Alejandro Betancourt López Reveals His Secret to Succeeding Across Multiple Industries
Alejandro Betancourt López defies the conventional wisdom of business specialization. While most executives carve out expertise in single industries, Betancourt López moves confidently between entirely different business sectors-identifying opportunities that others miss across oil production, transportation networks, fashion retail, and technology investments.
“I consider myself a very fast learner,” he explains. “I could be an orchestra director because I know how to play a little bit of every instrument, and that’s key for success.”
This rare adaptability has enabled him to transform the Spanish sunglasses brand Hawkers through innovative marketing strategies, strategically position his company Auro before Uber’s Spanish expansion, and make early investments in artificial intelligence that multiplied twenty-fold.
His cross-industry success reveals fundamental business principles that transcend specialized knowledge.
Alejandro Betancourt López Secret to Succeeding Across Multiple Industries
When describing his cross-industry capabilities, Betancourt López employs a metaphor that perfectly captures his management philosophy:
“I consider myself a very fast learner, and that’s why I call myself, I could be a good director for orchestra because I know how to play a little bit of every instrument, and that’s key for success.”
This orchestra director approach-understanding enough about each specialized function while maintaining a broader strategic view-has enabled him to lead organizations in markedly different sectors.
Rather than attempting to master every technical detail of each industry, he focuses on understanding core principles that apply across business environments.
“I understand the basics of not everything in the world but of my investments, let’s put it this way,” he explains.
This measured self-assessment demonstrates his recognition that effective leadership doesn’t require omniscience-it requires sufficient knowledge to make informed decisions and evaluate expert recommendations.
Central to Betancourt López’s cross-industry adaptability is his deliberate recruitment of specialized talent in each sector. “I surround myself with good talent and people that I think can run it efficiently and I can understand what they’re doing,” he notes, highlighting how specialized expertise complements his broader business perspective.
Unlike executives who feel threatened by team members with greater domain knowledge, Betancourt López actively seeks out such individuals: “When I hire people, I take a real hard look at the experience they have.
I like to know that they know more than me, that they’re better than me, that they have better knowledge than me on that industry.”
This talent-focused approach provides multiple advantages when entering new business domains.
It accelerates his learning curve through direct access to industry veterans, reduces operational risks through specialized oversight, and creates an organizational culture where expertise is genuinely valued.
Most importantly, this approach allows Betancourt López to maintain strategic control while delegating operational details to domain experts: “If I can get that sense, then I take their opinion on a highly basis and I hire them.
But I like to hire people that are at least better prepared, smarter, and that can really… Not afraid of telling me what to do, because they know better.”
The breadth of Betancourt López’s business portfolio offers compelling evidence of his adaptability across industries. His involvement spans sectors that require fundamentally different expertise, operational models, and competitive strategies.
In the energy sector, his ventures demanded sophisticated understanding of geopolitical factors, technical extraction challenges, and complex supply chains. His oil and gas operations in South America operated in a heavily regulated environment with significant infrastructure requirements.
By contrast, his leadership at Hawkers sunglasses required expertise in fashion trends, consumer marketing, and retail distribution-a dramatically different knowledge base.
“It was the right time for that kind of marketing and the right time for innovation into commodity type product,” he explains when discussing Hawkers’ initial success.
His transportation venture Auro, which accumulated ride-sharing licenses in Spain ahead of Uber’s expansion, demonstrated yet another set of industry-specific knowledge:
“We knew that the market, it was going to shift to private riding industry instead of taxis and it was going to get a lot of hype from it.” This regulatory arbitrage play required understanding both transportation economics and Spain’s specific licensing framework.
Most recently, his investments in artificial intelligence showcase his adaptability into cutting-edge technology: “I have a big investment I made about five years ago in AI, and now it’s exploding, that when I invested again it wasn’t a big thing.”
The diversity of these ventures would typically require multiple specialized executives. Betancourt López’s ability to provide strategic leadership across them demonstrates remarkable adaptability.
The evolution of Hawkers under Betancourt López’s leadership provides a detailed case study of his adaptability in action. As market conditions changed, he guided the company through multiple strategic transitions to maintain its competitive position.
Initially, the company capitalized on emerging digital marketing channels when costs were lower: “Digital media, paid digital media, was very inexpensive at the time, so it was a big, big home run at the time.” As these channels matured and became more expensive, he recognized the need for strategic adaptation.
“Now it gets tougher. Sustainability, now prices, everybody’s doing the same thing. So everybody goes to do the same thing, price goes through the roof, and the big winners are the social media companies like Facebook, Instagram, they’re making the money right now. The margins are shifted in the chain of value, to somewhere else.”
His response to these changing conditions demonstrates exceptional adaptability: “So you have to reinvent yourself, create and evolve into a different kind of company that doesn’t depend on social media or paid media marketing.”
This reinvention included diversifying marketing channels, developing physical retail presence, and creating multiple revenue streams: “We’ve done… Many things. We have done all kinds of things. So yeah, then we moved to influencers, then we moved to the retail space, and now it’s a robust company that doesn’t depend on one main stream of revenue.”
The result is a more resilient business model better adapted to current market realities: “So we have different mainstreams, different strategies at the same time, and it’s more sustainable, and it’s not as high growth company, exploding revenues, but more of an established company and more predictable company.”
This transformation from fast-growing startup to established brand demonstrates Betancourt López’s adaptability not just across industries but within a single company’s evolution.
Betancourt López’s adaptability extends to embracing technological change across his business interests. His early recognition of artificial intelligence’s potential exemplifies his capacity to identify and incorporate transformative technologies before they become mainstream.
He views digital transformation through an efficiency lens that applies across industries: “What is AI? It’s a machine that thinks faster and finds solution faster. So AI just makes everything more efficient. So it’s not only in energy. In anything.”
This universal application perspective helps him identify opportunities to implement emerging technologies across diverse business environments “If you’ve got a good AI tool that will think faster, find a solution faster, and give a probability that where you have to do or implement a strategy that is going to give you a better result faster than a trial error that a human being can do, of course, it’s just a matter of what tools are going to be out there and when they’re going to be available.”
His forward-looking investments reflect this technological adaptability: “We’re going to be more involved in AI, we’re going to be more involved in manufacturing for technology, robotics, etc. which is high risk, high reward, and we’re trying to get it right and trying to get involved with the right players in the market.”
Rather than randomly diversifying, Betancourt López approaches new industries with strategic selectivity. His investment philosophy through O’Hara Administration focuses on identifying sectors where his existing strengths can create comparative advantages.
“Anything that is sexy and makes money and that gets you a good challenge. We like challenging environments. We like to innovate and be first,” he explains when describing investment criteria. This emphasis on innovation and early positioning aligns with his cross-industry strategic approach.
His portfolio companies reflect this selective approach to industry diversification: “We did the Uber operation. We did [inaudible]. We did Playtomic, which is the largest padel operator in the world. We did Hawkers, which is the third largest [inaudible]… We did oil and gas.”
While diverse, these ventures share characteristics that match his strategic strengths in identifying emerging trends, assembling specialized talent, and implementing effective organizational structures. This alignment between personal capabilities and industry requirements enhances his adaptability and improves performance outcomes.
In an economic environment increasingly defined by specialized expertise, Alejandro Betancourt López demonstrates the enduring value of cross-industry adaptability.
His success across energy, transportation, fashion, and technology ventures illustrates how transferable business fundamentals can create comparative advantages in diverse sectors.
His orchestra director approach understanding enough about specialized functions while maintaining broader strategic perspective offers a model for entrepreneurs seeking greater versatility.
By assembling exceptional talent, establishing effective organizational structures, and developing transferable skills, business leaders can enhance their own capacity to succeed across industry boundaries.
As markets continue evolving at accelerating rates, this adaptability becomes increasingly valuable. The ability to transfer insights between sectors, implement lessons from diverse experiences, and navigate unfamiliar business environments may prove more sustainable than deep specialization in any single domain.
Betancourt López’s cross-industry success demonstrates that while specialized knowledge matters, adaptable leadership transcends industry boundaries.
In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, this versatility represents a competitive advantage that few executives possess but many should aspire to develop.
Originally published at https://www.idobusiness.co.uk on March 24, 2025.
