From the beginning, you set your goal to bottle happiness in Africa. How does this translate into practice? Is it possible to bottle up happiness? 

Working on a continent like Africa is something extraordinary. We operate in two very different parts of Africa: in the north and in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in the west of the continent. Africans are very grateful and when they see that there are companies like ours, which not only pursue business but help them to develop, they show it by opening the doors of their homes with humility and happiness. For more than 20 years, Coca-Cola has been part of your life and the red color of our brand is part of your daily life. Yes, it is possible to bottle up happiness! And most importantly, to make it reach every part where there are people who need to feel it!

What is the common denominator in a company where diversity is part of your DNA?

The core of our mission in Africa is to have passion for what we do. Passion allows us to be respectful with the variety of cultures we live with, constantly learn from each other and above all, it allows us to grow as people and professionals!

How do you help the people who work with you and who live in unstable territories, marked by poverty and environmental problems? What kind of CSR initiatives do you carry out to help the countries where you are present? 

The Africa we know is a region that endure great imbalances in such critical and vital aspects as health, schooling and infrastructure. Every year we launch humanitarian actions with other companies that also feel the need to help the continent. We collaborate in providing the logistical and economic means for people to have a better quality of life: access to drinking water, construction of schools, agreements with local universities…

What rule do you take into account when deciding the social and sustainable projects in which you are involved?

Together with the Africa Foundation of the Coca-Cola company, we identified the actions that are priorities for the development of the countries. For example, in 2014 we turned to logistical assistance for the management of the Ebola outbreak in countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Conakry. Unfortunately, every year there are events that require humanitarian aid and this gives meaning to our principles and culture.

How has it affected the situation we have experienced in your team?

The situation we have experienced has been extraordinary in both senses of the word. I believe that humanity was not prepared for such an aggressive impact as the current virus has been. Our teams have experienced this in a very different way. On the one hand, resignation to a situation that no one in the world could have imagined and, on the other hand, the hope that it would pass as soon as possible. The company has tried to be very near to the people. During the months of the crisis, the priority of our company has been, without a doubt, the safety and health of our people.

How do you manage to spread positivity among the people who are part of a team?

There are no magic tricks I think it is a mixture of two ingredients: communication and transparency. And the result has been a high degree of commitment. Every day we have launched communications that have enabled people to feel valued. I would like to emphasize the importance that the digital evolution has had in our company. With the geographical dispersion we have, you can imagine the complexity of distance management. Thanks to technology, meetings and encounters between people from different countries have been carried out naturally. It has been a great learning for the future.

How do you deal with the changes that this new situation implies?

In a very positive way. It is true that we have very different realities, but I believe that the path is already marked out and teleworking will be part of our organisational model. In the near future we will no longer talk about face-to-face or distance work. We will talk about work, no matter where or when. We must be able to break with the famous phrase: “this is how it was done…”. The crisis we have experienced opens up a world of new opportunities for us in every sense: business opportunities, reconciling our lives, redefining how we want to manage our teams (flexibility, commitment, trust…)

Is it easier to manage change in a team as diverse as yours?

There is nothing complex or simple in life. We are the humans who like to make complex what is simple and vice versa. We may have the technological means, optimize the organizational model… but, in the end, the management of change is caused by people. That is why we have launched a “change management” initiative that involves the entire organization and will help us minimize the complexity of the changes we face.

What do you value most about managing people in a company that operates in 13 African countries?

In my modest opinion, I highly value respect, transparency and teamwork. For me they are the pillars on which I base a high performance team, understanding performance as the motivation of people and their commitment.

And what surprised you most when you started working on the African continent?

A lot of things! The human wealth of Africa and the need to help them in their most basic development. My first trip was to Guinea Conakry and I have to admit that I was very impressed to see that after a 4-hour flight I was in a country so different from what we are used to. It helped me to value life very much, as they showed me that with very little you can be happy.

You have been working at Equatorial Coca-Cola Botlling for over 9 years. What has been your greatest learning experience on a human level?

Getting to know people and cultures has enriched me a lot as a person. Africa has taught me to appreciate life even more, I have learned to give without expecting anything in return, it has taught me to order my priorities in life… In short, Africa is an example of life, happiness and love for the family!

People first | A project by Eurofirms

People First es un espacio de inspiración donde compartimos contenidos con un eje común: las personas. Desde distintas ópticas y sectores, abordamos varios temas, tendencias y noticias de interés humano.

La entrada Xavier Aliaga (Equatorial Bottling Coca-cola): “It is possible to bottle up happiness” aparece primero en People first.

Your position at Kiabi carries the ability to identify talents for greater performance. What is your mission in the company?

For us, all people have talent, and my priority is to identify which ones are the best fit in our company, and more particularly, with our “Happy Cultura” and with fashion, which is our trade and our passion.

How would you define your “happy cultura” and what values ​​are you looking for in the new candidates?

The Culture of Happiness is our backbone, where all the actions we carry out in Kiabi are born, and what makes us a real community of happy people. What best defines our culture are the 5 qualities that all Kiaber lives and transmit in their day to day: passionate about people and fashion, with an enterprising spirit, close (but at the same time demanding!), and generous. We accompany these values ​​in a context of recognition (we always celebrate successes), demand, and exemplariness, because being “happy” is not the same as being “hippie”!

Last year you got fourth place on the list of the Best Companies to Work For. In fact, over 80% of your employees say they are proud to belong to Kiabi. How are these results achieved?

For us, the main thing is to generate the best experience for our community of Kiabers, either the futures one or those that are already today. And we achieve this by asking them directly, working personalized actions that respond to their needs, and anticipating their expectations. In retail, and more specifically in the fashion sector, everything changes at breakneck speed, and we have to be vigilant to always stay one step ahead.

At Kiabi you defend that respect and coexistence are the basis of a pleasant professional environment. How do you enhance these two values ​​in the day to day of your stores?

In addition to being implicit in the qualities of the Kiaber, for us the most powerful tool to achieve this is continuous 360º feedback. It allows us to develop empathy constantly, which in the end, and from my point of view, is the key quality for respect and coexistence.

You perform an atypical selection process, in which candidates must register on the website www.thekiabijobexperience.com and make the process dynamic and motivating. What benefits does this type of process have? Does it allow you to make a tighter selection than with the traditional method?

The gamification in the selection process has allowed us to meet the candidates from a different perspective, putting their skills and competences into practice, instead of selecting with the classic curriculum. We care about the person, not the experience: how they are, how they develop in different situations, etc. The fact of being able to objectively measure the achievement of each of the games that they perform, gives us a global vision of their profile, and their compatibility with the Kiaber profile that we seek.

You ensure that Kiabi’s success is based above all on the talent of their teams. What kind of actions do you carry out to develop the talent of the employees?

The autonomy of our teams plays a fundamental role. Within our Happy Culture we have the right to be wrong, but above all to get it right, and we can only do that if each Kiaber has an optimal context to dare. 100% of people in Kiabi have a personalized development plan to develop their qualities and skills, and people who want to go a step further and take on other responsibilities (in Spain or internationally) also have an individualized career plan.

Innovation is another of your pillars and you have carried out actions such as the “Innovation Play” to accommodate for the ideas of workers, collaborators and customers. What other actions are you taking to enhance innovation among your team?

We work on all projects promoting co-construction among our Kiabers. From the workshops we carry out in Spain to develop the different projects in the country, in which people from different groups participate, even the most international ones such as International Store Sinergy and Shopping into the future, both with the aim of creating common synergies in the Group and anticipate the challenges that await us.

People first | A project by Eurofirms

People First es un espacio de inspiración donde compartimos contenidos con un eje común: las personas. Desde distintas ópticas y sectores, abordamos varios temas, tendencias y noticias de interés humano.

La entrada Diana Cubero (Kiabi): “We care about people, not the professional experience” aparece primero en People first.

Jobs, consumption and wealth generation, innovation, taxes, product and service supply… A company contributes to society in various ways. Beyond all this, some seek to generate a positive impact on the environment, healthy products…

But how has digitization influenced this? The voice of consumers and their organisation in networks have forced companies to become aware of their social responsibility and their responsibility to the environment in order to connect with society.

What are the changes that lead companies to focus on the end consumer?

• New 100% digital competition has emerged for the traditional company, which better understands and dominates the connected market.
• Apple showed the need to design products and services with a previous knowledge of people’s needs.
• A company’s bottom line increasingly includes social or environmental variants, in what is known as the Triple Bottom Line.

Putting the Focus on People

Human-centred organisations focus their strategy on connecting and satisfying the consumer, their workers and collaborators and society. How do they do this?

• They investigate what is important for society, even moving forward, to future needs. This is where Big Data brings its full value: the market is talking on social networks and new software is learning to listen and turn conversations into ideas and niches to satisfy. More than ever, companies can bring about social improvements.
• What if the objective is to make the buying process a friendly experience? When brand loyalty dies, it’s time to generate an emotional relationship. We invite you to reflect here on what binds you to your favorite brands.
• How to create a sense of community in the company? All employees and collaborators have valuable experience that can contribute to corporate advancement. Their welfare, in addition, is crucial to generate a good brand image and capacity for innovation.
• It is also important to incorporate the long-term vision and concerns of society into production processes.

An economic, social and environmental performance account

From this corporate social need, the concept of the Triple bottom line has emerged. But what does it mean exactly? It is a strategy that generates a lot of impact by seeking a balance between economic, social and environmental objectives. A real challenge.

A Triple bottom line project is a great way to meet the standards of responsibility that society demands from an organization today. The challenge is to measure their level of economic results and compliance with social objectives, with methodologies such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), promoted by the United Nations sustainability program, or the Social Return on Investment (SROI).

How far or how close is your company to creating its own?

People first | A project by Eurofirms

People First es un espacio de inspiración donde compartimos contenidos con un eje común: las personas. Desde distintas ópticas y sectores, abordamos varios temas, tendencias y noticias de interés humano.

La entrada Why does the company have to be social? aparece primero en People first.

According to the Fundación Diversidad’s Global Diversity Management study, half of all Spanish companies include diversity management among their priorities. Why? Because it has been more than proven that homogeneous group functioning drives away creativity.

According to Unesco, cultural diversity is as necessary for the human race as biological diversity is for living organisms. In many countries it is considered part of the common heritage of humanity. However, this concept must be well understood…

Consider for a moment: is there diversity in your company? What real treatment is it getting? Betting on cultural diversity implies a radical change of perspective. And what does this mean?

•  Fight against individual prejudices that prevent people from truly approaching what is different.
• To design a social project for the organization to lay the foundations for cultural equality.
• Create channels to encourage communication and intercultural dialogue.
• Consider daily needs such as accessible toilets, diverse menus, flexible schedules, multipurpose spaces, etc.

Fear of diversity

 For Aline Masuda, professor and researcher at the EEADA Business School, a company’s biggest stumbling block in facing the future is group thinking. Homogeneous teams led by an insecure leader quickly learn to “please the boss” and adapt to the group to fit in. They create a closed circle in which they stifle any attempt at debate or innovation. Do you recognize yourself in this mode?What is the best way to manage diversity, then? Diversity implies emotional and belief changes that need to be worked on.

It requires developing cultural intelligence or individual capacity to adapt to diverse cultures and learn from differences in work teams. Companies face the same challenge as society: to become intercultural.

But what does it mean to be open to diversity in the company? It means opening up to information, new competencies and constructive debate. It means accepting that society and leadership are dynamic realities in continuous transformation.

It is opening the doors to differences in gender and age, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, intellectual capacity… both individually and corporately. We must be willing to arouse curiosity about their points of view and their experiences, to listen, to value and to integrate their contributions

From the company to the society

According to the Diversity Foundation’s Global Diversity Management study, “if your company is among the 25% of companies with the highest ratio of racial and ethnic diversity, it will be 35% more likely to achieve above-average financial results. Also, if your company is among the 25% of companies with the greatest gender diversity among its employees, it will be 15% more likely to improve the average economic results of its sector.

Diversity at work improves the efficiency of the company and allows it to reach wider segments of customers. It enriches coexistence and encourages the emergence of new ways of doing things. Especially with people who are used to fighting their difficulties, such as the disabled, who have a high capacity for problem-solving and for valuing their job, and who often create a very optimistic working environment.

In the end, it is about working with people who are ideal for a job because of their cultural background, experience and skills. And to have a small representation of society in the company. Do you dare to implement it?

People first | A project by Eurofirms

People First es un espacio de inspiración donde compartimos contenidos con un eje común: las personas. Desde distintas ópticas y sectores, abordamos varios temas, tendencias y noticias de interés humano.

La entrada Preparing for diversity aparece primero en People first.

“The Japanese miracle” owes its success to the various philosophies of work that emerged in the 20th century, with the objective of creating rational and effective work “with humanism”, and which are now extending around the world. Below, we make a review of some of its most popular philosophies.

Kaizen Philosophy

Kaizen is the most popular philosophy. It was developed in the 1980s by management consultant Masaki Imai, as an evolution of the Toyota style. It seeks to achieve continuous advancement through small achievements along the way to the best. Small steps every day lead to continuous improvement.

According to the Japanese Kaizen or “continuous improvement” philosophy, each employee is committed to his work, his colleagues, his customers and his company. He is aware of the excellence of the process, ready to solve any failure in the most accurate and quickest way. His attitude contributes to the continuous improvement of the company and the welfare of others.

Despite the fact that the Kaizen Institute is present in more than 35 countries to offer consultancy and training on this method, in Europe several critical voices consider it a rigid system, oriented towards workers who identify strongly with the company and to the benefit of the group, which leaves no place for individual creativity. According to Borja Iglesias, its director of operations in Spain, in El País, although the model has to be adjusted to each country, it is universal because it seeks to listen to and value the workers and give them autonomy to work better.

Kaizen Institute promulgates six principles derived from the Kaizen philosophy around the world, which are as following:

1. Instead of trying to solve big problems at once, it is better to make a small first step towards a solution.
2. Create a simple first challenge, and so on. From challenge to challenge you keep a positive attitude, away from the stress and fear of not being able to.
3. Propose partial goals and work progressively.
4. Same for mistakes: instead of looking for guilt for a failure, it is better to break it down into small mistakes that can be solved.
5. For the working years to make sense, they must be accompanied by actions that make us happy.
6. And moments of relaxation, which open our minds to new solutions or allow us to confront our ideas with those of other colleagues.

The key to this philosophy is to empower employees by giving them full responsibility for the quality of their work. This has repercussions both on the quality of the finished products and on a more meaningful work for them.

Ikigai Philosophy

As with the Jidōka system, the Ikigai philosophy focuses on making work a valuable contribution to people’s lives. This is not easy in a country like Japan, where workers work an average of 80 hours of overtime per month.

“Well Being, Well Doing, Well Being and Well Having” emphasizes certain values as a way of achieving personal fulfillment and business success: acting with honesty and working correctly to achieve the Well Being, which is followed by the Well Having.

5S method

For 5S, on the contrary, the professional success lies, as it explains challenges-directives, in:

• Seiri: differentiating the important from the accessory.
• Seiton: order and organization.
• Seiso: cleanliness in the work space.
• Seiketsu: assuming that the previous points must be fulfilled.
• Shitsuke: establish quality standards.

These Japanese philosophies seek to grow as professionals and for each person to make a crucial contribution to teamwork. Welfare and the spirit of self-improvement are the principles on which they are based.

People first | A project by Eurofirms

People First es un espacio de inspiración donde compartimos contenidos con un eje común: las personas. Desde distintas ópticas y sectores, abordamos varios temas, tendencias y noticias de interés humano.

La entrada The values of Japanese-style work aparece primero en People first.