For more than 20 years, Fernando Snchez-Arias has been a management executive, strategic advisor, and consultant to multinational and large national public and private companies. He has shared his views on leadership, learning, change, and multiculturalism as a speaker of scientific, professional, academic, and business conferences and congresses organized by organizations such as FIDAGH (Inter- American Federation of Human Talent Management), WFPMA (World Federation of Personnel Management Associations), IFTDO (International Federation of Training and Development Organizations), CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), WCF (World Chambers Federation), JCI (Junior Chamber International), UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, and ASTD.

In 2006, he was hired as a strategic corporate director and chief learning officer of Grupo LUKIVEN, a Venezuelan major business group with more than 40 years operating in oil, gas, mining, and real estate business. He co-founded MEJORAR, an international research, learning, and development center, where he serves as managing director. A former world president of Junior Chamber International (JCI), a worldwide federation of young leaders and entrepreneurs with associate status to the United Nations, Sanchez-Arias has held leadership positions in organizations such as the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), where he was the first Hispanic board member in the more than 60 years of this professional association, and the Venezuelan Chamber of Oil Industry, where he served for two years as strategic and international relations advisor to the executive committee.

A current doctoral student of the Work- Based Learning Leadership Program coorganized by the Wharton School and the Graduate School of Education (GSE) of the University of Pennsylvania, Sanchez-Arias holds a degree in business administration, Magna Cum Laude status in the Pedro Emilio Coll Institute of Technology, and an international certification as ontological executive coach by the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Newfield Consulting. He is an International Training Fellow No. 31 of the JCI University and a graduate of the JCI Leadership Academy of Japan.

Learning Executives Briefing: Do you see major differences in the workplace learning field and profession based on geography?

Fernando Snchez-Arias: Yes, in both the work and the position in the United States as opposed to the position of CLO in Latin America. In Venezuela, there is a major difference. In some companies, you will find a learning executive reporting to a CEO. But in most companies, it is a non-existent position at the C-level. It is very rare that you will find a CLO reporting to a CEO in Mexico or in Brazil, the largest markets in Latin America. So in reality, when compared with the United States, while most learning executives are climbing the ladder toward the C-suite, you can see some examples of CLOs reporting to CEOs.

One difference between learning executives in Latin America and the United States is geographic, and another is with budgets. The allocation for learning in Latin America is completely different in both size and importance (when compared with the United States) - thanks to the work of organizations such as ASTD and of publications that have (been advising companies) that there is something very important about investing in people and improving their human capital and developing their human assets. Those advocacy efforts and a lot of information from ASTD and other sources have allowed people in the C-suite and the boards of directors of companies to put money on the table to develop their teams or to create leadership development programs. Budgets are quite different when it comes to per-capita or peremployee spending on learning.

Learning executives in Latin America are not seen as being linked to the business. They are perceived as a cost or a "need to" kind of position instead of a "want to" or "should do." In Latin America, learning executives are walking a long path on their way to being recognized by the C-suite.

LXB: Is that due to a lack of metrics?

Snchez-Arias: I would agree with that assessment. In Latin America, one of our biggest challenges is the lack of metrics that would allow, or would enable, the learning executive to really master and link whatever he is doing with bottomline results. Even though it is difficult to link any investment in the education of people to financial results, or sales volume, or ROI - even though we have excellent examples from Robert Brinkerhoff and Jack J. Phillips - we still know it is difficult to link money invested in people with revenue. We can do that and we have a lot of examples in the United States, but linking that investment to bottom line results is still a long way off with many Latin American companies.

The lack of metrics and measurement systems that can connect the two sides of the coin is one of the biggest challenges for any learning executive working in a Latin American company or any international company working in Latin America. There are some exceptions. If you are working for Chevron, for example, and you have a worldwide system that helps you measure every single dollar you are investing in people or any learning effort in the exploration of oil or energy resources, it would be easy for you to know if every hour and every dollar you put into training is helping you extract or explore for that oil in any place in the world. But if you are not working for a multinational organization that has these systems in place, it is difficult to convince a CEO to let you put in place systems to help you measure the results.

LXB: How has your personal perspective changed as the result of pursuing advanced degrees in the United States?

Snchez-Arias: My work as a learning executive in the oil and gas manufacturing services company I work for in Venezuela and my role in leading the learning and development center at the company have changed dramatically. When I was writing my (proposal) to pursue my doctoral degree, one of the chapters described my experiences as five migrations or shifts. I described the change from being a soft leader to a strong leader. The second was a shift from fuzzy to clear learning theory. The third shift was from theory to factual management. The fourth shift was from fact-based to evidence-based design. And the last shift was from user-only to a user-producer perspective on technology.

I was an executive who, for 20 years when he spoke to people, was talking about emotions, climate, and motivation. I was talking in terms of training hours or butts in seats. After the program, I started to see I had changed my way of communicating with C-suite people, and I became a part of the C-suite who was respected. Because now I am not only using the soft side of the business but combining the soft with the hard skills, I am a better leader, and it helps me communicate bottom-line results and finances. I can talk about sales, risk, and market share. After focusing myself on the key issue of the CEO, I could now link his issues to the learning, culture, and all the other issues.

Even though I have an education and business background, until I completed the Work-Based Learning Leadership Program I was unclear about what theory was supporting my company's education efforts and programs. I was fuzzy about mixing theories. I was using informal learning and action learning as (suggested by outside experts and authors) while being vague about what I was doing. I have changed myself completely.

I am very careful to be clear about which learning theory supports what I do. Now I am more focused on the facts. We find results not based on my intuition, but rather based on research, observation, and evidence only.

Before my (doctoral education), I was just an acquirer of technology, games, and movies. But thanks to Wharton I have learned how to design those games and to make those movies. I can look at technology from the producer's eyes, not just the user's eyes. Now I have a more systemic perspective when it comes time to hiring a specific vendor or deciding on a specific (medium) in a nontraditional learning initiative or program.

The five shifts helped me change the way I lead, the way I learn, and the way I help others become better leaders in my company.

LXB: A lot of CLOs have advanced degrees, but many don't. Would you recommend this program as a way to improve their skills?

Snchez-Arias: Indeed. I travel all over the world and have seen a number of high-level programs. After more than two years in the program, I can say that I have never seen anything that combines business education with the learning and theoretical aspects, and has a practitioner focus especially with this topnotch, professional faculty. At the same time, because it is an executive program, you come and go and you immediately apply what you have learned at your company. Whoever sponsors you gets an immediate return on their investment of the time, energy, and money. No doubt, I would recommend the program to any learning executive or any human capital development executive who wants to climb the ladder.

LXB: How big is your organization at LUKIVEN?

Snchez-Arias: We have about 3,500 direct employees and about 5,000 more contract employees. We have a learning center that is a profit center for the company. It is called MEJORAR Research, Learning, and Developing Center, which is a verb in Spanish that means to improve. MEJORAR serves the learning needs of LUKIVEN and at the same time serves the learning needs of outside companies of different sizes, both national and international, in corporate education. We have 30 employees in the center. We serve the leadership development and management development needs, as well as skills development for our own company and the outside. We do consulting, and that gives us a unique view. We are an internal learning center, but at the same time we serve other clients.