Alejandro Carbajal shared the lessons that the years dedicated to the audiovisual industry have left him. Its main conclusion is that specialized education is needed in the sector.
By Alejandra García Vélez
Honduras is the home of our professional of the month for this edition, Alejandro Carbajal, who came to the audiovisual industry 11 years ago as general manager of the company Comunicaciones Globales.
His studies were oriented towards the subject of marketing and administration; Carbajal initially graduated in Marketing and then complemented his education with an MBA (Master Business Administration) oriented to the area of finance and processes.
In his professional life he has gone through several stages, he started working for Amadeus, a company that manages the reservation system for travel agencies and airlines, where he noticed that when they needed to rent audiovisual equipment there were only two or three options in the whole city (Tegucigalpa) for elements as simple as a projector.
It was that situation, the detection of the need of the market, which led him to decide that at the time of creating his own company he would focus on offering audiovisual tools, in fact he says that from that experience was born what was the first slogan of his company "Global Communications, tools for your presentations", philosophy that over time has evolved to become "Together we generate value".
"My goal was to create a company that offered state-of-the-art technology, and that would serve to make user presentations more effective. For me it was inconceivable to think that doing something so simple was so complicated, in addition to the service offered was very informal, "explained the professional about the motivations that led him to enter the audiovisual industry.
From his adventure as owner of his own company highlights that thanks to the existing demand was possible a rapid growth of the company. "We started making investments to buy equipment to meet the needs of customers," he explained.
He also added that "I think that to be great you have to think and behave like great from the beginning, you can not think about doing things later or one day, you must work with great objectives from the first moment."
Your vision
The main investment that a company can make is in its employees, that is the opinion of this professional. Carbajal also assures that one of the main challenges he has faced as a manager of an audiovisual company refers to technological evolution and the need to train staff.
"There is very little training in the industry, that is in itself a cultural challenge; it is necessary to understand that training is not wasting time but an opportunity to grow professionally," said the guest.
The Global Communications official added that "you cannot say that there is a developed industry, what has changed in the 11 years of work is that the level of professionalization and service has increased."
In that same sense, he stressed that "our challenge is to be able to arouse interest.
in our employees and collaborators so that they also feel motivated to want to be better professionals".
It is important to clarify that although his company began dedicating itself only to the rental of equipment, it soon saw the need to expand its range of services towards the sale, since many of its customers were also looking for this service.
In his years of professional experience he remembers that, as a philosophy of the company, they never try to say "no" to their clients, so sometimes they have had to use all their resources and imagination to achieve difficult projects.
"It is a matter of challenges, but at the same time also of attitude, to see how we could solve the situations. In most cases we always come out well, very agitated, very stressed, but this helped us to grow, to make ourselves known as a responsible, reliable company, with an attitude of moving forward, "said Carbajal.
He also added that "the moral is that, when we want to do things right, it can be achieved, it is basically a matter of attitude."
Anything else
Continuing with the theme of managing his company, the guest emphasized that work should always be goal-oriented. For him you always have to plan, create goals, objectives and meet them. Also, draw weekly, monthly and quarterly measurements that allow a correct follow-up to the objectives set.
Carbajal, said that internally it is essential to trust employees, as well as learn to delegate functions. He gives as an example his company, which has offices in 5 countries and about 85 employees, to which he gives his complete confidence because he considers that otherwise the company could not offer a high level of service.
In the same sense, he pointed out that it is necessary to teach the employee to trust himself, in addition to transmitting that same confidence to the client by making him feel that he can achieve his objectives with the support of the company.
Industry
Faced with the current situation of the industry in his country and the evolution he has witnessed since he started working in it, Carbajal mentioned that he sees a lot of potential in the region, but also several limitations.
"There are many things that can be developed and what is really needed to achieve this is enthusiasm, will and knowledge. Company managers need to be more trained, rely more on their staff to grow," he said.
It also considers that there is a need for greater unity between the different companies. "I would love to think that you can create an association like InfoComm in Honduras, which allows you to offer seminars and courses in a much more accessible way, without having to travel to the United States or Mexico to be able to train," said the professional of the month.
Family
Finally, when touching on the family theme, the guest of this edition speaks with pride of his marriage to Aracely, who is his wife of 9 years and with whom he has a daughter named Alessandra. He also confesses that one of his greatest passions is traveling, reading and researching. He is also classified as a workaholic because he enjoys what he does and in the future he hopes to be able to dedicate himself to being a professor.
