1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

Aligning the different interests of all stakeholders and having leaders lead by example or conduct.

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

After having finished an MBA, I started working in marketing where I then moved up the ladder gaining experience in new products development, trade marketing, as a marketing manager and sales manager until I became general manager of Henkel's operations in various countries of Latin America. What made the difference was the strategic thinking of marketing, coupled with the hands on and people orientation of sales, in organizations with a strong finance focus.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Quarterly defining my professional and personal goals, framed by longer term objectives. Then I break down those objectives to monthly and weekly ones. Every weekend I look at my daily tasks for the week in all realms of my life.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

Change in behavior occurs when our subconscious mind convinces itself that such change will make our lives easier, in the short and long run; thus, change cannot be decreed or imposed. People must experience change from their emotional side; hence, it is not enough to be rationally conscious of it. All of us know aspects of ourselves that we would like to change, but for unconscious reasons, we do not. Based on this, personal and organizational change is mostly emotional, not only rational. Our actions when training and leading change must be directed to the unconscious mind, as well as to our rational mind. This implies the use of coaching, mentoring and adults' educational techniques to drive change in behavior and culture.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Among many, The Paradox by James C. Hunter. A tale of how leaders must be an example of leading by example, serving others, with the aim of making them over perform via motivation, development, accountability and work life balance.

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

I was fortunate enough to work in organizations that trained a lot; but also, I had entrenched in me a vision of service, of letting people contribute in an environment with well set objectives, clear balance of consequences, empowerment and the importance of motivation and leading by example.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

Intentions are not enough. People judge you by the way you behave, by how congruent you are among what you say, do and project. This is how corporate culture is built. People in lower levels do not follow declarations, they copy the conducts of their leaders; thus, leaders' responsibility is huge. In big organizations then, you have subcultures, created by the leaders of countries, or departments or areas. As such, the organization needs to have the tools and processes to address these differences in order to have a well set of principles and values that are modelled across the board. I experienced this in the last multinational I worked with, where huge efforts were made to set a standard worldwide, respecting cultural differences.