THUOPER, Hogan’s Colombian distributor, embodies one of Hogan’s core values: developing future leaders. Ineffective leadership has plagued the global workforce for centuries, mostly because the characteristics that help people emerge as leaders are quite different from those that make an effective leader.

Of course, when leadership potential has been measured incorrectly for so long, there is no simple solution to fix the issue overnight. That’s why it has never been more important to look to the future and start exposing younger generations to the most accurate and effective tools for identifying effective leaders. 

In this edition of the Distributor Spotlight series, our friends at THUOPER provide us with an overview of an incredible program in which they are utilizing Hogan’s assessments for students who are selected to serve as CEO for a day.

One of the most common complaints against the education system of different countries is their apparent disconnection with the needs of companies. Generally, educational programs do not respond to organizational reality, and recent graduates find many difficulties when facing their first job.

The situation in Colombia is no different. Moreover, the lack of coordination and coherence between the academic world and the organizational world is worsening. Responding to this situation, THUOPER decided to take action on the matter. Since 2016 we have teamed up with CESA (College of Advanced Studies in Administration), a private university located in Bogotá that specializes in Business Administration, to create the CEOPPORTUNITY program.

As the name implies, CEOPPORTUNITY seeks to give students in their last few semesters of CESA the opportunity to live a day as a CEO. Each semester we match 10 of CESA’s best business students with 10 CEOs from some of the top companies in Colombia. Throughout this process students learn real business knowledge and are able to better understand the expectations of CEOs.

The program is highly selective, and students must endure an extensive application process due to there only being 10 placements per semester. The student must meet a semester grade requirement. Once this filter is done, THUOPER performs an assessment and interviews the students, where the aim is to show the alignment of their expectations with the objectives of the program and provide them with a first experience of an assessment center as well as a real-world interview.

The group of selected students is evaluated with a Hogan Flash Report and a Hogan Career Report. With this, we seek to equip them with perspective.  How they are perceived in the business world and, with that frame of reference, compare their profile to that of the leader with whom they will spend the day. They are given an opportunity to ask themselves: how do I see this leader? What do I see from their positive characteristics? What characteristics would I not want others to perceive in me? How could I have been perceived if I had gone through a similar situation?

At the end of the semester we hold a closing dinner attended by the 10 participating students with their CEO’s to discuss the benefits of the program, the power of the Hogan tests, and what both parties learned throughout the process.

There have been three CEOPPORTUNITY series, through which 30 students have had the opportunity to live out a day as a CEO. THUOPER and CESA will continue executing this program in future semesters, since the impact has been very beneficial. The three main achievements of this program include: giving local students knowledge of real-world work experience, educating this younger generation on an evaluation tool of global significance such as Hogan’s, and enriching the position of the Hogan brand in leading Colombian companies.