I took the concept of background and figure in my studies of social psychology, and it consisted in that one in the professional role must be background and not figure, the figures must be the members of the group, the operator must go unnoticed and intervene only when there is a hinders learning.
At the management level, although the concepts are valid, they do not work in the same way. Knowledge is the key to the door that opens the success of human capital, and if having a high human capital transforms you into a figure, DO IT. Do not hesitate. Become a star of your organization or a reference in your field, do not be a background, be a figure in any discipline you perform. Stand out, don't go unnoticed.
During 1905, a rumor began to spread in Paris that there was a young oriental woman who danced in her private house, wrapped in veils that she was discarding one by one. A local journalist who had seen her dance reported that "an oriental woman had come to Europe laden with perfumes and jewels, to introduce the colorful oriental opulence into the life of the sated society of European cities." Soon everyone knew the name of the dancer: Mata Hari.
At the beginning of that year, during the winter, a small and select public used to gather in a room filled with Indian statues and other relics, while an orchestra played music inspired by Indian and Javanese melodies. After keeping his expectant audience waiting, Mata Hari suddenly noticed covered with jewels in the best Hindu style, a jeweled band at the waist that held a sarong that reveals as much as it concealed and the arms covered with bracelets, then Mata Hari danced in a dance. A style that no one had ever seen before in France, swinging his whole body as if in a trance, he told his enthusiastic public that his dances told stories of Hindu mythology and popular legends of Java, soon the cream of the crop of Parisian society,ambassadors from distant countries competed to be invited to the hall of which Mata Hari was rumored to perform sacred dances while dancing naked.
The public who wanted to know more about her Mata Hari told reporters that she was of Dutch origin but that she had grown up in Java, she also spoke of her life in India where she had learned the Hindu sacred dances and where women know how to shoot with precision. ride horses, do logarithmic calculations and talk about philosophy. By the summer of 1905, despite the fact that many relatives had seen Mata Hari dance, his name was on everyone's lips.
As Mata Hari gave more interviews the story of her origins was constantly changing, she said that she had grown up in India, that her grandmother was a princess from Java, that she had grown up in Sumatra where she had lived on horseback with a gun in her hand risking her life, no one knew anything for sure about her, but the journalists did not care too much about these changes in her story, they compared her to a Hindu goddess, to a creature out of the pages of Baudelaire and all that imagination he wanted to see in that mysterious oriental woman.
In August 1905 Mata Hari appeared for the first time in public, the crowds that gathered to see her on opening night caused a true uproar, the oriental dancer had become an object of worship, which gave rise to numerous imitations, a Critic of the time wrote Mata Hari personifies the poetry of India, its mysticism its voluptuousness and its magical charm, another comment if India has unexpected treasures like this all French people emigrate to the banks of the Ganges.
Soon the fame of Mata Hari and his sacred Indian dances spread beyond the borders of Paris. They invited her to Berlin, Vienna and Milan. During the following years she performed throughout Europe, rubbing shoulders with the highest social circles and earning enough to enjoy an independence rarely known to a woman of that time. Towards the end of the First World War, she was arrested, convicted and executed for being a German spy. Only during the trial was the truth known. Mata Hari was neither from Java nor from India, she had not been raised in the East, nor did she carry a drop of oriental blood in her veins. Her real name was Margaretha Zelle, and she came from the quiet province of Fricia, in northern Holland.
The history of the figure of Mata Hari is not distant from what happens with the figures of the companies, when we talk about Microsoft, Bill comes to mind and not the CFO, when we talk about IBM, it comes to us the mind, Thomas Watson and not the CEO.
To transform into a figure means to stand out from the rest, to have essential and unique knowledge that places him in the foreground like Mata Hari in European society in 1905, but Beware! Being a figure in the knowledge society does not imply wearing veils and dancing on top of your boss's desk. Don't get confused and use the Mata Hari technique to be a figure because two things can happen: you can kick it out, or your boss may like it and will ask you for breakfast with dancing included every morning.
For Maurice Saatchi, both things happened. They threw him out, and then he made the capitalists dance. As Saatchi & Saatchi became the world's leading advertising company, the Saatchi brothers worked their creative magic within the organization while delivering shareholder returns, growth and dividend. Their uninterrupted success story spanned more than ten years, from 1976 to 1986, during which time they acquired other companies at an average of three per year. The value of the knowledge was such that in April 1986 through a secondary issue of shares investors paid 400 million pounds sterling (something like a lot of greens put together) for 47% of the company's share package.The following month that money was used to buy the New York agency Ted Bates, after this operation the Saatchi & Saatchi became the largest advertising agency in the world with an annual turnover of US $ 7.5 billion.
Already in 1994, as a result of pressure exerted by the main shareholders, Maurice Saatchi was removed from his position as president of the agency, «for the first time in 25 years, he wrote in his resignation letter, I found myself in an advertising agency where the term advertising man was used as an insult ». His dismissal was intended to prevent another drop in the company's share prices, this was initially received with enthusiasm, but then came the catastrophe. Maurice Saatchi formed his new company which bore the Saatchi name and recruited the best employees of the previous company, due to this loss of human capital Carnation company Cordiant, successor to Saatchi & Saatchi, lost customer accounts in a matter of weeks for a value of more than £ 50 million.Stock prices in Cordiant plummeted, over the next 6 months the value of the shares plummeted to a third.
Do like Maurice Saatchi, find your area of excellence, determine what are the knowledge that differentiates you from the rest and makes you unique. Once you have defined them, think about how you can multiply, improve, transform and differentiate them in the market. Keep in mind, as hard as it sounds, that you are worth in the market based on what you give, and what you give is strictly linked to the knowledge you have.
If you manage to transform yourself into a figure, feel content and happy, it means that your human capital is high, valued and essential for the market or company in which you work, however BE ALERT !!!!! Keep in mind the saying: "the difficult thing is not to arrive but to stay". This means that we are in hyper-fast and hyper-competitive markets, so… DON'T SLEEP IN LAURELES !!! Periodically check your work (and life) tool, that is, your gray matter, as well as regularly service your car so that it does not deteriorate.
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