I have studied and worked all my life in the Bio Sciences world. This world has to do with cells, proteins, receptors, photosynthesis and so many other fascinating topics. At first sight, not much to do with the behaviour of humans at work.

16 years ago I redirected my career to become a Consultant on Executive Search in the Health Care field. I started without a clue of the HR background that might be expected, such as Psychology, Sociology or Human Relations.  I just was able to search for outstanding candidates, find them, assess their suitability to my client’s specifications and discuss with them (plus some persuasion…) if it was a good career move in his or her perspective. Most often than not, I was successful and that is the way I started to accumulate experiences about human behaviour. If you read this blog, you may well know much more about Healthy Resources than I do, and then your comments and suggestions are honestly welcome. My intention here is just to put together apparently unconnected worlds.

After some time (hours of briefings and candidates’ interviews during years! ) I realized that I was adding value to my clients as a Consultant. A common characteristic was the importance of innovation, often expressed as R&D activity. Companies with real drive for innovation were in need of adaptable executives, open-minded, able to grow and learn new markets and competences, multi-country (typically in Europe with different languages, markets and regulations) and unafraid of permanent change.  

Then I learned that this type of executives were also defined as Knowledge workers, present peculiar characteristics and are much more common in our generations than before the WW. In parallel I have the privilege to coordinate the Open Forums of the alumni of the IE Business School. Thus, in our round-tables we get fresh new ideas of the recent graduates put in contrast with the expertise of our speakers. An example could be last April, when Kent Anderson and Corrie Bridgeman from the Massachusetts Medical Society, (publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine; NEJM) travelled to Madrid with their colleagues of Drug Farma to present on “Physician 2.0” and why on-line fits. NEJM has been published since 1812 and is leading a revolutionary shift from paper to new IT. Another perspective was brought by Dr. Leandro Herrero on Organizational Architecture and…but we will have future posts to develop these ideas!