"Why is it all so hard when it could be so easy?" asked Alberto Andreu Pinillos, the Global Director of Organization and Corporate Culture at Telefónica, as he started his lecture in the My Experience Managing People series, which is organized by the School of Economics and Business Administration's Master's Degree in Personnel Management for Organizations.

That question wasn't just the title of Andreu's lecture; it is also the key to a company's organizational framework. "Why do execution times get extended despite the urgency and the abundance of determination and resources?", he continued. "Maybe the answer lies in the corporate culture".

"Tasks in an organization are usually structured vertically. The real challenge is learning how to act horizontally, how to inject that culture into the finance area, sales, quality and so on", said Andreu, who is also an adjunct professor at the School.

He said that businesses rest on four pillars: the formal structure (governance, written rules and procedures), the informal structure (the internal network and social networks), people (conditions and behaviors) and technology (systems and operations).

Andreu stressed the importance of the informal structure: "If you're not aware of who's taking up space in the decision maker's mind, you don't know where you are, because there's a parallel organization chart of informal contacts based on the concept of "You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Otherwise, I'm in your way."

He also made a distinction between two kinds of people: senior executives and millennials, the latter having grown up surrounded by technology. These two distinct profiles have led to "a lot of tension", since they have modified the hierarchy of values to include perks such as laundry service, Fridays off instead of Sundays and the option to work from home or while traveling.

"Technology is cross-cutting because it uses a different language. So if you don't have a cell phone, you don't exist", he noted. "That makes this a unique time for companies and organizations: the time will come when computers' capacity for creation and processing will be vastly superior to humans'. They'll learn how to learn and then they'll be faster at practically everything".

"You have to clarify, know where your company is and where you want to go. Share objectives, budgets and incentives. Emphasize the how". Andreu closed by saying that the best way to achieve a horizontal structure is by "connecting all your processes together".