Your areas of research were strategic analysis and competitive analysis. Would you please elaborate on these fields of study?<\/strong><\/p>\nMy work has evolved over the last 20 years. First, I focused on the strategy field, where the argument was that networks of alliances were something that had to be taken into account in \u201cindustry analysis.\u201d Nobody did, and without it, we used to argue that Porter\u2019s five forces were incomplete. Then we wrote a couple of papers with Nitin Nohria that argued that the structure of alliances follow a certain kind of scheme, in which you can see some blocks of firms more densely allied than others. The dynamics of those formations were very competitive in the sense that one was imitating the other and so on. This work was done in the automotive, airline and the European banking industries. There was some additional work on the computer industry led by scholars in other places.<\/p>\n
Later, I moved a little bit to the organizational side of things, especially with regard to subsidiary strategies, with a focus on Spain. You find a lot of subsidiaries that feel that they can\u2019t answer the fundamental question \u201cWhat am I doing here?\u201d Of course, they have to fulfill certain objectives and achieve goals in terms of the income statement and other operational objectives, but the denser the network of the multinational becomes, the more you lose your sense of managing a complete business.<\/p>\n
We developed a concept of subsidiary strategy with a couple of friends, a couple of IESE PhDs students. The concept was that you have to create two strategies, a dual strategy: the first strategy is the market strategy, or trying to achieve what you\u2019ve been told to achieve. Once you fulfill that, the second strategy is how you are going to add value to the multinational, above and beyond your required deliverables. This might be related to the income statement, manufacturing, or whatever. This implies that you\u2014as a unit, as a subsidiary, as a person, as a department\u2014have to know how to contribute to the other units around you and develop a certain strategy to build that contribution. An \u201cinternal\u201d strategy that builds a sense of identity for the people working in that unit, a sense of meaning that goes beyond whatever headquarters has told you to do, but that it contributes to further develop HQ strategy. If you do it within your unit, other units around you, including HQ, may look at your unit not only as a doer of whatever task you\u2019ve been assigned, but as a source of initiative and a creator of competitive advantage for the rest of the organization.<\/p>\n
This brings to mind the story of the stone in the dam that doesn\u2019t see where it fits within the bigger picture.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat I am saying is that you need to create your place in the bigger picture. Nobody at the top is going to tell you to be creative, or if they did, it would be the exception to the rule. You\u2019ve got to find your place and decide how<\/em> and what<\/em> you are going to contribute to the organization as a whole, beyond your specific role. You can apply this to a subsidiary, to a department or to a waiter in a restaurant: \u201cHow might I help the kitchen? What can I improve from my end so that the kitchen has fewer problems?\u201d in addition to doing my normal job.<\/p>\nEvery unit has to ask itself, \u201cWhat can we do beyond the assigned task that we\u2019re expected to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve got to find your place and decide how<\/em> and what<\/em> you are going to contribute to the organization as a whole, beyond your specific role<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHave you seen examples of companies that do this and do it well? <\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve seen examples of subsidiaries that do it well in the auto industry. The paper that we wrote with Ignacio Canales and Fabricio Novoa is based on a specific subsidiary that developed this dual strategy.<\/p>\n
One subsidiary in the auto industry, in addition to the deliverables it had to achieve, aimed do three additional things: One, supply chain efficiency: \u201cI am in a global value chain, so I have to do things so well that whenever the multinational in Germany wants to do something with somebody, they choose us\u201d or \u201cI am the easiest person in the world to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second issue, \u201cI know that the strategic asset of the organization is basically project management, so I have to be the best in this area.\u201d In this case, the worldwide organization actually copied some of the methods of this subsidiary when it came to project management.<\/p>\n
Third, \u201cI\u2019ve got to contribute to the strategy of the company.\u201d In this regard, the subsidiary opened a Korean market for the multinational. But, there is something else besides that. If you are able to do all this within the unit, the rest of the organization starts looking at you and says, \u201cThis person here might be interesting to talk to.\u201d What you are showing the people around you is that you have opportunities outside the unit. If you only do your task, you are a robot. There are no promotion opportunities for you. You get bored and the organization gets bored and everyone gets bored, and when everyone is bored, you hire boring people and it\u2019s a spiral, everyone gets even more bored. The valuable talent would then leave. You have to create this internal development strategy so people can build their careers on it. You have to be a source of talented people for the whole organization, which is the best thing you can say about any unit or manager.<\/p>\n
Have you had a funny situation take place in one of your classes?<\/strong><\/p>\nA few years ago, some students made a bet among themselves and brought a Mariachi band into my class. There was a singer, a bass player and a couple of guitarists. They had the band enter a few minutes before the end of the class, just when I was closing the case. I started watching them with a very cold look. I was thinking, \u201cWhat do I do now? I\u2019m closing the case, I\u2019ve got this message to deliver, what do I do? Do I tell these guys to shut up and finish my closing comments, or do I wait until tomorrow?\u201d For those who don\u2019t know me, I may appear angry when I\u2019m deep in thought. I could sense that the students thought I was getting angry, and later they told me they were actually very scared. In the end, I decided to close the case the next day and allowed the band to sing. I led them to the center of the class, got the couple of Mexican students in the class to sing with them, and we all had fun.<\/p>\n
![\"Carlos](\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/files\/2016\/02\/2011-Garcia-Pont-C._020-1024x515.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThat must have been a scene.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was something interesting to see. The MBA office knew about it, of course. You can\u2019t just walk in a Mariachi band into IESE.<\/p>\n
You have to be a source of talented people for the whole organization, which is the best thing you can say about any unit or manager<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What are your hobbies?<\/strong><\/p>\nTrail motor biking and mountain biking, and that\u2019s more or less it.<\/p>\n[Prof. Carlos then showed me a couple of pictures of himself with his two sons and daughter on mountain bikes. The picture was taken in a place called Talamanca, not too far from Barcelona<\/em>].<\/p>\nYour favorite book and\/or author?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere are too many to mention! I will always remember a couple of books written by Nitin Nohria: Beyond the Hype<\/em> and The Arc of Ambition<\/em>. Dual Strategy<\/em> by Derek F. Abell is another book I liked, just because the book\u2019s message was straightforward. Business Policy<\/em> by Antonio Valero, the founder of IESE, and the second book by Juan Antonio P\u00e9rez L\u00f3pez, whose name I can\u2019t recall right now.<\/p>\nWhat is your favorite cuisine\/ food?<\/strong><\/p>\nPan con tomate y jam\u00f3n ib\u00e9rico. I believe it is one of the best pleasures in life with a good red wine.<\/p>\n
Is there a particular restaurant you enjoy going to in Barcelona?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere is a new place called Alvart on Carrer d’Aribau. The chef is trying to reach Michelin Star status and I think he used to collaborate with the Dos Cielos restaurant. It\u2019s one of those restaurants where you can still go and enjoy modern Catalan food at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n
Where would you like to retire?<\/strong><\/p>\nWherever my wife wants me to.<\/p>\n
Closing comments?<\/strong><\/p>\nThank you for the interview. Enjoy the MBA and have fun doing it. You guys have the rest of your lives ahead of you. Remember to change to world a little bit.<\/p>\n
I would like to thank Professor Carlos Garc\u00eda Pont for his time.<\/em><\/p>\n[FADE OUT TO MARIACHI MUSIC]<\/em><\/p>\nUntil the next issue\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professor Carlos Garc\u00eda Pont is a member of IESE\u2019s Marketing Department. He holds an MBA from IESE and a PhD in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work centers on the importance of alliances in understanding competitive strategy, the organizational needs of market-oriented organizations in industrial markets, and subsidiary strategy in global corporations…. <\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":1203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85922],"tags":[86397,86398,86357,19,86399,67298,86261,10],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-your-career","tag-carlos-garcia-pont","tag-carlos-garcia-pont-iese","tag-faculty","tag-iese","tag-iese-faculty","tag-iese-mba","tag-interview","tag-mba"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"IESE](\"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/files\/2016\/02\/20150316-MBA_BCN_Sesion-fotos_4191.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n