Jose Burgos, CEO of Fresh People, was our first guest at El Periscopio. Our CEO, Pol Fantoba, had a sincere and inspiring conversation with this human relations crack that revolves around people management in innovative companies.
"When a company sees team and people management as part of its business, it makes a difference. People management is not stale or boring, it's a lot of fun and is the key to the success of any project".
Regarding innovation, Jose explains that they do not have a very complex approach, they have only managed to find a different positioning to that established in the world of talent management. From Fresh they have been able to place the value of their business in people management, understanding this area from a strategic and growth point of view and giving it the same affection as other areas of the business.
According to Jose, working with Fresh has to be like going to a party where learning is not incompatible with enjoyment and having a good time.
Understanding the potential of service design to deliver value to the customer in a scalable way and learning how to package these services has changed their lives and has been the key factor in growing their business model.
Being able to design the service experience has changed the day-to-day running of the organisation, as they are clear on what is process and what is value, and it has also allowed them to evolve as the business has grown.
In a context of growth such as the one in which they are now immersed, their main concern is to continue to be able to treat customers with the same affection and enthusiasm as at the beginning, without the team suffering more than it makes sense to suffer in a process of growth, growing in a healthy and positive way.
In a growth process, it is necessary to have a very clear cost structure in order to maintain the desired level of quality, for example, in Fresh "one person should not take on more than 6-7 projects" in order not to sacrifice the level that is leading them to success.
In recent weeks, his great challenge has been to share context, which is the same as always explaining the "why" of everything that is being done. In Fresh, people already have talent and strengths, and management tends to take things for granted and obvious when they are not.
It is important to strategically share context at all stages of the company so that people can access this kind of information, creating new places to access this knowledge, so that people understand far more than just the simple tasks and challenges of everyday life.
According to Jose, "we delegate tasks, challenges, projects, but we don't delegate context. If you manage to delegate context, you are helping people to connect from the purpose and generate the impact and value that needs to be left with partners or clients".
Jose explains his three basic pillars for connecting with positive energy:
1) Curiosity to discover what each person he works with is exceptional at . Knowing what each person's differential strength is allows you to value people and trust them.
2) Hiring people much better than him. "I have people in the team that I would have paid to be my bosses," says Jose.
3) Understand that you are here to learn. And not just at work, but in life in general.
"At Fresh we celebrate everything, as there are always things to celebrate, from new and old clients to the evolution and growth of the people who are part of the project".
Jose acknowledges that, as a company, the main achievement is not having thought that any client was too small or unimportant. On the other hand, he adds that one of the best decisions he has made is to partner with Paula, since "choosing a good travelling companion is one of the determining factors for the success of the project".
Jose admits to having learned to be less visceral and to manage some situations better. He also regrets not having learned earlier to design services strategically, as this has been the lever for his company's growth.
In 5 years' time Jose expects to see itself as a service as a software company, a company that understands the value of service, but relies on software to achieve its goals.
In a few years, Jose wants to have gone from being a B2B to a P2P (People to People) market leader that relies on software to develop its services.
