From working and studying simultaneously from the age of 17, to helping build IKEA Mexico as employee number 51, and now graduating as the class speaker of the IMD MBA Class of 2025, this is the story of Alfonso “Poncho” Martínez.
In this episode, we sit down with Poncho to explore what it means to build a life anchored in relationships, humility, and courage. We talk about learning to “care and dare,” why networking only works when it’s not transactional, how becoming a father shifted his identity forever, and how to stay true to your strengths while still confronting your past with honesty.
Key Takeaways & Highlights
1. Connection Is Energy. Poncho is fuelled by people. He doesn’t network to extract opportunity; he connects because it gives him energy and expands his world. His earliest influences, parents and grandparents, shaped an instinct to approach others with curiosity, generosity, and joy.
2. Add Value First. His career breakthroughs all began with offering something of value with no expectation in return: a cycling buddy for a country manager, an invitation to lunch for an executive who always wanted to visit IMD, a book recommendation, an introduction, a kindness. “You plant the seed and you never know when it grows.”
3. Secure-Base Leadership: 100% Care, 100% Dare. Poncho discovered that while he excelled at caring, he often fell short on daring: pushing people, holding boundaries, or asking for tough feedback. Learning that both are required to unlock potential (in others and himself) was a transformative insight of the MBA year.
4. Parenting as the Ultimate Leadership Role. From device-free “family board meetings” to the radical importance of presence, Poncho sees parenthood as a daily mirror: your child absorbs everything you do. And the biggest lesson? “Once you are a father, you will always be a father.”
5. Scars Don’t Have to Close You Off. A failed business partnership hurt him deeply, but instead of turning cynical, he reflected on what he could have done better: diligence, boundaries, structure. The insight: you can still trust people, but with different levels of trust for different contexts. Not everyone is meant for business, but they can still be a friend.
6. Humility, Stability, and the Simple Life. His grandfather, who lived to 102, modelled a life of high aspirations, moderate expectations, and low needs. A few white shirts, a few shoes, strong values. It shaped Poncho’s definition of success: fulfilment over accumulation.
What We Learned
John: The secret to networking (and to life) is generosity. Poncho never approaches people to get. He approaches to give, and somehow, opportunity finds him anyway. He is proof that nice guys do finish first.
Konsti: That connection doesn’t have to be binary. You don’t need to limit who you engage with; every person can be a future story, a future lesson, a future friend. And Poncho shows what it looks like to approach people without fear of “too many relationships.”
Poncho: To trust himself more. To keep being who he is. And to continue caring and daring, with friends, classmates, colleagues, and his family. “The life is now.”
