Manuela Silva Marques believes that competition contributes to the professional growth of students and executives.
The first participation of Manuela Silva Marques, a lawyer, in this competition dates back to 2005, when she was part of the Barrocas Sarmento Neves law firm. From this experience, in which she was part of a mixed team, she gained a broader perception of how companies work as well as the notion of the effects decisions may have on organisations. “The Global Management Challenge was a positive reference in my career”, comments Manuela Silva Marques. And that is why she recommends this challenge to students and executives as she considers it important for the professional growth of participants. “For students, it is an opportunity to take on the role of directors, entering a real scenario of competition with other companies. Complementing their theoretical training, they can see in practice that the way they manage can be decisive for competitiveness and success”, comments the lawyer who is currently a member of Abreu Advogados. As for managers, through this simulation, “they can challenge knowledge and indicators and simulate strategies. Benefiting from the possibility of integrating mixed teams, they may know and evaluate, directly and at first hand, the new management promises”, she stresses. In her case and in terms of learning, she realised that the management of processes, people, resources and the organisation itself are essential and transversal, and mastering them allows for both optimising behavioural skills and boosting competitiveness.
Innovating the process
Manuela Silva Marques recalls how the participation of lawyers in the competition was something innovative in 2005 and perceived as a challenge to strategy and management. In her case, this impacted on her working life. “In the competition, the decisions relate to all the areas and departments of a firm’s organisation and operation. This fact allowed us to have a comprehensive and global perception of the company, which today is not only the target clientele of law firms but also the law firm itself”, she reveals. She believes that from this point of view, people and the quality of management are also decisive in the practice of law. And this same quality of management is a competence that gets acquired. For the lawyer, this initiative organised by the Expresso newspaper and SDG “is an added value for Portugal, given its international diffusion, in more than 30 countries and expanding in the Middle East, which allows it to live up to its name as a global management challenge”.
in Semanário Expresso
19th October 2013