The key to growing People Management

Esther López, Human Resources professional and expert in multinational companies, has given a class to the Master of Science in International Business students. A presentation of the Strategic Enabler model of COESIA, a multinational group formed by 21 different companies and an example of the value of People Management.

In 2009 COESIA was a multinational holding formed by 9 different companies. These companies were independents among them. Each company had its P&L and objectives. In 2012 the CEO had a colossal idea, convert COESIA in a Global Group. The way to achieve this goal was the planning of the Group Model of Strategic Enabler. The aim was to create an enormous ecosystem that allowed stronger interconnections among the different companies.

In the beginning, this change was difficult to implement because each company had its CEO and work systems. There was a lot of resistance to a radical change like this. That’s the reason why one of the first changes was on the HR groups and how they work. The goal was to create a unique culture within all the companies and structures. By the creation of this new culture, COESIA created an enormous truss of connections. These connections serve to facilitate and optimize knowledge sharing. This work served to solve the reluctance between the CEOs of each company and the central direction of COESIA.

Esther López wanted to make it clear to the students the significance of the HR groups and platforms to allow the group to grow. It is fundamental to understand that people management is one of the most important questions in a company or, in this case,  a multinational group. The case of COESIA has been studied by the Institute for Management Development (IMD) of Lausanne.