Author: Spanish Chamber

Nieves Rodríguez, Founder of Fastracktorefocus and Member of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK, emphasizes the importance of disconnecting and relaxing during the summer, especially as we approach August, a month when many of us are on vacation. As an executive coach and mentor, Nieves explains the benefits of incorporating mindfulness into your business, including reduced stress and enhanced focus, creativity, and well-being, among other advantages. 

BLOG POST WRITTEN BY CHAMBER MEMBER FASTTRACKTOREFOCUS 

In recent years, technology has brought unprecedented convenience to our lives, accelerating our pace and deepening our dependence on time. However, it has also led to a loss of calm, focus, and attention. As a result, you might feel like you’re not achieving your goals, your to-do list is growing, and you’re struggling to find the information you need or respond to all your messages. Your well-being, along with your personal and professional relationships, might be plummeting, leading to frustration. 

How can you achieve success without sacrificing your peace of mind? 

Believe it or not, the key to making sound decisions while maintaining your composure lies in effectively managing your time and attention. Today, the practice of mindfulness (attention to the present moment) is crucial for achieving better results without the stress of daily work. Harvard University highlights that mindfulness is a basic skill for today’s leaders. 

This summer is the perfect time to work on your mind and return to work with calm, tranquillity, and focus. I’m excited to introduce my new book, Mindfulness in the Digital Age, a must-read for highly effective leaders, entrepreneurs, and busy individuals. This book offers practical advice to help you develop the attention and focus necessary for mental calm, leading to better results with less effort. 

Why Mindfulness? 

• Reduce Stress: Mindfulness helps you recognize stress triggers and manage your reactions more effectively. By practicing mindfulness, you can lower cortisol levels, reduce anxiety, and promote a sense of inner peace. This allows you to handle high-pressure situations with a clear and calm mind, enhancing your overall well-being. 

• Increase Focus and Clarity: In a world full of distractions, mindfulness trains your brain to stay present and focused on the task at hand. This heightened state of awareness improves your cognitive functions, enabling you to make better decisions, solve problems more efficiently, and maintain a sharper mental acuity. 

• Boost Productivity: When you are fully present, you can work more efficiently and effectively. Mindfulness reduces the mental clutter that often leads to procrastination and multitasking, allowing you to prioritize your tasks better and complete them with higher quality and speed. 

• Enhance Creativity: By clearing your mind of unnecessary thoughts and worries, mindfulness creates space for new ideas and innovative thinking. It encourages a state of open-mindedness and curiosity, fostering a creative environment where groundbreaking ideas can flourish. 

• Develop Leadership Skills: Effective leadership requires empathy, active listening, and emotional intelligence. Mindfulness enhances these qualities by promoting self-awareness and compassion, enabling you to connect with your team on a deeper level and inspire them through authentic and mindful leadership. 

• Manage Change: In today’s fast-paced business environment, change is inevitable. Mindfulness equips you with the resilience and adaptability needed to navigate change gracefully. By staying grounded in the present moment, you can approach transitions with a calm and positive mindset, turning challenges into opportunities. 

• Improve Well-being: Prioritizing your mental and physical health is essential for long-term success. Mindfulness practices, such as meditation and mindful breathing, reduce stress-related symptoms and improve overall health. This leads to a more balanced life, where you can enjoy your achievements without compromising your well-being. 

We must demystify mindfulness; it’s not about retreating to a cave. It’s about being here and now, fully present, with attention and focus. Can you imagine the personal and professional results you can achieve? 

Introducing mindfulness into your business is the best gift and investment you can make for your team. Invest in something that a fire cannot take away: your development and peace of mind. 

Nieves’ book Mindfulness in the Digital Age is available on Amazon in both English and Spanish. 

 

Madrid, February 2024

Konecta, a world leader in the provision of Customer Experience services, has strengthened its positioning and presence in the English-speaking market with the integration of Bespoke, a UK-based company specialising in business process outsourcing activities, with production in Durban, South Africa. To add further to its English-speaking offer, Konecta has also opened its first operations site in San Antonio, Texas (USA).

These two announcements consolidate the Spanish multinational’s geographic expansion strategy, and reinforce its proposition for the English-speaking market with a wide range of offshoring services. Through this expansion of its global footprint, Konecta is consolidating its position as one of the leading players in the sector worldwide, offering knowledge and experience in top-level CX BPO services to clients all over the world. 

The deal with Bespoke will provide Konecta with clients in the utilities and retail sectors and also extend its talent base with more than 1,100 highly skilled professionals providing services in English, creating a solid foundation for future growth and development to meet high demand.

“The integration of Bespoke brings additional expert talent in a key location,” says Mark Thomason, CEO of Bespoke and a pioneer in the South African BPO sector.” South Africa has established itself as a strong offshore services location for both major global brands, with a focus on the UK, Australia and the US. Our growth over the last four years is a reflection of this trend. By joining a global leader we will further accelerate our growth. My team and I look forward to joining Konecta and continuing our successful journey.”

Jesús Vidal, CEO of the Konecta Group, explains the multinational’s commitment to the English-speaking market and its expansion: “Following our successful acquisition and integration of Comdata, we continue to expand our English offering. The addition of Bespoke to our portfolio further consolidates our position in the UK market and reinforces our commitment to global English offshoring. I am delighted to welcome the Bespoke team to Konecta UK. Their professionalism, dedication and hard work perfectly fit our company culture. This takeover offers a great cultural and geographic fit and enhances our competitive service offering.”

Konecta, which merged with the multinational Comdata in April 2022 to create one of the largest groups in the sector globally, has been pursuing a geographical expansion plan for some years now. 

The company, founded and chaired by José María Pacheco, is already well established in the UK, with three centres in London’s Canary Wharf, Manchester and Ringwood, Hampshire. With the integration of Bespoke‘s operations in Durban (South Africa), it is consolidating one of its strategic priorities, which is to continue to make progress in the English-speaking market, both in the UK and in the USA and Australia.

Along with the consolidation of Bespoke, Konecta has strengthened its presence in the USA with the opening of an operations centre in San Antonio, Texas . With this centre, the Spanish multinational has gained a  strategic location, with a flexible infrastructure that already supports the operations of its clients in the healthcare sector, together with Colombia and the UK.

Konecta has a network of specialised operations centres across different countries to service the US market. These include El Salvador and Guatemala, with a pure teleworking (work from home) model; Mexico combining ‘digital marketing’; Colombia, leveraging local leadership to offer ‘nearshore’; and Peru, one of the fastest growing centres in CX BPO services.

 

BLOG POST WRITTEN BY ALEXANDRA TAVERNER GARCÍA

 

On the 28th of November, Cádiz Investment Hub held their first event in London, titled ‘Unveiling Cádiz: Spain’s New Horizon for Investment’. The event was moderated by El País’ Rafa de Miguel and introduced Cádiz Investment Hub, an initiative driven by the Cádiz Employers’ Confederation (CEC) and funded by the Regional Council of Cádiz aiming to assist companies to invest, consolidate, and grow in the region, attracting talent and creating a climate that encourages innovation, entrepreneurship, and foreign investment. Throughout the morning, several of Cádiz’s emerging investment opportunities within the energy, aerospace, naval, blue economy, tourism and agri-food industries for UK companies were explored and emphasised.

In attendance, representing the Cádiz Investment Hub was Julio Hoyos, Project Manager and Head of Cádiz Investment Hub. Mr. Hoyos addressed the objectives of this new project and gave visibility to its interworking’s as a novel initiative. Cádiz Investment Hub itself is a point of cohesion between public and private sectors, the main objective being to promote the economic development within the region of Cádiz through various services including pre and post investment guidance, strategic support, business development and identification of investors. Mr. Hoyos even hinted towards the beginning of a start-up ecosystem within the blue economy.

Later, presentations were given by Almudena Martínez del Junco, President of the Regional Council of Cádiz, Carmen Romero, General Secretary of the Cádiz Employers’ Confederation (CEC), and Germán Beardo Caro, Fourth Vice-President and responsible for Planning, Coordination and Strategic Development Area of the Regional Council of Cádiz, who all emphasised the region’s bright future.

Following the presentations, two roundtables were expertly conducted and moderated by El Pais’ correspondent, Rafa de Miguel. The first welcomed Dr. Joe Nellis, Professor of Global Economics at Cranfield University. Dr. Nellis touched upon the region’s geographic and subsequent strategic advantage; Cádiz is the gateway to Africa, while also being part of an EU member state.

The second roundtable invited José María Martín-Mateos Espinar, Founder & CEO at Controlnet, an IT Consulting & Software Factory and one of 66,000 (as of 2022) active companies within the Cádiz region. Mr. Martín-Mateos strongly credited the Cádiz Investment Hub’s ability to source talent, which allowed his company to expand and evolve.

It is clear that the region of Cádiz is an attractive region that not only invites innovation but is also an established and historic economy.  The work of the Cádiz Investment Hub has facilitated the region’s development and continues to do so for many UK companies looking to establish themselves in it. The very success of this event is a brilliant indictor of the strong bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Spain.

For more information visit: https://www.cadizinvest.com/

Written by Raquel Barrera from DIVERSITAS INSTITUTE

20^th November is Equal Pay Day in the UK. Each year, the Fawcett Society, a charity that campaigns for gender equality and women’s rights, marks #EqualPayDay as the day in the year when women, on average, stop earning relative to men because of the #GenderPayGap. In other words, the average woman in the UK effectively works for free for nearly two months of the year compared to the average man. The Fawcett Society uses the mean full-time hourly gender pay gap to designate Equal Pay Day which this year is 11.3%.

According to the latest figures from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) the UK’s gender pay gap, measured as the median hourly pay for both full-time and part-time employees, stands at 14.9%. This figure means that for every £100 an average man earns, a woman earns £85.1.

At this point some questions arise: how is that possible? Why does the gender pay gap still exist? What are the factors that explain this difference?

Before answering these questions, it is important to understand what the Gender Pay Gap actually means and to distinguish it from Pay Discrimination.

The Gender Pay Gap is the difference between the average salary of women and men within a particular group (a company, an organisation, a particular sector, a country…). It shows structural and systemic issues that women face in the workplace and that have an impact on their average wages.

Pay Discrimination (or Unequal Pay) is the unjustifiable and unlawful difference in the individual earnings of a woman and a man for the same work or work of equal value and can be one of the causes of the Gender Pay Gap.

On the other hand, and before identifying the main factors behind the Gender Pay Gap, it is imperative to point out that measuring the average hourly pay to calculate the gap does not take into account the number of women who have reduced their working hours.

 

Factors that explain the Gender Pay Gap:

There are 5 main factors, amongst others, whose combination, to a greater or lesser extent, is the cause of the gender pay gap:

1. Unpaid work. Women have massively joined the labour market without completely giving up the unpaid care activities whilst men have not joined the caring activities at the same pace. Domestic and care unpaid work is still mainly carried out by women. A report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found out that, during lockdown, women were carrying out, on average, out to two-thirds more of childcare duties than men. On the other hand, according to a survey conducted by The Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP), women in the UK are providing more than twice as much unpaid childcare per year as men.
2. Part-time work. As a direct result of the amount of time that women dedicate to unpaid work, they are more likely to “choose” to work part-time. In addition to that, part-time jobs are typically worse paid than the full-time ones and also offer less opportunities of progress in terms of promotion and professional development. According to the Women and the UK Economy paper by the House of Commons Library, with data from ONS, women are still more likely than men to be working part-time (38% of women compared with 13% of men).
3. Motherhood Penalty. Many reports and studies depict that mothers are more likely to suffer a wage penalty, commonly known as “motherhood penalty” due to labour interruptions for child care, tendency to “choose” to work fewer hours in part-time works or stereotypical perceptions around not promoting or hiring mothers. According to the analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies published at The Gender Pay Gap report by the House of Commons Library, most of the gender pay gaps can be traced to ‘child penalties’.
4. Occupational Segregation. Women tend to work in worse-paid occupations/sectors. According to the ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 28% of women work in low-paying occupations compared with 15% of men.
5. Vertical Segregation. According to a Study by the Pipeline, in 2021, men still account for the 85% of all executives on company main boards in the UK. The “glass-ceiling”, the “broken-rung” or the “sticky-floor” are some of the main obstacles that prevent women from being in top positions.

 

In summary, understanding the Gender Pay Gap in your organisation is not only about measuring the statistic figure but analyse what are the factors behind the gap and define specific actions in order to bridge the gap. Every organisation has its own particular and unique causes and finding them is key in order to invest the right amount of effort and resources where needed.

At diversitas institute we offer our expertise in measuring and identifying the causes behind the gender pay gap in your organisation and in designing Gender Equity Plans. Should you have more questions around the topic, do not hesitate to contact us.

 

 

Written by psychoanalystlondon.com

Technology, science… humanity is making progress in many fronts. Paradoxically … over time mental health is getting worse. I see this EVERYWHERE, not only in my clinical practice of psychoanalysis:

Did you know that depression now affects 300 Million people and it is the LEADING cause of disability in the workplace worldwide? Paradoxically we can phone in sick with flu but not with depression.

Students are also suffering a mental health crisis: A BBC investigation has found that only during the first lockdown over March through to May there were at least 10 suspected student suicides at UK universities. In 2018 universities were told they had to address the mental health crisis on campus, but today, nearly half still hold no data or records on student suicides.

On top of that, our human brain is not evolved to deal with social media, to look at the screen all day an understand that the thing you see on the other end isn’t someone’s real life. Instagram for example, will use machine learning to predict who you are more likely to interact with. Its algorithms are always looking for the rabbit hole that you are most vulnerable to. And… you can’t protect yourself: you might be looking for “healthy eating” but these rabbit holes normalise the idea that you should be extremely thin and then is your fault if you are not. Without even realising you end up starving yourself to death just to gain more followers. Eating disorders are on the surge. Scary, isn’t it?

 

My angle

As a psychoanalyst, I push as much as I can, wherever I go, whenever I can to make mental health and wellbeing a global priority for all.

I wonder… what is happening? Why is it becoming more and more difficult to be… happy and mentally healthy?  Clearly modern, western lifestyles undermine our mental health. Many factors are at play: Unhealthy diets, lack of physical exercise and disconnection from nature, loneliness, family break up, childhood neglect, the pressure of competition in schools/universities, the lack of working/life balance and of course… the pressure of social media. All these factors are, at the end of the day, lifestyle choices and social determinants. All in all, a mindset. Something we can influence and change. How? With Psychoanalysis.

Psychoanalysis is a tool to read reality. Without psychoanalysis we are blind to our unconscious processes (and most of our psychic processes are… unconscious!). With certain techniques (mindfulness, CBT…) we can manage the symptoms, but… we are not addressing the issue, the conflict which triggers the symptom will continue there.

Psychoanalysis is the tool which helps us see and understand things which are not obvious:  why did I have that dream? Why can’t I get fit? Why am I scared of talking in public? Why… do I always end up in toxic relationships?  With the interpretation of the psychoanalyst, with all that new information, we can transform our reality and make it better.

And last but not least, today, to celebrate the World Mental Health day, I would like to remind ourselves as a society that we still do not openly speak about mental health enough – even more if we consider that one in four of us experiences mental health challenges, and if we can talk about it, we can seek help earlier. And if we can talk about it as a general aspect of health, we can learn to look after ourselves as well as to support others.

Happy World Mental Health everyone!!

 

María R. de Almeida
Psychoanalyst London
psychoanalystlondon.com

 

 

BLOG POST BY SCORNIK GERSTEIN LLP

 

Appointing a commercial agent can help you grow your business, particularly if you are looking to expand into foreign markets.

 

WHAT IS A COMMERCIAL AGENT?

 

A commercial agent is an individual or legal entity committed, in a continuous or stable way and for a remuneration, to another individual or legal entity (principal) to carry out commercial transactions and operations on his behalf or to promote those acts, as an independent intermediary, without, unless otherwise provided, assuming any risk of those operations.

 

Therefore, a commercial agent is not an employee, but and independent professional with self-employed status.

 

This definition does not extend to:

 

1. An officer of a company empowered to enter into commitments binding on a company or association.
2. A partner lawfully authorised to enter into commitments binding on his partners.

 

THE MAIN BENEFITS OF USING A COMMERCIAL AGENT TO SELL YOUR GOODS OR SERVICES ARE:

 

• Knowledge of the local market: The agent has contacts and local knowledge that make easier break into the overseas market.
• Appointing an agent can save the company the expense of hiring employees in Spain.
• The company can also use the agency as a ‘trial run’ for their products before deciding whether to fully commit themselves in the Spanish market.

 

I AM RUNNING A BRITISH COMPANY AND I WOULD LIKE TO APPOINT A COMMERCIAL AGENT IN SPAIN: WHAT LEGISLATION APPLIES AFTER BREXIT?

 

As we are aware, the United Kingdom (UK) is no longer a member of the European Union (EU). However, UK has retained part of the European rules as domestic legislation, being Rome I one of this regulations, which will still apply in the UK after Brexit. [1]

 

Broadly, in matters concerning contractual obligations, Rome I [2] gives effect to the parties’ choice of law and provides rules to determine the applicable law where no choice has been made.

 

Therefore, under the Rome I regulation, principal and agent could agree which legislation (English Law or Spanish Law [3]) would apply to their International commercial agency contract.

 

REGULATION (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I) Article 3 1: ´´A contract shall be governed by the law chosen by the parties. The choice shall be made expressly or clearly demonstrated by the terms of the contract or the circumstances of the case. By their choice the parties can select the law applicable to the whole or to part only of the contract´´

 

As indicated below, the parties’ freedom to choose the applicable law has its limits:

 

REGULATION (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I) Article 3.3:´´Where all other elements relevant to the situation at the time of the choice are located in a country other than the country whose law has been chosen, the choice of the parties shall not prejudice the application of provisions of the law of that other country which cannot be derogated from by agreement´´

 

In other words, due to the agent performing his activities in Spain, if the international commercial agency contract is drafted under English Law, there are provisions of Spanish law which cannot be derogated or modified, such as the Spanish rules referring to the indemnity and compensation to the agent when the agency agreement is terminated. [4]

 

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL AGENCY CONTRACT: SPANISH LAW & ENGLISH LAW

 

As we mentioned before, under Rome I Regulations the parties have the freedom to choose the applicable law (Spanish law or English law).

 

It is important to note that The Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 [5] which regulates the commercial agency contract in the UK, is a transposition of the European Commercial Agents Directive 86/653. Therefore, the European legislation related to commercial agents continues to be effective in the UK until modified or repealed under the UK Parliament.

 

Also, Spanish Law 12/1992, May 27, about commercial agency contracts, has transposed the European Commercial Agents Directive 86/653 into Spanish Law.

 

The purpose of the European Directive is to coordinate the rights of European Member States as regards to self-employed commercial agents.

 

MAIN OBLIGATIONS OF BOTH PARTIES UNDER THE COMMERCIAL AGENT CONTRACT WHETHER SPANISH OR ENGLISH LAW APPLIES.

 

Agent´s duties:

 

• Look after the interests of the principal and stick to the terms of the agreement.
• Communicate to the principal all necessary information available to him.
• Receive on behalf of the principal any type of third party claim on the promoted operations, even if they have not been concluded.
• To comply with the reasonable instructions of the principal.

 

Principal´s duties:

 

• To act dutifully and in good faith when dealing with the agent.
• Provide the agent with the necessary documentation relating to the goods concerned and information necessary for the performance of the agency contract.
• Pay the agent as set out in the contract.

 

REMUNERATION AND COMMISSION

 

The remuneration of the agent may consist of a fixed amount, a commission or a combination of both. The usual way of remuneration of the commercial agent is remuneration on commission, i.e. remuneration which depends on the value of the business conducted by the agent.

 

The agency contract must clearly set out what commission is payable to the agent and when.

 

[1] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/834/made
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:177:0006:0016:En:PDF
[3] Principal and agent could agree their contract under different legislation from Spanish law and English law, following the limits established by Regulation Rome I article 3.3
[4] Articles 28 and 29 of Spanish Law 12/1992. https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-1992-12347
[5] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1993/3053/made

According to an independent study from IE Business School in Madrid conducted with pre-pandemic data, Spain is the first European golf destination with more than 1.2 million visitors every year. [i]

Of these, 23.9% have their second residence in Spain. Therefore, it is plausible to attest that golf is a key sector and an interesting investment trigger in Spanish real estate.

The advantages of buying a property near a golf course seem endless. Surrounded by green areas, lakes and white houses, you can enjoy the tranquillity and relax.  On top of this, you can enjoy the sea breeze due to the proximity to the sea.

Life on a golf course on the coast means living in direct connection with nature, with the sun and the fresh air. It is to walk in its large green spaces and breathe without pollution or crowds, outdoors, in nature.

Many golf courses in Spain have the privilege of being located in amazing places and count on good weather all year round. Those who are on the east coast also enjoy the proximity to the sea as well as the Mediterranean towns and villages which offer many opportunities for outdoor activities. With golf, mountains, sea, nautical activities, excellent gastronomy and great festive and culturally offerings along with all the necessary services (health, education…) it’s an idyllic place to live peacefully.

https://almeriadecosta.com/pulpi-san-juan-terreros/playas-pulpi-san-juan-terreros/

Mtspain, a member of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK, offers free advice if you want to live on a golf course, and shares its research on the advantages of choosing such a place for your next property.

Our golf course and our homes, are a few minutes from pristine beaches with incredible seabeds for diving and fishing. There are also marinas where you can practice all kinds of nautical activities including dolphin and whale watching between the natural parks of Cabo de Gata and Cabo Cope.

http://www.geodapulpi.es/

And if what you are looking for is the luxury of one of the most opulent areas of the Mediterranean, we are happy to show you our homes in Marbella in front of the La Quinta golf course, in Estepona and also in Manilva; with close proximity to Sotogrande-Valderrama.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Contact

Milagros.granizo@mtspain.es

www.mtspain.es

Movil 00 34 622 25 55 45

Advice subject to conditions.

 

[i] http://www.aecg.es/wp-content/uploads/INFORME-GOLF-IE-AECG-RFEG-DEF-1.pdf

 

Our brains are hardwired to resist change. When change (especially organizational change) is mentioned or introduced, it often triggers a fear response, which is why most of us are so darn resistant to our familiar world deviating from what we know, even by the smallest degree.

Neuroscience Impacts Organizational Change Efforts

Jacob Shriar explains: “As soon as something new happens, our brains automatically start trying to compare it with previous things we already know and are familiar with. This process of comparing the two actually uses up a lot of energy in the brain.”

This mental fatigue can then increase our fear. No wonder we groan and internally panic and want to ignore organizational change.

You can see why this intrinsic reaction and automatic and unconscious resistance presents challenges to organizational change. Imagine trying to corral a large number of people, all of whom have a hard-wired resistance to change, as well as different aspirations, motivation, levels of expertise and experience, learning styles, and personalities. No wonder building commitment to change is so challenging. But the challenges don’t stop there.

Get your guide: How Leaders Are Affecting Your Results

 

Common Reasons Organizational Change Fails:

 

1. Poor Planning Sets Up Organizational Change for Failure

Often, leaders are so focused on getting their “content” solution designed that they dive right into the design phase of organizational change without adequately doing the upfront planning work required. This sets the effort up for failure right from the start. Instead, identify all the conditions and activities that must occur early to set the project up for success, like 1) change roles, governance, and decision-making, 2) stakeholder engagement strategy and communications, 3) timeline, resources, and capacity, and 4) key initiatives and how to integrate them for maximum speed and efficiency. Without a well-designed change process plan, a likely outcome will be a false start, resistance, and/or eventual failure.

 

2. Inadequate Support from Leadership

Organizational change does not succeed without leadership support. And lip service is not enough. Leaders must champion and model the change for the rest of the organization, in both what they say and do. They must be active, consistently supporting the change teams as they design and implement changes. They must be out communicating the benefits of the change to stakeholders and listening to and responding to their concerns. If your leaders are not prepared to stay actively involved, perhaps it isn’t the right time for them to launch a major change effort. Forbes magazine supports the fact leadership support plays a crucial role for the success of organizational change, saying that successful change initiatives start at the top and organizations should “set up a top-level team of experts, reporting directly to the CEO”.

 

3. Lack of Resources

Lack of resources is one of the most common reasons why organizational change fails in most organizations. Adoption and sustainment of change are long term investments. They don’t occur just because an awesome solution was designed. It has to get implemented, and then tested, refined, and reinforced. This generally is a longer, and costlier endeavour than most change leaders realize. If you don’t plan and resource the latter phases of change, you’ll not realize the full benefits you set out to achieve.

 

4. Priority Focus on Systems vs. People

Leaders often focus more on the system changes than the people that have to make and live with them. Don’t forget that while you need to have systems in place, it’s the people who matter most. “Sustained change is always driven by people,” says Lee Colan in his article “10 Reasons Change Efforts Fail.” “Even implementing new software successfully is more about the people who will use is, install it, train it, and support it than it is about the system itself.”

Actually, this is the main reason why change initiatives fail.

We need to lead the transition, which is the internal process people go through, and not change. Change is external to the individual. Transition is internal. And unless you deal with the transition, basically take care of the employee, you won´t achieve success. Because organisations do not change…people do …or they don’t.

Be sure that your leaders equally prioritize and attend to the system changes AND the people. Well actually THE people AND the system changes.

 

5. Inadequate Change Leadership Skills

One could easily argue that this is the #1 cause of failed organizational change. Why? Because every issue or problem within a given change initiative either gets prevented, solved, or caused by the skill of the change leaders in charge. And the truth is, we don’t adequately train our leaders to become competent change leaders. Leadership development is a part of virtually all large organizations but change leadership development is sorely missing. The net is that leaders tend to run change initiatives like they run their organizations, and the two are vastly different.

Consider, where can your leaders go to get the development, they need to become stellar change leaders?

 

Do you want to know how to start? Get a 30 min free consultation HERE

Get your guide: How Leaders Are Affecting Your Results

All the best

Throughout the last months, as the Spanish consumer continue to feel the economic effects of the COVID-19 global crisis, its pessimism and uncertainty about economic recovery have deepened since the beginning of April of 2020. As a reason why, household expenditure and private consumption have remained negative across most of the categories, except for grocery.

Nonetheless, the Spanish market should be conceived as one of the most powerful ones in the international sphere as    actually, Spaniards can be considered as a part of a mass consumer society.

Do you really think that your company knows exactly what the Spanish consumer need? Are you ready to get into know the Spanish Consumer? Without any single doubt, this trade tip delivered by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom will give you lots of useful tips that will bring your business lots of advantages in order to reach the Spanish consumer.

Watch the presentation here.

 

For more information, please, do not hesitate to contact our team by sending an email to info@spanishchamber.co.uk and mentioning TradeTip March 2021 as a reference.