The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova partners with Sonae and Amrop in Triple P – Pitch Perfect Performance

Posted by The Lisbon MBA on 15 Nov, 2020 12:08 pm

From left to right: Paula Lourenço (Careers and Corporate Director at The Lisbon MBA), Ana Luísa Vicente (Talent Management & Development Lead at SONAE), Isabel Barros (Chief of Human Resources Officer at SONAE), Maria José Amich (Executive Director at The Lisbon MBA)

 

 

At Sonae the words of Belmiro de Azevedo still echo through the corridors ‘Either you are a leader or you are being developed to be a leader’. Last Wednesday, our students were able to testify that these are not just words and that people and leadership are at the heart of everything Sonae does.

 

The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova is extremely proud to partner with Sonae and Amrop in Triple P – Pitch Perfect Performance – a program that challenges students to pitch themselves in front of a jury panel and to convince its members that they are the best talent to be recruited by Sonae. In order to best prepare their pitch, students participate in several conferences led by Sonae’s C-level executives. Sonae offers a full-time job to the student who delivers the best pitch. In the past years, Sonae has recruited around 20 MBA students through Triple P.

 

Isabel Barros, CHRO of Sonae MC and Executive Board Member, together with Ana Luisa Vicente, Head of People and Leadership kicked off this year’s program. They shared how Sonae is purpose-driven, performance-oriented, values-led and has an integrated talent strategy, the main ingredients for a successful business.

 

Students learned how Sonae’s Talent Management strategy is focused on the future, namely due to the digital acceleration, and how they are racing against time to reskill employees. In addition, they learned how Soane is moving from HR processes to an employee meaningful experience and to develop leaders with empathy.

 

Isabel and Ana made it clear that, although coming from HR, these strategies and actions are not ‘HR stuff’, but need to be leveraged by leaders.
That Sonae had to face major challenges with the Covid-19 situation goes without saying. However, challenges were turned into opportunities and Sonae built on what was already planned, for example, in terms of flexible working, by fast-forwarding the implementation and, in the end, employees were able to choose from a diverse menu of options that supports their work-life balance, one of the main concerns of the company. Sonae was the first retail company in Portugal to implement such a program.

 

During the session, students were able to ask questions and satisfy their curiosity about how talent management is done at Sonae. Today there were two more sessions, one led by João Gunther Amaral, Chief Development Officer, and Teresa Oliveira, Head of Sonae Digital, who will be talking about Technology with a Human Touch, and the other led by João Dolores, Group CFO, who will be talking about Business Strategy. On the 1st of October, students will participate in the pitch competition. You can expect more news about Triple P in the new future.