At the meeting of the 10th generation of AmCham Young Professionals, we hosted two successful international business leaders, Melanie Seier Larsen and Tomislav Čorak, both of whom are managing directors and partners at BCG. They share a passion for work, tenacity and a partnership.
What is on the desks of world leaders, how do you introduce changes, how do you both manage to be authentic leaders and how do you manage your work-life balance?
According to our interviewees, new forms of work, diversity, cooperation, competitiveness, sustainability, and openness are the key themes and changes without which companies will not be able to survive in the next five years. “New forms of work are being integrated throughout companies, from leading meetings to a culture of openness that does not follow a hierarchy with regard to managing the company,” says Melanie, the first Slovene to attain such a high position at BCG. The focal points for introducing changes are usually human resources and talents, which ‘boring’ industries find difficult to attract through the old style of work. Diversity transcends gender and includes ethnic differences and several dimensions in which both companies and society still have a lot of work to do.
The Up or Out policy provoked a discussion at our company about schedules in business and in working at a global company like BCG. Melanie believes that burnout is not the result of a difficult schedule, but occurs because people are often not putting their heart and soul into their work, and are probably not in a career that suits them. She has always lived her business and her work with passion. Tomislav adds that when people are struggling to build a career it is important to remember why and when to work harder, and that they get something in exchange. Both of them stated that how you work with teams on projects is crucial, and at BCG everyone is therefore on the same page, both managers and interns when it comes to pursuing goals and working with people. Particularly working with people.
We asked the couple what skills or qualities of an authentic leader they would like to borrow from one another. Tomislav values Melanie’s decisiveness and directness, while Melanie would like to have some of Tomislav’s patience and calmness in business situations and in her attitudes towards others. They first became truly aware of their leadership potential and the fact that people trust them when they joined BCG with a team of former colleagues and began to strengthen its position in Slovenia and in the Central and Eastern Europe region.
They manage their work-life balance by traveling and going on weekends with their computers closed.