Enrique Lores joined HP in 1989 as an intern. At the time, HP held a program to bring European students to the U.S. When Lores’ summer internship ended, the company informed him that it planned to open another center in Spain, and given that he was from the country, HP extended him a full-time offer. “I thought it would be cool to do for a couple of years,” Lores told me. Thirty-five years later, he’s still there. But now, he’s CEO.Reflecting on his 3½ decades at the Palo Alto-based tech company, Lores says a combination of growth factors contributed to his long-term stay at HP—namely, the prevalence of professional development opportunities. “I was changing jobs almost every two years. And when you change jobs, even in a big company, it’s like going to a different company and learning new skills,” Lores said.He began in research and development, then marketing, operations, and sales. He moved from Spain to the U.S., then to Germany, then back to Spain. He began in HP’s digital processes unit and then moved to small printers, followed by PCs, and services. “The opportunities to learn inside the company were as big as the opportunities to learn if I was changing companies.” Lores says repeatedly finding moments to learn and augment his overall skill set was a significant trigger shot to his career. What’s more, he noted that his long stint at the company proved advantageous because he profoundly understood the company and had extensive institutional knowledge from watching HP evolve over the years. However, Lores caveats that teams and companies cannot be run as an island. “You need to connect and see what other companies are doing because there is always someone that is doing something better than you are, and you need to learn it.”Although he acknowledges the role luck has played in his career—”You can be very smart or very good, but you also need to be lucky, and that’s a very important thing for all of us to accept”—he believes several vocational drivers helped direct him to the corner office. Of note, Hewlett-Packard’s 2015 split into HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Overseeing this effort gave Lores tremendous visibility into the company and how a business operates, he said. “When you drive a separation, it is like founding a company, and you need to recreate the regime, ranging from what IT systems we are going to have, what is going to be the legal structure, what is going to be the tax structure, what portfolio you’re going to build, what is your branding?” said Lores. “These are things that traditionally you only do when you are creating a small company, but I had the luxury of doing that at a mega company, and it was an incredible learning opportunity.”Ruth Umohruth.umoh@fortune.comNetwork with the world’s top business and policy leaders in New York City Nov. 11-12 at the Fortune Global Forum. Confirmed attendees include CEOs of PayPal, Dow, Nasdaq, Siemens USA, Indeed, Yum China, and AT&T, along with seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis. Request your invite here.Today’s newsletter was curated by Natalie McCormick.Smarter in secondsFast food champion. Starbucks’ new CEO just delivered what employees and investors have been craving after years of drama and misstepsSpend wisely. The little sins we commit at work—and the bosses who are cracking downOn the up & up. Clorox CEO describes comeback process after massive cyberattack Cooking up a storm. Apple CEO Tim Cook says Steve Jobs taught him a vital lesson in decision-making—and it’s a skill few leaders haveNews to knowBoth political parties are vying for the working class, which recently has skewed Republican. And it looks like it will remain that way. NYT Alex Soros, the son of George Soros, is one of the biggest donors this election cycle, doling out some $60 million to the Democratic ticket. WSJThe U.S. economy added only 12,000 jobs in October, the weakest since 2020, due in part to severe hurricanes and the Boeing strike. FortuneThe U.S. election will have far-reaching economic consequences. Here are five. BloombergRank risersA round-up of who scored a seat in the C-suite Shutterstock appointed Rik Powell as its CFO. Chobani named Jai Kibe its next CMO. Nichole Robillard was named CMO of Red Lobster.New to the corner office. Peloton tapped Peter Stern as its next CEO. Stern was most recently an executive at Ford Motor Co. The Estée Lauder Companies has tapped a new CEO: Stéphane de La Faverie. He most recently served as the company's executive group president, overseeing various Estée Lauder brands. This is the web version of the Fortune Next to Lead newsletter, which offers strategies on how to make it to the corner office. Sign up for free.
