Fernando Ortiz-Barbachano leads Mexican executive search firm and made it grow by partnering with a U.S. giant. Now he wants to take on Latin America.
By Garrett Nasworthy – The News
Fernando Ortiz-Barbachano, President of Barbachano International Group, or BIP, has been in the executive search business throughout Latin America since 1992. The firm has worked with over 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies, but until recently focused largely on Mexico.
Starting late last year, the company began pushing further into Latin America, launching in Argentina and Brazil.
He argues that his company connects the best firms to the most appropriate executives and also protects firms when they sack staff by ensuring departing workers find good jobs and remember their former bosses fondly.
What changes are you undertaking right now?
We have moved from a national company, fitted toward Mexico, to a more international company focused further into Latin America.
Our clients can now look in South America, Europe and Asia. We have now contracted out certain other search services worldwide to expand our database.
We are also trying to move our services into different industries.
Why did your company decide to expand further south?
Companies are looking for expanding markets in the world right now. Markets like Brazil and Argentina are where they can sell their goods. Most large companies worldwide are looking to so-called “underdeveloped” countries to push their operations. We are going along with them. I think the future is bright for our products, particularly in Brazil. Brazil has structured its politics and legal structures for business in a very transparent way. This attracts investment and therefore potential clients for BIP.
What are the outplacement services you provide in Mexico?
Outplacement is a service that we provide client companies – helping individual executives find employment elsewhere [after client companies have laid them off]. We are leading outplacement in Mexico thanks to our exclusive partnership with Challenger, Gray & Christmas as their representative firm. We can place foreign nationals anywhere in the world.
We have coverage from end to end. BIP provides counselors from the very day they are let off, to help them through any shock they are going through.
In addition, we beef up their interview skills, job application skills and provide them day-to-day job updates by region. We try and customize our services per client. BIP tries to help executives find a way to penetrate the job market to the fullest, helping them find markets where they don’t have competition, and break through gatekeepers.
What is the return on value for a company with outplacement?
The value that it adds is a lot more than the cost. If you do something good for an individual as they leave the firm, then that immediately reduces the risk they will ever begin legal proceedings against your company.
It also eliminates risk of taking proprietary information from the company, sharing trade secrets, etc. If you do something good for someone else it is very unlikely they will do something bad to you in return.
Outplacement not only helps establish a good relationship with the employee being let go, but also the employees remaining in your company. While that individual leaves the company, he typically does not break links with his friends who remain in the company. If he is treated badly it will lower morale at the company and [lead to] higher [staff] turnover.
The image and brand of a company costs a lot of money and it pays to maintain that image.
What services does BIP offer within Mexico and the United States?
We help companies, mostly in the United States, to identify the most talented individuals out there who add value and help the bottom line of corporations. Not only do we identify, assign value and select the talent for our clients but also consult our clients when they enter Mexico. [We] provide salary surveys because [clients often] have no idea about compensation practices or what typical salaries. We give background on the legal required benefits in Mexico.
A client usually receives a list of benchmark benefits that the competition is offering, a kind of intelligence report for our clients. We help them navigate the labor laws in Mexico, such as what can and cannot be said in an interview or how to draft an offer letter.
Overall, we bring another level of competitiveness to a company entering Mexico.