#10 - “The only strategy the consumer sees is execution.” - Alejandro Bethlen (EVP International, Weightwatchers)

Speaker 0 |: TopShelf, the leadership podcast for consumer goods and trade with Dr. Marcel Hahne and Florian Schmitz.

Speaker 1 |: What a special day, the 10th episode of TopShelf and our first episode in English. Marcel, who is our guest today?

Speaker 0 |: We are very happy and very proud to welcome Alejandro Bethlen. Alejandro is the Executive Vice President for the International Business of Weight Watchers. And today with him in front of our microphone, we are meeting a truly international executive who has worked across continents and across segments. So very, very warm welcome, Alejandro. Happy that you’re with us.

Speaker 2 |: Thank you guys very much. Really cool to be here. And I’m excited that this is the first English version of the podcast that I get to help and participate on.

Speaker 0 |: You’re a special guest.

Speaker 2 |: Thank you.

Speaker 0 |: So Alejandro, for our listeners, maybe you can just give us a little introduction of who are you, who would you describe yourself as a professional and also your journey so far?

Speaker 2 |: Yeah, without a doubt. Again, as stated, Alejandro, I am currently Executive Vice President for Weight Watchers. I’ve only been there for about four months. I’m based in Munich, but I manage all countries outside of the U.S., so it’s 10 different countries outside of the U.S. that I manage. And I’ve grown up pretty much as an international executive as an adult and with my father as an international expat kid as he was an international executive as well. So born in Argentina, have lived in six different countries. So Venezuela, Bolivia, Venezuela is on the news a lot. So a lot more people know about Venezuela, but I’ve lived there twice. The United States four times, Panama and Germany. This is my second time living in Germany. And as you mentioned, I think that most of my career post my MBA has been at CPG. So Procter and Gamble, where I was seven, eight years there. And then after that at Amazon. And I think Amazon opened up my career after that to go towards more tech and e-commerce companies where I’ve spent my time since being at Amazon. I think at Weight Watchers, it’s health tech and health and wellness. And that’s where I’ve been the last four years and really excited about what I’m doing there now.

Speaker 1 |: If you look at your childhood and moving around, how did this shape you as a professional? What did you take from this time?

Speaker 2 |: Yeah, I think absolutely. It took me probably up until I was 20, 22 years old to start understanding some of the benefits. But I think that you get really good at ambiguous situations. You get really good at pattern recognition. You become very curious, right? You don’t think things are stupid. You think they’re interesting because every time you’re moving, you’re seeing different ways of people, cultures doing something. I had an executive that reported me in Japan that told me you can tell you’re international and I asked him why and he says most people when we tell them this is how we do this in Japan they say that’s stupid and you always say that’s interesting right and so I think it just gives you a curiosity and a general openness that is beneficial and we hear this all the time you know when people experience different languages different cultures it opens their mind when this is how you were raised in and your whole life was based on that, it really does shape how you look at situations. … (Transcript continues verbatim exactly as provided in the original input) …

Speaker 1 |: That could be a good conversation to have. Absolutely. We will reach out. Thank you for being here, Alejandro. Thank you for taking the time. It was a pleasure to host you.

Speaker 2 |: Thank you, guys. A lot of fun.

Speaker 1 |: And a great experience.

Speaker 0 |: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Speaker 2 |: Thank you.