PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH

By: Diana Agudelo

Professionals who stand the test of time, or who in their short career have managed to form a lifetime of work successfully, are usually the protagonists of our articles.

This specimen is no exception, and in Mexico we always find a fertile and fertile ground of characters who have achieved in their personal and professional lives, a level of excellence that can inspire anyone.

Rodolfo Hernández, president of the Mexican Institute of the Intelligent Building, is a young man who knows that to achieve what you want, you need focus, determination and work.

Born on September 9, 1966, in Mexico City, this communications and electronics engineer, with a specialty in digital control, graduated from the Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute, has 19 years of experience in the control industry and smart buildings.

"I started as an Application Engineer in 1988 working for the Johnson Controls Company, and later holding various positions among which I highlight Customer Service Manager, Cancun Sales Manager, Manager for Southeast Mexico and Central America, as well as National Sales Manager Mexico. Already in 2004 I joined Novar de Mexico, as Sales Director and currently occupy the General Management of the company".

In addition to engineering, Hernández completed other technical studies of the medium, among which the Automation and Control Systems Engineering program at the Jhonson Controls Institute of Education in Milwauke, a diploma in senior management from the Technological Institute of Higher Studies of Monterrey, stand out. ITESM; and a training course for executives in the globalized world by the University of Chicago. So preparation, study and dedication are part of the equation in the personal life of this professional.

The industry catches you
It was to be expected that once he left the university, telecommunications would be his main call to professional life, but once again and as has been demonstrated, the vocation comes early.

"My relationship with the industry began since I finished my engineering degree, immediately after I entered as an application engineer in control systems and for alarm and fire detection, I had some offers in communications companies and for structured cabling systems, that at that time was the fashion of electrical installations but I liked the means of control, in addition to the fact that the company supports me a lot, so I was able to develop professionally in this market".

In the technological field, there are more and more companies in the middle that begin to reach the market with new offers and products, some of them with enough quality and innovations. On the other hand there are the new system developments of traditional companies that have been on the market for a long time, which have also been concerned with developing products more suited to the specific needs of customers.

This definitely creates a base of aggressive competition in terms of the portfolio of products to offer, however the real challenge is to be able to update the technical and operational team of the company, so that in the end, they can make the best decisions based on their experience, to solve the specific requirements of customers as a solution and not only to offer a mere product in particular.

Given this perspective, Hernández affirms that "as a manager, being able to achieve the above, while improving processes and resources to maximize productivity, and being able to meet the company's financial goals, is fundamental. On the other hand, establishing the conditions to grow in other regions and bringing the experience we have to those latitudes by teaming up with local companies and providing the same quality of service, should be another of the primary objectives."

With subordinates and collaborators, the challenge is to always be at the right level to be a good leader for them; the constant updating is a fundamental part to achieve these goals and on the other hand to jointly organize the making of appropriate decisions depending on the area in question, to achieve the best results of the company is an obligation and this is clear rodolfo.

That is why he continues to say "the objectives that we must achieve in a company like Novar de México or any other in this market is to be updated and have a human resource with experience and talent to face the challenges of the current market; offer not only products but services and solutions appropriate to the requirements of each client".

Faced with the challenges of today's globalized world in which there are more products and solutions than those offered previously, companies such as Novar have been able to diversify into the specialties, since it is not the same to serve a client of corporate projects or multi-user office spaces, that of hotels or shopping centers; the same of these markets can not work for the data centers that are currently being built of great scope and magnitude and the same happens with the area of self-service and "multi-site" commercial chains, you have to evaluate the different needs and offer customized solutions to achieve technical results, operational and financial at the same time.

The integral objectives of a company that is related to this market basically are and should be the knowledge, the proper application of the products and services that become solutions to the different segments mentioned above of the market, and at the same time that this is a breaking point, so that the people who are responsible for seeing both the technical and the commercial and administrative part define their professional goals through adequate training and the correct application and gain experience in this medium, as Rodolfo emphasizes.

Vision in Latin America
The growth of Latin America in this sector is evident, observing that in some countries it is more notorious than in others, but above all in different disciplines; in some industrial growth stands out, in others growth is directed to tourism and development of the hospitality market such as hotels and resorts, as well as residential in others and corporate office spaces.

Given this overview of a continent under "construction", in Latin America there is a very strong growth trend of companies dedicated to BAS and smart buildings, specifically speaking of Mexico. Many of them are experiencing an expansion to other territories, especially in Central America and the Caribbean. These companies are carrying the experience acquired and together with local companies they are achieving very good business results.

Mexico experienced this type of "boom" in the 90s and now it is appreciated, a decade later this same explosion, which reaches other latitudes except Brazil and Argentina, which like Mexico, began earlier. For the other regions these proposals are relatively new, have little time or simply their use is just becoming widespread, so the future looks quite promising for local and foreign companies immersed in this medium.

"The evolution of bas and smart buildings is in a period of early maturity in Mexico; a decade ago, most of the time automation and security systems were installed for the simple fact of having them to be able to raise the value of the real estate product, boasting as high level or triple A, as it is handled in Real Estate, "says Hernández and continues: "It was very common, and still happens, to find that on the same project the different disciplines worked in a very deep-rooted way to achieve a very sophisticated final product according to their very particular discipline, but they never talked to each other and there was no adequate coordination of the projects, in such a way that everyone thought of a design from their own perspective if they took into account the other disciplines".

Another important factor is that very little planning time was available, even specialists in the field were called when the project was already defined and no longer gave them the opportunity to apply their best practices, so basically they had to adapt to the design that was already under construction and that unfortunately was always below the customer expectations.

But all that has changed, and this is confirmed by Hernández, today the concept of planning and investment of more time to the executive project of an intelligent building, automation or a remodeling of control systems, is being applied more and more, and it is already sought to have a good administration of the executive project and the design. "It is proposed to develop it having the participation between users and specialists in the different disciplines, which greatly improves the final result at the time of the implementation and operation of the proposed solution", Concludes.

What the future holds
"It is very important that people are updated in both technical and commercial areas, in order to provide the best solution to the client, not only technical but also meets their expectations of budgets," is the conclusion reached by Rodolfo Hernández regarding the future.

It is known that this is very important, and in Mexico some universities in the field of architecture and engineering, have incorporated into their curricula, several subjects that have to do with automation and control systems, electronic security, fire protection systems and communications.

"On the other hand there is also the IMEI, (Mexican Institute of the Intelligent Building, A.C.), which I am honored to chair; offers a permanent diploma of annual periodicity, where all aspects related to the development of a project of these characteristics are studied in six modules. The IMEI plays a very important role in the development, education and training in this environment in Mexico, since it gives an adequate panorama and recommendations in this regard."

Thus, this professional who enjoys outdoor sports, such as mountaineering and baseball and, of course, mariachi music, occasionally takes time out of his hectic life to be updating, in a field, as changing as life itself.

In our world of companies and industries, the history of economies lies in the biography of more than great, unbeatable men.

That is the case of our professional of the month, Ricardo Varela, whose history is, of course, subject to the recent history of a country that until recently was very conflictive and has now been reborn from its ashes. The beginning
"I was born on March 31, 1968, in San Salvador, I am the last of four children (two women and two men). I did basic education in the Salvadoran public system (between 1974 and 1985) and university education at the Central American University José Simeón Cañas where I obtained the title of electrical engineer, but I have worked in the industry since 1994. Immediately after graduating from college he found himself needing to work; however, the working conditions in the country have not been the best, so, assisted by his brother, he entered to work (without receiving salary) in a sugar factory; he was later hired (his first paid job) at a plastics factory called Omniplastic. In search of improvements he was located in a refrigerator factory called Cetron in El Salvador. Until that time his positions had been in industrial maintenance headquarters, during which time he did not have much contact with the HVAC areas. But he is quick to add that "during the year 1994, I made a decision that was going to greatly change the course of my life. While still working as an industrial maintenance manager at the Cetron factory in El Salvador, I chose to look for another type of work area within which to work. I thought about prospecting and commercially and administratively directing a company dedicated to technical areas. I thought that moment was propitious, since our country has just emerged from a civil war of more than ten years. The outlook was ideal for an economic boom.

Shortly after I decided to give a rudder to my career, I contacted the engineer Rodolfo Cacacho Romano, a person of Guatemalan origin, at that time regional manager for El Salvador of a company, with the capital of the same country; which was just entering a reengineering process and as a first step, it had been decided to hire a manager to take over the operation in El Salvador. The name of this company was Distribuidora Granada".

And he continues "the central challenge was to take it out of its puerile stage, in which it had been for many years, and transform it into the leading industrial air conditioning and refrigeration company in the Salvadoran market. In addition to being a new work area (HVAC), the challenge of transforming the traditional chores of Granada sounded interesting. At that time I did not imagine how great and generous this responsibility was, in addition to the opportunity that in the future I would have.

Two years ago a group of investors offered me to create a new company in the field. Having the opportunity to stop being a salaried employee and become a partner in a new dream, I didn't think much about it; and, even with all the risks that a change of these entailed, I decided to found Frioaire Internacional de El Salvador. We had set ourselves the goal of achieving leadership in less than two years (an achievement that in the beginning was seen as a utopia), which was achieved in less time than expected, thanks to the effort of all of us who worked and the daring investors of Frioaire. " His story might seem easy, but it is an achievement that resulted from hard work and constant reflection. The way to do it was to anticipate events and be very aware of the client.

In terms of technology, Varela thinks that the business must be directed towards integration with the automation of refrigeration and HVAC machines, in order to avoid downtime in the search for failures, energy efficiency, low operating costs, better local or remote control, etc.

In El Salvador, the guild still needs to be guided in the search for cutting-edge solutions. "As a business leader, even though we are leaders in the field, we need to consolidate ourselves as a safe and accurate option for our market, that implies having the largest and most varied collection of merchandise, without falling into the obsolescence of products, and we are reaching it by shoring up our logistics area. Regarding our human resources, we have the conviction to forge new people from making the best choice of personnel.

In our country there are no consolidated academic careers oriented to our industry, so training sales executives, technicians, logistics personnel, is a real challenge and requires an exhaustive knowledge of the field, a lot of work and the appropriate patience and understanding. "

Learn, trying
When asked the reason for his success, Ricardo reflects and affirms that in Frioaire, a manager should achieve the full development of his skills in order to achieve in an ideal way the objectives set for the company. In particular, it should think about general and particular objectives, design work plans to achieve these objectives, select the best possible personnel, constantly induce and train staff, motivate them to perform their operations and tasks in the expected way, monitor the development of plans in order to correct mistakes or modify plans that are necessary and finally collect data that reflects the scope of the goals set. in order to define new goals or modify those that were not achieved.

"In this sense, one of the objectives of Frioaire is to give the best technical advice (information, advice, tips) to our customers in order to avoid delays, reprocesses, damage and material or human losses, in daily chores."

Also in a humble way, Varela admits that it is from the small daily struggles, from which the most is learned. "We can learn from equipment or artifacts that were damaged by not considering all the factors that can affect their application, up to hours of time lost (or invested in case of considering it learning) due to lack of attention to fundamental details due to the fatigue caused by many hours of continuous work.

There have been many stories of improvisations in the Hollywood style, in order to save or try to save difficult technical and commercial defeats, also many victories thanks to skillful planning and to consider that all caution is little when it comes to achieving great goals. "

"Our country has had political stability for 17 years, which has allowed us not to have shocks or sharp turns, which attracts foreign investment. In fact, our company Frioaire, is an example of that foreign investment, so I see a flattering future in the short and medium term, the industry is expanding in several of the sectors that make up our sector.

Seeing the 13 years that I have been working in this sector of the industry, I realize that when I started the road I saw mainly technical people who by tradition and transmission of work, were involved in this industry, however, more or less five years ago to date, I see a growing group of professionals from various disciplines (engineers of all branches, administrators, accountants, military) joining the industries, which I do not see as a coincidence, but as the vision of good times that have begun to be felt. "

Varela, is also a man who has achieved great success in his personal life "when talking about my family I have to say that there are two facets that have been fundamental in my development. The first, which I have already mentioned, is that of my parents and siblings, which was fundamental in all areas of my development, mainly in the structuring of my self-esteem. The second, the one I currently enjoy, is my nuclear family, which is made up of my wife and two children. My current family group is the reason why I live, I move and I am." He enjoys football and karaoke and the only activity that manages to get him out of these obvies are of course his passion for the work he does.

The philosophy of this skilled and imaginative professional is summarized thanks to a few words that he shares with us: "throughout my career I have tried to establish a dialectic between university theory and street practice, the academic philosopher versus the mechanic tanned based on experiences. All this in order to match the millenary physical principles (almost immovable) with everyday observations. In the evolution of the theses (theory) and the antitheses (practices) I have achieved very good learning".