Some say that a business is a sum of Departments, for others it is a team of people. For many, business is a profit and loss account, for others it is an exciting project to strive for.

Some say that what is essential in a business is execution, for others core topic is having a clear vision. For some the most important thing is that the business makes a lot of money, for others the most important thing is the quality of what is done and how it is done. There are those who reduce business to simple numbers and others who seem to complicate it with a complex web of relationships. Everyone seems to have a point, although reality is usually much more capricious and stubborn.

If we had to explain what a business is to a layman at subject, for example to a child, how would we do it?

We would probably resort to rational elements, such as results (earning money by doing something or performing an activity is well understood by children) and we would also go into organizational aspects related to that particular activity, which is quite intuitive. But, the question is whether we would go into emotional elements, related to people, their emotions and motivations, because children do understand that well. I think most of us would not, and yet it is an element core topic to understand a business.

The current reality of most companies is stubborn and rides between two paradigms. An enormous and even worrying percentage of entrepreneurs, managers and scholars of business have not overcome the classic paradigm of "Smithian" roots, for economists, or "Taylorist", more engineering but essentially the same. I am referring to the paradigm of the industrial revolution, to its conception of the business based on the division of work and the Economics of supply.

Well, the said supply no longer works, no matter how hard they try. The idea that each supply creates its own demand only works for Steve Jobs and four other geniuses, because most companies are light years away from those levels of excellence and innovation. There are entrepreneurs who are starving with their supply. But we are still bent and anchored in that paradigm, an outdated paradigm that makes it difficult, among other things, to look properly at the customer.

"Taylorism is dead, long live Taylorism!" Well, it doesn't seem to be the solution. If something dies, let's bury it with dignity and look forward.

Paradigm Shift

And what is the importance of not evolving the business paradigm and being Taylorist in plenary session of the Executive Council 21st century, some may ask. It is very important, because it incapacitates companies to change and develop with the agility, flexibility, coordination, speed, efficiency and customer orientation necessary in our 21st century world.

There is an important challenge of paradigm change and cultural renewal in companies. A challenge that needs to be addressed. A challenge that requires balancing rational aspects (in which there is a great surplus) with emotional aspects (in which there is a significant deficit) in the business management .

Entrepreneurs and managers must continue to manage profit and loss accounts, but also people and emotions. This is nothing new, but what is new is that it used to be an option and now it is a necessity. Are we ready? I'm afraid not, but let's get going and make the road as we go.