Alejandro Federico Preusche, MS Engineering Universidad Catolica Argentina and MBA Stanford University. Former President of ACDE (Christian Association of Business Leaders), former consultant and CEO McKinsey & Company, Argentina, former a member of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, founder and Manager of Almado, a consulting and impact business developer, member of the Global Impact Investments Group.
Juan Pablo Stegmann’s masterpiece
First and foremost, this is a monumental piece of work. It is the expected outcome of a wonderful life journey devoted to rigorous researching, generous teaching, insightful writing and more importantly, to self-development and renewal. It hits the sweet spot of the balance between the personal and the professional lives.
As I read it, I saw the personal quest Stegmann initiated years ago which resulted in a marvelous synthesis between civilization, culture, and business pragmatism: that spirituality is at the center of our lives. This is the fountain of coherence that he has found and that he now shares with everyone seeking a fulfilling life in the world of business. On a personal note, the book allowed me to take stock of my own personal and professional journey. Lots of insights and reflections. I want to share some with the readers as well.
The book highlights spirituality's role in building greatness and leadership, transforming the political economy and the business reality. I have seen countless examples of great business leaders who testified to the centrality of spirituality. Enrique Shaw was a successful business leader, a great human being, the founder of ACDE (Christian Association of Business Leaders), an extraordinary institution I had the honor to preside in. In line with the book's insights, he promoted the mission of the business leader as linked to the fulfillment of three duties: service, progress, and human advancement. For him, the company was a community of life, an instrument for the dignification of the person. No wonder Shaw is in a canonization process in the Vatican.
The book provides a powerful interdisciplinary approach, connecting strategic management and political economy with our spirituality, greatness, and leadership. This was a challenge, as it required first simplifying and streamlining all strategic management and business disciplines in a simple model, incorporating the role of resources, something that I have done at McKinsey for years as a consultant and its CEO in Argentina.
As the book states, several Nobel Prize winners and the prestigious Strategic Management Society during the last decades have supported incorporating resources and economic thinking into strategic management. The book goes a step further and investigates how the greatness and leadership of everyone, of each stakeholder, provide crucial resources, human capital, social capital, process, and renewal capital, promoting the success of the organization and the community, providing a strongly needed human approach to strategic management. As an active member of the Impact Investing Movement (investments with an explicit intention and objective to deliver positive, meaningful, and measurable social or environmental outcomes in underserved areas, alongside a financial return), I strongly believe this is the crucial condition for success. Sustainable social and environmental impact is achieved through business innovation, only when their leaders are driven by a genuine orientation to those less privileged. Only this attitude will help bring about peace and progress.
The book also highlights the role of discernment, and its interaction with strategic management, solving strategic dilemmas for the organization's success and social welfare. On my experience as a career coach to several hundred McKinsey Partners all over the world in the last 20 years, I have been privy to the crucial role of discernment in making high impact decisions.
Any business leader, in fact, any leader, should get familiar with Stegmann’s comprehensive contribution to their success. This book is a must-read for any leader. It will surely become the main reference for those who want to lead a purposeful life.