94 – MASTERCLASS – Where Can I Help? A Servant Leader’s Mindset for Partner Growth.

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Welcome to the 94th episode of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering™. It was a pleasure to welcome to the podcast Microsoft’s Vice President for Partner Development, Carlos De Torres. Carlos’s organization is responsible for ISV’s Industry and Private Equity for the US Business. With a servant leaders mindset for partner growth, Carlos asks partners, “where can I help?”

As the Vice President, US for ISV, Industry and Private Equity within Microsoft, Carlos’ US Partner Development Team is charged with driving growth with ISVs (Integrated Software Vendors), Industry verticals (i.e. Financial Services, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Retail and Public Sector) and Private Equity Partnerships. He is responsible for a multi-billion dollar business, accelerating Microsoft Partners transformation to the Cloud, building the Industry Partner capacity & capability, and driving strong Partner preference on Microsoft’s platform.  

Carlos is fairly new to his role and it was refreshing to spend time to get his perspective and point of view on how he hopes to further serve this critical group of partners and organizations. In this episode, we discuss his business priorities, his view of his role, and how he is applying a servant leader lens to how he supports his partners. The importance of partner to partner as a vehicle to success for partners and how the transformation has changed how we work.

I particularly enjoyed my time with Carlos and hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I enjoyed getting to know Carlos De Torres.

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This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Ultimate Partnerships. Ultimate Partnerships helps you get the most results from your partnerships. Get Partnerships Right – Optimize for Success – Deliver Results – Ultimate Partnerships.

Transcription By Otter.AI – Please Pardon Typos Below

Vince Menzione  0:30 

Carlos, welcome to the podcast.

Carlos De Torres  1:34 

Thank you so much Vince. Hello, everyone.

Vince Menzione  1:36 

I am so delighted to welcome you to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. You are Microsoft’s Vice President for Partner Development and I’m excited to welcome you to share with our listeners the important work of your team, how Microsoft co sells with partners, why partnering is more important now than ever, and your personal professional journey, so welcome.

Carlos De Torres  1:58 

Oh, hey, thank you so much. So great to be here with all the audience today. I’m Carlos De Torres, the Vice Presidentvrunning all the ISV business for Microsoft in the US. And originally from Europe, five years in the US 10 years in the company, and I’m super excited to be here today.

Vince Menzione  2:20 

Well, the work you do is so important. So I really feel that this discussion is of great value for our listeners. So first, as you might know, I came from a leadership role, first within Microsoft running partner for Public Sector, and then in a role with a large ISV. The work that I got to do was so closely aligned to your organization. But for our listeners and partners that might not know the function and mission of that organization. Can you share a little bit more detail with them?

Carlos De Torres  2:50 

Absolutely, well, first of all things will be great because you coming from one of my partners, you will be able to hold me accountable even more. So let me share with you try to imagine for one second a matrix. And on one dimension, we have the partner lifecycle, from the recruit from all the build with us all the application services solutions, and then having a final estate that is going to market together and being able to go sell. So on one side of the matrix, imagine all that partner lifecycle. And then on the other axis in the vertical, if you want Imagine all the different kinds of partners that I work with, we can go from global ISVs. So they’re really big partners that you know really well on what we call the big ISVs, the big software companies that work with Microsoft. But I also work with all the new is more partners that we are onboarding into the Microsoft ecosystem, also what we call the cross-industry, which is general partners that are developing solutions, that are not customized for any specific industry. And then I manage to a set of different teams, which are in charge of the different industry verticals, solutions, for example, healthcare, manufacturing, or retail or education, or a state or local government, and so far on so on. And then the last part is that I’m also responsible of managing a team that runs the engagement of most of many of the most important private capital entities, both private equity and venture capital. So trying to identify those portfolio companies in the private capital entities that can embrace the Microsoft technology and war with us. So I will tell you a pretty wide spectrum.

Vince Menzione  4:54 

That’s quite a broad spectrum of responsibilities. What does success look like at the end of the day?

Carlos De Torres  4:59 

Well, the key to success is trying to have as many active and relevant partners that are working with the Microsoft technology around embracing our technology and opportunities of working together. So success, of course, at the end of the day, I have a revenue line that I need to hit, I need to keep control of certain costs of going to market and keeping my team, but the most important is the common success. I think you’ll want to talk sometime later about the real partnering. And one of the reasons, because I’m so excited to have this conversation with you, is because you are a really big figure in the partner in it in the US. And that is exactly what success looks like. To me, it is being able to collaborate together to grow our business together and to be that partner, and that technology partner that we can help to grow your company, find new opportunities, develop new solutions, are being able to have a common growth, as you will realize I’m a really big believer in the way that we can partner together in the system. And probably that is one of the reasons because they work for Microsoft,

Vince Menzione  6:07 

You know development is in your title, right? And you know, the fact that Microsoft, right, we talked about you, you work for Microsoft, I’ve always said this, I feel intuitively Microsoft gets partner better than any other organization, how does the work of your team differ from the other hyper scalars that support partners on their platforms?

Carlos De Torres  6:26 

Well, I think that that is a really good question. And Vince, I totally think that the first difference is about all of these three backgrounds. And all the real belief of having partners in our DNA, working with partners is not new in Microsoft, you know, in fact, probably our business has started working in the OEM business, leveraging partners. So more than 30, more than 40 years of our business history has been related to partners, and he has always been there. At the same time, we continue having that hunger for new opportunities. So we are continually looking for new things that we can do. So we are not confident we are not stable, we are not relaxed. Because we have a four-year history, we continue having the spark, the hunger, the desire to evolve, our partner ecosystem, and our partner channel to phase the new technologies. The second thing as I told you when we were thinking about them, the partner lifecycle in that kind of matrix describing my role, I think that we really have a vision of the partner lifecycle end to end, I’m not only worried about recruiting, I’m not only worried about building with the partners, new solutions that can leverage the network and the cloud technologies to be able to be more effective in front of the end customer. I’m also a big believer that we have to be able to close like hell together, sharing leads with winners, sharing opportunities, trying to grow our business, I think that one of the ways that when you’re with us as a partner is that we are really want to be taking care of you. And when I’m worried that I’m interested in knowing about my partner’s profitability, I’m not only interested in having my own profitability, Microsoft, I won’t understand that we are succeeding together, and were able to grow and tackle the market opportunities together. So one of the big differences that I carry is number one, yours is legacy, but legacy combined with an incredibly huge hunger, of desire of progressing and growing new partners. The second thing is yes, helping our partners into and this is not about generating revenue, this is not about selling through you. This is about growing your company and growing you as a partner. So if you’re successful, we are successful. And that is absolutely integrated in the DNA of everybody, Microsoft who works in the partner channel. And I can tell you, that is our model that is our way of behaving and our way of trying to grow this market.

Vince Menzione  8:54 

So, Carlos, I love what you had to say here. I intuitively get it, right, you are working end to end with these partners, you’re taking earlier stage partners into your organization, I see you doing that more aggressively. Now more than ever, you are also taking a look at your partner’s business more succinctly. And I know personally firsthand that your teams are very concerned with how your partners grow their business with Microsoft and with other partners when we’re going to talk about partner to partner here in a moment. And then also landing partners in industry and then working with private equity. I see this as a very holistic approach to solving the problem that needs to be solved for you know, I’ve had some of your peers on and we talked about you mentioned co selling. So, Lani Phillips, has you have the partner development function, she has the Co-selling function, but they’re inextricably linked. In particular, I’d like to discuss with you what does success look like? What makes a great partner when you’re working with them on the business development side and then the Co-selling side Can you tell our listeners what you believe part the part That succeeds working with your team do differently or better?

Carlos De Torres  10:03 

Yeah, well, first of all, you know, I love Lani, we are like “two in a box”, and I have learned so much from her in the months that I have been in this role. So it’s always happy to partner with her and to work together in with our partner ecosystem. But let me tell you, for me, it is a pretty straightforward answer. So the great partner for ICC someone that is embracing the technology, you know, veins, this thing changes continuously and changes really quickly. And the moment that we are not having really new solutions, we are having a full vertical cloud, that we can work with an industry. And if don’t, we are having a set of new developments that we can bring into the partner into them customers immediately. And they know what we’ll talk later about partner to partner what we call p2p. But the first thing that I consider to be a great partner is the one that embraces our technology. The second one probably should be how a partner is sharing with us their view, their strategy, their go-to-market, their approach to business, what is the main mission? What are the main KPIs? Which are the main things that we can help them? And where is that company going to? And then, of course, as I told you, I’m a big fan of having direct conversations with my partners about profitability. This is not about me, having sales through them, and having incremental revenue. That is great, but it is much greater when you have the conversation about the real profitability of the partner are they’re really making a good business are they’re really targeting the right opportunities in this market to try to grow even faster, are there solutions specific they have intellectual property, they have something special that we can bring to market together. And of course, the last thing is that I think that a good partner needs to push me back veins, I need the feedback, I need to grow, I need to understand really well how I can have those 1000s of 1000s of eyes and ears in the market to give me the feedback and to help me grow and improve. I’m really concerned if a partner is only listening to what I say and trying to follow between quotes my orders, I want to get the feedback I want to understand the things that we Microsoft we are not doing correctly, or how we can we do have to steer our big boat in order to get the best profit of all the opportunities in the market. So that dialogue and that bi-directional dialogue is key to me. So embracing technology, sharing all this strategy and the future view talking about profitability. And of course, giving each other the feedback and trying to grow together is a good enough description beans.

Vince Menzione  12:43 

I think you said it very well. In fact, what I thought I heard loud and clear was empathy. Right? And you know, having been on the inside and then on the outside, a lot of times partners struggle. Because Microsoft has this scorecard, we all know this, and partners are sometimes they’re even put in a box, but they’re told, you know, you need to help me drive my scorecard. I think what I’m hearing you say is I want to help you grow your business. I want to help you be profitable. Like that’s a great empathetic approach that I candidly find very refreshing right now. I love that I love the approach you’re that you’re bringing to the business. And we’re going to talk about your journey and your leadership roles. But it’s so refreshing to have you in this role, Carlos. So we’ve both been living, we’ve all been living in this time of rapid change, like a time we’ve never expected. I mean, you know, we’re working remotely. And it’s a year now it’s almost a year, my last flight was March 1 of 2020. And when we’re going to be releasing this podcast, it’ll be a year, we’re living through the seismic shifts, so much more change is ahead of us, right? We’ve seen this transformation. Satya has described it as multiple years and multiple months. What are you seeing now during this change that you didn’t expect to see?

Carlos De Torres  14:00 

Well, first of all, you have my full recognition of these times, and the data deliverable needed to do and you’re right. I will talk about it a little bit later. Empathy is key at this time for being able to adapt yourself. Let me share with you on the audience. 10 seconds from my own experience events. Yeah, my flight was the symbol you it was Friday, March the sixth, it was when I came home, and I never jumped in a plane again, excuse them. But let me share with you I started this role in the middle of April. So can you imagine I’ve been working from home all this time? I have not met face to face any of my team members across the country. I have met already with the I think you know, some people in my staff keep the count. I think I have met already in this almost one year with almost 200 partners in different video conferences and meetings and all kinds of business reviews, planning strategy, recruiting, etc. And I can tell you, you can succeed You can make it but it is absolutely different. So we’re used to doing, we remember those big Vegas conference that we use for your meeting face to face and you’re having breakfast or lunch, or a business meeting or quick intro between the different sessions, we were able to be the same thing in a completely different environment. And you know, what we, we can get some credit because of tools and because of the resources we provided. But for me super important, how I saw all our partners, being able to thrive, being able to progress, being able to adapt, and being able to grow, even in these times of change, and having that immediate reaction about how to make business in this situation, and for the future. Oh, you’re absolutely right beings, honestly, many things we don’t know, I can tell you that if you are talking one year and a half ago, and he will be running all your business remotely from home without any business travel. And without any face-to-face meeting, you shouldn’t believe it. So this kind of acceleration has changed completely the way that we work, the way that we work with our partners, and the way that our customers work. And honestly, I’ve been to many things, this is here to stay. And there is gonna be a big change in the way that we work and collaborate and the way that we are even more effective in this time. So you’re right, I see the change and I listening to Satya and I love it. Yeah, we are living, you know, this is like a few months have become years of progress. bigger things are much more accelerated. Do you know these cases are they are not? They are not confidential. Many of our top customers that were in a multi-year digital transformation journey, accelerated things, and they made it in less than eight weeks, 10 weeks, three months. That is incredible. This has been a big issue for humanity. This has been really bad news and a disaster for many things in humanity, but at the same time, has pushed all of us to make a huge transformation and a big leap forward in the way that we work in the way that we socialize and in the way that we produce. So I’m super proud of humankind in the way that we have been able to adapt, and we have been able to grow. And we have been able to evolution almost immediately. Remember when we were reading in the textbooks when we were kids how humankind was able to evolve during the Ice Age, for example. Honestly, this is not comparable. But this is something that you and I have seen the big transformation in the way that we work in barely a few months. Isn’t that exciting?

Vince Menzione  17:40 

It is exciting. I have to say it’s astounding, I believe. And I’ve said this many times I believe we are on the precipice. And it you know, this has been a very tough time, a lot of deaths from COVID. You know, we’ve seen a case shape recovery in many areas, we in the tech sector have benefited in many ways. But we’re leading a transformation of how people live work, to go to school, everything and it’s all been driven by this digital transformation. I believe we are at a precipice of a renaissance Honestly, I believe that we are going to come out of this time, I’m very optimistic we’re going to come out of this time better than before we’ve learned to utilize we will how to be resilient, right, as you said, where you it’s amazing to me that you’ve not met your team, I would love to ask you about how do you establish relationship and intimacy when you haven’t actually been in the room or shared a meal or a beverage with the people on your team? How do you do that? Well,

Carlos De Torres  18:33 

you need to meet to develop a huge empathy. And you need to have really meaningful conversations. And you need to be really mindful of the time that you have together. And then, you know, sometimes ask for permission to be direct, to be clear, and to build that connection really quickly. Because you don’t have any other alternative. And you can tell Hey, we can be having a more superficial conversation on a pure business, but we really want to know each other. And we really want to work together and we really want to set up a team then we need to start building that bond really quickly. And sometimes it is a two-way roll. You need to have that permission, you need to be able to do it yourself. But you need to have the person on the other side of the line willing to do it too. And the big surprise for me is that I will tell you that almost everybody both in my team and also my partners and in my co-stars are willing to have that situation because all of us are in the same situation and everybody’s willing to establish that relationship and to try to move forward so so I can tell you has been challenging, as you know and you’re not really well you Orca very intensely for quite a few hours. And then that kind of breakdown or you know, downtime is the blurry lines between restaurant work is a little bit more blurry than ever because we’re always available and you know your computer that has the rain sound off Any voice call or vehicle, it is a few yards away from, from your living room, or from whoever you are. So you can jump in almost any time, but it is learning and the progress is substandard.

Vince Menzione  20:12 

Yeah. And I was asking about this too, because we, you know, I’ve been saying all along, I’ve been saying certainly for a period of time working with Microsoft and partners, that people are just fatigued or overwhelmed because we’re constantly on these zoom and team calls. What are you doing for your own mindfulness and that of your team right now? Is there any prescription that you can give to our listeners,

Carlos De Torres  20:34 

something like a few months ago, we tried to build some kind of, together with the team, it was not an order, we try to build some kind of rules of engagement internal in the in my team and setting up really clear and well-defined risk times. And when you’re off, and when you’re not working on defining and trying to have the real I know, it is always a term that I don’t love, that kind of work-life balance that you need to be very clear on defining all of us. And in my case, and sharing with the audience, I’m married, and I have two boys two teenage years, there are moments that you need to define what is the time that you need to be helpful in the house for my wife, or my kids, for myself, and you need to define what is the way of keeping your mind alive and being helpful in your house. So always talk and imagine, imagine, in my case, they are teenagers in my room, when we are having some of my peers or my colleagues, there are having little babies that have not been able to go to school for quite some time. And then you need to have that kind of permission, and that kind of attitude of telling, hey, I need to be off for one hour between three and 4 pm. Or I need to stop for lunch between noon and 1 pm. So the first thing that we find was clarity. And then the second thing, of course, we are super privileged of working in Microsoft. And we have a really good set of benefits and help provided by the company. We’re even given up to 12 weeks of leave in order if we needed to attend to their personal necessities during COVID. So we have been given extra benefits and help and support from the company. But most of it, it is the common sense of the people managers and the team managers in the company trying to adapt each of the situations of each employee family situation, personal situation, and even mindfulness. In my case, it is pretty easy beings, I tried to go at least twice a day for a walk and get some fresh air, I tried to work out a little bit and to make some sport even if it is going running with my kids or with our dog or doing something to give me healthy. And then at the same time, also the decay time to other things, you know some of your hobbies, your passion, something that you can do at home. And in my case, normally something that you are working with your hands, something that is not only mentally, something that will keep you busy in another kind of discipline. So I will tell you that great news beings and sharing a little bit of privacy with the audience is that my cholesterol level went down dramatically. I’ve been eating healthy in my house for almost one year, no longer restaurant meals with customers or having lonely dinners in a hotel. So the great benefit of this is that my cholesterol is lower than ever.

Vince Menzione  23:17 

You know, it’s so true what you had to say. And by the way, it was great advice for our listeners and leaders in business should follow some advice and some of your suggestions here because I do think it’s important to allow people grace, right. I think I think a lot of us have learned like when it’s okay that the kids are in the room, the dog is barking, the interruptions, we the things that we wouldn’t have put up with we put up with very succinctly Now, during this time. some really great advice there. And then also just, you know, applying healthy habits, right, I think I mean, I’ll share this. I think in the beginning, I was ready to pick up a glass of wine every night. And now I’m at a much more healthy place because I need to be and I think we’re all following. We can use this time to help ourselves and to help each other. Yeah. So a key area of focus. We talked a little bit about this. We were we referenced it was partner to partner it’s a key area of focus for you and your team. Not everybody understands what that term is. And in full disclosure, I have worked with your team to coach partners on their journey. A lot of the large ISVs even midsize and smaller ISVs need help in terms of how they build out their own partner ecosystems. But for our listeners, can you share what Partner to Partner or P2P is and why it’s so important to the ultimate success of partners that work with Microsoft?

Carlos De Torres  24:42 

Thank you for the opportunity here Vince. So first of all partner to partner is the acronym from or p2p is the acronym for partner to partner Let me tell you a quick intro. I will make it really easy to understand for everybody. The first reality is a question of scale. The understanding That ISVs are mainly software companies that are selling their solutions and products into the market in the US according to the last resource on any studies and research, we have almost 170,000 of them, which is huge. It is a big ecosystem of companies of full size, multibillion-dollar revenue to the small software solution local that it is a smaller startup, and it is barely a one or two employees. And it’s almost starting from zero. So all that ecosystem is meant to be collaborating with Microsoft, it is meant to be the potential of becoming one of our partners, then in that level of scale. Of course, we have some limits, I don’t have enough PDM partner development monitors to be able to attend properly 160,000, even the call centers that we have, they don’t have the capacity to attend everybody at the level that we have. So sometimes one of the ways of scaling and helping the partners to develop and grow is to connect those partners with each other because many times, the partners can help each other generating new revenue or new business together, sharing the solutions selling into each other, or having that long ecosystem between you and me when you have a really long tail of partners, you can also have that potential of having them collaborating and going to market together or providing a solution to each other. And also some of our big solution partners, the global ISVs that we call have those smaller companies solver companies within the customer base. So one of our keys is to leverage our potential managing a huge partner ecosystem to try to foster relationships made and collaborate with each other. And not only selling together with the Microsoft sales forces also selling together between them and going after some of the other markets that we don’t attend directly or some of the other opportunities that they can be even more agile and provide a solution faster. And so we are always facilitating the relationship between partners, giving them the right ecosystem, the right billing systems, the right it technical environment, so they can collaborate and build solutions and trying to develop those joint solutions. It is a problem that we created in Microsoft barely three years ago, and we are still taking off. But that is a good opportunity for us for interconnected partners of all these siblings and all sizes, you know, you

Vince Menzione  27:31 

bring up some really good points here around, First of all, the scale of partners is incredible. If I was in an Account Executive, I would be so overwhelmed with all these partners that think I’m the only one that can help them. And you know, I had Jay McBain on from Forrester just a few weeks ago, he’s sort of an expert in the channel. What he talked about is the five influencers sitting at the table. And what I gather from this too is partners need really need to build their own set of influencers. And what you’re helping them through P2P is to have those other relationships, those complimentary software relationships, those resell relationships, those influencer relationships. And you talked about this earlier, how can I help you grow your business that helped them grow their business?

Carlos De Torres  28:13 

Absolutely true. And I think that the era of having a partner only working together for growing your own revenue is over. It is the time to have in that relationship with a partner being involved in their business in their profitability and trying to help them to be what the market is going. And especially when we are in such an accelerated time, like we are now partners need help to be able to embrace all these changes and to redirect our company as soon as we cannot fully agree with that things.

Vince Menzione  28:47 

So what would you encourage your partners to do now better or differently than what they’ve done in the past?

Carlos De Torres  28:54 

Well, first of all, my first feeling, when I think about my partner’s, is to be grateful and is to be to him really appreciate their offer everything we are doing together at this time, the growth of the business and the things that we are doing together in simply outstanding when I think about what is next door dairy as the day that we could even improve better veins. I think that one of them is demanding more from Microsoft, I think they are in power. And we entitle them to ask for more and to ask for help and advice in the way they go to market to demand that we go and we Cosell together that they are able to ask us about how we can help them build the new technologies and embracing our technical expertise to provide resources people funding, you know, sandbox, test environments, etc. Where we can try to give them the right level of solutions so they can grow faster. So the first thing is that I am incredibly grateful. My second piece of advice or request is that they feel free to Push me, my team, and push Microsoft to continue on growing more, we are growing incredibly well. And you saw that how we communicated results that about the last quarter a few days ago. But believe me, I think we can do even better with our partners, and they have to continue pushing us. And the last one is, let’s go together after any opportunity that we have in front. And if you are not in the partner ecosystem at this time, or you’re not being attended, raise your hand, contact me contact anybody, my team to tell, hey, I’m a small company, based in whatever state in the US trying to develop the solution to go into the market, I need help from you. And we are therefore our partners, and we are willing to collaborate. So everything that I can ask is, first of all, I’m grateful. The second thing push me more. Third thing, if you are not on my radar, Mr. partner, call me text me, I am me, find a way of contacting me through LinkedIn, any process, and we’ll start taking care of you.

Vince Menzione  31:02 

I love those three points. I especially like the fact that partners need to push a little harder. I think partners tend to take the status quo, and maybe don’t, I say are not as aggressive, aggressive, in a good way, working with Microsoft, I’d love what you had to say around those three points, Carlos. So, Carlos, I’d like to pivot for a moment, if you don’t mind, you might know. I’m fascinated by the personal and professional journey of each of my guests. And I’m a student of high performance. And I’d love to share the journey and how you got to this particular spot in your life with our listeners. So if you don’t mind, would you share with us a little bit about that journey to Vice President of Partner Development at Microsoft.

Carlos De Torres  31:48  

As I mentioned in the intro, I’ve been here 10 years in the company 10 years, this is my my fourth country and my fifth role in in those 10 years. So so we have been moving quite a lot. And honestly, I’m super grateful personally, because all the opportunities have been given by the company to grow and develop. As I told my team, I’m not an expert in ISVs, the same way that I was not an expert on devices. When I when I had my prior role for North America, what I tried to be good at is to build in and you mentioned in your question, those high performance teams, building the communication, the empathy, the logic, about how to create a team that can collaborate together and be really, really high performance. and with a high level of productivity, then of course, you embrace the technology and all the specifics of each role, and you need to learn and study. But in my case, the journey has always been a development journey, trying to learn new things, trying to make myself useful for the company, every time. Every time I had a conversation with our top senior leaders I I tell him, I really believe that things are my company asset, I am willing to help. I am willing to collaborate. So these are my capabilities where I can be more useful. What kind of business? What do you need me, you need me to take something that is growing at 50% and make it grow at 70% or you making me are you need me to get something that is declining and bringing it back to growth, or you need me to optimize, and then try to grow or try to make more better performance, that organization. So my journey has always been different roles and positions in different geographies. And honestly, I’m super privileged of working in a company like Microsoft that gave me that opportunity. But yeah, in the journey just for curiosity, I started working in, in Microsoft, in Madrid, in Spain, where I’m from, and then has been moving in different roles and leave some time in London in the UK, more than three years in Toronto in Canada, and the last five and a half in in Seattle in the US. We’re where I came in, in 2015. So yeah, it has been quite a journey been, I gotta tell you,

Vince Menzione  34:06 

it sounds like a great journey. And you know, you talk you touched on a mindset. And you know, you talked about asking, Where can I help? Where did you get that mindset? Was there a specific point in your life or your career that led you that way? Or was that instilled in you from an early age?

Carlos De Torres  34:22 

I think it’s a good question. Honestly, when when we spoke I never share with you so that the interesting thing to me is that when I was a teenager in the early 90s You know, my father I think we commented in the intro, my father is still alive. He’s 92 now and the interesting thing is that my father gave me a leadership book. Can you imagine being a leader in 1990?

Vince Menzione  34:48 

Even back then? That’s amazing.

Carlos De Torres  34:52 

It was written by James Hunter, and it was called Servant Leadership and honestly with you when you are given this gift when you’re 17 and your father comes to you and your Christmas present is a leadership book or in your high school. But uh, you know, he made him, he made the same present to all my brothers and sisters. And you know, I ready the ladies have parted ways, completely act well and completely activities are pretty lightweight. And that will tell you I impacted me because I realized that for becoming a good leader, the first thing that you need to ask and you need to think about is how you’re serving the community and how you’re serving the people you’re working with. And sometimes it’s not about you and your growth and your development is how you can help others and use your privileged position to help others to grow. So honestly, some of the origins of those values and I always had the impression, it came from that a 17-year-old kid getting a book as a Christmas gift from your father and reading it because you know what I thought, Okay, I’m going to read this, it must be interesting. I think that since then probably I have made it our gift. I don’t know a few hundreds of those books to many of my teams, and trying to share with them what I learned as a worker, but that is the reason Vince to be fully transparent with you.

Vince Menzione  36:11 

That’s amazing. So it’s the Servant Leadership by James C Hunter, we’re going to put a link to that book in our show notes. And we didn’t even know about this when we started the conversation. But I love to hear about great books that you’ve gifted to others. And I’d love to share that information with our listeners. So that’s terrific. So, Carlos, we talked a little bit about this journey. But you know, I want to come back to the fact that work brought you to the United States. You know, we’ve talked with other guests on this podcast about overcoming barriers that they need to overcome coming to the United States or just being from a certain race or classified group, what did you need to overcome as a Latin male and what was and still is a white male-dominated industry?

Carlos De Torres  36:59 

Well, for me was a big learning. And then honestly, because when you grew up in, in your country, of course, you are never on or you’re not that frequently a minority in many cases, because you are used to the environment, before going to the Latino and Hispanic approach beings. You know, the big transformation is how you have to embrace a new culture, a new way of being a new society, and your way of working. So of course, they did the first challenge. And believe me, five years in the US and almost nine in North America, languages is still a challenge, you know, and thank you for, for not telling me I have quite an action. And I know it. And you know, doesn’t matter how hard you try, you always have an accent. And the language is always a challenge. That is the first one. The second one is the way that we make business is different in each country, the way that you communicate is different in each country, the way that you have relationships and all the cultural background that you have is different in each country. And that is something that you can use different approaches when you come to a new society or a new area that you can try to, you know, to work and live mainly with the people from your own culture. Or you can try to embrace this situation and learn me and my family, we went to the second option, we went to the way of completely embracing and you know, our friends in the US are most of them local. And honestly, we embrace all the culture and all the activities and everything that you do also be in Latin, I can tell you that the first name, language is an issue because I continue speaking Spanish at home because I want my kids to keep the second language and keep it alive. So that is one of the few ways is to speak in that language in our household. But one of the other things is that you need to learn and to understand, which are all the cultural differences. And yes, you’re right. But I’m super privileged, in this case to VMs, where Microsoft has made a huge effort in both diversity and inclusion, the way that we have embraced different cultures, and the way that we have been pushing ourselves to try to forget all those unconscious biases that we have, every time that you speak, and every time you establish any relationship. So of course has been challenging. Of course, you sometimes get that kind of pushback or in your thought, Okay, why? Why do you need to have a vice president in the US which is not from the US why we are having those situations that unfortunately, we read in the news, and we watch on TV, and we are leaving all those situations in the country. So I can tell you I feel really privileged about how Microsoft has to step up and has given us the room to be ourselves. Each of us doesn’t matter your identity, on gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. but also giving you the opportunity to be yourself and to bring the best of yourself Every day to the company. So between your meetings has been a journey, in this case, two is learning. I’m learning a lot about the American culture during these years, and all the background on the past. But in my personal case, it has been challenging, mainly because I told you the way that you speak, the way that you make decisions, the way that you establish some relationships in the business environment are slightly different. And you need to adapt, and you need to be vocal and share with it until you know what this is the way that I do things. And be very clear with everybody about what is the expectation and the way that you operate. I’ve never had any kind of big problem situation or drama beings. I’m incredibly grateful for the level of education in this country that I have seen all across the board. But at the same time, I fully acknowledge and understand that those differences are there and are real, my personal attitude, embrace them, and use them to make a positive impact. You and I are potentially very different in many things, not because we disagree now because then we have a much wider spectrum of opinions and perceptions about the same problems. And if you and I are able to share in an educated in a polite way, unconstructive way, then the allyship, it is incredibly powerful. So I don’t know things that are a little bit of my take to my only five years of experience here.

Vince Menzione  41:23 

I love that perspective that you’ve shared. I really do. And I’m just wondering if there was any, was there a mentor or a piece of advice that you got along the way from maybe from the first move from Madrid to I know you did UK and then Toronto, and then the United States? Was there any great piece of advice or mentor that took you under your wing? Or was this also something that maybe was ingrained in you from an early age?

Carlos De Torres  41:49 

Well, I will, I will share with you, a couple of them really practical, okay, that I was given in the company and in the personal life. So the first learning for me is that you get to embrace the culture, you get to go there and you know, try to gain the respect not because you are the new GM, the new VP, or the new corporate VP in the company or their new car, I gained the respect because you understand the local perspective, and you understand all the local situations, and you are a breach of fresher and you are helping to understand new ways of making the business. The second one I apply. I applied my principle that I told you a few minutes ago, you’re helping have a helping attitude, be a real servant until in every conversation, hey, is there anything they can do for helping you and be real and be authentic and trying to help them? And then, of course, one very simple piece of advice that my first corporate VP, when I wrote it, it gave me is that hey, Carlos, my advice is that always decide if you’re changing countries, or you’re changing roles, but never ever in your life, change both things at the same time. So you’re coming from a specific business in the partner ecosystem, try to make the same business in another country better. One good advice was to try never to change your role and the country kilter local that you are working on at the same time because that will be pretty difficult. So those were my two learnings being seen in those field relocations. And I’ve tried to Horner and follow them because it helped me to make my life a little bit easier.

Vince Menzione  43:22 

Yeah, it sounds like great advice. And I’m going to pivot here for a second because I also know I wanna have a little fun with you because I know that you have a love for fast cars, and I thought it’d be kind of fun for you to share a little bit about this hobby that you have.

Carlos De Torres  43:37 

Well, I love old cars. Okay, I love fast but I love all of them. It’s a no Hi. I think it comes from when I was a little kid. And you know when I was really young. I think that everybody both my parents and my godfather and godmother and family always given me these small toy cars, you know, something like these hot wheels that my kids used to have a few years later but the funny thing is that in my time they used to be moral of existing cars so no fantasy cars, it was moral. So I have a huge collection probably more than two or 300 so as we’re always in my life, then I was lucky because I learned to drive when I was 10 Okay, so I learned how to drive in a closed environment in a circuit of course, but I learned to drive when I was 10. So I always love cars. And then between you and me, I am super lucky too because my wife is a big car lover. So to have some fun events. I’ve been married almost 22 years and a few months ago we just bought our 39 car in 22 years 39

Vince Menzione  44:43 

car

Carlos De Torres  44:44 

39 car 22 years Okay, so Wow.

Vince Menzione  44:48 

You are lucky Do you have a wife that let you do that?

Carlos De Torres  44:50 

I don’t know if it is a hobby or it is becoming an illness. I have never really worked one of the two heavy ins but now I love them and I love to work in them. They love to enjoy them and make some modifications or simply tune them up and it is fun because both my kids have the same passion. And you know, we have a little bit of our workbench in our garage. And every time I go there they are they’re trying to look around things. So yeah, I’m a little bit of a fanatic on these things and you know all experience driving, tuning, repairing and buying and selling so so it is a kind of a 360-degree problem. That is cool.

Vince Menzione  45:29 

What do you have a favorite make and model?

Carlos De Torres  45:31 

I love German cars. They are great and of those ages. But I will not surprise you that one of the top cars on my scale is a Porsche 911 is one of the cars that is not comfortable necessarily. It is not perfect, but it is it is the ultimate driving machine for me.

Vince Menzione  45:51 

And it’s a beautiful vehicle as well.

Carlos De Torres 45:53 

Yes, sir.

Vince Menzione  45:53 

Beautiful design. So I am very interested in what you would do if you were hosting a dinner party. And we can discuss venues in a moment. And hopefully, this is at a point when you know, we all can get together maybe without masks or social distancing. But what if you could invite any three guests from the present or the past to attend this dinner party? Whom would you invite, and why?

Carlos De Torres  46:19 

Well, you caught me off guard. First of all, I feel I don’t need to, I don’t even want I need a full week, I need a full serious I don’t know if I can make anyone and only with three. But you know thinking aloud I say we mentioned a few minutes ago, I would love to have the perspective of you know, the spiritual side of life. So I would love to get some feedback and insights from them from some of the spiritual leaders in this country or in in the general kilter is probably my my my first peek. And I will give you two options probably for each seat because I don’t know if we will be able to make coordination agenda for everybody in the same night. But I will give you two options for each seat. So the first one probably should be, I would love to meet a legion, MLK Jr. Or Martin Luther King, or in the same or in the same frequency. If you want to tell it that way. I would love to have the pope john paul, the second, I grew up listening to him. And on a personal level, I’m Catholic. And you know, I think it was one of those leaders that had a very different approach. And he made his sound, small revolution in the way in the way of thinking of the Catholic Church more than 20 years ago. So So those should be probably my first sheets would be MLK or john paul the second or hopefully both, both of them. I’m second seat. Vince, I would love to have someone in the creative space, I love. I truly think and love that doesn’t matter how good you are in business or in science or in technology, you need to have your creative side. And you know that the more experience I get, the more I respect the artist, everybody that is able to dedicate their life to generate art and creativity, it is something that I truly respect. So probably fashion. gov if you think about I don’t know, Leonardo, or even, you know, some of the, of the big figures that make big progress in very challenging times. For example, Marie Curie, probably one of the first scientific women that make huge progress in our science in completely challenging times. That should be awesome. And, and the third one is ECB. I would love to invite for dinner to my mother. She passed almost 15 years ago. And you know, I could never share many of the things that I made as an adult with her. And I would love to have her with us that night. And by the way, she should enjoy the conversation with the bulk of MLK, or Marie Curie or Leonardo, she would enjoy the conversation too. So those should be my three weeks.

Vince Menzione  48:59 

It sounds like a great day. I think it should just have them all. I’m okay. I’m okay with more guests. I’m an abundance mentality type of person being of Italian descent, you know, I think about big meals and lots of people having fun together. So this is a great dinner, Carlos, and thank you for sharing that. And you know, you had been an amazing guest. I have so enjoyed our conversation today. I’m so enthusiastic about what you’re doing and what you’re bringing to this organization. Do you have any closing comments or advice for our listeners on how they continue their succeess working with you and your organization this year?

Carlos De Torres  49:34 

Well, absolutely. As I say, as I mentioned before, continue pushing and continue pushing hard to grow your own business as a partner to grow your own company to embrace the new technologies to embrace every new opportunity. And then at the same time, ask for help. We are here to help. We are true believers in partnering and working together in order to make the progress and then on the personal side. Please, everybody in the audience today, take care of yourself. Things are still I mean, this is not over yet, we got to be careful. You know, unfortunately, we still see many cases happening and you know, has been a big drama for all of us. Please continue trying to stay healthy, stay safe. And I’m super sure that we are a few months away, or being completely over. But please take care of your loved ones. And try to keep the things running and moving and count on Microsoft and count on me if we can help. Anyhow, those are my closing comments. Vince

Vince Menzione  50:35 

Carlos. That’s great advice for our listeners. Thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for being so generous with your time on Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

Carlos De Torres  50:43 

Thank you so much. And congratulations again for all the series beings and hey, happy to talk to you, and I’m here for you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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