By Miguel De la Vega Polanco.The world is no longer what we used to know. Technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, shortening distance and time, simplifying processes and providing new management tools such as the artificial intelligence.
Information in various fields nowadays is much more accessible, with less time and cost.
Given this scenario, business organizations face not only internal challenges but also external ones, in the national and international markets.
These challenges are the same, to a greater or lesser extent, anywhere in the world, and therefore, managers must be prepared to face them so that their organizations survive and are sustainable over time.
Training
The Dean of the J.L. Kellogg School of Management, Francesca Cornelli, one of the world's most prestigious business schools headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, United States, recently visited Peru.
She comments that, in training new managers, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) will help them better connect with the world.
"Through the AI, It's going to be easier for them to be connected with the rest of the world," she declared before the Económika Supplement of the Official Gazette El Peruano.
She also highlights knowledge of geopolitics as key to successful management.
"In my opinion, knowledge of geopolitics will be much more important," Cornelli emphasizes.
She notes that, while previously people simply observed what was happening in the world, now a manager's vision must be broader and analyze different variables, from rising interest rates and tariffs to global trade integration.
"This is interesting because, on the one hand, it seems like the world is going to become more fragmented, but in reality, I think, in a sense, we're also much more connected," she explains.
Trends
Therefore, managers are required to be more aware of geopolitical issues and manage more data to stay ahead of the curve.
Cornelli maintains that, in business management, it's necessary to observe global trends to understand the logic of events. This allows us to anticipate the future and their potential impact on the company.
In this turbulent world, managing organizations is not an easy task anymore. The managers no longer only have to manage economic, market, and demand variables; they also have to learn how to lead new generations with new management methods.
Communication
In this sense, she points out that the top-down approach is "a thing of the past" because it's no longer effective for senior management to say "this is how we're going to do things," because it won't work with the new generations.
"Now, much more communication is required, inspiring people," she emphasizes.
She also explains that today, young people feel that the place they go to work should reflect who they are and their values. Therefore, it is necessary to be much more in tune with the base of the pyramid and talk to everyone in the company.
"We need to communicate much more if we want to attract the best talent," she says.
Business Stance
Cornelli points out that, while the new generations of employees represent the new generation of customers, we must be careful in our analysis, because in the case of the United States, customers and employees have opposing political positions.
"Sometimes, depending on the company, employees are much more progressive than customers, and that can generate controversy," she warns.
Therefore, it is necessary to reflect on how to deal with this situation in the company.
"First of all to see according to this trajectory what’s gonna end up, so we need to work about it earlier," she points out.
Cornelli also points out that managing a company or organization is more complicated in some ways now because there is less control.
"It is much less top down, even if you know you have the right idea about where to go, you have to convince, you just can’t say: now this is what we are doing. The employees need much more to convince, so there is much more of a ground work," she says.
Education
An important aspect of business management is ongoing executive education, updating the knowledge and leadership methods for managers, trained in previous decades, to successfully manage the new generation of employees and adapt to what's happening in the world.
One of the Kellogg School of Management's notable alumni is Peruvian Daniel Gamba, who advanced in the world of investment fund management, holding senior positions at institutions such as Barclays and BlackRock. He is now President of Asset Management at Northern Trust Investments Inc., a Chicago, Illinois-based investment company.
(END) MDV / MDV
Publicado: 1/9/2025