Very few people walk into a company straight out of university and end up helping to redefine its future, but that’s exactly what Laura Carnicero has done.
She joined Seat, the Spanish automaker, in 1999, as a young engineer fresh from her studies. Carnicero then spent over a decade immersed in technical roles before making what seemed like an unlikely pivot into the people function. Today, she’s the company’s vice-president for people and organisation, leading the charge on culture, reskilling and the future of work.
Here, she shares the mindset required to lead people at scale, what really matters in a high-stakes transformation and why empathy without boldness just doesn’t cut it.
Did you always want to be a people leader?
No – it was never my idea because I’m an engineer. I’m a very technical person, but I have discovered that I have two faces – I am an engineer with a passion for people.
I began my career with a really clear vision that I wanted to be a technician. For my first 15 years here, I was in technical positions across production and product management.
Then I joined the HR team on the technical side, which was all about learning, because we need to do a lot of technical L&D. I entered thinking I was on a technical path, but then I discovered another world. And I changed my career completely.
I’m really happy with what I do. That combination of the structured mindset of an engineer and empathy really helps me. I’m a person who’s always looking at how to improve things. I love listening to people. I love seeing what the problems are and finding solutions. So I think it’s a very good combination. I might have reached a people leader role by accident, but I love it.
How would your co-workers describe you?
I think they would describe me as someone who always tries to find a way to do things, to solve problems. Also, I would say, a very grounded person with her feet on the floor. Hopefully they’d say I am enthusiastic, passionate, open and grounded.
I’ve been with Seat for 26 years and I’ve worked across many different areas over that time. I’m part of the furniture. I know a lot of people and the people know me and they can see I’m still the same person I was before.
I think that’s what people expect from a senior people professional. Someone that you can speak with without any reservations. And I feel like that. We are a big family and I feel that I’m really part of this family.
What qualities does a people leader in a big organisation need?
You have to find someone who wants to listen to people and has the talent to understand a diverse group of people. Also someone who is bold and coherent in how they lead.
In my position, you see the most beautiful part of the company, but also the most difficult part. You need to be coherent in your ideas and bold in your vision to get the best out of the company and the people working in it. Culture is what happens in difficult moments. When times are hard that’s when you see the real culture of the company.
Having someone in this role who isn’t bold or coherent in their communication – or if they’re not honest and transparent – doesn’t make any sense.
I’ve said we are like a family, but we’re also like a town. We have 14,000 employees – plus more than 100,000 indirect workers. You can imagine all the different situations that can happen. You have to deal with these by applying common sense in a bold way.
How has the people function changed since you joined?
Both the role and the kind of work we do are changing. Nowadays, I feel the people function is a core area that has to lead the transformation of the company.
We are in the middle of a major transformation. We celebrated our 75th anniversary in May this year. Right now on the business side, we are going through a big change towards electrification. We’re also in a cultural transformation. We have two brands now: Seat and Cupra. The world is changing so fast and we have to be flexible.
Our area is responsible for leading these transformations. We’re not focused on streamlining production or guaranteeing product quality. We are there to show the how – how people work, how we collaborate with each other, how we grow.
For me, HR plays a central role in this. In complicated times, when the world is changing, we need to be flexible and socially conscious and to remember that what really matters is the people. Of course, there is a big focus on technology in everything that we do but, in the end, you can apply the same technology but get two different results depending on how you manage the people. So we adapt in order to help them be their best.
My role has evolved a lot in the last few years. It used to be focused on paying, hiring the best talent and trying to keep people from leaving. It’s not anymore. It’s that, but many, many other things as well.
What skills are most important right now?
Certainly technical skills are important, now that we’re moving into AI, digitalisation and electrification. That’s clear. But, for me, the most important are the other skills linked to values.
At Seat, we have five clear values: to inspire, be bold, succeed as one, show honesty and challenge the status quo. We want to encourage people to try things and have the mindset that ‘it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.’
This is what we look for in employees. At the end of the day, what makes a difference is what people want to do. If they’re not aligned with these values or they’re unwilling to challenge themselves and to learn, then it won’t work. We don’t want people who just follow processes; we want people who improve them, who are excited about opportunities and are willing to go further.
How easy is it to find those people?
Right now, we’re not hiring large numbers because we’re in a transformation mode. We’re only hiring a few people, but we’re searching for the right ones.
It’s not easy to find these skills, that’s clear. I think the younger generation of employees is more aligned with this mindset because the way they’ve been raised is different.
And when you bring someone like that into a team that already works that way, it’s much easier. We always say: talent attracts talent and mediocrity attracts mediocrity. So, if your team exhibits the same values, other people will follow.
We don’t normally recruit many people but, when we do, it’s done very carefully. We’re lucky enough to have very low turnover because people love working here.
What’s the biggest challenge facing your function?
We are living during complicated times, with globalisation, tariffs and intense competition everywhere – particularly, in the electric vehicle space. To deal with these challenges, it’s clear that we have to be flexible and agile.
In our situation, where we’re in the middle of this big transformation towards electrification, we are reskilling our people. In the last three years, we’ve delivered more than 500,000 hours of training to our 14,000 employees.
We’re transforming how we work and the way we design, produce and sell cars. That’s one of the challenges we’re facing. We also have this cultural transformation and we’re managing two brands.
The main challenge is to cope with everything that’s happening in the outside world that can influence us and manage our own transformation at the same time.
What has been your proudest achievement in your role?
I’m proud of many things. The transformation that we are doing through training, those 500,000 hours. I’m proud of it because I can see how much influence it has on the future of the company.
It also makes me proud to see how diversity is growing in the company, especially gender diversity, having more women in management, for example.
I’m proud, personally, of being the first female vice-president in Seat’s history. I have two sons, and when I see how proud my younger son is, it means a lot. It shows that we can do whatever is needed – and more. I feel really lucky to be sitting in this position at the moment of Seat’s 75th anniversary. It represents a lot of work that has been done up to this point.
I try to be proud every day of what I do, even in difficult situations, like when there are dismissals or when people act badly. I try to be proud of the decisions that I make when I take positions that I feel are the right ones. I feel proud because I think of the influence on the company, the example we are giving. I believe the people function is seen by everybody, so we should act in the right way.
What book should every business leader read?
There’s a Spanish book called Management del sentido común (Management by common sense) by Xavier Marcet. And another one, Creser haciendo crecer (Growing by helping others grow), also by Xavier Marcet.
He writes about exploring what humanist management is. He applies common sense but with truth written in capital letters. It seems so easy, but it’s so complicated.
In those books, every sentence makes you think and you discover something deeper behind it.
For me, those two books are very good and should be translated into English!
What advice would you give your successor?
I would say: walk the talk. Be an example. Say what you do and do what you say. For me, this is so important. In my role, everything is about the people.
Be bold and cultivate this combination of being passionate about people, empathetic and coherent.
Finally, not just for this role, but in general, I would say: try to go further. There is always a solution, a way to go further and improve.
Very few people walk into a company straight out of university and end up helping to redefine its future, but that’s exactly what Laura Carnicero has done.
She joined Seat, the Spanish automaker, in 1999, as a young engineer fresh from her studies. Carnicero then spent over a decade immersed in technical roles before making what seemed like an unlikely pivot into the people function. Today, she’s the company’s vice-president for people and organisation, leading the charge on culture, reskilling and the future of work.
Here, she shares the mindset required to lead people at scale, what really matters in a high-stakes transformation and why empathy without boldness just doesn’t cut it.
