Junior Borneli, founder and CEO of StartSe, talks about changing the role of managers to prioritize culture over performance
Until recently, companies were built on very tangible pillars, such as buildings, vehicles, products coming off the production line. “Today, they can run without any assets, existing only in the digital world” — this is how Junior Borneli, founder and CEO of the StartSe platform, describes the new economy, in which digital transformation shifts market logic to prioritize services to products.
“The waves of transformation are increasingly shorter, with increasing intensity. In this scenario, change is the only constant — everything else is variable”, adds Borneli, who is also a Linkedin Top Voice and author of the bestseller “Organizações Infinitas”.
In this context, the role of leaders in companies also changes. For Borneli, new leaders must understand that culture is more important than performance – and he explains why in this exclusive interview with iFood News.
iFN: To begin with, what does the new economy mean?
JB: If before companies were real things, with buildings, cars and products, today they can run without any assets, existing only in the digital world. They may even offer the same thing, but they use technology and business models to do it differently. It must always be changing. It doesn't matter the size of the company: the new economy requires continuous evolution. Standing still is worse than taking the wrong path.
iFN: What is the leadership profile in this model?
JB: These are people who need to be inspiring. There are a lot of job offers today, so the leader is not in a company just for the salary or career plan, but because he believes that the company will make him evolve too.
iFN: In relation to management, what differentiates these new leaders?
JB: They create an environment for people to develop. In the new economy, managers do not control people, they provide the context. When you align everyone in the same direction, you give freedom with responsibility. It is a more horizontal management. When you leave people alone to work, they naturally generate more results.
Furthermore, these leaders understand that culture is more important than performance. There is no point in high performance with zero company culture — this “ruins” the process. For managers in the new economy, culture takes precedence over performance, in the sense that they create mechanisms so that the team's effort is converted into benefits for the entire team.
iFN: But then traditional managers need to adapt…
JB: Yes. These leaders have to change their way of leading, as the new leaders are different from those in the past. Unlike the previous generation, where our parents spent 20, 30 years in the same company, today, people spend around 2 years in an organization and move on to new challenges.
At StartSe, for example, many of our students and contacts are more experienced managers looking to update themselves to stay relevant. It is a recent movement, driven by startups. In the end, the entire ecosystem needs to be driven by reinvention: companies, leaders and followers. The waves of transformations are increasingly shorter, with increasing intensity. Change is the only constant; everything else is variable.
