Carmen Mur (PMD 89), Executive Chairwoman and CEO of Manpower Spain, led the latest session of the "Women and Leadership" forum, jointly organised by ESADE Alumni and Banco Sabadell in Barcelona.
To start her talk Ms. Mur detailed her career, which began at the age of just sixteen and initially involved administrative positions in several different companies. "My parents", she said, "encouraged me to change jobs and companies regularly, because that would let me gain a greater variety of knowledge and professional experience".
In 1977, after forming part of the team of a secretary training school, she detected a niche in the recruitment market and decided to create her first human resource selection agency. This was the beginning of her career in the industry, which took a major leap in 1987 when, after several years in contact, Manpower acquired a share package in her company.
Ms. Mur then analysed the major changes that have happened throughout these years in both the labour market and the macroeconomic climate, and recalled that relatively few years ago "just before the crisis broke out, it was practically impossible to find workers in our country for any industry".
As she added, "the situation has changed now, and just as back then we had no problem in adapting to our better lifestyles, now we have to adapt to the climate and overhaul some of the traits of our labour market, such as our reluctance to relocate geographically or change functions". Nevertheless, she added, "there's no shed of doubt that, sooner or later, we will get over this".
"Companies like ours that specialise in human resources", she vouched, "detect the arrival of an economic crisis before anyone else does". "Likewise", she added, "we will also be the first to detect the start of any recovery. Early last year, we witnessed a series of indicators that seemed to suggest that reactivation was around the corner. However, unfortunately that was a passing phenomenon. Today there is nothing to prove that the end of the crisis is near".
Employment reform and encouraging versatility
Ms. Mur believes that we need more flexibility, so it is important that employment reform is applied. "Beforehand, though, this country needs to get back on its feet in order to regain confidence", she highlighted. One of the key factors for her is to encourage employee versatility.
In a context where the unemployment rate is one of our country's most latent concerns, the role of recruitment companies gains particular importance. Even so, Ms. Mur stressed that "the role of these agencies is not to substitute, but to work alongside the government to help people in their search for employment".
Programme:
Carmen Mur (PMD 89), Executive Chairwoman and CEO of ManpowerGroup Spain, will feature this session of Women and Leadership Forum titled "Work and its social implications".
A Pioneer in human resources in Spain, she will review the professional career that has allowed her to witness at first hand all the changes that have taken place in the world of work over the last forty years. From her initial experience working in an unregulated market, and followed by the authorisation of temporary employment agencies and the development of global human resources providers, up until the recent creation of recruitment agencies as a key tool for Spain, a country with some of the highest unemployment figures.
All of this without overlooking other social changes that have occurred in the world of work and business, such as the mass incorporation of women into the job market, immigration, the rise of social networks and the disappearance of frontiers between countries, as well as the globalisation of supply and demand.
Welcome and closing: Conxa Oliu (CdG 87 / PMD 89), director of Colectivos, Banca Asociada y Red de Agentes of Banco Sabadell
Introduces and moderates: Xavier Sanchez (Lic&MBA 97 / SEP 08), director of ESADE Alumni
Talk: Carmen Mur (PMD 89), Executive Chairwoman and CEO of ManpowerGroup Spain
Carmen Mur
Born in Barcelona on 28th July 1947, Carmen Mur has been Chief Executive Officer of ManpowerGroup in Spain since 1988. In early 2009, she was appointed Executive Chairwoman of the company. She is a graduate in Business Administration and Management and Services Marketing from ESADE, and has studied executive leadership programmes at INSEAD. Her career has always been linked to temporary employment and services outsourcing for companies. In 1977, Ms. Mur set up Bacosa, where besides employee recruitment she collaborated with companies in peak workload management, a clear precedent to temporary employment. In 1981, she launched another company, Teacher’s Group, designed to broaden the services offered by Bacosa by outsourcing to companies. Between 1983 and 1987, she studied temporary employment in Europe and sought out opportunities to develop this business in Spain. In January 1988, Manpower, one of the world's top human resources companies, acquired shares in Teacher's Group and Ms. Mur was appointed CEO of Manpower in Spain. Back then, the company had four offices here and focussed on services for companies. As the years have gone by, Manpower has become a global HR provider, adapted to candidates' and companies' needs, and now provides all-round solutions through its different lines of business. Manpower today has over 130 offices spread across Spain and more than 650 employees, offering its clients a range of services encompassing the entire employment cycle. In early 2011, Manpower created the ManpowerGroup brand to include all its talent strategy solutions and services.
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