7. If You Do Not Dream, You Will Not Stand Out

But what is a dream in this new business context? Over the next few pages, we will delve deeper into the significance of this challenge of defining the je ne sais quoi that all truly remarkable companies have in common.

We say that it is a challenge because, although the willingness to accept figurative language in the business world has grown, there is still a reticence to admit that this type of language expresses a reality and is not just a way of speaking.

With the proliferation of business literature, we have become accustomed to thinking about companies in certain terms, but this kind of thinking often only takes place while we are reading the book. Once we close it, we go back to a reality in which the idea of dreams feels very distant. Therefore, before you continue to read, you will have to summon up the courage to start believing. Dreams cannot become a reality if we do not believe that they exist.

Let us go back in time and imagine ourselves in the year 1963. It is August 27 and the heat in Washington, D.C., is suffocating. The Mall at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial is packed with people. Over 200,000 of them are standing stoically, despite the scorching sun, to hear the words of just one man. Halfway up the steps, leaning on a lectern entirely covered in microphones, Martin Luther King, Jr., begins the culmination of his speech in favor of integration and racial equality in the United States, pronouncing his most famous phrase: “I have a dream.”

Dr. King’s dream was one shared by millions of African-Americans across the country who, although they had been born decades after the abolition of slavery, still found themselves in a position that was far from equal. This dream was the real drive behind the American Civil Rights Movement and it earned Dr. King a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Forty-four years later, Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been proud to see an African-American elected president of the United States.

In fact, Dr. King is one of the first names that business school students mention when asked who they consider to be role models in some sense. Other common responses are Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Rigoberta Menchú and Yitzhak Rabin, among others. Most of the time, as in the above examples, their role models are people who are known for their contributions to the struggle for social equality and peace; sometimes they even include outstanding examples from the history of science, such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Marie Curie. These people dared to challenge the beliefs of their time and followed their own ideas with the aim of helping mankind progress. These individuals, and many others, became well-known, prominent, outstanding people as a result of their careers guided by superior ideals. In their different fields, they have changed how we live, and their example continues to inspire us many years after their deaths.

It is significant that, although in our everyday lives we grant the title of “successful” to other types of people, such as those featured on the covers of magazines and pursued by the paparazzi, none of our students have ever, not even once, named one of these “celebrities” as their role model in life. And if musicians, athletes or movie stars had come up, it would not have been because of their music, medals or movies, but rather because of a different characteristic related to their humanity, their ideals and their principles.

Only when people have a dream, when they are pursuing a goal, can they generate true followers.

There are dreamers in the business world too. Of course there are. And there are people who have also managed to stand out and attract unconditional followers: from Henry Ford to Steve Jobs, from Ferran Adrià to Walt Disney. In very different activities and industries, throughout history there have been people who have dreamed of a better world and have wanted to help build it by doing what they do best. Their cars, computers, culinary creations and movies are much more than simple products that we consume. There are countless other brands and other products, but we choose theirs because we share their dreams.

We do not need to spend too much time explaining how much things are changing in our world – how crises show us that superfluous things fall apart like sandcastles when the tide comes in.

A dream is all of that, and at the same time it has very well-defined limits that help us differentiate it from other concepts that may seem similar but that actually have a very different essence.

• A dream cannot be rooted in egotism. If Martin Luther King, Jr., or Nelson Mandela had pursued their own personal glory, they would not have achieved what they did. If Steve Jobs or Ferran Adrià had lost an ounce of passion for their work, they would not represent everything that they represent today. Dreams make us forget ourselves because we are committed to something much bigger: contributing to the greater good, which reaches far beyond something that can be attributed to a single person. A dream symbolizes altruism, generosity, sharing.
• A dream cannot be measured. Something tied to business objectives can never be a true dream. If we can measure it, add it up or monitor it, we are talking about something else entirely. A company working towards a better world cannot measure what percentage they have contributed to it in the previous fiscal year. Let us forget about the results: a dream is a lighthouse shining in the distance; we do not need to obsess over it and we should not try to control it or measure it. We simply need to let it guide us.
• A dream cannot be imposed or invented. Our thoughts exist on an individual level. To a greater or lesser extent, we all have our own dream. We build up that dream as we go through life, and it will always tie in with our ideals, our principles. Our dream can never run contrary to who we are or what we think. This should also be the process for companies. A dream cannot be imposed: it has to emerge from who we really are, from our corporate values and principles. A dream cannot be invented either; it has to be discovered because it already exists in a latent state, waiting for us to identify it and make it visible.
• You cannot dream all on your own. In the daily life of an organization, everyone performs his or her tasks and shares things with others to some extent, as need be. But a dream belongs to everyone. A dream binds us together because it is a common interest that helps us look beyond the present, to take our eyes off our daily work to look at the real meaning of things. A dream makes us happy, excites us and unites us.
• A dream is not a straightjacket. We should not confuse it with the “mission, vision and values” statement that hangs on the wall in the boardroom. A dream is not a fixed framework that paralyzes us. It is a reminder of our path so that we can keep advancing, adapting to new terrain, without getting lost.
• A dream is not short term. It is based on moral, philosophical and spiritual principles that relate to our vision for the world. The founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, made his organization’s dream famous: “Leave this world a little better than you found it.” This is a good example of why a dream cannot be centered on an objective that can be achieved in the short term.
• A dream is not a delusion. We are dreamers, not fools. Nothing we have said so far implies that a dream is a smokescreen, a utopian illusion, a mere declaration of intent. Quite the contrary, a dream must have a real, tangible and recognizable translation in the daily life of the company. We have to know how to bring it down to the level of everyday reality.
• Dreaming is not easy. Discovering one’s dream requires skills and conditions that can be difficult to achieve when the daily operations of the company keep us busy with other things. A dream exists on a higher plane of reality. We need to leave the short term on the ground and climb up to a vantage point that lets us see the big picture. Dreaming requires this broad perspective so that we can stop navel-gazing and open our eyes to our surroundings – so that we can take time to focus on what is happening in our company with the willingness to adopt a critical outlook and face things head on. Dreaming implies a change in attitude, and, as human beings, that is hard for us. And what is worse and most human of all is that we often simply do not feel like it.

Companies That Dream

Nevertheless, we need to remember that many companies, some better known than others, have overcome this inherently human laziness.

Apple

Let us look at Apple, for example. Apple’s dream is to help people achieve their maximum potential: “The power to be your best.” The company pursues this dream in its daily activity. Now, that obviously does not mean that the employees repeat it each morning like a mantra or that the message comes up on their computers’ screensavers. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins analyzes the case of Apple and describes the mindset that governs the organization’s daily activities and marks the brand’s personality:

• Be passionate.
• Lead, do not follow.
• Aim to surprise.
• Be irrational.
• Innovate constantly and incisively.
• Sweat every detail.
• Think like an engineer, feel like an artist.

This is precisely how Apple’s dream, “The power to be your best,” ended up translating into the company’s real, day-to-day work. Apple’s staff works passionately: taking the lead in processes instead of waiting to copy others; encouraging everyone to present their proposals no matter how risky they are (because the best ideas are not always the most rational); treating the small details with meticulous attention because they know that these are what make the brand different; and incorporating an artistic sensibility a priori to activities far removed from the world of the arts. Thanks to all this, as we have said, Apple is able to create tools that help its customers achieve their maximum potential. And, as a result, Apple gets a little closer to its dream every day.

Mercadona

Mercadona is another company that dreams, and one which we already presented in the section on the emotional values of a brand. This supermarket chain is guided by an implicit dream that could be summarized as “Together we will come out winning.”

The implementation of this dream in the company’s daily activity is based on a philosophy that was designed by its CEO Joan Roig in 1993, when he decided to differentiate Mercadona from other supermarkets by applying a management model known as total quality management (TQM). This philosophy was aimed at maintaining quality in each and every one of the company’s processes and products, eliminating special offers with a policy of always low prices (ALP), and putting emphasis on caring for employees because the new model would require the total commitment of all Mercadona staff.

As is stated on the company website, this philosophy has led them to establish a hierarchy of objectives that begins with the customers (to the extent of referring to them as “The Boss”), followed by employees, suppliers, society and, finally, the capital.

The objective of involving employees, who are at the top of the company’s internal priorities, as we can see, is translated into HR policies that are not common in the sector, beginning with the fact that at Mercadona 100% of the over 70,000 people who make up the organization are on fixed contracts. Minimum salaries exceed the sector average and are maintained even in the event of disability. Investment in training is one of the cornerstones of the company’s commitment to ongoing improvement. After signing a recent agreement with union representatives, the director of the Labor Division, Francisco Aparicio, confirmed that: “First, the company must give its employees, among other conditions, stability and participation in the wealth generated by the company; it is only after this that the company can require from its employees their commitment to continue improving their job performance every day and to pursue improvements in the productivity and efficiency of the company’s processes. It is only in this way that our company will be sustainable over time; and on this we all agree.”

It is evident that the dream held by this supermarket chain is to contribute to the common good starting by, above all, caring for its staff.

According to a study published by Harvard Business School, Mercadona’s commitment to its staff results in higher productivity in its establishments, which record 18% greater sales per employee than comparable Spanish supermarket chains (those which exceed one billion euros in annual sales, such as Vegalsa, Sabeco, Miquel Alimentació Grup and Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación), even surpassing Carrefour, Spain’s largest food distribution company. The secret is very simple: when customers go to Mercadona, they are served by trained employees who are experts in what is being sold, are open to offering advice, and who enjoy doing so because they feel satisfied with and highly valued for their work. The customer, the company’s number one priority, receives this attention and gladly buys more, probably choosing Mercadona over other supermarkets.

It is a dream that cannot be imitated, cannot be faked, cannot be adopted partially. So we should forget about replicating the success of Mercadona simply by raising our employees’ salaries this year. As the author of the Harvard Business School study, Zeynep Ton, states: “The success of the company lies in how the components work together and reinforce one another. It is very difficult to imitate Mercadona. You cannot replicate an isolated element and expect the same results.”

DKV Seguros

Let us change sectors once again and focus now on a Spanish health insurance company. DKV Seguros has approximately 2,000 employees and provides services to nearly two million customers. This is a special case for us given that we have collaborated closely in the process of cultivating the dream that would guide the company’s daily operations from the center outward.

The moment we came into contact with the organization we realized we were facing a business that stood out positively as a specialized health insurance company offering quality services – a sincere and transparent company with active programs to promote health, a high degree of involvement from its employees and a clear vocation for sustainability and excellence. However, the initial analysis also suggested an element of “hoarding” in terms of the variety of offers and messages that the brand proposed. Cultivating the dream of DKV Seguros would allow us to reach the company’s core, through which all of its natural proactivity would fall into place around a central theme. The process of uncovering the dream of DKV Seguros was intense and passionate and showed once more that what a company dreams about is often hidden, latent, waiting to be identified and given the prominence that it deserves.

If we compare DKV Seguros with other insurance companies in the market, we observe that the point of differentiation does not have to be the price or the range of services offered. DKV Seguros’ products generally have a higher price and the services could potentially be copied by the competition. DKV Seguros is a company that stands out for its mission to improve the environment in which it operates, and this is one of the cornerstones of its ideology, which could be summarized in the following four points:

• To be the best company taking joint responsibility for your health;
• To offer service that exceeds expectations;
• To be an exemplary organization;
• To be innovative, open and responsible.

DKV Seguros does not wish to be a company that is “paternalistic” toward its customers. It is a company that aims to orient itself toward “those who take an interest in caring for themselves,” searching for joint responsibility and mutual interest.

As we would say, dreams do not emerge from the consultant, but rather from the soul of the company. From our first contact with the DKV Seguros team, we were able to extract seeds of their dream by way of joint reflection that helped us analyze all of the programs and actions developed by the company. The conclusions of these first conversations offered a vision that summed up the fundamental attitudes of the team: the corporate responsibility policy that DKV Seguros applies to its environment is the differentiating value most quickly recognized by all of the company’s internal staff. Everyone feels comfortable with the idea that, in their daily work as an organization, they are all striving to create a better world. Above all else, the dream shared by those who form part of DKV Seguros is “We strive to make a better world.”

We must remember that this is not a categorical affirmation; it is not “We make a better world,” but rather it expresses the desire to evolve (“We strive…”). This is a mission that requires commitment and determination; every action, decision and process within the company must be in line with its basic principle – with its dream. At the same time, this sense of commitment was already present among all members of the organization. “This is what we were already doing,” they would tell us, “even though we weren’t saying it or doing it explicitly.” And it was true. DKV Seguros had spent years working to make the world a better place both through their corporate social responsibility activities and other initiatives aimed at their clients, with their only goal being to improve their lives.

What was needed – first internally so that they could then export it – was to make them understand that everything that they were doing in a spontaneous, disoriented and hoarding manner could go from producing a cacophony of sounds to becoming a melody understandable by all if we could simply manage to provide them with the score. In other words, their dream was waiting to be discovered, and nobody was surprised when we found it.

In the same way that we can establish the dream that Apple or Mercadona are following and see how it is translated into realities, commitments, personality and the way that these brands carry out their daily activities, we can do the same with DKV Seguros. In this case, the dream is “To strive to make a better world.” To achieve this goal we need the unconditional support of all those around us and who are important to us. To guarantee their involvement, we have to be “truly interested in them,” showing and demonstrating a true interest in all those people who, in one way or another, form part of DKV Seguros’ circle of influence.

“Truly interested in you” is how the dream of DKV Seguros is translated to the daily reality of the company:

• Searching for the common interest;
• Showing interest in those around us;
• Listening;
• Wanting to help;
• Sharing;
• Innovating in the little things;
• Being coherent;
• Being clear;
• Adding nearby circles to the internal team;
• Being proactive, not waiting for others to ask – approaching others.

The values that DKV Seguros will employ in translating its dream into a more tangible reality, thus making it stand out from other companies in the industry, are those that connect people with the company, the emotional values: “Truly interested in you.” This is the strategy that the brand will follow to link its circles of influence with the philosophy of DKV Seguros and thus make its dream reach out as far as possible.

SEMCO

The potential of a dream is limitless. There are companies that have achieved truly incredible results, turning what may have seemed like an impossible utopia into a reality. And that is just what they say of Ricardo Semler, founder and head of the Brazilian company SEMCO. His company has achieved the greatest level of involvement of a workforce in the company’s results that could possibly be imagined.

In 1982, at the young age of 24, Ricardo Semler took over the family business from his father. The measures he took from that day on were radical: the company name was changed from Semler & Co to the more modern and less personal SEMCO; he fired two-thirds of the senior executives, many of whom were personal friends of his father; and he designed a diversification strategy for the new SEMCO. Semler disposed of the old and rigid organizational structure little by little and established a more flexible model based on three independent key values: the participation of employees, the distribution of benefits and the free flow of information.

After just a short time as head of the company, he began to notice the lack of motivation and the general “malaise” that reigned among the workforce. For the young Semler, this “rottenness” of his company began in the very organization model, widespread and standardized within Brazilian companies created in the mid-20th century, hierarchically pyramidal and paternalistic in terms of the treatment of workers, which hindered their creativity and proactivity by removing the breathing space they needed to develop freely.

Firmly convinced that everyone wanted to give their best performance possible, Semler launched a democratizing revolution in the internal structure of his company so that all the employees really felt as if the company were their own. He divided the organization into small nuclei of six to 10 workers each and made them jointly responsible for all aspects related to production. Workers reacted enthusiastically to the new confidence that was imbued in them, and the resulting increased productivity and reduced costs per work unit were not long in coming. On the other side of the coin, many middle managers decided to leave the company during the first few years of the application of the new organizational model, between 1985 and 1987, because they felt that their role had been diminished and that their authority and leadership were less and less visible.

For the majority of the workers, in addition to the intangible benefits of self-esteem and self-confidence derived from this model, there were also direct economic benefits that were shared among the members of each division of up to one-fourth of the profits that their work generated. The improvement in productivity made it possible for these wage bonuses to double or even triple the workers’ normal wages. To decide on the best way of distributing these bonuses, a committee chosen democratically by the employees themselves was created so that everyone felt represented, and the measures taken enjoyed a high level of acceptance.

The confidence and participation model designed by Ricardo Semler – based on his deep-rooted beliefs, on his dream – was key not only in overcoming the crisis that affected Brazil during the 1990s, thanks to all of the workers being proactive and involved, but also in laying down the foundations for the future growth of the company by creating a workforce with valuable experience and a high level of autonomy, creativity and flexibility in implementing improvements and innovations.

SEMCO’s sales went from $35 million a year in 1990 to $100 million a year by 1996, with the manufacture of more than 2,000 different products. The democratizing revolution initiated by Ricardo Semler has converted the new organizational model into the philosopher’s stone for growth at SEMCO, a company in which there are no receptionists, assistants or secretaries; a company in which all workers – including, of course, Ricardo Semler – control their own agenda and make their own photocopies; a company in which each worker sets his or her own working hours.

Obviously, this organizational culture cannot be built in a single day. Ricardo Semler’s dream of having a company in which everyone understood the true reason for their work, in which everyone could extract a way of life from their way of working, was guided step by step, one foot after the other, to build a company not only 100% democratic but also 100% successful.

IKEA

Let us take a moment now to look around us: wherever you are reading this book you will most likely find examples of products from the company that we are going to discuss next. Perhaps you are sitting on one, perhaps you are resting your feet on one, perhaps one is lighting these pages, or perhaps you will leave this book sitting on one when you take a break. Whichever it may be, it is difficult these days to find a space in which there is not at least one piece of furniture, one accessory or one decorative object purchased at IKEA.

Surely this example will easily evoke the word “dream” because we all feel more or less like children stepping into a wonderland the first time we go to IKEA. It is like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, in which any fantasy can be made real. From the first time we set foot in IKEA, they want to make us feel as though anything is possible if we use a bit of imagination and creativity, and they go out of their way to send us through a complex network of spaces in which new ideas emerge around every corner, in which a new take on the same elements creates something new.

Their store/showroom/warehouse concept is as revolutionary as their distribution and sales model, which offers us lower prices in exchange for us as consumers taking on part of the work of transporting and building the furniture. And we do not have a problem with that. On the contrary, there is a phenomenon that has come to be known as the “IKEA effect,” according to which we consumers value those products that require our involvement and our work, as is the case for most products we buy at IKEA.

As goes the anecdote, when the food industry came out with ready-made cake mixes in the 1950s, housewives were reticent because they felt that these products devalued the time that they had always spent making cakes from scratch. The industry reacted and changed the recipe to one that was more laborious, asking for beaten eggs to be added. This new strategy was much more successful and sales soared. In some cases, having to work to obtain a product can be a plus in the marketing of certain brands. It may be that for IKEA these characteristics are the most visible and icon, but they are not the most important or revolutionary.

The fact that IKEA has committed to this type of store and has proposed this kind of working relationship with the customer are methods that serve solely to get them closer to their dream. This dream is very clear to them: “The IKEA vision is to create a better everyday life for as many people as possible.” If this is not a dream, then we do not know what is. This is precisely where the ideas for all of their proposals come from, including the production, storage and distribution models that have made them famous. In reality, what they have achieved is a change in the way in which many people inhabit their spaces, whether individual or collective, private or public. Any place can be a better place. Our everyday life can be better. This is their dream, and it has been made possible thanks to all of the strategies that make them so recognizable and that serve to lower prices enough to ensure that everyone can access their products.

IKEA offers quality designer products at unbeatable prices available immediately – pick it out and take it home. “Redecorate your life,” “Welcome to the independent republic of your home” – that is what IKEA sells: the chance to create a space to our specifications, at a good price and without the wait. Every action and innovation by the company follows this premise: if it does not improve the everyday life of as many people as possible, it is not for IKEA.

As we have been known to say, keeping the company’s dream in mind does not mean that employees need to recite it every morning as if it were a mantra or see it displayed on white boards in all of the meeting rooms.

Let us recall the anecdote mentioned in Surprise #5 regarding the conversation between the CEO and the marketing director of Southwest Airlines: “If we did this, could we still be considered ‘the best low-cost airline’?”

The Dream and Employees

Another indication that we are dealing with a company that dreams, though perhaps it has yet to identify its dream, is the degree of satisfaction of its employees. Companies that place high in best-companies-to-work-for rankings are more often than not those which have learned to share their dream with their workforce. This is because employee satisfaction rarely depends only on a generous benefits package; it has to do with the intangible values that make employees feel proud to be part of the organization.

It is common to find in the top positions of these rankings multinational companies such as Novartis, Johnson & Johnson and ING Direct, Spanish companies such as Infojobs and Softonic, and many others that return to the list year after year. In each of these companies, their dream is apparent. Let us take a look.

At Novartis, their dream is “To treat and prevent diseases, ease suffering and improve quality of life.” To achieve that dream, the company dedicates one of the highest percentages of net sales in the sector to research and development projects, because R&D is the tool by which they can discover, develop and subsequently market the products that allow them to fulfill their dream.

Johnson & Johnson also seems to understand that “Caring for the world, one person at a time… inspires and unites the people of Johnson & Johnson.” Remember what we said before: a dream is something that unites, which binds together all of the people working towards a common goal. A dream is not something measurable. It is an inspiration, a beacon that shines in the distance, reminding us of our ultimate objective.

After being in business for 150 years, ING Direct radically redesigned its concept of banking and was reborn with the desire to change the paradigm of traditional financial institutions, inventing what has come to be referred to as “Fresh Banking.” For those of you who are new to it, they describe the concept, their “authentic DNA,” to mean “Striving every day to be the bank that is the most highly valued and recommended by our customers.” Their new approach to banking is founded upon a list of commitments in which they put into practice the path to fulfilling their dream, just as all the other companies we have looked at have done.

Infojobs and Softonic are sister companies that emerged from the entrepreneurial incubator Grupo Intercom, a true entrepreneurial dream led by Antonio González-Barros and his firm belief that “Thinking of others is profitable.” This philosophy has been applied throughout an organization that serves as an umbrella for over 50 Internet companies in which entrepreneurs and professionals find opportunities for personal and career development.

Fortunately, there are many examples of companies that dream and are able to bring the entire organization together to work toward these dreams. Those of us who are on the lookout for these things find new examples very often, in all different types of activities and environments. However, focusing on examples can also become a trap from which it is difficult to escape.

After reading about all of these cases, it is certainly easier to understand what we mean when we talk about the dreams of companies, and we have even begun to discover the mechanisms through which these dreams are being translated into a more tangible reality. It may seem that a dream is a privilege reserved for these exemplary brands, but this is not so.

It is difficult to believe that any brand, even those with little to no media presence, can stand out thanks to the pursuit of its dream.

We do not wish to tire the reader by declaring that yes, it is possible, over and over again. It will be much more effective to simply ask that you continue reading, because it will ultimately become clear that, regardless of which organization you work for, there is not a single part of our philosophy that discriminates against any company for reasons of size, sector or any other factor. Everyone who is part of a company can identify with what is being said on these pages. But, as we have said, we will let the arguments speak for themselves.

The Founders

Let us take another look at our list of brands that dream. If we examine the companies carefully, many of them have one thing in common that greatly facilitates the identification of their dream: a founder. When a company’s start-up coincides with the will and the undertaking of a single person, the presence of a dream tends to be more common. The personal dream of the founder ends up transferring to the entire company and becoming the company’s dream. The visible figure of the founder, even after his or her retirement, brings employees together and acts as a point of reference for the company’s other circles of influence. Even where over time a company runs off course, the original dream is more easily salvageable.

But we must take care to avoid false syllogisms. We are not saying that “A company with a founder will necessarily have a dream.” What we are saying is that “If the founder had a dream, it is very likely that the company will have one as well and that it will be the same.”

Several examples of great businessmen spring to mind – founding members of dozens of brands and companies – who were not guided by a dream and have not transferred one to any of their business organizations. Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump and Carlos Slim are part of a long list of personalities well known for their ability to create companies that have been economically successful but to which no specific motivation, much less dream, has been transferred.

This does not mean that if an entrepreneur has diversified his or her business, there will be no dream capable of making the jump. Let us examine the case of Amancio Ortega, founding member of Zara and the current president of the Inditex Group, one of the world’s leading fashion distributors. From the little we know about the brand’s history, it is easy to deduce that the Galician tailor who opened the first Zara store in A Coruña in 1975 dreamt of democratizing fashion and wanted everyone to feel good wearing designer-quality clothes at a reasonable price. This dream, more or less transferred by Ortega himself, is still present today and can be seen in the over 6,000 stores owned by the Group spread across 85 countries around the globe. The corporate culture and working method of the initial dreamer transferred to an entire organization that, even without being aware of it, knows what is and what is not “the way we do things.” It is the dream that guides them and tells them how to point their brands into the future.

Another example in this regard is Grupo Planeta, a family-owned company that is among the top six publishing groups in the world. The Planeta brand – which serves as an umbrella to over 100 other brands primarily in Spain, Latin America and France – has continued to grow since its founding in Barcelona in 1949 with a dream that José Manuel Lara, son of the founder, expresses as “the dissemination of ideas.” In his introduction to the latest company report, Lara begins by recalling that the company his father founded had the objective of “drawing together around a business project the works of authors with talent and creativity to make them accessible for the broadest universe of readers possible.” Today, although its founder passed away years ago, we can see that the objective continues to be the same, only replacing the word “readers” with the word “viewers” or “audience,” since Grupo Planeta has continued to expand not only in the publishing industry but also in media (written press, radio and television). Therefore, the notion of “disseminating ideas” continues to be the dream, made into a reality through any applicable business formula that, as Lara himself says, brings together the talent and creativity of the authors and makes them accessible to more people.

Obviously, not all companies have had a charismatic and visionary founder, or even a recognizable one. Dreaming, however, is in the very DNA of human beings, and so far we have yet to find a company that is not made up of people.

In our line of work, when we approach a company, we have observed that talking about dreams causes two types of reactions. First we have those people whose eyes light up as they confess that they believe they know what the company’s dream is, but they do not know how to transfer it to the internal and external realities of the company. Second are those who stare blankly at you and say that this talk about dreams is not meant for companies like theirs, dedicated, for instance, to selling insurance. If, however, we take a look at our list of companies that dream (and it is only a short, representative list), we indeed find one that is dedicated to insurance. And another that manufactures home appliances. And another that makes ready-to-assemble furniture. And another that sells detergents. And the list goes on.

What Is a Dream?

We started this chapter by justifying the use of a new name to identify a reality that until now could only be defined using other words. However, there are those who will be tempted to say that this is not true, that we are simply renaming what others call a vision, mission, ideology, values, etc.

Therefore, to remove any doubt in this respect, we will add one last thing to the list of everything that a dream is not:

• A dream is not a strategy, nor is it a list of concepts that can be arranged and rearranged on paper. A dream is not something that a few can be put in charge of designing, to be then passed on to others whose job it is to make sure it reaches employees and stakeholders. A dream is not something approved in the upper echelons of a company and sent down from above for everyone to follow blindly.

What we aim to discover in a company’s core is something shared by the entire organization that grows from the bottom up – that everyone breathes without realizing it. That is why it is necessary for the entire organization to participate in making the dream visible. Everyone has to be present, and suddenly – as always ends up happening – you see that people finally begin to “get it.”

No matter how many years pass, no matter how many cases we study, that moment in which all of the pieces fit together never ceases to surprise us. Dreams are born and grow because the people in the company believe in them, because they know what it is that really links them to their brand, beyond countless practical or financial aspects.

Trying to impose this excitement is a wasted effort. Many companies, however, are investing time and money in an attempt to define what is being called a “corporate purpose.” If we focus on some examples of this type of purpose, intention or motivation, we find conceptualizations such as this one from the automotive giant Volkswagen: “We are a mobility provider. We give equal importance to economic performance, employment and ecology.” Perhaps this is a corporate purpose. Or perhaps it is the company’s mission, vision or set of values. We can assure you, however, that this is not a dream. Volkswagen managers likely wanted to promote a passion for mobility throughout the company, but its success is doubtful. A concept such as this one is difficult to transfer to an entire organization. To put it simply: if an idea does not transcend boundaries, it is as good as useless.

Behind corporate purposes and the like there may be an unconscious aim of encouraging production and thus improving business results. This can never be the motivation for a dream, although it will very likely become a consequence.

Autoequip

We would like to provide one final case that is particularly representative in this regard – that of a Catalan chain of automotive service centers. Autoequip opened its doors in 1988 as a small tire shop in the municipality of Premià de Mar, in the province of Barcelona. Today, it has a chain of some 20 mechanic shops and stores with all sorts of products for vehicles. The company’s strategy and the focus of all of its activity – and what has made this successful growth possible – has been to offer quality service at a good price. Without a doubt, the first thing that we presume as consumers is that this type of service is not very compatible with the sharing of emotions and values. We find it difficult to equate Autoequip with the other brands we have studied in this chapter in terms of there being a dream hidden behind its activity.

Well, after working jointly with the managers and staff of Autoequip, this dream emerged with great force, provoking a 180-degree turn in the company’s focus and performance. It was not a question of Autoequip becoming something new because its business model was not competitive; it was a question of it developing its true essence (which already existed but had been submerged and out of view), promoting a more robust business model and differentiating it from the rest.

Within Autoequip there was a dream waiting to be discovered, and this dream was based on the talent and excellence of its team of mechanics. Over the years, in a natural and organic way, Autoequip had become an academy of sorts that helped its members develop their skills and knowledge, helping to create first-rate professionals who later continued their careers in the company or moved on to the finest brands in the automotive sector. Autoequip mechanics had always stood out in their profession. Reflection and analyses revealed that the true dream shared by all of those who formed part of the brand was precisely to contribute to this development. In other words, Autoequip’s dream was “to help people grow.”

As always, the moment in which a dream flourishes is the moment in which all of those present realize that it had always been there, the moment in which everything suddenly makes much more sense for everyone involved. A mechanics company that is competitive mainly due to the price of its products and services suddenly becomes a veritable specialization school. We must not fool ourselves: a turnaround like this one commands great respect. This is especially true in a sector in which we are not accustomed to finding offers that go beyond purely instrumental and measurable factors such as price.

This is Autoequip’s great dream, and once a dream has been recognized it becomes much more difficult to turn back than to move forward. Denying a dream would be a source of frustration for all those who know that there is something bigger, something of greater value to which we can all contribute if we give it all of our attention in our daily work.