‘Estrategias de Inversión’ interviews Fernando Iglesias, CEO of Madavi The YES Company

“You have to begin by generating a perfect disorder. That sounds strange but it’s real.” That’s what Fernando Iglesias, CEO and founder of Madavi the YES Company, tells the investment media platform Estrategias de Inversión in an interview on Madavi’s “appreciative” way of working and how it achieves strategic change with its clients.

In the interview, Fernando Iglesias explains to Rodolfo Carpintier, president of DaD, that Madavi focuses on creating advantages for its clients by enabling them to implement strategies and objectives rapidly and efficiently. Iglesias describes his approach as “perfect disorder”, in which employees do what they have to because they want to and can. This involves giving them a high level of autonomy to decide what is best, trusting them deeply.

For a system to change, many people have to contribute their energy and talent simultaneously.

Iglesias emphasizes that Madavi’s “change the way we change” methodology focuses on enhancing the areas in which users excel, in order to extend and replicate those achievements to areas that need improvement. He also explains that this whole process depends on “the will of many people”, since there are several elements to cover and all of those involved are “tremendously interdependent”. This methodology allows them to work with large groups, in person or online, reaching objectives in a short period of time. According to Iglesias, for a system to change, many people need to contribute their energy and talent simultaneously, creating a chain reaction that drives everyone to believe in the project from the very start.

The pandemic marked a turning point for the company. Madavi the YES Company saw the situation as an opportunity to reinvent itself, moving all value delivery to the online realm through its platform The YES Planet. On a daily basis they analyzed the best achievements to generate collective action within the team, which allowed their online tool to be up and running in less than two months.

As Fernando explains in the interview, a motto that defines his thinking is that “a company is not a set of problems to be solved, but a potential to be activated.” His method focuses on “trial and success” instead of “trial and error.” According to Iglesias, the system of detecting problems in order to analyse and resolve them is suitable for machines, but in a living system, there is nothing broken. The greatest challenge is having enough power in the company to create the conditions necessary for this approach.

For Iglesias, there are three key motivators for people: learning, having goals, and enjoying a high degree of autonomy. When a clear goal is set and autonomy is granted, people become “tremendously responsible,” which is crucial to the success of the process.

Madavi works from abundance – here you can see how they do it – basing their successes on confidence and on boosting the self-esteem of those who are going through difficult times. They regain confidence by exploring past successes, since for a living system to function properly, the interconnection of people who are individually independent and responsible is vital.

You can watch the full interview in Spanish, with Rodolfo Carpintier, president of DaD, in this video: