Integrated Business Transformation

Alberto Pérez La Rotta

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781787690516
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Drawing upon a model developed over 25 years of experience and successfully taught for many yearsat his company Wilson Learning Andina y Rio de la Plata, Alberto Pérez La Rotta presents a comprehensive and replicable approach to integrated business transformation that synchronizes natural human behavior with the needs of leadership, sales, customers, and teams. HerePérezprovides a roadmap to his method as well as case studies from across Latin America and across the financial services, chemical, pharmaceutical, industrial equipment, and consumer products industries, and he demonstrates how to clarify the challenges facing an organization, define a new value proposition, and connect strategy to key capabilities rooted in an organization's leadership, culture, sales potential, customer focus, and value chain. This allows organizations to develop and implement solutions that generate transformation and growth and measure the impact of the transformation on the organization and systems.
Pérezclearly connects theory to practice in each of its real-world business cases, making Integrated Business Transformation of interest to researches, students, and practitioners.

PART I

CONSULTING APPROACH

CHAPTER 1

ALBERTO PéREZ LA ROTTA: “MY LIFE AND MY PHILOSOPHY”

From an early age, I felt a calling to contribute to mankind, not just helping the sick or defending their freedom, but contributing to man as a whole; a calling to devote myself essentially to human fulfillment and growth, and thus respecting the course and order of nature, which was established in the universe by an Absolute Being. My intellectual interests at that time were directed toward the understanding of this challenge and the search of its personal and social implications, namely, to contribute to man’s and society transformation.

These personal and intellectual interests were “weird” in a time when young people like me were preparing just for doing: to practice a profession and earn a living. In my case, I learned early from my parents to respect an order that goes beyond just doing. I learned first to focus on the being, that is, on who do I want to be; secondly, on what I need to do, and finally on what I want to have.

Over the years, I deeply understood that this order is necessary to accomplish true personal and professional fulfillment. This order connects our emotional energy to a mission: the purpose that feeds the meaning of being and existing, and gives the necessary sense of direction and energy to achieve the vision. Sharing these insights with others has been my way of giving back to society. Consulting for diverse organizations as my professional practice has been the means to make it happen.

Following this belief, I chose psychology as my profession, and social and organizational psychology as my area of specialization. These human and social sciences gave me the basis and vision to be able to broadly and effectively impact the context where the human being spends the majority of his life: his job, his organization.

In this way, I realized that my calling to contribute to mankind, to share that fundamental order of being–doing–having, was also a way to add value to society, as it receives the value that both the individual and the organization generate, regardless of the nature of the organization. In the forthcoming paragraphs, I hope to describe the intellectual and, in a way, emotional and spiritual path that I have traveled guided by this vocation, and to share the elements of what I call my philosophy of life, which is at the same time the foundation that guides my professional practice.

* * * * * * *

My life begins in the warmth of my nuclear family in Bogota, Colombia, a family in which we learned early to live and respect – in a fundamental way – the human being. As a family, we also learned about true love, integrity, and essential values. I learned the importance of having a great purpose to accomplish in life in order to meaningfully contribute to others: to our own family, society in general, our country, and the present and future world.

My paternal grandparents were Julio A. Pérez, born in San Antonio de Táchira, Venezuela, and who became an Army General during the War of a Thousand Days, and Silenia Rojas, born in Boyacá, Colombia. My maternal parents were Francisco de Paula La Rotta, descendent of Italian immigrants, and Irene Salgado, from Bogota, Colombia. My father Alberto Pérez Rojas, who was Director of the Economic Research Department at Banco de la República (Central Bank of Colombia), and my mother Inés La Rotta Salgado met while working as school teachers at Colegio Antonio Nariño, a vocation that I would inherit as my first job was as a professor. I have fond memories of my mother’s musical penchant and of the literary, historical, and philosophical richness of my father’s library.

Respect for freedom, including respect for self-determination and for free personal and professional choice, is one of the essential values that my family gave me and that I embraced from an early age: being responsible for your own personal and professional path and, of course, of the consequences, which were always cautioned and discussed. That is, the decision of being is eminently personal and should be respected as such. However, we can accept and respect guidance, discussion, and companion along the way in each personal and professional growth stage: we decide, but we are not alone.

During my childhood and adolescence I used to ask myself “What is my calling?” in regard to vocation, and “What do I want to be and why?,” in regard to purpose. When I would ask my father, his answer always was: “Choose freely what you want to be and then think what professions would be related and why; in doing so you can achieve greater fulfillment. This will take you far.”

He also maintained: “You are called for something special; you will have to study and work hard, but you have to understand and accept that ingratitude, envy and deception could be present; anyway, you must accept your loneliness to be able to transcend!”

In addition to my father’s wise advice, I always heard an inner voice that told me that, once found, I could not betray my fundamental purpose. In those years of the 1960s, this kind of reflection and commitment were what mattered the least to most of my peers but, for me, they were the most important.

When graduating from Liceo de La Salle, a Catholic high school, my classmates found it ridiculous that I chose to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology; a profession that, at the time, was mostly studied by members of religious orders, as a complement to their theology education, or by high-class women passing time before starting a family. Beyond the prejudice from immature and ignorant teenagers, I had a vision of greatness and personal fulfillment by serving others and contributing to their being and self-realization. This vision generated in me a great passion and I felt in my heart great freedom. I also felt the support of my parents’ love and passion, who were always an inspiration of generosity, nobility, emotional intensity, love, and the pursuit of truth. I learned by their example the highest standards of work, responsibility, and emotional–spiritual constitution.

Nevertheless, I must confess that this profound sense of freedom was accompanied by the fear of being: making mistakes, losing, worthless efforts, not being recognized, and losing face. We know that something represents our own truth, that it has basic and transcendental implications, although sometimes we face others’ skepticism about our own truth. With time, I have learned that this truth is something that we must accept as our own and that we must be emotionally ready to overcome fears, which greatly depends on the conversation that we have with ourselves and is the main source of our successes or our failures. We must ask if what we are telling ourselves is true or not, because it can be influenced by our beliefs and emotional fears. Beliefs fixed by our fears work against us; our inner conversation ultimately determines our behavior and our emotional and spiritual growth, and it requires courage to take risks to accomplish something big and meaningful that makes sense for our growth, that will only be seen […] with time.

I felt a great force pushing me forward through a path where – as cautioned by my father – I should be willing to live not without financial difficulties, these can always exist, but with the emotional pain that others can cause. It was a wake-up call from my father so that I could understand I could help, forgive, and love with all my strength and could give the best of me to others […] that I would cause a significant impact in others if I followed my calling, my vocation.

My undergraduate studies in psychology, at Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, helped me to deeply understand the permanent dilemma of growing or dying, which requires personal transformation and the courage to grow, to be the architect of our own personal fulfillment. In addition to the psychological theories about human constitution and behavior, I received from my university a solid education in natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities that allowed me to reach a profound understanding of human nature and society in general. The integration between biology, philosophy, history, and psychology fortified my character and my comprehension of human reality.

The study of anthropology helped me understand the different human cultures, their similarities and their differences, and recognize the power of what is believed as truth for me on human behavior, which is also valid for societies and organizations. A realize that a truth for me could become a dogma when it prevents us from seeing a changing reality and making adjustments to our vision of the world.

Thanks to my undergraduate education, I learned to recognize the human being as an integral being where his biological, psychological, philosophical, spiritual, and social dimensions are integrated and connected. Like in every organism, this integration results in a unity that is neither disconnected nor isolated; it is impacted by its family, organizational, and social contexts. As this integral being assimilates and understands this reality, he is able to give an answer that facilitates his growth and personal fulfillment. Taking the risk of appearing simplistic or reductionist, I can summarize all this learning, which took me years and hours of study, in the words of Ortega y Gasset: “I am I plus my circumstances.”

My first years as a professional were dedicated to teaching at the Universidad Javeriana; I started working as an assistant professor during my senior year, before graduating as a psychologist. Subsequently, I focused on working in organizations, which helped me see and understand the old dilemma of growing or dying in a new way, no longer in the context of personal life but now applied to the organization: growth and transformation is needed for the organization to deliver value to its employees, its customers, and to the community in general. The start of my professional career in organizational psychology opened the way for my vocation’s fulfillment; now I could impact society on a bigger scale, through the organization.

The diverse environment of the multinational corporations and the university where I worked during the first years made me conscious of the need to deepen my knowledge and understanding of human and organizational realities, now surrounded by a different culture, exposed to new ideas, and in the light of new professors. As I also wanted to expand my knowledge of the old world, its beliefs, customs, history, and also its life philosophy, freedom’s conception, and social and organizational development, I applied for a scholarship to Leiden University, founded in 1575 in Holland and one of Europe’s oldest and most prominent universities.

I was granted a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in social and organizational psychology. I was happy and proud of becoming a student at Leiden University, where great philosophers, such as Descartes and Spinoza, and scientists, such as Einstein and Enrico Fermi, attended. In those years of the 1970s, the subjects of organizational psychology and management were bustling and the concept of organizations seen as sociotechnical systems was spreading in Europe, thanks to social researchers who brought new ideas from all over the world. In Leiden, I had the good fortune of having Hans van Beinum, Director of the Foundation for Business Administration, as my intellectual mentor; he was leading an international and multidisciplinary research team on the Quality of Working Life, an approach that sought to improve employees’ capabilities and innovation, according to which the success of the organization depends not only on leadership and management, but also on every employee’s ability to anticipate and respond to the changing environment. Hans van Beinum was my professor, my mentor, and my master’s thesis supervisor.

When I moved to the Netherlands, my marriage was in its first growth cycle. My wife, Julia “Julita” Vergara, was 22 years old and had just earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Universidad Javeriana. We met at the university when we were looking with whom to share our cherished dreams come true. Our union was based on a shared vision of growing together by giving our best to each other, to make our dream of having our own consulting firm happen, with the vision of helping others grow and transform themselves. We knew from the beginning that we should together take a long journey of professional development. Moreover, we were starting the constitution of our family, founded on the principles of true love, mutual growth, the realization of the gifts, and the calling of our children.

Once I earned my master’s degree, some of my professors suggested I stay at Leiden University to continue my education in a doctoral program in organizational psychology. Of course, I accepted the invitation, as well as a new scholarship that allowed me to stay in the Netherlands with my young family for another two years. At that time, my eldest daughter, Catalina, was two-and-a-half years old; we had brought her to the Netherlands when she was only two months old. We lived in Leiden and enjoyed this college town full of history, culture, and kind people. Moreover, we enjoyed visiting different places in Europe that enriched our historical, artistic, and musical culture. We then moved to Nijmegen, on the border with Germany, where we found new friends who gave us a new and different vision of how to grow and develop oneself with great freedom and true personal fulfillment. This was an important stage of my life, at 28 years old; my family were experiencing a new and enriching life dimension, and for Catalina it was a strong foundation during her firs years of life.

In summary, since the beginning of our marriage, we recognized and accepted the challenge to truly grow personally in order to love one another and enjoy interdependent growth. This has been the foundation and strength that have taken us forward during 44 years of marriage and has allowed us to fulfill our shared dreams with our family, our business partners in the United States and Latin America, our friends in Europe, and our customers in Latin America.

* * * * * * *

In the 1970s, behavioral sciences started to apply and adapt general systems theory (developed from the synthesis of biological sciences, philosophical concepts of process and purpose, and cybernetic models) to better understand the organization as a whole organism and opposed to the idea of Taylorism which had prevailed since the late nineteenth century. Taylorism emphasized that organizations were mechanisms that could be synchronized to improve their efficiency through scientific and rational management.

The contributions of biology (by Jennings, Cannon, and Henderson), the early psychological theory of Gestalt, and the social systems sociology (by Talcott Parsons) were integrated into new interpretations of the organization as a sociotechnical system that interacts with the environment. So, according to Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, a living being survives by incorporating within itself elements from its environment (matter or energy), it transforms them and, then, gives them back to its environment. Thanks to this process, it obtains additional energy that allows it to have a certain condition of equilibrium and autonomy, which is a condition to adapt to changes in its environment.

In other words, the organization that succeeds in integrating knowledge about its environment and its customers generates a change in its behavior allowing it to give back and add outward value. Understanding that this premise applies and extends to the fields of organizational psychology and management confirmed to me that I was on the right path, that impacting the organization’s systems was the best way for me to contribute to society, to help add value, to increase freedom, and, consequently, to increase the happiness and personal fulfillment of human beings.

During my years of study in Leiden, in parallel to my doctoral studies, I continued reading the works of great thinkers, a habit that I had started since my years at Universidad Javeriana. By reading Teilhard de Chardin, I discovered that his particular education as geologist, paleontologist, and theologist allowed him not only to know the world’s structure and evolution, but also to link mankind with the rest of the universe in a coherent and intelligible whole. Without doubt, after Hans van Beinum, my other great intellectual influence was Dr George Land’s Grow or Die, a scientific work – originally published in 1973 – on the principles of growth.

According to Land, every organism’s growth through time can be described by an S-shaped curve with two inflection points: the first, when the organism changes from a stage of invention and environmental exploration to a stage of improvement and adaptation; the second, when it changes to a third stage of obsolescence due to competition and scarcity of resources. Each stage requires creativity to challenge the existing state and find new rules of success; nevertheless, creativity plays an essential role at the second in...