Entrepreneur, investor, and marketing wizard Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López has achieved remarkable success in global business, thanks to his unique approach to leadership.
While leadership has been a much-discussed topic in popular media and business schools — and among social media influencers — many of the so-called secrets to success are well-worn cliches that more directly address inner confidence or popularity than actual leadership.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López is different. As the president of the eyewear company Hawkers, leader of the investment group O’Hara Administration, founder of the ride-sharing service Auro Travel, and director of the energy outfit Pacific Exploration & Production Company, he’s found success in a wide scope of industries. Today, his net worth ranges well above $2.6 billion.
So, how did he accomplish this kind of success? He stuck close to a few well-honed principles: flexibility, adaptability, and innovation.
Insights From Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López
Flexibility
Businesses today need to be strong enough to bend without breaking when new challenges or opportunities present themselves. This is what Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López thinks about flexibility — it’s the ability to pivot quickly to respond to situational inconveniences or occasions.
“Everybody wants success. Everybody’s looking for success,” he said. “It’s a continuous pursuit of trying to achieve your different goals, which keep evolving. As long as you are in that race to continue to pursue them, you are on the road to being successful.”
Betancourt López not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. Note how Hawkers, a company known for its stylish yet affordable sunglasses, changed its output during the COVID-19 pandemic to address rapidly changing consumer preferences.
As president of Hawkers, Betancourt López has led the enterprise to meteoric success by investing heavily in social media marketing. By partnering with international sports stars and celebrity influencers, Hawkers became a symbol of cool that was also conveniently priced for younger shoppers. But when lockdowns forced people to stay inside, the demand for sunglasses plunged.
Instead of cutting jobs and trying to wait it out, Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt sprang into action. Realizing that consumers were suddenly spending more time in front of screens, thanks to Zoom meetings, virtual classrooms, and digital hangouts, Hawkers created a line of nonsunglasses eyewear that blocked harmful blue light from screens.
He explained, “We focused more on developing the eyewear part of it, and we tried to keep the revenue of the company, which was a big challenge, trying to develop new products that would adapt to people not going outdoors and using eyewear for their computers, and stay more at home.”
This flexibility allowed Hawkers to maintain its net worth and market share during a time when many of its competitors were struggling to stay relevant.
Adaptability
Although many use the terms interchangeably, flexibility and adaptability are completely different concepts, according to Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López.
Flexibility concerns short-term agility and the ability to respond effectively to new information. Adaptability is the ability to change over long periods of time, adjusting to consumers’ preferences that slowly bubble to the surface.
Betancourt’s ability to influence his companies toward adaptability is evident in Hawkers’ recent line of environmentally friendly sunglasses. The H20 models are not only stylish, but are made from plastic and materials harvested from trash in the ocean. Best of all, the glasses are completely biodegradable. This responds to long-simmering consumer concerns about the environmental impact of their purchases.
Just as impressive was Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López’s long-term plans for Auro Travel. Spanish regulations demand that every ride-share car acquire a license to operate within the country. These licenses are limited and in heavy demand.
“We had the view or the vision before it happened in Spain and we acquired these licenses before the market consolidated, and that gave us a differentiation from competitors because they had to arrive, and then the cost of entry or the barriers of entry were much higher for them because they were late in the game,” Betancourt López explained.
“So that’s what gave us the footing. And then to go on a step further on that, we built infrastructure, we formed the people that were the drivers. We created a kind of an ecosystem around the service providers that put us in a very, very differentiated position.”
Innovation
While every influencer and self-help guru will take pains to define specific leadership traits, authentic leadership has a clear and straightforward definition. It’s the art of achieving goals by directing others. And the only way to attain never-before-realized aims is to act innovatively, Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López said.
That can mean creating new ways of reaching customers, as he did during the pandemic. It could mean finding new avenues for growth and relevance, as he did with eco-friendly eyewear and ride-sharing. Or it could mean pursuing a sound investment strategy that relies on analyzing executive teams as much as business plans, the way he does at O’Hara Administration.
“If you want to be substantial and make an impact on whatever you’re trying to transform or achieve, and it’s substantially significant, you’re going to need the right team,” Betancourt López said. “Even championship swimmers still have the right trainer, the right coach, the right instructors, even the right driver to get you where you’re going — it all matters.”
Across every industry and in every market, embracing innovation is a foundational concept for Betancourt López. It’s allowed him to reinvent companies and lead them to greater heights than even their most ardent supporters imagined. And it’s that aspect — the ability to inspire a great team — that is his most impressive feat.
“I believe in good leadership, but also, I believe in people,” he said. “If you don’t have the right team, you will not get anywhere.”
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