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Companies begin to bet on essentialism as a model

In a complex context, with high pressure to achieve objectives and technological dispersion, companies are looking for a way to be more efficient and optimize time of your employees to get more for less.

This is the basis of the call essentialism, that the North American executive trainer Greg McKeown made fashionable in his book «Essentialism: achieve maximum results with minimum effort«.

More and more organizations are changing their culture to adapt it to a changing, agile and flexible environment. For Fernando Botella, CEO of Think&Action, the great current challenge for managers is “How do we manage time? We are what we do with our time, that is why it is vital to focus on what matters and remove what is left over”. In his opinion, it is imperative to be clear about the purpose towards which the company is headed, manage data well and manage to implement an agile culture under the premise keep it simple (Keep it simple).

In the day to day of the company or of the professional, this principle should govern their activity. For this, the first thing is “choose what is important”according to Helga Peláez, Deputy HR Director at Daiichi Sankyo. “It is essential to choose without guilt, to know how to say no, without fear, to focus and prioritize.” To pave the way, companies and human teams must “create a new work habit, educate their environment, change the language (nothing to have to, but I choose to do) and share the vision of essentialism”. As an example, Peláez suggests that organizations dedicate time so that everyone is focused on the same thing.

Once the objective is set, it is time to eliminate what is left over to work less and achieve more. Minimum effort, maximum production. And in this the information in data is vital to make the most timely decisions and become more efficient. This is confirmed by Manel Orihuela, general director of Nacex, a company that last year moved 36 million packages or units. “We need reliable, quality data to be efficient, to adapt our structure and to know what resources we must put into practice”.

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Six traceability data

In its shipments, Nacex includes six traceability data to “optimize the entire process, eliminate deviations and size the structure”. Orihuela explains that they use three types of data: predictive, to do more with less and know what resources they need; reagents for check service quality and resolve incidents; and strategic, very important for electronic commerce and to mark the hot areas of sending and receiving. In his opinion, one of the obstacles that companies face is the fear of change. “In general, everyone is resistant to change”he concludes.

For Fernando Botella, the key to reducing this resistance is to focus on people; “That is where we must be more essentialists”. People, human resources, are for Eduardo Martín, director and adviser to several companies, the center of everything. “Knowing their problems, what worries them, and providing solutions is essential for the success of the company and its excellence”.

In his opinion, the dynamics of a company and its productivity ratio can be changed “just listening to their workers” as he did at Mediamarkt, which multiplied the number of sales in two months. Essentialism, for Martín, is permeating more and more in companies, especially “since the pandemic where we have seen how fragile we are and we give more importance to having time.”

Essentialism makes a difference in companies and also in people.

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