{"id":4103,"date":"2007-03-01T13:32:17","date_gmt":"2007-03-01T17:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=4103"},"modified":"2017-11-14T09:11:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:11:26","slug":"telefonica-and-college-exchange-expertise-to-benefit-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2007\/03\/telefonica-and-college-exchange-expertise-to-benefit-each-other\/","title":{"rendered":"Telef\u00f3nica and college exchange expertise to benefit each other."},"content":{"rendered":"

Through its offerings, the college\u2019s Executive and Professional Education (EPE) office provides an array of programs that satisfies the needs of many different kinds of professionals and their organizations. And if a company has a particular requirement that the full complement of standard programs does not meet, faculty members can tweak a program or completely tailor one for it.<\/p>\n

\"Telef\u00f3nica
Telef\u00f3nica participants in finance training on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The latter was the case with Telef\u00f3nica, which recently concluded a multi-part program created for it and delivered partially at its site in Puerto Rico and partially on the Modesto A. Maidique Campus of Florida International University.<\/p>\n

The process began with interviews of senior executives\u2014including Pete<\/strong> Pizarro<\/strong>, Telef\u00f3nica CEO\u2014led by David Weinstein<\/strong>, professor in the college\u2019s International MBA (IMBA) program.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, the principals looked at what the organization needed and came up with a series of courses to address those needs,\u201d said Robert Garcia<\/strong> (EMBA \u201997), EPE director. \u201cOur faculty members got to know the company through surveys and interviews that could be translated into course content, and each one was validated with the correct people before it was offered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interactive process creates appropriate offerings to achieve Telef\u00f3nica \u2019s goals.<\/em><\/p>\n

The result for Telef\u00f3nica was four programs: the one in Puerto Rico, focused on management and education and led by Weinstein; and the three that took place in Miami\u2014one on finance, led by Lewis Davidson<\/strong>, professor, School of Accounting; one on human resources, conducted by G.<\/strong> Ronald Gilbert<\/strong>, associate professor of management and international business; and the most recent, on leadership and communication, presented by Dana Farrow<\/strong>, professor in the Department of Management and International Business and a fellow in the university\u2019s Center for Leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an idea when I got started, but in my conversations with Pizarro, I realized it wasn\u2019t exactly right,\u201d Farrow said. \u201cFor example, he wanted more material on coaching. So, together, he and I made changes to customize the material further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having the dialogues with Telef\u00f3nica and refining the content brought about a highly interactive two-day session on leadership and communication focused on the concept of transformational leadership\u2014the idea that leaders who are inspirational, give individualized consideration, and offer employees intellectual stimulation have the ability to transform their organizations.<\/p>\n

In addition to presenting the concepts, Farrow built in a number of small-group exercises, giving participants the chance to determine how to apply the concepts and report their observations back to the entire group. For example, they looked at what they could do to become more transformational, and they considered situations that promote or hinder transformational leadership.<\/p>\n

Experience delivers strong impact.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe program gave us a moment to reflect on what kind of leadership we have and what kind we need,\u201d said Roberto Plazola<\/strong>, customer service director for global accounts. \u201cThe experience led us to have a discussion that enabled us to move forward as managers of the company. Also, I took immediate action on the behaviors I realized I needed to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such commitment to change is part of the culture at Telef\u00f3nica.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a closed box into which we put two action items that we plan to work on right away,\u201d Plazola said. \u201cWe get a reminder halfway through the year, and we look at our progress during our annual leadership conference the next year. After the leadership program, I knew the two action items to put into the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosa Vento<\/strong>, purchasing director, enjoyed the interactive format and the personal revelations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the exercises we did made us realize things we do on a daily basis that are weaknesses,\u201d she said. \u201cI was sort of aware of them, but I didn\u2019t realize the impact they could have. For example, I am very self-directed and I lack patience. Based on what I learned, I am trying to be more patient, even though it\u2019s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n

EPE program is just one aspect of relationship between the college and Telef\u00f3nica.<\/em><\/p>\n

The EPE program at Telef\u00f3nica illustrates the kind of relationship with corporate partners the college continues to build. From its side, the college is able to offer expertise by deploying professors to teach on a wide variety of subjects.<\/p>\n

On the other side, the college benefits enormously from the input of members of the company. Pizarro sits on the college\u2019s Dean\u2019s Council, a group of distinguished business leaders who advise the college on business trends, opportunities, and needs, and also have become advocates within the business community. His then vice president of human resources, Martin Fischetti<\/strong>, sits on the Executive MBA advisory board. Advisory boards support the college\u2019s academic programs by offering advice on the curriculum and other matters to ensure graduates are ready to meet the needs of the current work environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Fischetti who originally approached me about the need in his organization,\u201d said Natalia Echeverr\u00eda Sol<\/strong>, the college\u2019s director of corporate relations. \u201cIt is a wonderful thing that happens when our team is working on our external relationships in the community and our partners begin receiving the message on many levels. This is exactly the kind of synergy that happened with our friends at Telef\u00f3nica.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Echeverr\u00eda Sol, \u201cWe were so permeated throughout their organization, it was a natural choice to reach out to us for this in-depth needs analysis and highly customized executive education program. I firmly believe that our advisory boards and external relations efforts play\u2014and will continue to play\u2014a major role in the development of strongly rooted relationships in our business community.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find out more about EPE\u2019s menu of programs, visit business.fiu.edu\/executive-education\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through its offerings, the college\u2019s Executive and Professional Education (EPE) office provides an array of programs that satisfies the needs of many different kinds of professionals and their organizations. And if a company has a particular requirement that the full complement of standard programs does not meet, faculty members can tweak a program or completely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[584,787,823,968,1577,1780,1980,2121,2282,2322],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4103"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29772,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4103\/revisions\/29772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}