Alberto Sanchez, GSAS ’96, returned to Rose Hill this week with advice for the next generation of business leaders: If you want to be successful, then for goodness’ sake, don’t tell knock-knock jokes.

Sanchez, the managing director and head of investment strategies for the Americas Banco Santander, gave the keynote speech on Nov. 17 for the Gabelli School of Business’s International Business Week, a four-day series of lectures, panels, and executive lunches on the topic of global business.

A well-traveled businessman and a member of the President’s Council, Sanchez told global business students that to be successful in their careers, they must cultivate three qualities: cultural empathy, honesty, and a sense of humor.

Cultural understanding is critical when you are working with clients and companies from around the world, Sanchez said. Before traveling to another country for business, it’s important to research the country’s history and its latest local newspapers.

If you want to be especially savvy, Sanchez said, you can take your knowledge a step further than historical facts and current events:

“There’s one thing that always works—soccer. Every country loves soccer,” said Sanchez, who is a native of Spain. “Know who won the league last year, know a few of the major players in that country, and, of course, know what happened to that country’s team in the World Cup.

“If you go to Brazil and you know they were defeated 1 to 6 by Germany in their own home, don’t bring that up. But if you go to Germany, you should definitely bring that up.”

Keep It Honest

Honesty is another key to success, Sanchez said. He warned students that distorting the facts or being sneaky in negotiations and transactions will likely cost them their clients’ trust.

“Your reputation will follow you everywhere,” he said. “Your word is your bond. Never promise something you cannot deliver.”

Most important, he counseled the students not to become discouraged by dishonesty in the rest of the business world. Being Jesuit educated, Fordham students might take for granted that values are a necessary part of one’s work, Sanchez said. Unfortunately, not everyone is of the same mind.

“People lie and cheat, and you’ll see that in business. And sometimes they’ll win and you’ll feel really bad. But you have to stick to it. In my experience, honesty is what works in the long run,” he said.

But Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

After cultural empathy and honesty, maintaining a sense of humor is critical to success in global business, Sanchez said.

“Business is serious enough as it is. You’re going to have a lot of pressure and a boss who will ask you for unrealistic results. So, in the end, you need a sense of humor.”

However, he cautioned the students against telling jokes. Not all cultures share the same humor (“Knock-knock jokes are very bad,” Sanchez said. “No one in the rest of the world laughs at those jokes.”) Moreover, if you are unfamiliar with the nuances of a culture, your risk inadvertently making a joke that is politically incorrect or offensive.

When it comes to humor, then, your best bet is to laugh at yourself, Sanchez said.

“Humor is very useful from a psychological point of view because it makes you vulnerable, normal, human. Everyone wants to deal with the guy who has a sense of humor, who laughs and enjoys life, who isn’t so serious all the time.

“If you want to be successful, you have to let them know you’re approachable.”

International Business Week continues today with a tour of the United Nations Visitor Center and a keynote address from Fran Horowitz, GABELLI ’90. For a complete schedule for the week, visit the International Business Week page on Gabelli Connect.

So go the pressure-filled lyrics to Colbie Caillat’s hit song “Try.” According to Theresa Bates, a vice president at Santander Bank, overspending is a trap into which many college students find themselves falling.

But not if she can help it. During the spring semester, as part of a partnership between Santander Universities and the Fordham Center for Ethics Education, Bates delivered a lecture to a group of Fordham undergraduates on financial basics geared to assuming personal financial responsibility. She covered three main points: how students can manage their money, how they can protect their identities, and how they can protect their credit scores.

These are subjects Bates takes seriously. In her role at Santander Universities, a division of Banco Santander, she manages relationships with Fordham and other U.S. colleges that receive funding for scholarships, research projects, global exchanges, and entrepreneurship studies from Santander. Santander Universities provides scholarship support for international students enrolled in the Center for Ethics Education training programs, including its master’s in ethics and society. The lecture was an outgrowth of this relationship.

Adam Fried, PhD, assistant director and research associate at the Center for Ethics Education, helped bring Bates to campus for the talk.

“I think it is important for students to learn about all types of responsible decision-making,” Fried says. “Over the years, the Ethics Center has been involved in activities that teach students about personal and social responsibility and how their decisions affect other parts of their lives and other people.” The same moral questions, he says, apply to students’ finances.

In order to be financially responsible, Bates recommends that students first “evaluate their overall financial health and be honest with themselves about their spending and saving habits,” she says. “They should create a spending plan and track everything they spend for one month. This will let them know how they are spending their money.”

Step two: Students need to distinguish between needs and wants. They should “take care of essentials before seeing if they have the ability to purchase their ‘wants,’” she says. “They should also set financial goals.”

Bates says that parents can play a crucial role in helping college students develop personal financial responsibility. Even doing simple things—like teaching students how to manage a checking and savings account responsibly, and how to record purchases and ATM withdrawals—can have a large and lasting impact.

Other quick tips for parents include showing their college-aged children how to pay bills online and how to use mobile banking. “These are great features that are convenient and easy to use,” she says.

But the most important thing parents can do to encourage financial responsibility is show students how to create and stick to a budget, says Bates. This includes using credit cards responsibly and, ideally, only in emergencies. Paying all bills on time is also crucial.

“Students, especially freshmen, may be overwhelmed with beginning a college career while being away from home for possibly the first time,” she concedes. “Having a financial plan before entering college will only help them once they graduate and enter the workforce. By that time,” she says, “they will be used to responsibly managing their finances.”

—Maja Tarateta