Written in partnership with DN News Desk
Photo Credit: Fito Salume
If you could bottle and brand the essence of what has made entrepreneur Fito Salume both a shrewd and successful businessman and large-hearted philanthropist, you would make a fortune. Yet, this world-class business leader from El Salvador who has become a citizen of the world now shares the secret to his success: empathy!
He is the owner of a portfolio of over 50 companies, the President of Alianza FC, and the founder of various charity organizations, and he attributes all of his successes to his ability to put himself in other people’s shoes and see things from their perspective.
“Learning to collect and gather information is essential for any business person,” explains Salume. “Reading people and identifying their fears, desires, frustrations, pains, problems, goals and motives is crucial, but to do this properly you have to see and feel things from their perspective, and that’s where empathy comes in to play as a force of its own.”
This empathy has earned Salume notable success as a turnaround specialist. He has companies operating in over 16 different countries including diverse sectors like banking, food processing, logistics, and more which have resulted in a large overall increase in profits.
Salume explained, “I approach business like I approach everything in life – with common sense. You’ll be surprised to discover how many people overcomplicate and analyze things when all you need is a common-sense approach. Solving problems and making the right decisions is usually straight-forward enough. You need to shift perspective, see things from the employer, employee, client’s view, and fix things with a little bit of good old-fashioned common sense.”
Salume has applied his simple, common-sense, results-driven approach to the tech, retail, hospitality, and banking industries. He admits that the nature of the business does not faze him because the rules of the game are always the same.
“A good company is defined by the individuals who work for it,” explains Salume. “If an employee fails, the first thing to ask is, ‘Did I train him properly? And how can I be a better leader?’ Again, you are using empathy and common sense to solve the issue at hand.”
As an individual who has numerous philanthropic pursuits and a boss renowned for going that extra mile for his employees, Salume is often described as a ‘man with a heart of gold.’ Modest, Fito Salume shrugs off such accolades and merely says, “I am simply doing what I was put here to do to the best of my abilities. If more people did what I do, the world would be a happier place.”
A Harvard College and Harvard Business School Graduate, Fito provides tremendous value to many around the world. He credits his success to the education he has received from the “School of Hard Knocks” which is the experience that he gained by working in hundreds of turnarounds in his 25+ year career.
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