Susana Quintana-Plaza, Executive Board Member and COO at Galp, inspires the Executive MBA 2020-22 Class during the first immersion week
We had the privilege to have Susana Quintana-Plaza, Executive Board Member and COO at Galp, as a guest speaker at the launch of the Executive MBA Class 2020-22. It was an inspirational talk where Susana shared with our students how she managed learning opportunities and career choices throughout her professional life.
Starting by introducing herself as a proud mother of two children and emphasizing how her family is her priority in life, Susana highlighted two major decisions in her academic life. The first was to join the University of Washington, where she took her bachelor and master’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. The second being when she decided to do her MBA at Harvard.
These academic choices together with her professional journey at companies such as Boeing, AT Kearney, GE Energy, Siemens, E.ON and most recently Galp, shaped the person and the leader she is today. Studying and working in global environments were decisive in building a global mindset, valuing diversity and understanding the power of culture. For Susana, “being in contact with different cultures allows you to understand that not everybody has the same ideas and that there is not one right way to do things’. She added ‘diversity is key to make sound business decisions”.
Susana touched upon several aspects that she considers important for good leadership. “For some people, information is power so they keep it to themselves, but a leader needs information from different sources to be able to analyze problems from different angles and make informed decisions, so good leaders need to make sure that there are no information funnels within the organization.”
For Susana, culture is key, and nothing in business is independent from culture and recommends to pay special attention to middle management training and involvement in order to be successful. By the same token, communication is a key factor to a good and healthy corporate culture, so every leader should cultivate a positive and strong communication culture. Citing Steve Jobs, Susana thinks that “ideas are worth nothing without execution”, so a leader should focus not only on strategy, but fundamentally on good execution. Last but not least, a leader should treat people like he/she would like to be treated, should empower people, make them responsible and accountable. Finally, she recommended students to try to find a company where their culture and values are aligned with theirs and enjoy the ride “If you are not enjoying what you are doing, first try to change it and if that doesn’t work, leave. Always have some savings because there may be moments in your career when things are not getting the way you want, so you need to be financially well to have the freedom to explore a different path.”
At Galp, Susana Quintana-Plaza is focused on transformation and acknowledges that resistance to change is nothing else but fear of the unknown and, if the benefits of transformation are well explained, people will understand, “it is about making quick wins, one at a time, and then people will tend to follow as they want to be part of the company success”.
On a more personal note, Susana advocates that “you should not let others decide what you can or should do, you should not have self-limitations” and that “the person you choose as your life-companion is going to be one of the most important decisions in your career, it’s important that you choose someone with whom you can make tradeoffs, someone who can share family responsibilities and someone who has the intellectual capability to discuss matters with you, because the higher you go in the leadership ladder the loner you will feel.” Living in Portugal since 2019, Susana is having the time of her life. She loves the warm weather, the tasty food and the quality of life.
Thank you, Susana, for investing your time in The Lisbon MBA and for sharing your personal reflections in a candid and transparent way that was truly inspiring for our students.