On Thursday, Cornell Current and the Leadership Program of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management had the honor of hosting Mr. Joao Perez, Vice President of Global Sales at IBM PureSystems. Mr. Perez spoke both personally and professionally about his experiences at IBM as well as in college. Mr. Perez stressed how critical is it for young professionals to have a personal plan as well as a mentor to bounce ideas off of and glean advice from. Mr. Perez also described the importance of understanding how people are intrinsically incentivized in order to create a welcoming and efficient workplace. He felt that companies mistakenly believe that the best motivating factor is money; however, when incentivizing with money, the opposite desired reaction will occur. Furthermore, Mr. Perez detailed how companies identify attributes based on an employee’s current performance in regards to future promotions and how reliability, honesty, and a strong work ethic must be demonstrated in order to advance. Falling through the cracks in a large company is unfortunately very easy since they are too large.

Mr. Perez offered incredible advice to the group, advice ranging from learning about other cultures to understanding one’s own motivation. Mr. Perez suggested that the skills necessary to succeed in a large company include strong social skills and being able to create and maintain a strong network of colleagues. To advance, one must experiment within different job functions and glean international experience.  Mr. Perez’ final piece of advice was that every decision carries with it a risk and one must analyze every decision made in terms of how it fits into one’s long term goals.

Cornell Current members greatly enjoyed Mr. Perez’ presentation as he offered great insights which were incredibly meaningful to the audience.