Luis Conde, CEO of Amrop Seeliger y Conde, at ESADE: "Challenges and failure are crucial for career success"

“Challenges and failure are crucial for career success.” This was the core concept of the talk by Luis Conde, CEO of Amrop Seeliger y Conde, at the recent Desayunos ESADE Alumni talk/discussion in Madrid entitled “Reflections of a headhunter”, chaired by Sergio Martin, deputy director of TVE news programmes and director of Canal 24 hours. The headhunter explained that his work involves three main phases: “The first is the ability to understand the customer’s real needs and values; the second is to have a good database; and the third is the ability to persuade the right candidates.”

The talent formula

“Having interviewed more than 20,000 people in the course of my career, I believe that talent is a combination of three factors: knowledge, values ​​and attitude”, said the Amrop Seeliger y Conde CEO. “In Spain today, as in other countries with developed economies, there are very few areas of knowledge that are not available to everyone”, he said. “So when I interview a candidate, I tend to assume that they don’t lie about their specialist skills. Instead, I look at other things: first I focus on their values ​​and whether they tally with those of my client,” said Conde, “I think that effort is the most important value, because with passion and effort you can make almost anything work out; then come values like responsibility, caring for the people around you, optimism, etc.” Secondly, he stressed how important it is to observe the candidate’s attitude during the interview: “For me, this is 80% of success.”


“In my interviews I usually also ask, ‘When in your career have you made a mistake?’ Candidates who say ‘never’ are ruled out”, admitted Conde, “because this answer suggests one of two things: either a lack of self-criticism or the chance that the first mistake will be with my client. People who make mistakes are ostracised in Spain, there’s no room for failure. However, without failure there can be no success, so a new mindset is needed because failure can help us grow”, said Conde.

The importance of the challenges in life

“My generation was born in the 1950s in Spain, shortly after Spain’s civil war and World War II. We grew up with the idea that we could achieve whatever we wanted, and although most of us had very few resources, we had plenty of ambition”, acknowledged the headhunter, emphasising that “challenges in life are essential.”
In this respect, Luis Conde revealed that “In my life, I have set myself and accomplished four major challenges so far. The first was to create Seelinger y Conde, without being a headhunter; the second was to sail across the Atlantic, without knowing how to sail; the third, to make wine, without being an expert in wines; and fourth, to direct the 2nd and 4th movements of Mahler's Second Symphony, without knowing about music.”

"When you set yourself a challenge, you plant a seed. What matters is the road from the seed to the fruit”, said Luis Conde. “To achieve this, first you must want to do it. Then, you must surround yourself with people who know, and put yourself in their hands. It always involves a learning process for values ​​such as humility, sacrifice or compromise.” He wound up his talk by saying, “In life, never look at the flag on the finishing line, just keep running to the end.”

Also taking part in the breakfast talk were Pedro Navarro, executive vice president of the ESADE Foundation board, and Maite Barrera, founding partner of Bluecap.