Episodio 1 | David Cabero, Líder de la Categoría Escritura de BIC

Hello, good morning Ernesto, a pleasure to be with you today.

I would differentiate three elements, what I call the P-E-C from experience. First is politics – sometimes decisions are made in companies because someone, your boss, is going to promote you, and to avoid contradicting them so that promotion happens, you're saying yes to a plan that doesn't seem reasonable. That's politics. The second letter P is emotions – ultimately, emotions influence the decision you are going to make, and you are not aware of it. You think you are being logical, but that's not reality. The third is C for culture – the culture of the company makes you not decide something because in the hallway they tell you that Marcel Bich, the founder, would never have done that. That's culture. The first learning is that emotion has a much more important weight than we think. This leads you to know yourself. When you have biases, you control them by asking other people who don't have those biases, and with them you can make a much more balanced decision. That's the learning from 25-28 years in many countries and cultures.

Yes, yes. Not only that, you are going to justify that it is the good decision. The neural system works very well; you end up convincing yourself that the best is not to fire anyone, because things will get better. And why do you think things will get better? Not because the numbers explain that, but because you don't want to reach that conclusion, because that conclusion materially forces you to reduce staff.

Group decision-making has the benefit of giving you another type of vision, because each person has their own fears, emotions, and political views. When you say 'I'm going to discuss it with a team first,' you open up multiple visions. Using 'fair process' – involve the team, let them discuss, and if the final decision is different but you explain it, they will support it. You need humility, not ego. You also need to see your team from a developer perspective, accept delegation sometimes. Delegation means you decide to delegate and assume the consequences. Group decisions improve through discussion and feedback to reach the best possible decision.

Value is generated mainly at the intersections between departments. In organizational decision-making, I see three important elements: culture, leadership style, and teams. Culture is a sum of convictions and is very hard to change. It consists of values, behaviors, and rituals. Leadership style: I see four simple styles – commanding, teaching, socializing, and processing. Most leaders have two predominant styles, and they adapt to the situation. The third element is teams: using a military analogy, the more 'commanders' there are – humble and taking responsibility – the easier it is to implement a culture of discussion and improve decisions through varied perspectives.

An important part comes from birth, your DNA. Personality adjusts very early, maybe by age 10 or 15, and leadership style doesn't change later. Let me tell an anecdote: at age 6 in school in Barcelona, I was the captain choosing the soccer team. So you carry a backpack from early on. I recognize myself in two styles: teaching – explaining, giving sense, storytelling; and socializing – Latin Mediterranean, relationship, meals, discussions, making teams work through connection. Those are my two predominant styles.

Four ideas. One: the importance of the emotional – logic is not paramount even in war. Two: the world of immediacy – we need to separate important from urgent. Give too much weight to the urgent. Three: short-term vs long-term – Western incentives are short-term, but we need to balance. The easy decision is often wrong, the hard one correct. Four: the importance of culture in all contexts – family, team, company, even couple culture. Those are the four lines of the book.

Technology is exponential, humans are linear. The combination of technology layers allows things we never imagined. I believe it will be a hybrid of human and technology. The basics of leadership – vision, communication, passion, decision-making, genuine interest in people – won't change. Technology will allow more precise decisions, but the base of decision-making remains. We'll use technology as support, in a hybrid world where human intuition still matters.

We are less prepared than ever because of social media influence. We have trivialized the consequences of decisions. My advice: think about the consequences and accept them. If you make a mistake, accept it and learn. It's not about luck; it's about taking risk, accepting consequences, and learning. So think about the consequences of your decisions and assume them.

A pleasure as always to discuss with you, Ernesto.