One Take with Leopoldo Garcia

👉 The Scoop – Twenty years ago, Leo –as he is known—left a stellar career in Venezuela’s Radio Caracas Television to start from scratch in the U.S. After what he describes as a humbling experience with local media in Miami, he was recruited by HBO to run its ad-supported network in Latin America and, later, Extreme Bridge. Leo helped build HBO’s Cinemax into a $50 million, 18-country success.

👉 Decisive Moment #1 – Left Venezuela for the U.S.

👉 Decisive Moment #2 – Was recruited by HBO Group for Latin America

👉 Unexpected change or event – The tectonic changes that took the industry from television through cable, streaming, FASTV to web-based video (like YouTube)

👉 What did they do? – This is probably one of the biggest challenges that I have to confront. The hypergranular data, and metrics that we need to offer to brands and audiences to be able to create a match, to be able to create an engagement between them. This is one of the challenges that makes me to go from media to understanding that now we are in the world of ad tech. We have an ecosystem of advertising. We have an ecosystem of media that is supported by technology. And that's where I am right now.

👉 About older workers – “The scar tissue, that's the way that I call it, scar tissue.”  If you are the CEO, I'm happy that you're having young people. But in order for them to succeed, you need to have a combination. You need to have a balance of people who really know how to handle complex situations, how to navigate hard rooms, how to close deals and how to make them better. Because they're going to make me better too. So that's for me the perfect balance.