PDG Archives - ý Standout ý Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:50:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 /standout/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/favicon1.ico PDG Archives - ý Standout 32 32 Marc Coma. When the Dakar champion becomes CEO of KTM. Success stories /standout/marc-coma-ceo-ktm-rally-dakar/ Fri, 28 May 2021 13:57:33 +0000 /standout/?p=3510 The post Marc Coma. When the Dakar champion becomes CEO of KTM. Success stories appeared first on ý Standout.

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Marc Coma, CEO of KTM AG in Spain, won the Dakar Rally five times on󾱲motorcycle before making the leap tobusinessԲ𳾱Գ.

Hardly anyone expected it.Sowhen he said that he wasretiring from top-leveldzپپDz,itwas likea bomb.He had achieved international legendstatusas a rider, he was at the peak of his career and his fans and sponsors didn’t even want to imagine a future without him.

It was 2015 and, in the two yearsprior tohis surprising announcement, Marc Coma had won the Dakar and Qatar rallies twice in a row and had also been crownedrallychampionin the MoroccoRallyand in the world championship of Rally Cross-Country. He was a fierce, cunning andunstoppable rider.How was someone like this going to retire in their prime?

That question, which many wereasking at the time, wasa trick question.Coma wasn’t thinking of retirement.Quite to the contrary.What he needed was a change in his life and profession,totake on new challenges and compete in a differentkind ofway.A legendary rider was aspiring to become an extraordinary manager.

“The most difficult thing is managing the momentwhere you stop competing. It is the most complicated step an athlete has to take.Managing thisstage in your sporting career wellis a victoryin itself,”therideradmitted months later toSpanishnewsagencyAgenciaEFE.

But, in 2015,after a career full of successes,Coma was almost forty years old … If he wanted to become a manager, he had toget moving.

How to design a professional transformationstrategy

Coma knew that he had tofirst analyze his main strengths,identify the sectorwhere he could develop them, acquire some business experience andprogramthat would provide him with the knowledge and contacts he needed in a shortperiod oftime.

His strengths seemed clear: it takesexceptional leadership and temperanceto prevail in competitions that force you to crossthedesert. There the conditions are extreme andyou have to makedecisionsextremely fast. In parallel, he had been managing his assets and his sports career for years –hewas his own manager – and he knew what itmeantto lead a project, since he had launched a team to help younger motorcyclists.

Shortly after stepping away from racing in 2015, Marc Coma assumedthe sports management of the Dakar Rally as number two in the organization, below its director, the Frenchman Étienne Lavigne. There, as he himself acknowledged in numerous interviews, he immersed himself in the organizational and business side of the competition. He was there for almost three yearsthrillingyears.

Coma reached his next goal in 2018. He wanted to stop, take time, get perspective and train as a manager. And he chose an Executive Education program at ýto do so.He was looking for a different vision of business management and a network of contactswith whom he couldgrow professionally and personally,beyond motorcycling.

And beyond the program itself, he found himself immersed in an environment that gave him the opportunity to collaborate with other future senior executives, soak up different ideas, experiences and dreamsand put his leadership to the test in a different way. “The feeling when you start learning again – he acknowledged – is fantastic”.

Fromthe classroom to the company

True to his career, aftergoingthrough ý, Marc Coma continued toaccomplishhis objectives.In 2019 he joined the senior management of KTM Spain, the brilliant Austrian motorcycle firm that he knewall too wellfrom his time as ariderand that has more than 100 dealerships inSpain.

There he made the most of the opportunity to learn for an entireyearalongside CésarRojo, the CEO who had placed the company on themap formajor competitions,along with HusqvarnaMotorcycles. The Spanish subsidiary of KTM had become one of the fastest growing in the group and, in addition,Rojowas another great reference in the sector: he had won nine world titles as team leader withDerbiandBultaco.

After thisperiod of adjustment, Coma wasmore thanprepared. His great opportunity had come.In 2020, he rose to the top leadership of KTM in Spain and completed an impressive transitionfrom thedeserts of Dakar to the demanding offices of the Austrian multinational.

Marc Coma: 5 keys to reinvent yourself professionally

  1. You don’t know how to run if you don’t know how to stop. Get it in your head.
  2. Realistically identify your skills. And learn to develop them.
  3. Find a great school. And great teachers.
  4. Already know how to lead? Learn tocollaborate.
  5. In the desertorin theoffice, alwaysbelievein yourself.

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]]> What are you: A boss or leader? /standout/boss-leader-differences/ Tue, 04 May 2021 10:55:45 +0000 /standout/?p=3316 The post What are you: A boss or leader? appeared first on ý Standout.

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No, they aren’t the same thing. Giving orders is one thing and leading is another.When it comes to giving orders, all you need is hierarchy, rank and a desire to achieve objectives. To lead, you need a whole lot more.

The productivity, satisfaction and loyalty of teamsare firmly linked to a manager’s ability toinspire, motivate and transmit passionto their employees. Ultimately,great bosses are great leaders. And you can become one.

Leadervs.boss. 4 differences.

If you want your team to produce more, be happier, be more committed to the project and last longer in the company, you have to be more than just a boss. And the only way to achieve this is for you to learn to identifythe four traits that distinguish giving orders from leading:

To be a leader is to know how to communicate

Leading is in large part mobilizing, influencing and guiding other professionals towards continuous improvement and achieving ambitious goals. That’s why leaders are extraordinary communicators. And here we’re not just talking about giving impressive speeches at important events. We’re talking about humility, empathy and close, daily contact.

Leadership is based on trust

A boss who goes to every single meeting and who is involved in absolutely everything going on is not a good leader.And not just because they don’t know how to delegate. That, of course, creates inefficiencies and friction. But the bigger problem is thattheir subordinates don’t feelthat they’re trusted. And when you think someone doesn’t trust you, you lose interest, motivation, and even start to doubt your own ability.

A good leader empathizes

A leader sees and treats their team membersas individuals, including and beyond their working capacity. Hence the importance ofemotional intelligenceand understanding personal difficulties that may temporarily reduce team performance. The most talented professionals are fully committed to projects because they remember how their bosses engaged with them and with their peers.

To lead is to be honest

Honesty is a core value for any leader. The best leaders lead with straightforwardness, with a clear strategic vision, recognizing their employees’ merits. Leaders fulfill their promises when it is in their hands to do so, and when they can’t, they explain why it’s impossible. They aren’t afraid to admit that there are factors beyond their control. This is one of the great signs of their humility.

Discover the Guide to the main types of leaders, which one are you?

The impact of good leadership

There are countless stories that exemplify what it means to be a leader andwhat impact they can have on their teams.

Raúl Bartolomé remembers how Jesús Luis Yu, his boss, urged him to attend an extremely important meeting on his own. Yu needed to get ahead on another project he was leading and he simply told Bartolomé: “You’re invaluable and you can manage on your own.”And he did.

Carlos López explains how Javier Ventura-Travesetnever misses the opportunity to acknowledge every good decision he makes. And this has led themto become close and sincere with one another.

Ana Navas highlights the advice she receives from her boss, Ana López Ranz, to continue growing professionally every day.She knows what she expects of her and that she can count on her support, her understanding and her enthusiasm to achieve whatever needs to happen.And not just at work.

Because nothing starts and ends simply in the office. Perhaps that’s why Javier Pérez Blanco was so impressed that his boss, Miguel Ángel Leal,asked him to prioritize taking care of his father, who was seriously ill, over his obligations at the company.

Discover the 13 questions to find out if you are a good leader.

 

Miguel Ángel Leal, Ana López Ranz, Javier Ventura-Traveset, Jesús Luis Yu and many other professionals have trusted ý to guide them in their growth as managers through the The equivalent in English are the ) and the .In addition to these programs, ý offers a wide range of executiveprogramsfor you to develop your full potential as a leader.

Read the articleKeys to Being a Good Leader.

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]]> Iván վԳٴǰé. From a parachute jump to a general management course. Success stories /standout/parachute-jump-general-management-course-success-story/ Fri, 23 Apr 2021 10:39:43 +0000 /standout/?p=3252 The post Iván վԳٴǰé. From a parachute jump to a general management course. Success stories appeared first on ý Standout.

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IvánվԳٴǰé, director atiContainersSolutions, enrolled in ý’s General Management Program after losing a bet to his wife. Want to know whatthe betwas?

Discover his story in this video:

ElenaFontelles,CEO at Happets.com, had it very clear: when challenges arise at work, you need a clearmethodforfindingthe best solution in record time. And that can be learned. What’s more, you have to learn it as soon as possible.

Elena had completed theý General Management Program(PDG)in 2017. And it had served her precisely to learnthis approach to problem solving. The case method had given her anew strategic visionand she believed that the same path would also be very useful for her husband,IvánվԳٴǰé. But she also knew that it wouldn’t be easy to convince him to do it.

Iván acknowledges that his working hours are extremely long and that he turns off his cell phone around eleven or twelve at night. All this,plus his family responsibilities barely leaves him time for another one of his passions: flying. Occasionally he also enjoys parachuting. Where was he going to find the time to go back to school?

But Elenahadn’t reached where she was professionally by giving up on the first try. So, she started a campaign to persuade her husband that the program was going to be as useful to him as it had been for her. Ivan, however, was hiding an ace up his sleeve to avoid pressure. Aware of his wife’s respect for heights, he told her:“I’ll do the PDG, if you parachute.”

Contradicting how well Iván believed he knew his wife, in less than a week they had already jumped out of a plane. Elena smiles whenever she remembers how everything happened: “They say that you always have to find new ways to surprise your partner, right?”

salta Ivan Tintore

Both agree that there is a clear parallel between doing a management program and parachuting: they are both experiences that prepare you to know how toreact to pressing challenges without being overwhelmed by confusion or fear.

Exactly one year after Elena finished herat ý, Iván began his.The equivalent to this Spanish-imparted program for English speakers is the.Thefirst day of classes, when a professor asked participants why they had decided to do it, he got up “with great humility”, smiled and said: “I’ve been forced to do it because I lost a bettomy wife.” And it didn’t takelong for him to plunge into the experience with the same giddy illusion with which his wife had jumped out of that plane.

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