On Friday, 21 November 2014, around 15 entrepreneurs attended the second session of the Departmental Breakfast in the UIC’s Garden Hall. The Breakfast began with a brief talk from Ariño on this session’s main topic: namely, how to assess an organization’s quality. 

For Ariño, an organization must meet three requirements in order to be considered of high quality: effectiveness, attractiveness and unity. “It’s not about maximizing share values, but ensuring every action is an effective one. By attempting to maximize profits, companies destroy their very means of doing so”, he explained, when discussing the first of the three requirements.

Regarding the concept of attractiveness, Ariño underlined the importance of enabling employees to enhance their learning on a daily basis, so they can grow both professionally and personally. “A company is attractive if it offers opportunities to learn”, he declared.

Finally, on the subject of “unity”, Ariño drew attention to the fact that employees perform better when they have internalized the company’s mission and objectives. “There must be unity between the company’s employees and objectives. That way, employees feel that what they do at work gives meaning to their lives, because they’re doing something useful”, he explained.

Ariño's talk was followed by a debate in which the participants spoke about their own experiences of applying these concepts in their everyday activities.

This was the second Departmental Breakfast in the cycle organized by the Department of Management by Missions and Corporate Governance. The aim of the initiative is to facilitate contact between the academic and business communities in order to generate discussion on topics related to business humanism. The breakfasts start with a brief presentation on the discussion topic by an expert followed by a general discussion in which the participants can describe their own experiences. The Departmental Breakfasts will be held once a month until July 2015.