Richard Tovar is a graduate with a Bachelor of Education and an expert in instructional design, specializing in creating impactful learning experiences for diverse organizations. As a consultant specializing in training strategies, Richard has worked with companies, universities, and social organizations, helping them optimize their learning programs to meet specific needs. His extensive experience also includes coaching leaders in enhancing their teaching techniques, ensuring that they can effectively guide and inspire others. Through ÁREA ÍNDIGO, Richard continues to make significant contributions to the development of educational programs and leadership training.
In this article:
Name: Richard Tovar
Company: ÁREA ÍNDIGO
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Table of Contents
Great to have you with us! To start, could you tell our readers a bit about your background and what ÁREA ÍNDIGO is all about?
Richard Tovar: I am an educator, university professor, consultant for companies, and advisor to leaders on training strategies to optimize knowledge transmission. I do this through my company, Agencia Índigo—a training company that, since 2014, has served more than 36,000 apprentices and over 60 companies, dedicated to promoting leaders, developing human talent, and strengthening organizational structures through training.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services, or your products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Richard Tovar: If I were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, I would explain that my company helps organizations achieve their business objectives by enhancing the talent and leadership driving those goals. My focus is on helping leaders and teams achieve results with less effort, in less time, and with greater satisfaction.
We provide:
- Manuals and templates to diagnose and address the capabilities of your leaders and teams.
- Design of training strategies to enhance strengths and reduce functional gaps.
- Execution of these strategies as a team integrated into your management.
- Training and empowering your people to replicate execution throughout the structure.
All of this is supported by technology and management assistance, ensuring practical and impactful results.
Quiet quitting and the Great Resignation continue to challenge businesses in maintaining engaged and motivated talent. With 82% of employees leaving due to issues with managers or company culture—feeling unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood—what do you believe is most critical to employee happiness, and how are you adapting to these changes?
Richard Tovar: In our leadership model, we emphasize two key concepts that help address the challenge of “silent resignation”: 1) Retention and 2) Maintenance.
In Venezuela, where my company operates, many business leaders believe that offering competitive salaries and performance bonuses is enough to keep employees happy and motivated. However, this is a significant misconception. In reality, this approach often “traps” talent in a cycle of attractive benefits, creating an illusion of satisfaction. While it may seem counterintuitive, this practice can lead to disengagement over time.
To counter this, we encourage our clients to transition toward a talent maintenance approach, which focuses on fostering key elements such as:
- Sense of purpose
- Sense of belonging
- Sense of participation
- Sense of proactivity
- Sense of perseverance
These five elements empower employees to feel not only as part of the company but as agents of transformation. We achieve this through structured sessions that include:
- Active listening
- Identifying interests and opportunities
- Co-creating initiatives and campaigns
- Collaborative execution
- Displaying and measuring key performance indicators
Online business continues to soar, from B2B and B2C to e-commerce, virtual meetings, remote work, and even online medical consultations. What are your expectations for the year ahead, and how are you positioning yourself to ride this wave?
Richard Tovar: Based on our niche, capacity, and research, we have identified a Spanish-speaking market that is projected to reach almost 4 billion dollars in digital consumption by 2028, including:
- Training
- Mentoring
- Accompaniment
- Templates and work tools
Accompanied by AI, content production, and a deep understanding of the market, at Índigo we are building digital solutions that help our clients automate and sustain their training projects, whether for internal or external clients.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Richard Tovar: The key challenges we face in the training services industry are as follows:
- Personalization of the service:
Customers tend to trust individuals more than companies, which means scalability may be compromised. - The generational gap between leaders and team members:
A lack of balance between experience (from older individuals) and technological expertise (from younger individuals) can lead to mistakes. To overcome this, it’s crucial to foster multigenerational collaboration within teams. - Agility and adaptability:
As the market and environment continue to evolve rapidly, it’s essential for teams to be agile and adaptable. Building teams with both vision and ambition is key to success.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Richard Tovar: The most underestimated aspect is often the most obvious: 100% of the market consists of humans, and 100% of companies and organizations are made up of people. Therefore, if we fail to focus on the human element, we cannot truly dominate the market or succeed in business. If we don’t understand our clients, leaders, or work teams, even the best product loses its relevance. Those representing the brand and its consumers must feel connected and invested in the business for it to succeed. Unfortunately, we often overlook the training of leaders and teams because it’s difficult to measure its impact. This is precisely why our company was created: to make training a sustainable and intelligent investment.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Richard Tovar: The greatest superpower available to us is the ability to listen, support, and assist the human talent within our organizations. This superpower enables us to soar toward our goals, build resilience against crises, overcome barriers like assumptions and burnout, stay motivated and engaged, and even shape the future by taking purposeful action in the present.
What does “success” mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Richard Tovar: Success is feeling satisfied doing what you do. Success is providing opportunities and employment opportunities. Success is offering value to the market and promoting entrepreneurship through training.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to WellnessVoice and the host of this interview would like to thank Richard Tovar for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Richard Tovar or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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