Meet Gilberto Arteage, D OPS Regional Team Leader (LATAM), winner of the Sinet Hero Award 2021. Formerly a corporate lawyer in Venezuela, he joined inDrive after moving to Colombia five years ago. In the beginning, it didn’t go well…

How I joined inDrive: I saw a post on Facebook in English, and not many people here speak English. So, after the interview, I got the call and I started working. At the time they were in Saltillo Mexico…I didn’t know these people. So basically I just started working on faith.

At the time when I started, there was no actual job description. It was mainly an experimental position, to register drivers. So in the first weeks I accomplished absolutely nothing. I had communication differences with Alex Mostovshchikov at the time, because he came from Europe, and European ways – specifically Russian ways – are different from Latin American ways. So, we tried to do things in their way, and it was not successful; I tried to do it in my own way, and it still wasn’t successful.The first two or three weeks, I was horrible at the job, because I didn't know what to do. I registered four drivers. The city (Cúcuta, Colombia) wasn’t picking up. I thought I would be fired.

And then something happened that was truly a miracle.

The head of marketing came to Cucuta to do some research. She needed a translator, but the marketing assistant didn’t work on weekends. So I said, “ok, I will do it.” That experience was one of the most valuable things in my whole career in the company. It gave me the tools to understand what I needed to do. I started listening to drivers, and trying to understand what they need. Alex and I, improved our communication greatly and we registered 60 drivers the next week; then 150; and by the fourth week we managed to get 600 drivers, which was the milestone for a successful launch.

Now Colombia is one of the biggest markets, which I developed.

And at the moment we register around 10,000 drivers monthly from all sources.

What have some of your biggest challenges been? The culture within the company in the first years was challenging. People who were successful in one region, would come to Latin America believing that whatever worked there, would work here. That was a difficult fight, to make them understand that this is a completely different set of cultures.

And I made the same mistake. When I moved to South East Asia, I was like “ok, I applied this knowledge there, now I want to apply this knowledge here”. But it’s a different market, so I had the same cultural barriers.

Today, of course, it’s completely different, but at the beginning, that was a challenge.

The biggest highlight was when I had the opportunity to launch South East Asia. I lived in Vietnam during the pandemic – that was a huge experience. I developed Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. Another highlight was when we launched Bogota: we worked hard and managed to get 5000 drivers in about 60 days – me and Jeison Triana, who is the other Team leader for South America.

And of course, one of the sweetest moments in my career was when I won the Professional of the Year award (Sinet Hero 2021) for that region.

What makes for a good work environment? Communication. I have always been a person who communicates it, not only the way I see it, but also the way I feel it.

I would advise anyone to be honest and communicate things, even if you think it will get you in trouble. Of course, be respectful, but always share your opinion. My team is responsive, we always try to communicate with each other. And I think that’s the key.

What has helped me to be successful: When I receive “no” for an answer, I don't push for a yes; I ask for a reason. Most people, when they receive a “no”, they go for one of two paths: say, “ok, thank you, good day”, or try to push for a positive response. That doesn’t work, because it’s really rare that someone will change their opinion on the spot. But there is a third path: ask “why?”. And when they tell you the reason, you can understand what their need is, and once you understand that, then you can change their mind.

I’m really dedicated to what I do, I love my career and my job at the moment. I work a lot… but I do it with love, with care.

A strong, united team is another key element of success. When I work with a specialist on a process – and I see that it works and this specialist understands what we need to do – then when I start working on that strategy in another region, I explain what needs to be done and ask them to get in touch with the other specialist. That way, they can help each other.

That is the culture I always give my team members: to be united, and help each other. This is not about individualism. My accomplishments are not only my accomplishments. I got to the place I am right now not on my own - I had a team, I had Jeison helping me, support from superiors like Alex, Nadia, Nikolay, wonderful colleagues like Pasha and Roma, and worked with many specialists and agents. I have so many people behind me and next to me, helping me to be where I am. You need to be grateful that it's a team effort.

And, as I mentioned – really understanding how to work, and what drivers want, is important.

Best career advice.

It was mainly unspoken, given to me by my father: when you have a problem, find a solution.

That’s the best advice anyone has ever given me. And if you cannot find a solution, at least you know you tried everything.

Work-life balance:

I'm going to be honest - that’s one of my flaws. I put too much effort into my job and sometimes I forget that I have a life. But I’ve been working on it for the past year and I have two hobbies: one is to play video games with my friends or alone. And the other is making music. Recently I bought a guitar. It's the most beautiful thing ever!

How do you stay motivated?

Like anyone, I have days where I don't even want to wake up. But I am a motivated person, for two reasons:

I truly love my team. I’ve recently stopped working with the South American team, and I love those guys with my whole soul. Now I'm working in Central America… I want my team to grow with me and the company, so I try to make every process about the team. And that motivates me, making sure they have good work, good understanding, a good career path, good processes. So that’s the motivation I have - to build this team and make sure they're ok.

The other thing is knowing that I’m part of this growth in the company, knowing Latin America is one of the biggest markets, Mexico and Colombia - I didn't develop Mexico at the beginning, but Colombia I did develop, from scratch - so, knowing that I was part of this, knowing we can grow even more, that is my motivation.

Advice for dealing with setbacks: Honestly, it is to come to peace with yourself.

Like I mentioned, I try to find solutions to any problem. I try any idea, even the craziest. Of course, with experience, now I know which ideas are too crazy! But we try to make the most of any tool we have. I’ve had my failures when launching some cities, but most of the failures I've had, I know I tried every single thing I could. And so, if it fails, I can rest knowing it's not just my fault. Because I did my part, my team did their part. We all tried our best.

You don’t need to punish yourself. You can try another one; maybe the next one will be ten times more successful. So, come to peace with yourself.

My favorite inspirational saying: “The smallest things can have the greatest impact.”

I always give this advice because I’ve seen it for myself: When you’re talking with a driver, it might seem like nothing, like just another registration. But you don’t know if this driver will happen to be the head of 200 more drivers. And then those drivers can bring you even more drivers. That person you’re treating with kindness, care, with goodwill, may give you access to grow more and do more. Sometimes just a small message can evolve and become this huge avalanche of things. So, sometimes the smallest things can have the greatest impact.