics that would fit the din, so our difficulty was much greater. Being client’s culture, and by doing so the probabilities hooked by Maria da Glória was in itself some- of a match would increase.” thing that promoted us”.

10 IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS

ALEXANDRA RIBAS does not believe in coincidences, but her joining Amrop 28 years ago was preceded by those type of happenstances that look like fate. With a degree in Psychology, she was committed to following the clinical area, but her internship disappointed her in such a way that she considered changing her life. It was at this stage that, by mistake, she was challenged to work in the area of organizations: “I was contacted because it was thought that I was a trainer but, despite having cleared up the mistake, they insisted that I did an interview”. She accepted and... stayed. That was how the circumstances pushed her to Human Resources, an area where she never thought she would build a career. One day, when she was already a consultant, someone told her about Amrop and, new coincidence, shortly after that she was challenged by Maria da Glória Raja to join the team. At first she declined, but later, when she was approached again, the stars were already aligned. She says that she identified “with the house culture since the start”, that is why she does not strip this second skin. An impenitent reader, she devours books but also newspapers and magazines, because she is the daughter of a journalist and the passion for news runs in her veins. She has African, Indian, Italian and Austro-Hungarian blood thanks to her grandparents and believes that is why she loves to connect with other cultures. Accompanied by Senhor Souza, a greyhound of good lineage, she likes to take long walks in the morning and attend kennel clubs and dog shows.•

NAME: Alexandra Ribas CONNECTION TO AMROP PORTUGAL: Partner SENTENCE: “ I identified with Amrop Portugal’s culture since the start” CHANGING THE WORLD... created, Amrop is often called to find candidates”, she explains. She witnessed Amrop’s struggle to establish itself in the OF ORGANIZATIONS Portuguese market, at a time when the concept of executive search was unclear for a significant part of national companies. SOMEHOW her relationship with Amrop Portugal began She says that “in the early days, the office overcame resistors even before Amrop Portugal itself came to be. This connection and gained a reputation due to the quality of its delivery. She started through Maria da Glória Ribeiro when they were both takes pride in those achievements in a time when she was also still colleagues in the Psychology degree. Even nowadays, most a pioneer: “In organizational change projects, human resources students who choose this area are aiming at a future career management and skills training, in which I specialized, in the clinical or educational fields, but both of them were an sometimes it was hard to raise awareness with companies exception, being aligned by the same interest in the world of for coaching and, within coaching, for practices such as team organizations. building. It was difficult but very challenging”.• This common trait brought them together and while they were entering the work market their friendship was the starting NAME: Margarida Pedrosa FUNCTION: General Manager of MBA Consulting point for several partnerships: “Our companies complement CONNECTION TO AMROP: Associate each other on the market. Over the years we’ve been together SENTENCE: “In the early days, the office overcame resistors and in consulting projects and also in the context of competence gained a reputation due to the quality of its delivery” development processes. In these cases, when vacancies are IT ALL STARTED WITH A PHONE CALL

NOWADAYS HE IS A BUSINESS ANGEL,but it wasn’t always like this. Of Martinho Fialho Tojo one can say that he has had several lives. If we went back 30 years we would find him in a Pepsi International office as Operations Director and, before that, we would find him calculating structures as Civil Engineer, the area in which he graduated. He met Amrop in the beginning of the 90’s, as a candidate. Until then he had never been approached by executive searchers, but the experience would end up having an impact on his career far beyond what he could imagine: “Maria da Glória Ribeiro proposed me to take a step back, ensuring that such condition would enable me to take two steps ahead. And that was exactly what happened.” Although there were no clear advantage in trading the position of Operations Director at a multinational company like Pepsi for the position of Commercial Director at Danone, a brand that at the time was little known in the Portuguese market, he decided to take the chance. The facts would prove that Maria da Glória was right: “I spent two years in Portugal as Commercial Director, then I moved to the position of General Manager and after that I made an international career at Danone.” In all he spent 15 years of his life in this multinational, and it all started with that phone call. “In fact, my main career in the corporate world was developed at Danone and it was through Amrop that I joined the company”, he admits. Now, as Partner at Busy Angels, his life has slowed down. He has more time for himself, for his family, and even to engage in sports, his longtime passion. Back in the day he was a triathlon athlete, but now he continues active in swimming, jogging, golf and yoga. His current motto is “living in the moment and enjoying life to the fullest”.•

NAME: Martinho Fialho Tojo FUNCTION: Partner at Busy Angels CONNECTION TO AMROP: Placed and client SENTENCE: “My main career in the corporate world developed in Danone and it was through Amrop that I got there” MY SCHOOL

HE JOINED AMROP in 1991, when he was still a Law student. Almost 30 years have gone by since the first day he entered that office, at the time settled in a building on Av. António Augusto Aguiar. It wasn’t his first job. If he hadn’t had any previous experience his way would probably never crossed Amrop’s. But it was a profile like his that the office was looking for: a young working student, who had the necessary discipline to conclude a degree without neglecting his responsibilities at work. “I did a bit of everything, from accounting to administrative services, and I worked seriously, as did the whole team, because there was a lot of discipline and a high demand”, he recalls. Even though it was not his first job, Nuno Pereira Lopes considers that Amrop was his school. It wasn’t there that he became a lawyer, but he says that office was where he was taught “discipline and respect for work”, which to this day still guide the way he practices his profession. He never lost touch with Amrop. He left after he graduated, to commit himself to advocacy, but three years later he once again collaborated with the company, already as a lawyer. It has been a “long and happy marriage”, he assures.•

NAME: Nuno Pereira Lopes FUNCTION: Lawyer CONNECTION TO AMROP: Lawyer SENTENCE: “In Amrop I learned discipline and respect for work” RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST since the early years, acknowledging the difficulties it had to establish itself in a “relatively small market composed mostly by SMEs”. WITH AN ACCUMULATED experience as Manager, Chairman Luís Filipe Pereira turned to Amrop whenever the matter was and Consultant for several business groups, Luís Filipe Pereira the recruitment of a top executive: “For the performance discovered early on that “a good resume doesn’t necessarily of a high responsibility position you need to select the best, make a good candidate”, hence he has defined the recruitment because good results rely on their performance”, he explains. It through specialized companies as best practice: “To make a was with this conviction that he cemented years of a trustful match between candidates and organizations it is necessary relationship that he now maintains acting as Advisory Board.• to thoroughly know the market and human nature, because it is not enough for the selected people to be efficient. It is NAME: Luís Filipe Pereira necessary for them to establish good relationships with the FUNCTION: President of the Fórum dos Administradores de teams they are joining.” Aware that it is hard for companies Empresas (FAE) to “have the capacity, availability and know-how to conduct CONNECTION TO AMROP: Member of the Advisory Board this sorting”, he makes a point of proactively spreading his SENTENCE: “To make a match between candidates and conviction to Human Resources Managers. organizations it is necessary to know both the market and human He met Maria da Glória Ribeiro in the mid 80s, when Amrop nature very well” Portugal hadn’t been born yet. He followed the office’s path KNOWING HOW TO GROW TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

Between customers, placeds, Amrop Portugal employees and colleagues from Amrop worldwide, 230 people came together, in one of the most emblematic places of Lisbon’s night at the time. The office’s 20thA nniversary party, celebrated on October 17 of 2008, was the climax of a program that was prolonged throughout the year.

THE OFFICE WAS NOT LACKING reasons to cele- fact, the economy was not growing. Real econo- brate. More than the two decades of existence, my was not happening. What we saw was an econ- the gifts, the music and the affections, the mile- omy based on public investment. During that stone marked the consolidation of a project that period I always had the perception that we lived managed to impose, despite of being born in an year by year”. adverse environment and having faced growing João Lopes, who joined Amrop in 2002 for Am- pains along with a severe economic crisis. rop to assume the role of Office Manager, close- Indeed, the consumerist euphoria that rocked the ly followed the performance of the office at that Portuguese economy in the 90s, had been followed time: “It was simply our worst year in terms of by years of stagnation. The beginning of the Mil- turnover”, he states. He had never worked for a lennium, marked by the downturn of investment company in the human resources area, so there and the slowdown in consumption, had surprised was no way for him to know the extend to which the office in the start of its second decade of life, the results in these organizations can reproduce during an implementation stage when the need the economical performance of the country they to maintain the growth rhythm was critical. operate in, but this perfect symbiosis was some- All these years later, Maria da Glória Ribeiro thing that didn’t take him long to find out. “We doesn’t forget that time of uncertainty: “During are actual barometers of the real economy, I came those years I used to speak with my clients in the to that realization. When nothing is yet visible, we private sector and none of them felt confident. are already feeling the changes and being able to There was always the perception of something anticipate what’s going to happen”. that lacked foundation. It was the great deceit. In At the start of the millennium, Amrop Portu-

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gal lost clients, something inevitable when the At the same time, Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s office mandate in companies is to “not hire”. But the focused on searching for new clients: “We mapped muscle that the office had built during its ear- the market in order to identify businesses that had ly days, while settling in a virgin market, gave it not been affected by the crisis and the emerging the resilience required to support this adversity. sectors”, Alexandra Ribas reveals. It was like this, Alexandra Ribas, Amrop Partner, says that the she assures, “that Amrop Portugal made its way”. strategy set to face the first economic crisis of the millennium was not the most obvious: “Compet- itors lowered their prices, but we decided that we Hello, technology! would not do the same. Was out of the question In the beginning of the 21st century technology to jeopardize the quality of our services, so we was the most vibrant area. The ‘new technologi- sought alternatives, something that would make cal revolution’ that had arisen during the 90s and us stand out in the market. That’s when we decid- created the so called ‘new economy’, based on the ed to place our bet on fast delivery. That was our admirable new world of the Internet, came crum- competitiveness factor. We studied ways to speed bling down in 2001, in the bubble of dotcom com- up our processes without compromising quality panies – companies based on the Internet that, and we were successful.” between the late 90s and begging of the millenni- um, had a meteoric rise followed by an abrupt fall. It was a tough TWO COPE ITH THE ECONOMIC blow that had repercussions on AFTERSHOCK OF 2001 AND THE REPLICAS the global economy, but it did not DURING THE YEARS THAT FOLLOWED, freeze other sectors with a techno- logical basis. That was the case of AMROP PORTUGAL HAD TO OVERCOME telecommunications. ITSELF ON A TECHNICAL LEVEL, AS WELL Maria da Glória Ribeiro confirms it: “During our office’s second de- AS ON ITS APPROACH TO THE MARKET cade of existence we witnessed the explosion of technology, after the At that time the general environment was one of liberalization of telecommunications, something concern, as Alexandra Ribas recalls. Even compa- that had a great impact on our market. At the be- nies that were hiring were doing so with clear re- ginning of this century digital economy was not straint: “The type of requests that we received were yet a topic, but nevertheless there was already a clearly not for expansion contexts. Clients would technological environment to work with, even only invest in the resources they really needed.” in the more traditional means. That was the case

18 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal for some industrial sectors in Portugal, they got a tivity”, Ricardo Gonçalves admits. “Those on the shock with the relocation of businesses based on inside find it amusing to be in on it; those on the intensive labour to emerging markets and had to outside are also seduced by a certain secrecy that reinvent themselves. The best-known example is is raised around it. It is true that on one side we the one of textile and footwear industry”. deal with a lot of confidential information, but It was in this sector that Amrop Portugal found on the other there are also aspects that are share- new clients. During the years in which the Por- able. It was under this assumption that the team tuguese economy stagnated, just after the turn- abandoned the stand that the ex-Partner of Am- ing of the millennium, its services were also rop Portugal classifies as “dogmatic secrecy”: “We highly requested by the retail sector, as well as by the pharma- ceutical industry. EVEN THOUGH EXECUTIVE SEARCH Far from the euphoric atmosphere IS AN ACTIVITY THAT INVOLVES lived in the 90s, in which every- thing seemed to thrive without ef- CONFIDENTIALITY, THERE WAS A LOT OF fort, the debut of Amrop Portugal INFORMATION THAT WAS POSSIBLE AND in the 21st century entailed a fast EVEN FAVORABLE TO SHARE maturity process. To cope with the economic aftershock of 2001 and the replicas during the years that followed, Am- started by sharing the stories that were possible rop Portugal had to overcome itself on a technical to share and it had a very positive impact”. and management level, as well as on its approach Conducting regular lunches with CEOs was an- to the market. other of the initiatives launched at that time: “We Ricardo Gonçalves, ex-Partner, had an active part began to organize these lunches around a more in this strategy of damage containment during this institutional figure and then we would invite 12 period: “Especially during those difficult years it CEOs. That allowed us to sit at the table with our was crucial for us to reach as much visibility as pos- clients”, Ricardo Gonçalves recalls. sible. We decided to bet on b2b activities. During That period also marks the creation of the Sus- that phase we started to include some of our previ- tainable Leadership Award, in cooperation with ous works in the presentations for our clients”. Exame magazine, and of the Amrop conferences, Even though executive search is an activity that that continue to be organized until this day, al- involves confidentiality, there was a lot of infor- though without a defined periodicity. mation that was possible and even favorable to Regarding the Sustainable Leadership Award, share: “There is some mysticism around this ac- Maria da Glória recalls that it was “a struggle” to

19 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

get it going because there was already a leadership the words of Ricardo Gonçalves, “to help and not award granted on the basis of results achieved by to compete”. “It was not easy to convince clients companies, that was very successful. “The con- that we could assess their own people better than cept of environmental, economic and social sus- themselves. This difficulty remains present nowa- tainability,” she stresses, “when I suggested the days, especially when talking to Human Resourc- award was still very undervalued.” es Direction, who understand this as being their job”, the ex-Partner of Amrop states. What was on the table was providing companies Agents of change a more comprehensive additional vision. As Ri- Always ahead of her time and always with an eye cardo Gonçalves explains, “even if there is an on trends that were born on the north side of the internal structure, that structure can never do planet – the latitude where, as she points out, something as simple as looking to the market and “trends and best practices almost always come realizing that those are in fact the best people and from” – during this period, Maria da Glória Ri- that therefore they must do everything not to lose beiro also invested on leadership assessment. them. This does not exist. Companies think they “Leadership assessment has always been present can do it, but often it is not possible”, the former collaborator of Amrop explains. “They think they know everyone,” ALWAYS AHEAD OF HER TIME, MARIA DA he continues, “but it’s not true. GLÓRIA RIBEIRO INVESTED, DURING THIS The market is super dynamic and we must not forget those who go PERIOD, IN LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT to them are only the ones looking to change, not the ones who are in our assignments, but we have only been devel- well settled in their roles”. oping it as a specific area since 2006. At that time During the second decade of its existence, Amrop the executive search industry realized it was pos- Portugal also decided to create an Advisory Board, sible to sell this service because it had the skills importing a practice that is already mandatory in to do so. After all, if it evaluated people from the some reference markets: it started assembling its outside, it could also do it from inside the organi- members annually, the highest representatives zations”, Ricardo Gonçalves, confirms. of several economic sectors, to debate strategies, There was a need for an effective communication, trends and obtain a critical perspective on its own one that could help decode this offer and make activity. the people in charge of the human resources areas All these changes paid off because 2007 was the understand that consultants offer this service, in year of this decade in which the office achieved

20 LIKE A FISH IN THE WATER

IF SOMEONE HAD ASKED HIM while he was in college if he wanted to be a consultant, he would’ve immediately answered no, because it was an activity he associated with long work hours and a great amount of pressure. But the unthinkable happened. When Amrop approached him, a year and a half after completing his management course, he had other plans for the future, but decided to hear the proposal they had to make him. Out of everything that was said during that interview what seduced him the most was the promise that he would learn a lot. He thought about it and... accepted. He came to doubt whether he had done the right choice, but he soon realized that the learning process in that office was very fast and soon after he already felt like a fish in the water. The assimilation was so quick that he was surprised, three years later, he wanted to try other things: “I left. I went to work in the banking sector, as a commercial, but the truth is I missed the challenge and learning that I had gotten used to it here. Banks are demanding, but it is also a routine job. At Amrop, on the other hand there are never two similar projects.” When he came back he already had certainties: “I really like being a consultant, I realized that over time, but I specially like being a consultant here. If a research company approached me to move to a competitor I wouldn’t do it. I believe I wouldn’t learn anything that Amrop hasn’t already taught me”. He likes playing tennis and swimming.•

NAME: Filipe Ferreira CONNECTION TO AMROP: Principal SENTENCE: “At Amrop there are never two equal projects” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

the highest turnover. In five years, not only did of the nowadays well-known, but unknown at the the office recover from the crisis, but it also ex- time, concept of ‘soft skills’: “30 years ago no one ceeded all expectations. The economic conjunc- spoke of ‘soft skills’, she recalls “Leadership was ture, however, had also become more favorable, the ability to command, to be obeyed. 30 years ago but Amrop Portugal’s change of strategy was vital no one classified a leader by his leadership style. to its growth. What was expected of him were analytical results, nothing more. As there was no DURING THE SECOND DECADE OF ITS 360º evaluations, a leader never cared about what people thought EXISTENCE AMROP DECIDED TO CREATE of him in the constructive sense. AN ADVISORY BOARD, AN ALREADY The enhancement of emotional intelligence only came to be at the MANDATORY PRACTICE IN SOME turn of the millennium”. REFERENCE MARKETS As searcher, the leader of Amrop Portugal was one of the agents of It was also during this period that the office of this change by including data in her evaluations Maria da Glória Ribeiro moved to new facilities. that hadn’t been requested by the client, but that From a 1948 Pardal Monteiro building, at Aveni- with practice they would come to value. da António Augusto de Aguiar, Amrop Portugal It was also in the turn of the millennium that Ma- moved to a penthouse in a modern office build- ria da Glória Ribeiro began to exclude the age of ing, at Avenida da Liberdade. The move happened the candidates from the reports. “The obligation in 2001, during a difficult phase, but maybe that’s of non-discrimination due to age reasons went why it was necessary to change the scenario, get totally unnoticed here, to a point where even af- more light: “We needed more space and, above all, ter community legislation forbidding it had been more versatility,” Alexandra Ribas says: “The Of- issued, it continued to happen. It was like this ev- fice at António Augusto de Aguiar did not allow us erywhere. The habit was so ingrained that nobody to manage our space the way we wanted. With the noticed it.” move we became more central, with a more open “One day, when I was doing a job for an Irish com- horizon and also much more light”. pany I was alerted by my Irish colleague. When he In the scope of its activity and in the interaction noticed that I had included the candidates’ age in with clients there were also changes led by Amrop. the shortlist, he told me, amazed: ‘Who belongs Not in terms of space, but of concepts. Maria da to the European Community can’t do that, don’t Glória Ribeiro takes pride for having been a pio- you know? It’s illegal!’ neer in the introduction of some, but in particular Since then I began to eliminate that information

22 ADD VALUE

HE NEVER THOUGHT HE WOULD STAY at Amrop for so long. When he joined, 11 years ago, he was still at that stage of his career where all experiences are good learning opportunities. During his path he was challenged to join other projects, but he never felt it was time to change, and he also knew that the office had plans for him. He never felt defrauded: “As we seek to be very good at what we do, the office needs to stimulate the expertise of its people,” he explains. He started working at Amrop as researcher, currently he is a consultant and responsible for a new area in the office, executive coaching. To take this responsibility he prepared himself: “I doubt that there are many companies doing this: I studied in England, in part- time, for three years. I worked for three weeks a month and for a week I attended Henley Business School at the University of Reading, at the expense of Amrop”. Because it is important for him to feel that he can add value when he commits to a project, he considers that it was very important for his work as coach “to have completed training with the best”. Excited? He couldn’t be more. The project at hand focuses on an area of the market that he still considers to be embryonic, but it is evolving very well. Besides, he is a half marathon runner, therefore he is used to treading the way to get where he wants. In his free time, when he is not running, he likes to stay home and play some chords on the electric guitar.•

NAME: Hugo Martins CONNECTION TO AMROP: Senior Consultant SENTENCE: “I don’t know if there are many companies doing this: I studied part-time in England, for three years, at the expense of Amrop” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

from my reports and when clients find it odd and drama, circus and cooking classes”, Filipe Ferreira pressure me to have it included in the process, I enumerates, amused. explain to them that it is in fact irrelevant, be- “The House of Bernarda Alba was the first play cause what really matters are the skills, the abil- that we performed. Every single Monday we ities and the energy”. would have rehearsal with our teacher. We did ev- erything by the book, voice and breathing train- ing. It was a very fun dynamic, we had a good time Less formal and became closer. At the end we performed the In what regards work relations a lot also changed play for an audience of 140 people, between fam- at the office during this period. Ricardo Gonçalves, ily and friends”, Ricardo Gonçalves recalls. The who in 2007 went to Denmark for a Secondment, former Partner of Amrop Portugal still remem- brought back a set of ideas that help internal rela- bers the dance and magic workshops, the last in tionships. Currently Principal at Amrop Portugal, Chapitô, with magic and balloon tricks, as exam- Filipe Ferreira, who joined the team in 2005, re- ples of the group dynamic created at the time. members what changed in the end of this decade: Evoking all the changes introduced in the com- pany, Filipe Ferreira acknowledg- es that “culturally there there has TO CREATE A NEW GROUP DYNAMIC been a closer approximation. It AMROP PORTUGAL’S TEAM STARTED TO was not about creating a more co- hesive team, because that cohe- ENGAGE ON TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES, sion was already felt before, but SOMETHING THAT HAD A STONG IMPACT about making a more egalitarian team. However, the principal of IN THE HOUSE CULTURE Amrop admits that this move- ment, even though it was stimu- “When I joined, there were two events in the lated by all the actions promoted at the office, fol- company, Christmas and the Anniversary. Those lowed the evolution of time: “At first we used a tie were the only two occasions when we would be on a daily basis and if made a work call to some- together outside the office, but shortly after that where outside the office, we would ask for Dr x or changed completely because we started doing by Mr Eng y. That is no longer the case today. That team building”. In that context they were in- was the time when the tendency for informality volved in projects that created a new dynamic be- started to arise. There has been greater approxi- tween the members of the team, with an impact mation between people because society has also on the very culture of the organization: “We took changed.

24 ALWAYS CONNECTED

HE STARTED AT AMROP as financial officer and ended up answering “for everything that goes on at the office and has nothing to do with the company’s core”. He handles the support for all assignments, from accounting to the relationship with suppliers, including the budget control and billing. But on a day-to-day basis he minds a thousand details: “If this chair, where I am sitting, falls down, it is my responsibility”, he says, with a smile. When he joined the company 16 years ago, little did he know what executive search was. Now he feels native to this environment. He doesn’t do research nor does he interview candidates, but he follows the evolution of the market and has learned to read it through the company’s own performance. He confesses that when he goes out for the weekend he can’t totally cut himself the world that he inhabits from Monday to Friday. And even when he goes on vacation, there’s a part of him that keeps hovering around this 9th floor office at Avenida da Liberdade. All because he feels like an integral part of the Office. He has a passion that was inherited from his father: fishing. From March to November he pays attention to the cycles of the moon to know when its time to get on the boat and head to the mouth of the Guadiana. The biggest fish he has ever caught was a sea beam that weighed almost six kilos and of which he zealously keeps the photo that serves as proof.•

NAME: João Lopes CONNECTION TO AMROP PORTUGAL: Office Manager SENTENCE: “If this chair, where I am sitting, falls down, it is my responsibility” LEARNING HOW TO READ OTHERs team that saw him grow as a professional: “I am one of those people who are lucky enough to say that they left a role they identified with to search for something different.” In his case HE WAS A KID FRESH OUT of college when Amrop Portugal it was to found his own company: “I wanted to go through the recruited him. He started in a junior position, doing research, experience of creating, developing and managing a business”, and made it to Partner. Of the 15 years he spent as part he shares. of Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s team he holds the fondest He has no doubt that his self confidence, critical for those memories. He says that by working on organizational and who choose to be entrepreneurs, is largely a result of the talent consultancy one learns to “identify many causes and robustness of the Amrop School. “Here we cultivate excellence, effects, both in the evaluation of people and in the study of ethics and knowledge”, fundamental instruments for the organizations” and that is a knowledge for life. development of a credible and successful career.• The career he developed at the office gave him, among other things, the ability to “understand how people work, think and NAME: Ricardo Gonçalves make decisions” and how organizations evolve around it. FUNCTION: Partner at Core Investments and Collectiv In addition to this ability to read others, Amrop Portugal gave CONNECTION TO AMROP: ex-Partner him wings to fly even further without the protective arm of the SENTENCE: “Amrop cultivates excellence, ethics and knowledge” MERIT, THAT TROJAN HORSE

WITH A CAREER OF ABOUT TWENTY YEARS he has been, as he says, “on different sides of the table”: as CEO, manager, investor, financier and advisor, in small and large companies. He studied and worked abroad and when he came back he was one of the people who invested in companies like Farfetch, Codacy and Uniplaces, among other stars of national entrepreneurship. This is his focus now: giving wings to talented startups and, who knows, hunting unicorns. With Amrop he also wore several hats. He was a candidate, a client and even a member of its Advisory Board. In this relationship of several years he realized that “there are few companies in Portugal in the area of executive search with the consistency of having been steadily on the market during recent decades, with the same leadership, the same posture and the same independence.” He has much respect for this activity. He believes that only by continuously resorting to these services will companies release themselves from the set of parochial practices that all together will ultimately impact the whole economy, undermining development and competitiveness. In Portugal “there is still a long way to go until meritocracy becomes the dominant culture in the market,” he says, disenchanted. However, he acknowledges that there are already many examples of good practices. Among them, he proudly mentions his rising stars: “Portuguese startups that are among the best in the world always recruit through executive search”.•

NAME: Stephan Morais FUNCTION: Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners CONNECTION TO AMROP: Associate SENTENCE: “There are few companies in Portugal in the area of executive search withe the consistency of having been steadily on the market during recent decades, with the same leadership, the same posture and the same independence” STANDING UP FOR MERIT of choosing the wrong person and eases the safety in the decision process”, he highlights. Having studied in Stanford, USA, Pedro Cruz absorbed the IT WAS AS a potential candidate that Pedro Cruz formed his west coast’s more open way of facing people and businesses: opinion about Amrop. He was never attracted by any of the “Facebook, Uber, Airbnb were born there, outside the several proposals that he received, but when he first opened school gate”. That open culture, in which the most evident an assignment for hiring a top executive, Amrop was the first foundation is meritocracy, is his banner. So, in what concerns that came to mind. Why? “Because I understood that it would the recruitment of executives he believes that resorting to make sense to choose a company that I had seen working in professional services is the most transparent way of choosing such a professional and rigorous manner and which revealed people and the one that better protects merit and diversity in sharp clairvoyance on the important aspects for each position” companies.• he answers with conviction. For him, what makes the difference when recruiting through NAME: Pedro Cruz a specialized company is benefiting from the expertise that FUNCTION: CEO at Gallo Worldwide allows to identify in each candidate the characteristics that CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client less trained eyes would fail to see, as well as a more incisive SENTENCE: “Amrop shows a sharp clairvoyance over the important approach to the market. Hiring like this “mitigates the risk aspects for each position” DOING MAGIC FOR MAGICIANS

BEFORE BECOMING the coach of Amrop’s team, Ricardo Vargas was their candidate, client and associate, so we can easily talk of a 360 degrees relationship. Time and mutual recognition were the drivers of this process. In 2007 he had been elected “consultant of the year” and, in his eyes, Amrop Portugal was already a reference in the executive search sector. Naturally the match happened : about ten years ago Ricardo Vargas became the coach of Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s office. Doing team building with a team that has Psychology graduates, like himself, and technicians to operate in the organizational behavior area is, somehow, like “performing magic for magicians”, admitting it makes Ricardo Vargas crack a smile. “For me that is fun!”, he says. Better than “talking to people who are in the antipodes and think psychology is esoteric and coaching is something only directed towards people who don’t know how to exercise their professions”. Experience allows him to easily identify the foundation for the success of Amrop Portugal’s team. “First of all is their intellectual honesty, but also their openness and transparency to discuss any topic”.•

NAME: Ricardo Vargas FUNCTION: Managing Partner at TMI Portugal and Plan B Consulting CONNECTION TO AMROP: Coach SENTENCE: “The basis for the success of Amrop’s team lays, above all, in their intellectual honesty” YOU DON’T CHANGE A WINNING TEAM

When, between 2001 and 2009, Esmeralda Dourado, at the time CEO of SAG, decided to restructure the holding and rejuvenate its executives, she called Amrop. With an excellent database and good penetration in the automotive sector, Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s team stepped in at the time, over and over again, always with success: “As they say, you don’t change a winning team. That is why Amrop positioned itself as our privileged partner for the recruitment of intermediate and top executives”. Esmeralda Dourado admires “this ability to accurately identify the right people, something that is critical for companies when you talk about top positions”. Apropos this surgical talent, the manager recalls the episode that to this day remains a private joke between her and Maria da Glória Ribeiro: “I needed a person to occupy a key position and when I described the profile I wanted, she said, without the slightest hesitation: ‘I know someone who is an exact match for what you want’. Then I asked her to schedule an interview. I met with the candidate as soon as possible and when I finished the interview I called her right away. What I said was simply: ‘I want this guy!’ But the sentence came out with such vehemence that she never forgot it”. This “guy” has been at SAG until now.•

NAME: Esmeralda Dourado FUNCTION: NED CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “I admire this ability to accurately identify the right people” HELPING CLIENTS TO GROW INTERNATIONALLY

HE WAS ONCE THE CHAIRMAN of the international group. Luis Conde, has been with Amrop for 25 years and is currently a member of the organization’s Advisory Board and Nominating Committee, he is also in charge of several offices in Latin America, in addition to the Spanish office. It is safe to say that he knows Amrop like the back of his hand. He believes that the company’s services make even more sense in the global world because “more and more companies sell products and services abroad, which means that our clients need help in the management area in the countries they are establishing their businesses”. This reality leads him to believe that “one of Amrop’s greatest valences is to help customers grow internationally”, because it opens them doors for accessing local relationships that “make a difference”. He cooperated with Amrop Portugal for several times: “We are neighbors, we have a wonderful relationship”, he assures us, smiling. Recently he was side by side with the team of Maria da Glória when La Caixa acquired most of BPI’s shares. Of her, he says she is “a first class professional, ahead of an extraordinary team”. He confesses that at a given moment he studied a merger between Amrop Portugal and Amrop Spain, but it was not possible to go ahead with this Iberian Union: “Maria da Glória is very independent” he admits.•

NAME: Luís Conde FUNCTION: Managing Partner of Amrop Spain CONNECTION TO AMROP: Amrop Partnership SENTENCE: “Maria da Glória is a first class professional, in charge of an extraordinary team” W ORK IN PROGRESS TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

In 2008, while Amrop Portugal toasted to its 20 years, it was not yet possible to understand what the real impact of the sub-prime crisis would be in the Portuguese economy. After the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers everything happened very fast.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CRASH in the hous- probably see their vacant position be accumulat- ing bubble took their time to be felt on second ed by another executive who stayed”. tier markets, as the Portuguese. However, Amrop For executive search firms it was particularly hard Portugal’s concern was significant. But the expe- to survive in this scenario, as Maria da Glória Ri- rience acquired at the beginning of the 2001 cri- beiro points out: “The market was frozen. Back sis worked, according to its Office Manager, João then companies started thinking more about Lopes, as a buffer. “In 2008 we were able to man- searching from the inside, which is to make the age things differently, because we accumulated recruitment from inside the company”. know-how from the previous crisis. The falls in Currently a Senior Consultant at Amrop Portugal, turnover were not as abrupt and the containment Hugo Martins was already on board when the cri- of expenses was done naturally. We were able to sis of 2008 surprised the global market. A decade dilute the impact of the crisis also because we had later, he says that after the sub-prime crash noth- acquired new clients during those difficult years ing went back to being the way it was before in the in the turn of the millennium”. executive search market: “The crucial necessity it If the strategy for the company’s internal man- was 15, 20 years ago, to go outside to search for agement was not difficult to implement, interfac- people, does not have the same expression now- ing with the market demanded, according to Ma- adays, because more and more companies want ria da Glória Ribeiro, “resilience” capacity: “At the to understand the talent they have on the inside. beginning of our third decade of existence it was Plus nowadays there are more companies train- necessary for us to know how to endure. At that ing people. This is almost an effect of pollination: time clients would allocate budget for acquiring the best leave the good companies and take good talent, to assess it, but there was no probability of practices with them into the organizations that growth. Someone who left an organization, would they are joining. Probably”, he concludes,“the

33 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal crisis helped this transformation”. Glória Ribeiro’s small office faced the recession Alexandra Ribas, Partner of Amrop Portugal since that went into History as the most serious eco- the early days, remembers the apprehension that nomic crisis since the 1929 crash. Looking back, grew in the board as the effects of the sub-prime he admits: “The crisis was so serious that as soon crisis started to be felt in the Portuguese market, the market saw an opening, people with helicop- but she also recalls the instinctive response the ter vision over the economy saw the champagne whole team gave in that scenario. “We quickly bottle effect starting to form on the horizon, realized that the crisis would be very harsh, but which is the boom that we are currently going much like the first storm that we crossed at the through”. beginning of the millennium, we did not give in”. As member of the Advisory Board at the time, Pedro Pina was a privileged witness of this reac- Daily shower tive attitude. Of that time he recalls the discus- The booklet of the specialists in Leadership teach- sions held the advisory body of which we was a es that winning teams are the ones that feel more part during that period: “The moment was diffi- motivated. But to create the conditions for that cult because everything happened soon after the in an adverse environment is what constitutes arrival of the troika. If things were complicated the greatest challenge. In the business communi- for companies in general, it became even more ty there isn’t always the necessary sensitivity to complicated when it came executive search com- bet on coaching when you are going through un- panies, because no one was hiring.” Nevertheless favorable business periods. In the case of a com- Amrop Portugal’s attitude was very proactive: pany specialized in talent management, doing so “The conversation revolved around how we were is, however, following the principles that they going to adapt to the times to come and the per- postulate by the book, meaning, playing at home. spective focused on how to turn difficulties into Ricardo Vargas, CEO of Consulting House, a opportunities”. company that works in coaching for the cor- The topic of geographic expansion also came to porate world, has been an associate of Amrop the table: “At that time Angola and Mozambique Portugal for just over a decade. When he started were Eldorado. They were growing considerably working with the team led by Maria da Glória and in need of talent”. Another one of the topics Ribeiro, just before the 2008 crisis, he developed discussed was the possibility of Amrop Portugal with them some “techniques and methodolo- joining other offices of the group to place Portu- gies that were applied in the generation of some guese candidates in other markets, Pedro Pina marketing ideas”. also recalls. In time of war, all weapons were used to improve It was by exploring these vectors that Maria da services and capture business, but the intrin-

34 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal sic quality of these clients of his is what Ricardo whose work posts were not in more appropriate Vargas most likes to talk about: “It’s a great team location or whose desks didn’t fit their duties”. because they have two features that make a dif- These decisions not only facilitated everyone’s ference: they have an open mind and exigency, i.e. work, but also carried a symbolic significance: you can tell that they want to extract the most “For allowing us, even if just for a few hours, to out of what I can give to them during the coach- step into the shoes of each other, job rotations do ing sessions.” an outstanding job bringing us together”, Filipe The fact that these are people with “great skills at Ferreira admits. the interpersonal relationship level”, does not, in his eyes, lessen the purpose of the team building sessions that he develops for them: “Those who A certain way of working work in the Human Resources area and value de- The importance Amrop assigns to the develop- velopment, also need to have a coach to maintain ment of its staff also includes career manage- the best level. The same way that the greatest ath- ment. It is a part of Amrop International’s culture letes surround themselves with more coaches and to stimulate its employees to acquire new knowl- have more intensive training than the worse ath- edge. The group has an established protocol with letes. Why? For the same reason that drives peo- IMD, in Lausanne, admittedly the best manage- ple to value their personal hygiene by taking a daily shower”. In terms of team work, there have AO T AMR P THERE IS A PERSONAL AND been experiences that influenced PROFFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN decisions regarding a subject as unlikely as office furniture. Filipe FOR EACH MEMBER OF THE STAFF Ferreira, Principal of Amrop Por- tugal, explains what they had been doing before ment school in Europe. There is where the group’s concluding that the office had desks that needed academy works. Amrop University is open to ev- to be moved and furniture that would have to be eryone in the group’s universe but it has specific changed: “That happened after we did job rota- programs meant for partners, a sign that its cor- tion. As the term implies, this action consists in porate culture encourages continuous education the exchange of functions and work posts be- even for top executives. tween the members of a team. The goal is to get The office’s former Partner, Ricardo Gonçalves, each element of the staff to better understand the embodied this way of being in the Amrop uni- core of what others do. It was during these ses- verse. When he joined the office, in 2001, he start- sions that we realized that there were coworkers ed as a junior researcher. From there to Partner he

35 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal made his way through the opportunities that the International provided by the program. “I found company offered: “There is a personal and profes- myself there among managing partners, part- sional development plan for each of Amrop’s staff ners, consultants, management support staff, members and that plan includes, if they want to secretariat, and juniors from several Amrop of- achieve a certain level, doing an MBA or a Masters fices. It was very interesting. For me, that inside degree that is more suitable for their career devel- the office am isolated in my Office Manager func- opment. I attended my MBA at Católica, for two tions, it is important to participate in initiatives that put me in touch with people from my area”, he says. REACHING ITS THIRD DECADE OF As Filipe Ferreira highlights, the EXISTENCE, THE OFFICE DIVIDED ITS culture of knowledge is present since day one at any Amrop Of- SERVICES INTO THREE BRANCHES: fice: “When I signed my contract, EXECUTIVE SEARCH, LEADERSHIP E I noticed there was an addendum BOARD SERVICES that stated that after a while with the company I could apply for an MBA. That is not something you years, four years after joining Amrop. When I com- would expect to find in a contract. But that’s the pleted my MBA I moved to Consultant and went way it is at Amrop. As soon as we join the compa- to work for Amrop in Denmark, for six months. ny, we feel there is concern for people to develop I moved to Associated Partner in 2011 and to and grow”. Partner in 2015”. As such, Ricardo Gonçalves could join one of Amrop’s international teams. “I was part of the team dedicated to the area of Family album Technology/Media, which has an important role João Lopes has several stories about the compa- in business development. We worked with major ny that he can share, but the one he considers the accounts at an international level, like Microsoft most amusing as to do with one of the renova- and Apple. It was very challenging”. tions done at the office: “At the time we created João Lopes, Office Manager at Amrop Portugal, an alarm code so that the contractor could start has also benefited from the programs that Am- working at 6:00 in the morning. The first day of rop International provides for their staff. He was those renovations coincided with my vacation, at Hyper Island, the Stockholm business school and what happened was that on my first day off specialized in digital economy, where he attend- the contractor inserted the wrong alarm code and ed a workshop on disruptive thinking. Amrop I got a phone call from him at 6:00 in the morning.

36 IT WAS NIGHT TIME IN ALFAMA...

In 2012 the construction sector was going through a huge crisis, being a civil engineer herself, she had already decided that she needed a change in her life. It was then that, one night in Alfama, she met the person who would recruit her to an area that she wouldn’t have considered even in her wildest dreams. In front of her was Maria da Glória Ribeiro, who she had met through a friend. Without even realizing it she had a job interview right there. Later on this conversation resulted in a proposal. “At first she said no, but maybe she was left thinking about it, because a year after I was contacted once more and...” That is was how she joined Amrop. The greater difference that identifies between this life and her previous one is the “contact with the people”. This perspective, at first, was what worried her the most: “I had to transform my social capacity, learn how to unlock a conversation, acquire commercial abilities”. To “sell” people as raw material is strange, but she likes it: “We have the ability to change people’s lives, manage to have a macro perspective of everything that happens in the work world” and for her that is a unique experience. She says that there are many things she would like to try, but going back to engineering is not one of them. She has three passions: her daughter, Maria Violeta, fashion design and ballet.•

NAME: Cristina Marques CONNECTION TO AMROP: Consultant SENTENCE: “We manage to have a macro perspective of everything that happens in the work world” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

The worst part is that the same thing happened everyone there has to laugh at themselves and of the next day the and the day after as well. On the camaraderie that exists, because camaraderie the fourth day of our vacation, my wife made my is what this story talks about. bed on the couch”. This episode makes him laugh These family portraits are part of a universe that, now, but at the time it wasn’t that amusing. throughout 30 years, never had more than ten In addition to the humorous note that time people simultaneously. “It may be the ideal num- granted it, this story reveals the nature of the rela- ber”, Maria da Glória Ribeiro says, “since it has tionship that João Lopes has developed with the been kept stable”. When Alexandra Ribas joined office. Regarding this episode the only thing that Amrop Portugal, coming from an organization comes to his mind, as way of justifying it, is that that had around 500 people, she felt that con- trast. She doesn’t the forget first impression she had when entering I T WAS BY TURNING the old office in Av. António Au- DIFFICULTIES INTO OPPORTUNITIES gusto Aguiar: “I noticed that it was THAT AMROP PORTUGAL FACED a very quiet workplace”. Silence, in a company, can have two differ- THE TROIKA YEARS ent interpretations, but she made the positive reading, “which indi- “we have the right to disconnect from work, but cates that silence is a sign that people are concen- when we assume certain commitments it is our trated on their work”. The Amrop Partner enjoys duty to be reachable”. this work culture that is absolutely compatible Cristina Marques, Consultant, when asked to with a more relaxed way of being. “I hate cultures remember a story about Amrop that she has based on strict behavior and attitudes. Fortunate- kept in mind, she reaches for her affections file ly we are not like that”, she states. and and recalls a scene that could be a gag from a Charlot film, because it has a burlesque side to it and makes her laugh: “I can’t forget how it was Amrop in a cube to be at the office during the weeks when Maria Cristina Marques shows the cube that holds the da Glória, with a casted leg, was recovering from values of Amrop International and enumerates a snow accident. She, clearly annoyed for feeling them: “Diversity, excellence, ethics, inclusion, limited in her movements, didn’t want any help, curiosity and agility”. Her goal with bringing it but then we just ended up pushing her around on along is to highlight that each of the faces on this her chair, much against her will”. Amused while cube is thoroughly replicated in the Lisbon office rewinding this episode, she speaks of the ability on a day to day basis.

38 FRIENDS FOR LIFE

EELCO VAN EIJCK has been with Amrop International since 2004 and it was in that same year, already at the wheel of Amrop Netherlands, that he met Maria da Glória Ribeiro: “I remember it well, we were in Miami, during one of the global meetings for partners that Amrop International regularly organizes to promote interaction and networking, a fundamental part of our work”. He says that empathy happened right away. Since then several were the occasions when he opened assignments in cooperation with the Portugal office, for his international clients. He was never disappointed. He acknowledges that the Portuguese team has a bulletproof competence to which attributes qualities that largely emanate from its leader: “She is a very warm person when it comes to personal contact, but when she is working she is of the utmost seriousness and that attitude influences the culture of the office. The assignments conducted in Lisbon are incredibly rigorous. They reveal method and exigency”. During Amrop’s 20th anniversary party he made a point of being there and, because he considers that more than a good relationship between colleagues, they have built a true friendship he prolonged that stay as long as possible to enjoy one of the things he likes the most in life: “spending time with friends”. That, and cycling. But that is a program he keeps for when he is in the Netherlands. •

NAME: Eelco Van Eijck FUNCTION: Managing Partner at Amrop Netherlands CONNECTION TO AMROP: Amrop Partnership SENTENCE: “When at work Maria da Glória is unquestionably serious and that attitude influences the culture of the office” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

Alexandra Ribas endorses this assessment: “In ond incarnation of hers such a unique adventure: this house we all care about being on the range “At first what I feared the most was not being able of excellency. There is, in fact, a culture of de- to reach people, to convince them”. Now, the for- mand, rigor and discipline. We need to present mer engineer already knows how to build bridges: quality delivery to our clients and that is interi- “We must accomplish a perfect fit between what orised by us. is being asked of us and the candidates we select. João Lopes puts this cube in perspective and men- If a Director is a passive person, I can’t put some- tions how working in compliance with high stan- one too exuberant below him. If I have a client dards also has a direct impact on the careers of who only gives me two minutes of attention, I those who pass through Amrop: “The people who can’t sell him a person who takes half an hour to answer two questions.” Hugo Martins also takes his time THE OFFICE SHARES THE VALUES talking about his expertise: “We OF GLOBAL AMROP: DIVERSITY, must know how to inquire, an- EXCELLENCE, ETHICS, INCLUSION, alyze the market. Our work is continuous, because the market CURIOSITY AND AGILITY is always changing. When we are consultants we need to make sure were with the office and ended up leaving, always that the client perceives us as experienced, spe- moved to relevant projects, because what you cialized and reliable, because our job is not trans- take from here is the quality”, he argues, based on actional”. what he observed over time. Filipe Ferreira, in turn, refers to an undeniably Now that he left Amrop to embrace his own sexy detail of his profession: “Somehow we influ- project, Ricardo Gonçalves is fully aware of ence the structures of companies. Why? Because what he learned from around 15 years spent in we recruit people for them. The people who place the Lisbon office: “I learned a lot about how peo- in the organizations have this impact”. ple function, how organizations operate, how individuals think, why they make certain deci- sions. Professionally speaking, Amrop was very Board services important for me”. According to the Amrop Portugal team, it was the Cristina Marques, who before putting on the market that determined the evolution of their shoes of researcher was a civil engineer, and be- work. Reaching its third decade of existence, the cause she has lived such contrasting professional office divided its services into three branches: ex- experiences, values all the details make this sec- ecutive search, leadership assessment and board

40 A CANARY IN A COAL MINE

DESPITE UNDERSTANDING the role of executive search firms, Pedro Pina disputes the aggressive way they approach potential candidates: “Sometimes I feel like asking, given the insistence of my interlocutors, what was the part they didn’t understand when I said I was ‘not interested’”, he complained. But one day, when Maria da Glória Ribeiro called him, the experience was very different: “She doesn’t try to impose the client briefing by force, only to have a bouquet of interesting candidates. I always felt like her conversation went more towards understanding where I was going, what my inclinations were and if along that path it would make sense for me to consider any proposals”. It was this attitude that later led him to become Amrop’s client. And in that capacity he was once again surprised: “The typical dialogue would be: ‘This candidate has the right experience, he managed this team, launched this product...’That was present in our discussions, but what we spoke about the most was the candidate’s personality.” A tenacious defender of gender equality, he admires the capacity that Maria da Glória Ribeiro had to build a career in a sector where there are no women: “Executive search, which deals with the placement of key people, in key positions, is clearly controlled by men. And then there is Maria da Glória. I find that extraordinary: she is the canary leading the way inside the coal mine”. •

NAME: Pedro Pina FUNCTION: Marketing Director of Branding Solutions at Google CONNECTION TO AMROP: former member of the Advisory Board SENTENCE: “Maria da Glória Ribeiro doesn’t try to impose the client briefing by force, only to have a bouquet of interesting candidates” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

services. The last one is new. It only gained ex- fering this service to its clients. pression in recent years, reflecting an emerging Assuming that our business world still has a long reality in the business environment: assessment way to go, Maria da Glória Ribeiro admits that to- of company boards, something unthinkable 10 day the demand for board services is at the same years ago. level as the demand for executive search was 30 The thing is “companies have become cultural- years ago, when she opened her office. “Part of my ly more sophisticated”, Filipe Ferreira explains. work is to visit companies and help them under- “Currently the boards have a number of differ- stand how savage they are in what regards their ent responsibilities, they are no longer limited organizations and their corporate environment”. to meeting once a year to distribute dividends”. Regretting the fact that “here we only see inde- Above all else, bad examples were what made turn pendent executive boards in the organizations that are required to have them, i.e. in banking regulated by the ECB BOARD SERVICES ONLY GAINED and in the PSI 20 companies”, EXPRESSION IN RECENT YEARS, she praises “the extraordinary REFLECTING AN EMERGING REALITY IN work done by the Corporate Gov- ernance Institute” in promoting THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT these good practices and hopes that this evolution establishes it- the demand on Boards of Directors to become way self in the Portuguese market. higher, the Principal of Amrop Portugal points In the scope of board services, Amrop currently out. Board evaluation emerged, in that context, does board assessment (the work of assessing the as an advisable practice”: elements of a board), board design (structuring On that subject, Maria da Glória Ribeiro high- the board) and board search (research for the re- lights that “Nordic countries changed the law cruitment of new board elements). on the Commercial Companies Code ten years ago”, so that it would become mandatory for all public limited companies to form a non-execu- Customers: strong relationships tive body that would supervise managers. “With Rui Miguel Nabeiro, a client of Amrop for several this measure”, the Managing Partner of Amrop years now, does not forget the day when Maria da says, “the probability of having good practices Glória Ribeiro offered him advice, knowing that in terms of compliance and independence in- she was speaking against her own interests: “She creased substantially”, something that led the invited me to lunch and, at a given moment, she office to immediately position itself towards of- said: ‘Delta needs to build a program to attract

42 BLACK BOX ESSENtIAL

The CEO of UNILEVER admits that he only resorts to executive search firms when there are no candidates within his organization to fill the positions that are open. But whenever this happens he knows that he is “injecting new and supposedly beneficial traits in the house culture”, something that he values. He has known Amrop for several years and acknowledges its “excellent network and reputation of not placing people for reasons other than their intrinsic quality”. And although he does not usually resort to search services, he considers them to be essential: “When I do a recruitment on the outside I need to know more about the candidates than what they say about themselves, and it is in this particular aspect where the role of intermediaries is so important. They are the ones who help me assess the quality of the candidates and simultaneously build, as buyer, my own reputation”. António Casanova is convinced that without this intermediation everything would be more opaque: “The market would hardly be visible, because many candidates would be afraid to expose their applications transparently. Hence, it is necessary to have something that works as a black box for that path, being that said black box will have a second utility: it can approach people who are not in the market and challenge them for new projects”. In conclusion, he assumes: “Executive search services are very helpful to make the market function. In effect, they make it better”.•

NAME: António Casanova FUNCTION: CEO at Unilever CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “Amrop has an excellent network and reputation of not placing people for reasons other than their intrinsic quality” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

juniors when they complete college. I’m going Luís Rodrigues, CEO of Nove SBE, has more data to get someone to help you set up this process’”. to add: “It is natural that tomorrow they’ll have a The suggestion surprised him because in practical request from a client and some time after that an- terms it would damage Amrop, but then came the other request from a different client, that might clarification: “Recruiting juniors is good for me, happen to be in the same industry, and whose because I increase my turnover, but for you it rep- request is of a candidate for the same position. resents a difficulty: you are getting people who are In those cases they could take advantage of the available because they were not successful in their effort already done and transpose it to the new internship programs. That’s why you are not al- process, but I have noticed that they never do. ways satisfied with the profiles that come along”, In each assignment they always start everything the Managing Partner of Amrop Portugal told from scratch.” him. This was an attitude that impressed him: Paula Carneiro, Human Resources Director at “She demonstrated uprightness and the spirit of EDP, also commends Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s of- wanting to add value to her clients, even at the ex- fice on a field that reveals yet another Amrop val- pense of her turnover. This shows me that I have a ue, the excellence of their service: “I don’t know serious business partner in Amrop”. any other company in this sector that will bother being so present after the assign- ments have already been closed. THE HABIT OF MAKING THE FOLLOW UP That is very differentiating”. ON ITS ASSIGNMENTS IS POINTED OUT AS Cláudia Portugal, General Man- ONE OF THE DIFFERENTIATING FACTORS ager of Primedrinks Portugal, also highlights that “habit of doing the OF THE LISBON OFFICE follow up of the candidates” as one of the practices that she most On the ethics of the team led by Maria da Glória appreciates about Amrop. Ribeiro, António Casanova, CEO of Unilever, has The Human Resources Director of Sonae, Isabel one more point to add: “Often there are execu- Barros, adds yet another element to the story of tive search process where the interlocutors will the peculiar relationship of the executive search suggest: ‘Give me a brief to get that person’, but I office with its clients: “I established an agreement think they wouldn’t do something of the kind be- with them: as of a certain level all my candidates cause they are intellectually honest. If you want a go to them to be assessed, including internal can- work done in any other way, there are many out didates”. there who will do it, but it won´t be them”. In addition to the ethics and this obvious rela- On this matter of ethics, one of Amrop’s banners, tionship of proximity, Amrop Portugal’s clients

44 RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST

AS HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR of a group as large as Sonae, Isabel Barros doesn’t even want to think about doing without the “radar” that she feels is always on at Amrop. The relationship she developed with the executive search office at Avenida da Liberdade, in Lisbon, goes far beyond the conventional. Visits on both sides are frequent, even when there are no ongoing recruitment processes, because there is already a “permanent link”: “This way Amrop stays informed on the evolution of Sonae’s culture on issues such as job moving, and that information makes their job easier when its time to search talent for our organization.” she explains. Isabel Barros likes this informality, of being able to take advantage of an open channel that brings her confidence. She appreciates the flexibility that Amrop is capable of when it is necessary to urgently find someone to fill a strategic position, as well as being surprised by comments that make her re-evaluate her initial impressions when discussing profiles: “Nowadays image and attitude have a great impact on us, but there are a number of factors that must be considered and the best is to have it done by those who better know how perform this work”, she says with the conviction of a Sonae ... woman. •

NAME: Isabel Barros FUNCTION: Human Resources Director at Sonae CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “Nowadays image and attitude have a great impact on us, but there are a number of factors that must be considered and the best is to have it done by those who better know how perform this work” TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

also praise the depth of its research work, which telligent relationship with Maria da Glória. When goes far beyond the expected. Isabel Barros con- she approached me as a potential candidate she fides that she already learned about Sonae with never made me feel like a product, contrary to Maria da Glória Ribeiro and sometimes it even what has happened with other executive search seems like they both work in the same place. companies. By her approach I understand that This illusion derives from the knowledge that the she does not establish a difference between the searcher has on the market: “When I’m telling a interests of the client and the interests of the story, I realize that she listens to me, but she’s not candidate, which is something unique and differ- ent. That was unquestionably the reason that later on made me look AMROP PORTUGAL’S CLIENTS PRAISE for her as client and, as such, the THE DEPTH OF ITS RESEARCH WORK, conversations I have kept with her WHICH GOES FAR BEYOND THE were never very classical. First of all because she dedicated as much, EXPECTED or even more time to the subjec- tive aspects of candidates Her lack there. Somehow she is already on her second life, of orthodoxy was always very refreshing for me.” hearing new names and making networks and After 30 years of service, clients find her “refresh- connections”, she quips. ing”, and that says it all. Amrop Portugal was Ricardo Vargas equally recognizes that Maria da never a startup, nevertheless its DNA keeps an el- Glória has an unusual capacity not only for map- ement that it developed while, in the 90s, it paved ping the whole Human Resources market, but also its path in a closed society: the path of irreverence to profile people. “Even for a psychologist, she has and pioneering. Like three decades ago, Amrop an unusual talent for understanding what peo- is still waiting for the future in a project that has ple are in their essence. This leads her to having a the objective of always evolving, contributing for knowledge of the market that is not networking. a better world. It is a knowledge that allows her to very accurate- ly understand the suitability between people and positions. In fact, what she has is a psychologi- cal and relational map of this market. Something that I think is absolutely fantastic.” About the talent of Amrop Portugal personified by its leader, Pedro Pina speaks in the quality of both candidate and client: “I always had an in-

46 LOOKING FOR UNICORNS

AS Dean of Nova SBE, Daniel Traça has the objective of always being one step ahead of reality. Innovation is a critical factor in his school, one of the reasons that placed it in the international rankings. So it is very important to keep focus on the future. In this strategy, the partnership with Amrop has taken an active role in the ongoing debate about the evolution of the market: “We have a common trait: the will to make things well and in a disruptive fashion”, he shares. In addition to being its partner, Amrop is also a supplier of Nova SBE and as such, Daniel Traça acknowledges they “will to live up to the expectations”, even when requests are too demanding. Assuming he is a difficult client, the Dean describes the negotiation climate that so often is established between him and Amrop: “When I request a certain profile, sometimes I get reactions like: ‘But that does not exist, what you are asking of us are unicorns!’ And, nevertheless, they try to help us, even if it is to make us realize that we are looking for unicorns”. Irony expresses how much he appreciates the tone and the way everything happens in this relationship. A relationship that he says is of “absolute confidence” and with a long future ahead.•

NAME: Daniel Traça FUNCTION: Dean at Nova SBE CONNECTION TO AMROP: Associate SENTENCE: “Nova SBE and Amrop have a common trait: the will to make things well and in a disruptive fashion” THE X FACTOR

TIMES WERE DIFFERENT, so when he was contacted by Amrop for the first time, 25 years ago, Luís Rodrigues still wasn’t aware of the concept of executive search. “At that time”, he recalls, “when we graduated, we would look for employment through people that we knew, or we would answer to job advertisements by letter”. We did not use the Internet, and few were the placement companies that came to the university to identify talent. Only years later did the CEO of Nova SBE establish a connection with the office managed by Maria da Glória Ribeiro. First as a client, he was at TAP at that time, later as associate. The Executive Director of Nova SBE Executive Education, an autonomous entity of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, responsible for the training of executives, says that he talks with Amrop every week: “We always have a subject to talk about, because there is always a lot going on”, he says, with a smile. And he adds: “Given their experience, we sometimes invite them to participate in our programs, whether as teachers or speakers. Today, because they also have members of their team at the Lisbon MBA, they are with us as teachers, speakers and students”. The CEO of Nova SBE says that, above all, what he admires in Amrop is is their commitment in keeping up to date”, and that is, in his eyes, the real X factor of this partnership.•

NAME: Luís Rodrigues FUNCTION: CEO at Nova SBE CONNECTION TO AMROP: Associate SENTENCE: “What I particularly admire about Amrop is their commitment in keeping up to date” PARTNERS FOR LIFE

HE STARTED HIS CARRER in the New York banking, where he spent twenty years. He returned to Portugal in the mid 80s to fight for a banking license in Portugal, at a time when the financial sector was resurfacing with the first private investments. He met Maria da Glória Ribeiro and Alexandra Ribas somewhere in Lisbon, in some socio-professional event, but the first connection he established with Amrop was not, as it usually happens, as a candidate or client: “One day they told me they wanted to talk to me regarding an award they were promoting with Exame Magazine. The award was for leadership in the banking and insurance sector and I was the one who ended up winning it, two years in a row” he recalls, smiling. The empathy was great, very much so that soon after he was invited to join Amrop’s Advisory Board, where he gives his contribution especially in the area of financial services. For years he did not turn to executive search, because he worked exclusively with the team that he had brought with him from the United States, but over time the context changed: “The first time we needed to identify someone for a key position we contacted Amrop”. And the experience could not have gone better: “At Banco Big we don’t establish many partnerships, but when we do, we do so with people or entities that inspire our respect. They are usually relationships for life. That is the case with Amrop”.•

NAME: Carlos Rodrigues FUNCTION: CEO at Banco BIG CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client and member of the Advisory Board SENTENCE: “At Banco Big we don’t establish many partnerships, but when we do, we do so with people or entities that inspire our respect. They are usually relationships for life. That is the case with Amrop” AND THE FUTURE IS AROUND THE CORNER TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

THE WALLS OF THE PENTHOUSE where Amrop has been since 2001 are as transparent as their opacity allow them to be. White with frosted glass frames embedded spaces, they have a liquid color that looks good on an Office with a core activity that requires confidentiality, but whose methods of work are shared with the greatest transparency. This year the space will undergo a new renovation. The objective is to turn it into an office adapted to new technologies, centralizing all the information in the cloud and without fixed work posts. This is a movement that is to be followed by all offices of Amrop International. In a business that anticipates trends, it is not allowed to fall behind. João Lopes, who has followed the project closely, recorded a com- mentary from the architect that carries the strength of a metaphor: “He says that ‘we have a flexible area here, with straight lines that extend themselves to infinity’”. In the year it completes three full decades of existence, the office is getting ready for the future in a quite tangible way, prolonging its straight lines, opening a path for what is to come. Maria da Glória Ribeiro believes in the premonitory force of organi- zations. According to her, organizations are always the first to antic- ipate the movements of society, so when it comes to the future,she likes being in the front row, also feeling like an agent of change. Throughout her career she saw organizations anticipate the powers, starting with the political power, of which she says almost always follows all the other forces of society: “What I realized over 30 years of career was that organizations precede what politics later institute forced by circumstances”. “Everything that we’ve seen, just to give an example, at the level of the free market of organizations, preceded the rules established by

51 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

politics that ended up facilitating the development of the global market, with free movement of people and goods”. The Managing Partner of Amrop likes this market dynamic, of the fact that is “everything is always transforming”: “Issues that were un- der discussion 20 years ago, are now perfectly inserted into our rou- tines. It’s the case of the need to master the English language and having computer skills. Today this is regarded as an obligation, and as such it became a ‘no subject’”. Finding out what’s coming has always been one of her professional challenges. After all, consultancy is also about that, and adding value to the service offered to the client implies knowing how to alert them about what will have an impact on their businesses in terms of talent, which is the subject on which it pronounces. To better achieve this delivery, Maria da Glória Ribeiro decided, when the office was on the way to its third decade of existence, to surround herself by the best, creating an Advisory Board. With this initiative not only did she assume a model of reference in good business practices, as in practical terms she began to benefit from a discussion forum where the recurring theme is the future. With the academic world she also looked to assure a permanent ac- cess to knowledge and debate, establishing partnerships and nurtur- ing a relation of which Daniel Traça, Dean of Nova SBE, from Univer- sidade Nova de Lisboa, talks in the following terms: “Amrop likes to, together with our school, understand where the market and economy trends are so it can better prepare its activity, defining which profiles are more important for organizations to hire. In return, for us who provide training for leaders, it is important to have the information that Amrop reports about companies, about where they are headed, because this way we can better align our programs with the needs of corporations.” Luís Rodrigues, CEO of Nova SBE, praises Maria da Glória Ribeiro’s proactivity: “There is always something to talk about. ‘How’s industry x? ‘, ‘We have a challenge on industry Y. What is happening in this

52 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal

sector?’, ‘Who do you know that is worth consulting on topic z?’ It’s a permanent dialogue.”

And technology? Nowadays talking about the future is, above all, talking about technolo- gy. Artificial intelligence, big data, the new digital channels are heckling several sectors and executive search is no exception. There is speculation on the role that new technological tools can play in the near future. Will they be invasive to the point of being a threat? Can Google, Facebook and Linkedin make the work of researchers become superfluous? Always used to look at innovation as an ally, Maria da Glória believes that the digital age will above all create opportunities: “The part to which I dedicate in executive search is not replaceable by any machine and is the one that will keep evolving more and more. Technology is changing the world and creating new paradigms where we will be. I have no doubt that our area will adapt to whatever comes. That’s what we always do”. Pedro Pina, former member of the Advisory Board, says that you don’t even need to anticipate scenarios to understand what is changing on the level of demand for human resources: “The business world is changing at an overwhelming pace. What a person did five years ago is no longer what that same person does today. At a time when the context is systematically changing, the probability of making a re- cruitment mistake is great, because the right candidate today may no longer be a fit for the company that hired him ten years from now. It is no coincidence that, nowadays, marketing directors no longer hold their position for more than three years and CEOs are enduring, on average, five years, coming from trajectories of eight and ten years”. The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, admits that in this context “the demands are brutal, the pressure is enormous and the failure rate is much higher”. Hence, more than ever, “executive search firms are nec- essary”. The fact that technical competencies now have a relatively

53 TRIUMPH OF TALENT 30 Years of Amrop Portugal smaller weight on a curriculum, in favor of more subjective skills, “plac- es an even greater difficulty in the process of choosing candidates, that must be left in the hands of experts” Pedro Pina advocates. To these difficulties he still adds the mutation of the market itself: “Com- petitors change, categories change, the very definition of the catego- ries changes. The world is getting increasingly complex and ambigu- ous and talent ready to lead these processes is very rare. That’s why executive search, more than ever, has to be able to find those leaders”. Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner of the venture capital firm Indico Capital Partners and former member of the Advisory Board of Amrop Portugal, also can’t imagine a future without an increasingly strengthened role of executive search: “In the best interest of transpar- ency, diversity, regulatory and legal compliance, it will be increasingly required to use search companies to conduct processes. In more ad- vanced countries, all positions are already filled with resort to search”. Regretting that “in Portugal many key positions are still filled in through direct personal acquaintance, or recommendations from people you know”, the executive argues that, to evolve, the country will have to abandon those practices, hand over search processes to professionals and establish a system based on meritocracy, “to place the best in the best positions”. As for the role of technology in the industry, Stephan Morais believes it will be a “database enabler”: “Technology is excellent for companies like Amrop, because it presents more choices and that is powerful, but it will not override methods. Linkedin can be useful, because it broad- ens the search network, but not for recruiting”. Calm, Maria da Glória knows that “talent is seen by companies in an increasingly more strategic way”, which means that the future will continue on her side. Aware that by placing decision makers in com- panies she is also leaving her mark on those companies, she will care- fully monitor that ecosystem. And on her particular map, designed by her graphic memory, she will write down what she considers relevant. Because it is in her mind that she maps everything. Today, just like 30 years ago.•

54 Top of Mind

HE SAYS THAT FOR SONAE, AMROP Portugal represents the “top of mind partner for scouting and talent acquisition challenges”. In a group as relevant as Sonae and with a culture admittedly associated with meritocracy, this status had to be earned and proved, but that was something the Maria da Glória’s office did with honors. The President of the Sonae Group acknowledges that the long standing relationship with Amrop is composed by “stories of success, which have largely contributed for, in crucial moments, having the ability to map, attract and integrate new talent in key positions that are critical for the development of our businesses”. In fact, Sonae currently has several top executives, with internal backgrounds and successful careers, and who have joined the group through the search processes developed by the team of Maria da Glória Ribeiro. It is a portfolio that has led Paulo Azevedo to consolidate the idea that Amrop Portugal is a reference “of excellence on matters of executive search”. Regarding its leader, he praises her “strong expertise, professionalism and profound knowledge of the market”, characteristics that he deems more than enough to “differentiate her from other executive search players, both on a national and international level”. •

NAME: Paulo Azevedo FUNCTION: Chairman at Sonae Group CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “Amrop is a reference of excellence in matters of executive search” THE PRINCIPLE OF RESTLESSNESS

RUI MIGUEL NABEIRO does not want to start a revolution at Delta, company that has been in family for over 50 years, but he is an “adept of restlessness”, that is why he considers it positive to “permanently wanting to do more”. This way of facing management also applies to collaborators. “Getting someone only because you need to fill a position is not very interesting, hence that in such a situation my expectation is to hire someone who can teach me something”. He says that Amrop is the ideal partner to help him do that: “The support I get from them goes far beyond simple research. Its consultants advise me on how to think about the profiles in accordance with the positions they will occupy and that is very differentiating”. For top and middle managers he does not waiver this collaboration. “The results have never disappointed me. I cannot recall one single candidate placed by Amrop who has left”. As time is money, he doesn’t like to make executive search on his own: “If we are the ones doing the recruitment, the process will be trial/error and if we waste time doing experiments that will take a toll on our teams, because it creates instability, and also an impact on results”. Convinced that “bad experiences have visible consequences”, he prefers “playing it safe” ... with Amrop.•

NAME: Rui Miguel Nabeiro FUNCTION: Director at Delta CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “The support I get from the Amrop goes far beyond research” TWO INDELIBLE MARKS

IN THE SEVERAL COMPANIES where she occupied the position of Human Resources Director, Paula Carneiro has been involved in many recruitment processes, enough to know what she is talking about, when you are talking about unusual processes. Throughout her relationship with Amrop there have been several cases that she does not hesitate to classify like that, but there are two that she places on a completely different category, because those changed her life. “The first contact I had with Amrop was in 1991, when I was interviewed in a recruitment process for ICL, a company that no longer exists, and that resulted in a one-year internship in England, something that proved to be decisive in my career”. It was her first real job and an unforgettable experience: “I owe much of my professional training and of what I am today to that spell in England” This was the first Amrop mark that stuck with her. The second came years later, during the executive search process that placed her at Danone: “It was the fastest process that I’ve witnessed in my whole life. Within a month I was placed. I was presented to the person conducting the recruitment with the naturalness of someone who is bringing two friends together, and the truth is that we were a remarkable match, just as Amrop had anticipated, with disarming certainty”. Other episodes that she has recorded in her memory are related to people she recruited. Some of them she doesn’t even leave behind when she changes company, such was the fit, and saying that is to say it all.•

NAME: Paula Carneiro FUNCTION: Human Resources Director at EDP CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “I owe much of my professional training and of what I am today to my spell in England (something that Amrop provided me)” TECHNOLOGY WITH A SOUL

SHE ALWAYS HAD “a passion for human resources”, because she believes that “people are the factor that makes a difference in companies”. Hence, her approach to Amrop Portugal happened naturally. Last year she was Amrop’s partner in the organization of the “Digital Vortex Conference”, which brought the guru of Digital Transformation to Lisbon, Mike Wade, IMD professor, but this is just one of the network examples that she can mention. Sofia Tenreiro believes that”we all have to live in the technological world”, but that reality, that is everywhere nowadays, will not be a threat for mankind, as feared by the most skeptical. “Technology needs to have a soul”, she says, “that is why it can never do without people”. In Amrop Portugal she acknowledges this avant- garde attitude: “It has an innovative image of great openness to the idea of constantly reinventing itself”, she praises. Member of the Advisory Board, she likes to bring to the table issues such as “the importance of technology in the qualification of candidates” and “the digital transformation of companies”. Themes that drive her the most: people and the new frontiers of knowledge. She argues that “every single one of us has a responsibility to reinvent and upgrade himself to always be the best candidate for each process that exists” and has no doubt that in this aspect, as in many other related to attitude towards future challenges, Amrop Portugal agrees with her.•

NAME: Sofia Tenreiro FUNCTION: Country Manager Portugal at Cisco CONNECTION TO AMROP: Member of the Advisory Board SENTENCE: “The Amrop Portugal has an innovative image of great openness to the idea of constantly reinventing itself” EXECUTIVE SEARCH IS INVESTMENT

The first time someone from Amrop called him was, curiously, with the objective of placing him in SIVA, the company of which he is now CEO. But it only happened on the second try: “In 2001 I was once again approached to join the SAG holding, which was growing, with new businesses”. At the time he was in Madrid and keen to return to his country. He allowed himself to be temped and has been with the group to this day, a proof that the fit was really perfect. In SAG, he became a client of Amrop. He says that for the recruitment of top executives this is always his first choice because, allied to a very high success rate, the company led by Maria da Glória Ribeiro shows “knowledge regarding the culture of the group, which greatly facilitates the processes”. For Pedro Almeida, “human resources management is critical for any business”, so critical that, he stresses, “the first action I took when I came here was to determine that HR would start reporting directly to me.” Its not by chance that he considers resorting to executive search to be an investment: “These companies can better adjust to the needs of businesses to the profiles of people who are selected to lead them and that, of course, has a real impact on the results”. •

NAME: Pedro Almeida FUNCTION: CEO at Siva CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “Amrop shown a knowledge about the culture of SAG that facilitates processes” THE FOLLOW UP THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

SHE WOULD HAVE LOVED to be a psychologist, but ended up studying management. Cláudia Portugal knows from experience that someone who occupies a management position in an organizations “also need to be a bit of a psychologist”, but she acknowledges that executive search teams possess a know-how that eludes those whose core business is not the assessment of people. That’s why when she needs to recruit executives for positions with responsibilities, a process that is “always sensitive, because it involves a certain risk for organizations”, she contacts Amrop. She started this relationship almost 20 years ago, enough time to have formed an idea regarding the office’s working methods: “They develop a very close relationship with clients, because, among other things, they do the follow up of completed processes and that is something I appreciate a lot.” For Cláudia Portugal, this procedure shows that Amrop “is not limited to transacting people. They make sure the executives placed by them are well and that there is a good fit between them and the companies where they were placed”. The General Manager of Primedrinks claims to have “high-value” people working with her that were presented by Amrop, and for her that is enough to infer that “normally a person that is presented to me by Amrop is someone with quality potential”.•

NAME: Cláudia Portugal FUNCTION: General Manager at Primedrinks CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client SENTENCE: “Amrop is not limited to transacting people. They make sure the executives placed by them are well and that there is a good fit between them and the companies where they were placed” they would be looking for necessarily had to be someone THERE’S NO STRESS successful, someone they would have to convince to trade LIKE THE FIRST ONE certainty for uncertainty. He had to trust: “Fortunately Maria da Glória demonstrated THE SITUATION WAS DELICATE and did not seem easy to a lot of vision with the choices presented me. She projected solve: “When one of my partners retired I had the need to find really well my definition of the profile I intended to have for the a person for one of the areas that he coordinated, indirect position.” taxation. That position could only be occupied by a partner Based on the established relationship of trust, Jaime Esteves from a company of the same nature. At the time, the number says that in the end it was quite easy making a decision and of partners he coordinated was very small, not more than the integration occurred most naturally. After this there were four, five people. With a group that restricted he needed the other episodes that he remembers, but there is no stress like right choice to be made. “It was an important movement for the first.• me, the wrong choice could be disastrous, both in personal NAME: Jaime Esteves terms, as for the company”. It was with a lot of apprehension FUNCTION: Senior Partner Head of Tax and Legal at PwC that I contacted Amrop, on a recommendation of his own HR CONNECTION TO AMROP: Client Department. At PWC they had no experience in conducting SENTENCE: “Maria da Glória demonstrated a lot of vision with the recruitment processes with that level of seniority. Partners choices she presented me. She projected really well my definition of usually came from inside the company. In addition, the person the profile I intended to have for the position”