About two years ago, Fabricio Bloisi, president of iFood, began taking a management course at Harvard University (United States) aimed specifically at founders and CEOs of companies in the New Economy -the program Owner/President Management.
From this experience, Fabricio brought reflections on topics such as people management, the importance of creating a strong business culture and the role of leadership in improving results. He shares with the iFood News the five lessons he learned at Harvard to inspire entrepreneurs.
People are the secret to success
The first lesson cited by Fabricio is about the influence of people on the company's success. “If I make good decisions related to people, selecting good people, developing them, investing in them, giving space to the right people, this is the best way to predict whether the organization will succeed or fail”, he says.
For him, some companies fail to use tools to correctly manage people. “We should be using automated tools to improve our people management. And we don't do that. Therefore, invest in tools to obtain more information to find out where the organization is going wrong or getting people right,” he said.
Leadership counts for more than external factors
It is not just external factors that influence a company's performance. Fabricio points out research carried out at Harvard which shows that it is possible to identify business performance based on its maturity in relation to topics such as investment in people, management of the organization's culture and the quality of leadership. “Everyone has to invest much more in leadership and culture and blame less on macroeconomic conditions or sector performance,” he said.
He cites the following common characteristics of companies with good performance:
- Well-defined and communicated strategy;
- Execution that always meets customer expectations;
- High performance culture and strong values;
- Structure that simplifies work in the company with its peers and in the organization with other areas of the company.
Learn from innovative companies
With the culture of innovative companies, it is possible to learn to be more flexible (without neglecting responsibility) and to have more tolerance for errors. “It means carrying out short projects, acting quickly and ensuring that errors are resolved quickly, spending little money”, lists Fabricio.
In this lesson, the president of iFood brings up the importance of ambidexterity concept, which combines creativity with discipline, and the ability of companies to run large, mature businesses while relying on other business areas to innovate.
“This is how it works at iFood, with the method Jet Ski. There are dozens of small startups within the company, they test a lot of things. But at the same time I have a structure that can operate my more mature business, without experimentation and error, because I cannot take risks in this business”, he says.
Strong culture streamlines processes
Companies with a strong culture need less bureaucracy and are able to adapt better to new scenarios, which is why they have a greater chance of success. When the culture is strong, the team understands and responds without needing many procedures.
“Culture is not just something 'cool'. It’s a norm in which the entire company behaves in the same way without me having to say exactly what needs to be done”, he says. “A strong culture, which everyone knows, respects, is passionate about and pursues, creates faster and more agile companies, less rigid and, therefore, that win more.”
Know how to tell a good story
Storytelling It's one of those words that come into fashion. From then on, everyone recognizes its importance, but few leaders invest time in knowing how to communicate and hold the attention of their audience, be it a customer or their internal audience.
“Stories are remembered much better than raw data”, says Fabricio. “Improving the quality of communication will, at the very least, make everyone around you understand and work closer to you.”
