I recently attended a conference whose central theme tried to explain the importance of adapting organizations to the new paradigms prevailing in the world, mainly those related to quality and productivity. Although the topics were varied and the performance of the exhibitors was excellent, I noted with concern how they insisted on the importance of keeping the customer satisfied, the need to offer more and better products, to get to know them and ensure their preference, based on a series of steps, ingenious and responsibly organized, whose effectiveness had been proven in other settings. As we got into the subject, I observed that more and more than one of the elements, for me the most important, was constantly being omitted in any business strategy: Human resources.
Although the client-supplier relationship, strategic alliances, incessant changes, telematics and their benefit in business were discussed; At no point was there any discussion of how human resources should be involved in all this, tacitly warning that the entire organization would simply have to adapt to the new model.
As a human resources professional, I have always believed that there is a simple and irrefutable equation that cannot be ignored when thinking about structural, strategic or organizational changes, the formula is nourished by three elements usually studied separately, or grouped in pairs, these They are: Customers, Human Resources and Suppliers. In the process of business improvement, each one of them responds to an important role in the company's profitability chain, but they must be observed from a different perspective, summarized in the expression:
CLIENT = HUMAN RESOURCE = SUPPLIER
I cannot stop thinking about the number of times I have heard about the client as a fundamental piece for the business, as well as in the phase "the clients are both internal and external"; on the importance of turning our suppliers into "strategic allies" who maintain a constant win-win relationship and help us improve our processes. When talking about human resources, I have observed many times how the previous sentences are repeated exalting the commitment that they must observe in terms of these two pillars of the business, but between one thing and the other it is forgotten that human resources are, in perfect alignment, so important and vital as the previous ones, because it will simply depend on the angle that is observed to be considered clients or suppliers.
My concern responded to the emphatic way in which the exhibitors explained the need to know the customer's preferences, to establish loyalty ties to the brand and the products, due to their quality and differentiation from the competition, as well as to strengthen their relationships with providers increasingly aligning processes to facilitate negotiations and exchanges; but at no time was there talk of using these steps to establish the same levels of connectivity with human resources, which in the end, as we all know, is the company.
Organizations are concerned with knowing more about what is outside of it than what is part of itself, and it is not that it is a unique characteristic of companies, as it seems that it is part of our nature; man has devoted himself more to studying outer space than to the earth where he lives.
As for me, all that material that motivates large, medium and small companies to align with new trends is immensely useful if it is also applied to the vital source. We must worry about knowing our human resources, knowing their expectations, tastes, preferences and realities, observing the capacity they have to give and how much they can offer, involving them in our processes and not imposing them as simple demands, because, in the end, we cannot continue pretending that it is a race to which we do not belong and to which we refer in the third person.
Personal experience has shown me that business models are usually devised thinking of organizations as if it were a computer to be repowered, where you only have to replace some obsolete parts with new and updated ones, it can even reach change to the complete team, but as long as it is still managed by the same user, with the same way of thinking and the same methods, the change will be barely noticeable.
I have recently participated in the lifting of competency models aimed at improving the occupational profile of employees, their training and development, however, in the presence of this new management model, I have observed that although we know the gaps that staff have As for the expected levels, the further we are from really knowing them, since the profiles are still designed by those who run the company and not by the owners of the process.
It seems simple and extremely practical to establish strategies to get to know the market and the target customers, but it is completely difficult and even unnecessary to do it with our own people.
There are organizations whose mission, vision and values are fully identified, whose business model is oriented to permanent innovation and even where they boast of having a commitment to their people among their premises, but in practice they are totally unaware of it, and simply consider the as raw material to achieve organizational objectives.
That is why when talking about new business models, whether they are reorientations of old practices or innovative visions of the business environment, we must not forget that there is a common factor that was, is and will be present at all times, which should not be integrated to any plan, it must be part of it, since it is not an isolated entity that must be convinced or summoned, on the contrary, it is so particularly close that it can be compared to an organ of the human body, where Your work and performance in unison, with everyone else, allows you to stay healthy and energetic.
There will undoubtedly be those who will consider that a new model can be the answer to improve business leadership and will undoubtedly seek external advice to achieve it. I do not lose hope to know that there will be those who, before looking outside, will look for that answer in their own people and will treat them at the height of a good client and an important supplier.
