A business card opens a meeting.
A relationship opens a market.
For decades, organizations have invested billions in expansion strategies, market intelligence, and technology to help them grow across borders. Those investments matter, but they’re often mistaken for the real work. Markets aren’t built through spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations. They’re built through trust.
That lesson surfaced repeatedly during a recent conversation on the On the Right Stack podcast with Carmen Baez, the former president of DAS Latin America at Omnicom and founder of Puerto Rico for Puerto Rico. Over the course of a career spent expanding one of the world’s largest marketing communications organizations across Latin America, she discovered something that remains just as relevant in today’s AI-driven economy: leadership doesn’t scale because of process. It scales because leaders understand people.
There is no such thing as “the Latin American market”
Companies often talk about expanding into Latin America as though it’s a single destination.
It isn’t.
Mexico isn’t Brazil. Brazil isn’t Argentina. Each country has its own business culture, customer expectations, communication style, and pace of decision-making. Assuming otherwise is one of the fastest ways to undermine an expansion strategy before it begins.
Baez learned early in her career that success required far more than understanding the language. It required understanding the people. Business customs differed from country to country, and relationships often extended well beyond the office. Attending weddings, family celebrations, and community events wasn’t unusual—it was part of earning trust.
One lesson she remembers from Brazil captures that philosophy perfectly: jogo de cintura. Literally translated as “the play of the waist,” the phrase describes the ability to remain flexible, adapt to changing circumstances, and solve problems creatively.
That’s more than cultural advice.
It’s leadership advice.
Harvard Business Review has long emphasized that successful global leaders possess high levels of cultural intelligence (CQ)—the ability to recognize, understand, and adapt to different cultural norms without assuming their own approach is universally applicable. Organizations that cultivate these skills consistently perform better in global environments because they build trust before they attempt to scale.
Technology makes relationships more valuable—not less
One of the more surprising moments in the conversation came when Baez described how she would approach international expansion if she were starting today.
Despite advances in AI, digital collaboration, and market intelligence, her answer wasn’t to buy better software.
It was to get on a plane.
She described spending countless hours meeting entrepreneurs, asking questions, listening carefully, and allowing one conversation to lead to another. Every meeting produced introductions to five or ten more people. Eventually, those relationships revealed the right partners.
It’s an old-fashioned approach.
It’s also remarkably difficult to replace.
Video conferencing has made communication easier. Artificial intelligence has made research dramatically faster. Neither has eliminated the value of sitting across the table from another person, sharing a meal, or developing the kind of trust that simply can’t be accelerated through technology.
That idea is echoed in Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends research, which continues to identify human capabilities—including relationship-building, adaptability, and collaboration—as the differentiators organizations must strengthen as AI becomes more embedded in everyday work. Technology can enhance those capabilities, but it cannot replace them.
The best leaders never stop learning
Baez also offered a refreshingly balanced perspective on artificial intelligence.
She doesn’t dismiss it.
She doesn’t fear it.
Instead, she sees AI the same way she approached every major business shift throughout her career: something leaders have a responsibility to understand before asking others to embrace it.
Her instinct wasn’t that AI would replace people. It was that leaders needed to invest more heavily in training—both for themselves and for their organizations. Technology evolves too quickly for leadership to rely on assumptions or yesterday’s expertise.
That observation feels particularly timely.
Many organizations are racing to implement AI tools while spending far less time preparing employees to use them effectively. The technology may be new, but the leadership challenge isn’t. Every significant transformation requires learning before it requires execution.
McKinsey research reinforces this point. Organizations that consistently outperform their peers don’t simply adopt new technologies faster—they invest more aggressively in capability building, leadership development, and workforce skills that allow those technologies to create lasting business value.
Whether you’re running a business or a nonprofit, leadership is still leadership
Perhaps the most unexpected lesson from Baez’s career came after she retired.
Following Hurricane Maria, she helped establish Puerto Rico for Puerto Rico, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding communities across the island. At first glance, it seems like a completely different chapter from leading a global communications business.
In reality, the principles remained remarkably similar.
She argues that nonprofit organizations can’t rely solely on donations. They need sustainable revenue models. They need thoughtful investments. They need leaders who understand when to pursue growth and when to pause long enough to strengthen the foundation before taking the next leap.
Whether the mission is generating shareholder value or rebuilding communities, leadership still requires balancing ambition with stewardship.
People remain the investment that matters most.
Great leadership always comes back to people
Artificial intelligence will reshape industries. Automation will continue changing how work gets done. Global markets will become even more connected. None of it changes the foundation of effective leadership. The best leaders stay curious enough to ask questions before offering answers, flexible enough to adapt rather than impose, and confident enough to embrace new technology without forgetting that trust is still earned person by person.
That’s a lesson we’re reminded of constantly. Conversations like the one with Carmen are a privilege, a chance to learn from leaders who’ve built something real and are generous enough to share how they did it. And the relationships behind this work, with the clients and partners who trust us to help them grow, are the part we’re most grateful for. They aren’t a byproduct of the work. They’re the reason it matters.
Markets don’t grow because organizations become more efficient. They grow because people build relationships that make growth possible. We’re grateful for the ones we have, and always glad to meet others thinking about the same questions.