Talks with: Guglielmo Sallustio, Partner, Friisberg & Partners Italy
The risks and opportunities during this phase of radical change have been the subject of much analysis, but making forecasts on the future structure of the business is not always easy and trying to draw conclusions about what has changed is potentially premature.
Nevertheless, a key concept is that organizations must question themselves. It is time for creation: big and especially small companies need to use their imagination to think about new models of work. Also, we must be conscious that many of the challenges we are dealing with may not be only transitory.
Technology remains the engine of this business transformation, and it is necessary for enterprise resilience.
The use of collaboration tools is a trend that enables new models of interaction within companies. IT and Intelligent Automation, AI and data analytics are for sure the most influential technologies for helping organisations increase operational efficiency and transform existing business processes while cloud technologies enable and power the other emerging technologies.
Organizations in all sectors should really put themselves in the customers’ shoes, in other words they should reinforce a customer centric approach as their first challenge. They should then develop solutions to improve customer experience, offering digital services primarily but without losing the human connection on their virtual channels and therefore their connection with the client.
This is the best time to rethink our leadership model too. Remote working necessitates being authentic and having the courage to experiment in order to create a real “digital world”, in which it is possible to develop the sense of belonging and share team values and goals. In this context, the harder challenge for organizations is probably succeeding at switching to a model in which everyone can be evaluated only by their achievement of goals that have to be clearly identified and shared.
Until a few months ago ideas came mainly from a direct exchange of ideas, but now we need a cultural revolution. To enable this soft skills, flexible reasoning and empathy are crucial to define a right balance in both customer relations and team coordination.
Finally, organizations need to invest in green transition: I believe that sustainability must be the focus of corporate strategies to create greater value in the long term, radically changing the relationship between companies and customers.
By Silvano Joly, Sales Country Manager, Centric Software Italia.
When one accepts a job and decides to work for a company it is for several interconnected reasons. We can call them Personal Success Factors (‘PSF’). As a person and a manager, I summarize them as the ‘4 C cluster’: C-ash, C-areer, C-ompany, C-ontext. Both when I am evaluating or proposing a job, I try to use this scheme. Every organisation, with a genuine strategy or not, proposes its own mix of PSF, which in turn is successful or not depending on the people who do it and are part of it. It can be applied both for attracting talent or for retaining the best people in your team.
Let's develop, as an example, some concepts around the ‘4 C’ and about why a someone enters and remains in an organization:
C-ash
i.e. the Salary - Everyone has a salary and expectation of what they are worth. The minimum threshold is variable, whereas the maximum one might not exist. Satisfaction with one's salary level is based on a delicate balance between your salary when compared to the external and internal market. Salary is the foundation of the contractual relationship between employer and employee, and it is also the foundation of trust. Remuneration is directly related to performance and mainly related to your quantitative and measurable results.
C-areer
i.e. the organisation and development - This factor combines several elements:
• Positioning within the organization - i.e. status (Director, Executive, Supervisor);
• Job title and description;
• Growth potential plus learning opportunities, visibility in the community, prestige of the company;
• Skills needed and recognized to perform the role
Where your role is not clear or where you have no possibility of development, learning and/or your professionalism is not well identified and recognized the salary may therefore need to be variable.
C-ompany
i.e. Work environment - This factor is divided into three parts:
• Acting values and reputation of the organisation;
• Relations with the management;
• the work environment in general - in fact a safe and big company can be considered the best and safest place where to stay.
No money can compensate for having a bad manager, bad relationships with colleagues, an unhealthy work environment or the bad reputation of an employer.
C-ontext
i.e. Work-Life Balance – This is a very important factor and it can be vital. It includes the type of contract and actual behaviour encouraged by the company in terms of minimising stress; physical security; and location - i.e. not monetary benefits. More and more people consider this balance before taking a job – especially millennials and younger people.
We have seen how important smart working has become and how strategic a company must be in organizing it for its workforce. This can be measured both by tangible benefits, like health insurance, yoga coaching or a nursery in the company and intangible ones like a low levels of stress, frustration; reduced commuting time, clear working hours and a high level of general organisation.
So, my balance in the old and our new normal follows the PSFs and my 4 Cs:
• Within an organization, there may be different mixes of Personal Success Factors, depending on of departments or offices - don’t assume the candidate in front of you is the same as you.
• Ask your HR department to do more than to pay salaries. Have them work with you and discuss together your PSF and those of the team;
• The mix of PSF constitutes your Value Proposition as an Employer, so give one to your candidates and employees as you give one to your sales prospects.
In the last 15 years, I have had the opportunity to work with Guglielmo, splendidly, I have always had quality results thanks to his work and commitment. His return to Friisberg as a Partner will increase many projects, especially at an international level.
Talks with: Guglielmo Sallustio, Partner, Friisberg & Partners Italy
Nobody can say today that they were ready for this pandemic. Fortunately in Minsait, an Indra Group Company, we faced this health emergency with unity, calm and commitment, trying to maintain professionalism and constant effort.
Today we can definitely say that due to our actions, the impact has been limited.
We are a global technology and consulting company and we firmly believe in flexibility at work, focusing on trust, autonomy and the responsibility of our professionals. From the very beginning, we tried to work with our colleagues demonstrating that their safety was our first priority.
We focused on:
Personally I decided to extend my relationship with my international colleagues in South America, USA and Europe, and it was great to share with them every single experience we were each facing. With my team, I changed from our traditional to “speed-date” meetings to have each team member share the good and bad moments of their week during lockdown.
This emergency can be an opportunity to accelerate the evolution towards new and more collaborative working models. I believe that we have the opportunity to build what we called in Minsait “new bridges”, a metaphor that I particularly love.
Our “Bridges to the Interior” has resulted in innovative tools and methodologies which are even more collaborative and our “Bridges to the Exterior” improves our relationship with our customers, sharing their needs and growth prospects.
Now more than ever, I feel close to my colleagues, customers, partners and providers.
Nobody can say exactly. In the meantime we have a civic and professional obligation to protect our colleagues, to never leave them alone. Change is hard and, in a crisis like Covid-19, it gets very complex. Leaders are faced with keeping their workforce engaged and productive, while keeping the business running and building for the future.
In the meantime, we have to invest in a transparent, purposeful messaging, trying to ensure communications which are clear, consistent and easily accessible to all.
We must limit the social, organizational, and economic impact of this emergency. We have amazing technological tools, and we have the opportunity to leverage them with internal and external experts who are able to support us all in this phase of rebirth, always putting people at the centre of our consideration.
For example, today more than ever, it’s necessary to focus on training as continuous improvement. It is a time for discussion and confrontation, otherwise we risk organisational chaos which could be difficult to control and could lead to a feeling of dissatisfaction - with important impacts on performance and corporate image.
Yes, absolutely! I’m always optimistic that what's to come is better.
My sector is the Industry and Consumer Goods Market, so it’s probably one of the most affected industries of this crisis. I know that each and one of us have to think about the “needs” of our people, as employees, fathers and mothers of families.
This is the time to accelerate our transformation in order to come out of the crisis even stronger, to become better people working in better companies.
Talks with: Guglielmo Sallustio, Partner, Friisberg & Partners Italy
Nobody can say today that they were ready for this pandemic. Fortunately in Minsait, an Indra Group Company, we faced this health emergency with unity, calm and commitment, trying to maintain professionalism and constant effort.
Today we can definitely say that due to our actions, the impact has been limited.
We are a global technology and consulting company and we firmly believe in flexibility at work, focusing on trust, autonomy and the responsibility of our professionals. From the very beginning, we tried to work with our colleagues demonstrating that their safety was our first priority.
We focused on:
Personally I decided to extend my relationship with my international colleagues in South America, USA and Europe, and it was great to share with them every single experience we were each facing. With my team, I changed from our traditional to “speed-date” meetings to have each team member share the good and bad moments of their week during lockdown.
This emergency can be an opportunity to accelerate the evolution towards new and more collaborative working models. I believe that we have the opportunity to build what we called in Minsait “new bridges”, a metaphor that I particularly love.
Our “Bridges to the Interior” has resulted in innovative tools and methodologies which are even more collaborative and our “Bridges to the Exterior” improves our relationship with our customers, sharing their needs and growth prospects.
Now more than ever, I feel close to my colleagues, customers, partners and providers.
Nobody can say exactly. In the meantime we have a civic and professional obligation to protect our colleagues, to never leave them alone. Change is hard and, in a crisis like Covid-19, it gets very complex. Leaders are faced with keeping their workforce engaged and productive, while keeping the business running and building for the future.
In the meantime, we have to invest in a transparent, purposeful messaging, trying to ensure communications which are clear, consistent and easily accessible to all.
We must limit the social, organizational, and economic impact of this emergency. We have amazing technological tools, and we have the opportunity to leverage them with internal and external experts who are able to support us all in this phase of rebirth, always putting people at the centre of our consideration.
For example, today more than ever, it’s necessary to focus on training as continuous improvement. It is a time for discussion and confrontation, otherwise we risk organisational chaos which could be difficult to control and could lead to a feeling of dissatisfaction - with important impacts on performance and corporate image.
Yes, absolutely! I’m always optimistic that what's to come is better.
My sector is the Industry and Consumer Goods Market, so it’s probably one of the most affected industries of this crisis. I know that each and one of us have to think about the “needs” of our people, as employees, fathers and mothers of families.
This is the time to accelerate our transformation in order to come out of the crisis even stronger, to become better people working in better companies.
