WTC : 004 – Strategic Planning & Mentorship For Career and Entrepreneurship

In this episode of the Wartime CEO Podcast, Henry Hernandez joins the show to share how challenges and obstacles create opportunities for a better future and how to stay motivated after rejection. Henry is a former CIA Intelligence Officer and has corporate experience as a VP and Chief Diversity Officer for companies such as SAIC, American Express, and Pitney Bowes. He has served as a senior management consultant advising small businesses and corporate business startups. He is also the co-founder of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs which is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the Hispanic community to achieve their full educational, economic, and social potential.

Henry’s corporate journey

[1:45] I thought I was going to be in the Air Force because I wanted to be a fighter pilot. In high school, I started researching what I needed to do and I applied to get an appointment to the Air Force Academy. I failed the physical exam because I had a history of asthma as a kid. One of my high school advisers told me that I could still move forward to study and become a mechanical engineer and pursue my passion.

[2:56] Later, I decided I wanted to go to graduate business school early and study for my engineering degree. It took about 5 years after I graduated as an undergrad and that’s when I started developing that passion for graduate business schools and seeing more diversity in the workplace. And then from there, it just took off.

[3:41] I’ve always had an interest in military. I didn’t know much about the intelligence community but I had a friend who applied and he gave me their contact information. The next thing I know, I’m flying to DC to get interviewed. Three months later, I’m stepping in through the portal of the interests of the CIA.

Being Rejected

[4:24] The good news was that my dad continued to support me said that maybe I can get into Air Force ROTC. I started going down that path and took the exam for Air Force ROTC, but got rejected again because of my history with asthma. But that’s just one stumbling block so I looked for something else that I can do and that’s when continuing and pursuing a mechanical engineering degree got me energized and focused.

[5:39] I didn’t look at any of the things that were going to stop me. I just saw them as challenges. Just tackle them head on was what my family encouraged me to do and even to this day, I still kind of see the same thing.

From the CIA to the Corporate World

[7:46] I didn’t really understand the ramifications of me being a CIA intelligence analyst until I went to graduate Business School. It was when I was in graduate business school that I started realizing that all the training and some of the things that I had to do as an analyst actually helped me in being successful in graduate business school.

[8:49] My experience as a CIA Intelligence Office in my presentation as a MBA Candidate at UCLA. Some of my courses required a lot of analysis. I looked at things in a very different way than sort of the typical MBA. I looked at it from a geopolitical perspective, a threat perspective, and from a risk perspective.

[11:05] To this day, I look at things from a threat perspective whether it’s something happening in the geopolitical world, something happening here, or just simple things. And that’s really helped me a lot, not only in my work, in my education, but also in my daily life.

Applying his experience to entrepreneurship

[12:08] The agency experience helped a lot in terms of my way of thinking. But I think, getting my MBA, majoring in finance. Because of my engineering degree, I learned to think systematically. We look at things very holistically and to do that you have to look at things from a strategic perspective. You can’t look at everything from a tactical perspective.

How the average person can develop strategic thinking

[13:51] One thing about being in business is that not everybody thinks the same way. You have some very linear thinkers and some that are very nonlinear and some people can be very analytical and look at the numbers.

[14:13] If you think you’re not strong in a particular area, develop a mentorship or an advisor in that space that fills that gap. When you feel that you don’t have the skill sets, that’s where you build that cadre of either informal or formal advisors to provide those inputs in that content to strengthen what you’re attempting to do.

Choosing a Mentor

[15:04] It’s more of an art than it is a science because I think mentoring initiatives try to be too systematic. That really doesn’t work because 90% of it is probably chemistry.

[15:38] Start identifying individuals that may not necessarily think like you, but actually think more differently than you.

[17:49] It’s probably more relationship-based and eventually finding someone that you’re comfortable with. Find somebody who sees value in you, that they want to invest that time with you.

[18:27] There is a difference between someone that’s providing mentoring and somebody that’s providing coaching.

Deciding where you want to put your heart into

[20:17] I never saw myself in a sea-level type of role especially coming out from an engineering program and then eventually ending up in an MBA program. I think opportunities present themselves and you’ve got to decide whether it’s something you want to take. It’s part of that risk management.

[20:46] It’s just a matter of making choices that are going to be strategic to some degree. You don’t necessarily see the payback until maybe later on.

[21:34] It’s very difficult to accept when you realize that the business you’re managing isn’t the one you want to. That is a very difficult thing. A lot of people will continue in their career path or keep managing a business where their heart is not in it which is not good. That’s a recipe for failure.

Education and Mentorship

[23:27] The foundational education that someone gets is just a starting point. If someone really wants to advance and continue, it doesn’t matter what discipline. Getting a master’s degree is probably the most important.

[24:00] A lot of it just depends on what direction or what broad career path they want to take.

[26:21] Someone that’s in high school, in particular, really needs to pay attention and listen to their guidance counselor.

[27:00] It’s good if they have someone on the outside as a mentor or someone that they can actually talk to and ask about a certain career is because they may not have the basic knowledge about that.

[28:33] It’s about doing your research, your homework, interacting with people just so you can understand what that job is or what does it mean to do this.

Finding information

[29:01] If they don’t have the resources within a school or those resources are stretched really thin. Then the question that an individual can ask is, where are there some nonprofit organizations or other organizations that are out there that can help provide information about career paths or education?

Power of LinkedIn

[30:40] LinkedIn has become a really good platform. The platform is all about networking and finding people that are in particular industries, functions, and organizations.

How people can find the right individuals for growth and development

[33:32] It’s more of a multiple, sort of resource that you’re going to be targeting. One would be a chamber of commerce.

[34:03] The other is to interact in professional networks, especially those that are more focused on business.

[34:30] It depends on what your interests are and the type of business you have. Some of the best lessons you’re going to learn are from other small business owners. Don’t reinvent the wheel and avoid making the same mistakes that they did.

Climbing the Corporate Ladder

[36:40] In a corporate environment, it’s no longer linear the way it used to be. If you used to be a very linear process. Today’s corporate environment is extremely nonlinear

What Henry has learned throughout his career

[40:32] If there’s one thing I learned, is that crisis management is crisis management and it doesn’t matter where you are.

[41:11] One thing that I think a lot of particular business professionals are not very well trained for is how to manage a crisis.

[43:44] Even though you may not have experience in managing a crisis, you still may get thrown into the breach to do it.

Facing challenges

[45:32] The thing that I didn’t think about when I invited those three when we founded NSHMBA was that I invited three entrepreneurs into my home to talk about the concept of launching or founding a Hispanic can be a group and when we walked through the process. Each of them said that it could work be we needed to test it.

[46:33] We needed to find other individuals that are willing to do what we’re interested in and see what is the likelihood of this even getting launched.

[46:51] Due to the technology at the time, we needed to talk with individuals face-to-face because there was no internet. All the networking relied on meeting with them and talking to them personally.

[48:06] Launching an organization without any real resources. Just the intent, passion, and the energy putting in the work and get it off the ground. We went from concept to launch in nine months.

What Henry is doing now

[48:29] I work in a nonprofit organization. I work for Melwood, an organization and we provide career opportunities, advocacy, training, for people with different abilities, and people with disabilities and I’m on the business development team. We do that through our business support services whether it’s in facilities management, landscaping, custodial services, document management, warehousing, fulfillment, and mailing.

Advice for the Listeners

[49:32] Ask questions. There are no dumb questions. Don’t be afraid. Don’t hold back. Don’t be embarrassed to look like you don’t know something because the rest of the people in the room might be listening and may not know either and now you’re the first one to ask. You have to be bold. You have to be brash sometimes and it’s all part of the learning. experience.

Key Quotes:

[6:03-6:06] “They’re just new challenges, how you deal with them is up to you.”

[7:13-7:22] “Challenges are always going to be in your way and it doesn’t matter. Just keep pushing forward, move on to the next thing, and  figure out a way it’ll happen.”

[22:03-22:09] “It’s really important to kind of disqualify things that you don’t have a passion for.”

[44:18-44:23] “You have to be prepared for life’s battles because you never know what life is gonna throw at you.”