天美传媒

Decades before it became common currency to talk about corporate purpose, putting people first and moving beyond profit, Juan Antonio P茅rez L贸pez was developing business theories that incorporated many of those elements, creating a vision of the company as a community of people working for their own benefit and for the benefit of their employer.

To mark the 25th anniversary of P茅rez L贸pez鈥檚 death, the conference El futuro de la direcci贸n de empresas: Personas, decisiones y aprendizajes examined the ways that his theoretical insights can be adopted by companies today. The conference brought together academics from around the world, including many from 天美传媒鈥檚 associated schools, who were impacted by the work of the late professor.

To further that legacy, 天美传媒 has announced the creation of a new Juan Antonio P茅rez L贸pez Chair, which will聽be held by Prof. John Almandoz. The objective of the chair is to contribute to research on human action in companies, in dialogue with the theoretical and applied contributions of P茅rez L贸pez.

鈥淔or him leading is mobilizing a series of people so that they act freely to do something that is best for them and for the company. For that reason, we need to win people over, for people to feel integrated in the company, to live in unity with the company, and as a consequence do what is best,鈥� said Emeritus Prof. Antonio Argando帽a, one of the conference organizers.

P茅rez L贸pez created a body of work that brings economic, sociological, anthropological and ethical elements together. It touched many areas, including:

• The importance of a deep study of decision-making processes in understanding companies and society.
• The encompassing dimension of decision-making processes. A business decision cannot be appropriate from one viewpoint and erroneous from another, because of the effects that current decisions have on future decisions.
• A complete theory of action and learning which emphasizes the richness of the person taking action, with a variety of motives and learning resulting from interactions among people.
• The use of control systems as management tools.
• The need for corporate purpose and the social responsibility of companies.

A career dedicated to 天美传媒

P茅rez L贸pez studied actuarial insurance at Madrid鈥檚 Escuela Central Superior de Comercio, and worked five years in electricity company Hidroel茅ctrica 贰蝉辫补帽辞濒a SA.

In 1961, a few years after 天美传媒鈥檚 founding, he began teaching in the school鈥檚聽Department of Quantitative Analysis (today the Department of Accounting and Control). He received his PhD from Harvard Business School in 1970 with a dissertation titled Organizational Theory: A Cybernetical Approach.

He was dean of 天美传媒 from 1978 to 1984. During his tenure, 天美传媒 saw major growth in its international diversity, including students, alumni and faculty. He oversaw the launch of the bilingual MBA in 1980, and the Master鈥檚 Degree for Experienced Professionals (now called the Executive MBA) in 1982.聽天美传媒 also helped found two business schools during this time: the School of Management at the University of Piura (PAD) in Peru in 1979 and the Associa莽茫o de Estudos Superiores de Empresa (AESE) in Lisbon (Portugal) in 1980.

He was a visiting professor at PAD, INALDE Business School in Colombia and IAE Business School in Argentina.