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GOOD INTENTIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH

April 09 2022
Mauren esquivel

Interview with Prof. Julio Sergio Ramírez

Professor Julio Sergio Ramírez has been a professor at INCAE since 1973 when he graduated with a master's degree from this institution, where he worked for a couple of years before going to do a doctorate in Political Economy and Government at Harvard University. He subsequently returned to INCAE, and since then I have been linked full time, except for 7 years when he was directing a project at Harvard University in Bolivia.

His link to INCAE is more than 40 years. He has taught in master's and senior management programs, in seminars, and in a range of initiatives and research of various kinds.

In the CAHI Fellows program, he is in charge of the Negotiation course, a subject in which he has developed a solid line of thought and work as an advisor, part of which is collected in his books: Negotiating is Dancing, the principles and concepts of effective negotiation, and Unequal Negotiation, what to do when you are negotiating with someone much more powerful. He has other books in the area of ​​strategy, public strategy, environmental analysis, negotiation, management skills, critical thinking and decision making.

At the end of his Negotiation class, taught within the third module of the process carried out by the 6th Generation of CAHI Fellows, we had the opportunity to talk with him.

What is your perception and vision of the CAHI program?

Julius Serge: The CAHI program impresses me with its emphasis on selecting leaders who have great potential to achieve improvements in society, especially in the health sector.

The health sector in our region, and in general in the world, has important peculiarities. One: it is very expensive and it is going to be more and more expensive because of the quality of the supplies it requires, especially because professional supplies, doctors, medicines, laboratories, are expensive. Two: they are of great importance for human well-being. Three: there are huge deficiencies in the delivery of health services.

Given that a large percentage of the population of our countries does not have the resources to pay the market price that these services would have, it is necessary that there be non-profit entities, interested in seeing how they achieve that health services reach the lower income sectors with a huge subsidy, a huge cost cut, sometimes donated, a way to make them accessible to huge populations.

That leverage, that create a group, a core of leaders with the potential to create high-impact projects in sectors with fewer resources in the area of ​​health services, in my opinion is extremely valuable.

What do you think is required as a basis to enter the CAHI Fellows program?

Julius Serge: To join the CAHI Fellows Program requires a strong commitment, a personal ethical-moral commitment, because I believe that it is the right thing to do to help those most in need, in this case in the field of health. Feeling that I have to do something for them, since I have received so much from the family, from society. I am privileged because I have this training, I feel a moral obligation to do something for them, to see how I can impact their quality of life. But that, either the person has it, or he doesn't. There is no way to put it on, you have to wear it.

So, if that is present, it can be used as a great motivator, a great multiplier of effort, to achieve worthwhile projects.

What do you contribute, from your perspective, to the CAHI Fellows?

Julius Serge: What I want is for CAHI Fellows to understand how to improve their ability to negotiate. How can I be a better negotiator, since they have to negotiate a lot (resources, support), and they will even have to go through unequal negotiations. That's what I was talking about, about negotiations when the other is more powerful.

How can I achieve something and how do I define my trading strategy. What skills do I lack, how do I improve? Because good intentions are not enough, these are important, but skills, knowledge, abilities are also required, which are developed through study and the exercises we do here.