A brilliant strategy on paper is worth almost nothing to Alejandro Betancourt López. What he cares about is who’s going to run it, because in his experience the team decides the outcome long before the plan does.
The investor and Hawkers president has made that conviction the spine of how he builds and backs companies. It’s the same filter he applies when choosing where to put capital.
“The Right People Must Execute Great Ideas”
“The right people must execute great ideas to achieve their full potential,” he said, and he calls it a principle rather than a slogan. It has anchored every successful venture he has joined, from energy to fashion to finance.
Building teams across those very different sectors taught him the same thing each time: brilliant strategies mean nothing without the right people to bring them to life. The plan is only ever as good as the group executing it. Talent, in his math, is the multiplier on every idea, and a great one in weak hands rarely survives contact with the real world.
Teams Across Very Different Businesses
At Hawkers, he had an inventive digital marketing strategy, but it was the creative, passionate team he assembled that turned those ideas into a global phenomenon. The people made the difference, not the memo describing the approach.
The same lens guides his investing. Weighing opportunities like BDK Financial Group for African markets or Auro Travel in Spain, he looks past the business model to the people behind it. The human element is the real signal. Creativity, collaboration and leadership are what turn a decent idea into a strong company, and he’d rather read those qualities in a founder than pore over a spreadsheet.
Give the Existing Team Room
New leaders often feel pressure to make immediate changes to prove they’re in charge. He has learned that the more effective approach is to first understand what’s working, find the hidden strengths, and build on them rather than sweeping the room clean.
He backs that up with structure. Some of Hawkers’ best innovations came from empowering the existing team, and “innovation days” gave staff space to chase experimental projects, with junior members who were handed real responsibility going on to lead successful initiatives. Clear pathways for growth and open recognition of good work, in his experience, build the kind of loyalty that keeps a team pushing when things get hard.
