Pepe Díaz, CEO of ARTIEM, tells us the keys to come out of this situation stronger and look to the future with enthusiasm and a proactive attitude.

A few year ago I read this sentence by Peter Druck, probably the best-known and most influential thinker and writer on the subject of management theory and practice in the 20th century, and since I read it, I embraced it. In the current situation, widely defined as a VUCA situation (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) and re-defined by Professor Marcos Urarte as VIRCAS (in its Spanish acronym standing for Volatile, Immediate, Noisy, Complex, Accelerated and Simultaneous), we are all eager to find certainty and confidence in our jobs and in our lives.

In Artiem, after one year coexisting with this underestimated crisis, we have learnt to focus in what we can do instead of standing up waiting for things to happen by themselves or trying to find responsibilities.

As individual persons and as an organization, thinking and acting this way means changing one’s attitude to a proactive and courageous one. This new attitude motivates us and helps us to focus, inspires us to experiment and to find the best version of ourselves. Inevitably this attitude pushes us to move forward.

Ten months after the first lockdown, right in the middle of the third wave, we are able to see now -many reports confirm it- that some trends -emerging trends only at that time- have accelerated spectacularly. Trends such as the digital transformation and the awareness towards sustainability, amongst others. Thanks to them some social changes have taken place, for instance teleworking, consuming local products or the increase of our commitment to society. 

ARTIEM hotelFacing this new situation, we make Peter Druck’s thought “The best way to predict future is to create it” real and we implement the Attractive Image of Future that a group of 87 people from our teams visualised during a Summit hand in hand with Madavi and Fernando Iglesias, their leader-coach, which took place at the beginning of 2019.

This Attractive Image of Future burst from highlighting our strengths. We all agreed that we could only make it happen by developing what we defined as our 6 Fields of Opportunity, which are the following:

  • Circularity: We are aware that our resources are limited and that a linear economy of “take, make, dispose” is not sustainable anymore. Therefore, at Artiem we confirm our compromise towards our environment, and we contribute to transform our industry into a competitive model of business implementing the so called 7R: Redesign, Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Renovate, Recover and Recycle.
  • Lean Process Management. As a strategy for business process improvement supporting the strengths of our Teams, the Freshpeople. It is structured around value streams while allowing our people to grow both professionally and personally.

  • Culture of Experience: We visualise the hospitality business turning from an Economy of services Business into an Experience Business.

  • Distribution 5.0: Developing a platform of bidirectional relationships with clients sharing our same values.

  • Social Value: Filling our strategies and business processes with the social value and making its impact improve our competitiveness.

  • Sustainable Growth: As heritage today is something intangible, we want to base our growth creating and giving an added value to our intangible heritage.

  • Creating Ambassadors: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, another spot on quote by Peter Drucke which gives full sense to this Field of Opportunity. We aim for spreading and developing our culture as a key point to improve our competitiveness.

Making these 6 Fields of Opportunity real means changing into a digital organisation, and therefore adopting the following technologies in our processes: AI, IoT, VR, AR and a robotisation of the processes themselves.

Not forgetting the short term, we are convinced that making our Attractive Image of future something real will also help us to make our vision come true: to become a leading company thanks to our inspiring and innovative model based in happiness of our people and based in our compromise with our environment.

“The best way to predict future is to create it” is an attitude that reminds me that sequence in the film Invictus when the actor interpreting Nelson Mandela reads aloud the following extract from the poem by William Ernest Henley “..It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul..”

Pepe Díaz, CEO of ARTIEM