Feb 28, 2018
Hartmut Liebel is the CEO of iQor, a managed services and solutions provider for some of the world's most well-known technology brands. But I invited him on the show today to share his experiences in losing both as a professional tennis player and in business settings, and how these experiences have paid dividends in his role as CEO at iQor.
Former ranked tennis pro Hartmut Liebel is the current president
and CEO of iQor, an integrated services partner for some of the
world’s leading technology brands.
Liebel has an intriguing background. Born in Germany, he came from
a working-class family—his father was a child during WWII. Around
his later teen years, Liebel became interested in tennis and was
ranked #20 in Europe by the time he was 21. He leveraged his
aptitude for tennis into a move to Florida, playing against D1
schools on the college circuit, and quickly propelling himself to
#2 in the US.
Liebel (humbly) says he never made much of a name for himself in
the tennis world. However, he credits his playing career and the
professional experiences that followed as a currency and auctions
trader, a tennis coach at Notre Dame, and a financial analyst, to
name a few, to his success as president and CEO of a $1.5 billion
company.
"You get used to losing", is a comment he makes about both his
athletic background and three years of constantly losing on deals
as an auctions trader. In short, Liebel has learned a lot about
managing risk—particularly insight of knowing how much loss to take
before changing your strategy, how much loss is acceptable, and how
much/when you need to change based on data.
About iQor
iQor is the only global managed services provider embedded in the flow between product, people, and services, from point of customer acquisition to sustainable recycling. With 45,000 employees in 18 countries, they partner with many of the world's best-known brands such as Apple and Microsoft.
The company delivers aftermarket product and customer support solutions that span the consumer value chain, from customer care and receivables management to product diagnostics and repair services.
Their award-winning technology, logistics, and analytics platforms enable us to measure, monitor, and analyze brand interactions, improve business processes, and find operational efficiencies that lead to superior outcomes for our partners across the customer and product life cycles.