From left to right: João Gunther do Amaral, Chief Development Officer at Sonae; Francisco Maria Balsemão, Board Member at Grupo Impresa; Maria José Amich, Executive Director at The Lisbon MBA; Paula Lourenço, Careers and Corporate Relations Director at The Lisbon MBA; João Dolores, Group CFO at Sonae; Filipe Ferreira, Associate Partner at Amrop.

 

 

The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova is extremely proud to partner with Sonae, Amrop and Grupo Impresa 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. To best prepare their pitch, students participate in several conferences led by C-level Executives from Sonae.

 

The award of the Triple P is a full-time job offer from Sonae to the student who delivers the best pitch. In the past years Sonae has recruited around 20 MBA students through Triple P.

 

To kick-off this initiative, Isabel Barros, CHRO of Sonae MC and Executive Board Member, shared with us how Talent is managed at Sonae, followed by João Gunther Amaral, Chief Development Officer, and Teresa Oliveira, Head of Sonae Digital, who introduced how Sonae is using Technology with a Human Touch. Finally, João Dolores, Group CFO, talked about Sonae’s Corporate Business Strategy methodology.

 

João Gunter Amaral started by addressing the evolution of digital namely regarding the increasing processing power of computers and how that has impacted our daily lives. Teresa Oliveira proceeded to explain how Sonae has been using technology and data to evolve the retail business by allowing increasing customer autonomy and personalization, as well as increasing employee knowledge, efficiency and safety.

 

The ethical issues posed by the advances in technology and its use were also tackled, namely privacy, trust and ethical behavior. An ethical, human-centric approach is crucial to guarantee that we use all the available data for the benefit of customers, employees and the overall society without compromising privacy, fairness and transparency.

 

João Dolores started by stressing Sonae’s unique corporate culture with a clear mission and purpose, and took us through the breath of businesses, from food retail to sports retail, including financial services and telecommunications, among other, which lay under three holding companies with a common majority shareholder. In all sectors, Sonae has a leading position in Portugal, and some in Iberia and Brazil.

 

João Dolores challenged the students to define corporate and business strategy and proceeded by sharing how Sonae designs its mid and long term strategic plan yearly involving the leadership team and the managers responsible for each business which allows to bring fresh ideas into the different businesses.

 

Some examples were given regarding the decision making process about investing or disinvesting in some well-known businesses, such as Sonae’s partial sale of Sport Zone to JD Sprinter, as a way to bring sports knowledge into the business, leverage international expansion and diversify business models and investment styles.

 

The sessions were interactive and students had the opportunity to ask questions about or related to the content of the presentations. Engaging with such a talented group of C-level Executives was a privileged moment for The Lisbon MBA International MBA program.