Spirituality is Our Inner Force as a Full Human Being

Ramon Ollé, former President of Epson Europe in The Netherlands, relates his experience running a multi-cultural organization operating in over 100 countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In this interview, he shares his passionate, thoughtful, and spiritual approach to the transformation of people and organizations – from the inside out.

By William C. Miller and Debra R. Miller

 

Editor’s Note:

Ramon Ollé was President for Epson Europe B.V. overseeing the company’s activities in Europe, Africa and the Middle-East, with over 100 countries. Prior to that he was an entrepreneur selling electronic and computer products, drawing from his background in engineering, telecommunications, and design. After 7 years of growth, Epson acquired his company, and Ramon was appointed the President and Managing Director in Spain. Years later, when he was appointed President of Epson Europe, his spiritual world view played a key role in his approach to leadership and organizational change. Here’s how he tells that story.

This interview was conducted by the Global Dharma Center in June 2002.

Spiritual View of Life

I understand spirituality as the inner part of a human. It is our inner force. I do not understand man in terms of duality – that he is matter and spirit. I see man as both, fully integrated, fully associated. If you understand yourself as a full human being, you will understand that spirituality is the main driver of our human nature. Spirituality is really the inner force – not only in the exceptional moments, the super tasks, but also in our daily life.

Spiritual Theme

“To know thyself.”

Distinction Between Spirituality and Religion

What I have always wanted to be and the inspiration of my entire life is the integrated man, the whole human being. I gladly accept that as a man I am both material and spiritual. That is being human. That is being fully complete.

Our generation was taught that there is some part of man that is distinct from material things. Religion tried to express what this other part of man was, because man was not capable of understanding it by himself. If you are not capable of understanding the total concept of the world, including God in it, then you cannot understand even yourself. Religion educates us in this additional concept of the human that is spiritual. But today the big mistake is to equate man’s spirituality with religion.

Spiritual Influences/Evolution

In my background as an engineer, I also studied some theology and philosophy. At a later point in my life, I tried to find explanations to things that exceeded my logical capacity and my mathematical reasoning. I decided on my own to go back to improve upon the knowledge of why I was educated in the manner that I was. These new insights were consistent with and supported my managerial work. When you study these things, it helps you to discover the inner part of man, that is what I refer to as spirituality.

Changing mindsets to change the organisation

The most difficult part of changing an organisation is to change the mindsets of the people. Why? Because we are living in a multi-cultural environment where everyone has been educated in a different manner and we are not sharing the same values. Even the basic concepts of people are different from culture to culture.

Designing change is a logical matter with a certain risk. But at the end what makes it really happen is when everyone aligns their mindsets in one direction. Some people are able to re-adjust to the new way of thinking, and some people are not capable of adjusting their mind to think differently,

When I am facing very critical situations, I impose learning problems on our people. I try to help them clarify their inner understanding of the problem we are facing so that we can move from the inner understanding to the outside action. In other words, I have 100% trust in the Chinese proverb: first know and help yourself, then your family, then your village, then your country.

Whenever I am passing through a critical period in my own life, if I try to first put my priorities on things outside, on the external world, I never succeed. Everything works out after I put myself in order inside. When I am capable of reflecting within myself on what my internal problems are, what my internal dreams are and what the internal consequences of the acts I am considering are, automatically I can also work with others to help them to look within and to put themselves in order.

All of the people in the world have basically the same desires, the same emotions, the same loves, the same fears. So, if I am capable of understanding this, then I can understand the different cultures we work with and in. If I do not do this, then I cannot really understand anything.

I discovered that when it is not possible for a person to change his mindset, even when he has had training and coaching, then he must be let go and replaced. We are talking about the human spirit and we must do all we can to bring out this spirit, but sometimes there are limits. The change must come from within and not from the outside; we cannot do anything if a person is not willing to change.

When you make a transformation in your company, you will see it in the faces of the people, in the way they are working, and in the meetings you have with them. You will see the transformation being manifested in many ways. Of course, you cannot measure happiness, and you cannot measure commitment. But you will see it.

Basic education in a multi-cultural organisation

The company I lead is very multi-cultural with 31 different nationalities represented in the Headquarters, so it is much more difficult to bring forth transformation in this kind of environment. Our ways of listening, interpreting and understanding are embedded in our cultures. Then when people have to adapt to an organisation’s way of doing things, it can be difficult.

It requires a lot of skill to navigate in these different waters. Just like the physical world has a lot of hills and mountains which is more interesting than a flat landscape with only desert, an organisational world that has many different cultures is richer than an organisation without such complexity when we are able to integrate all of this while respecting the differences.

The capacity to work, the capacity to make an effort, the capacity to learn, the capacity to understand, the capacity to communicate and to share, all of these capabilities are now lacking in the basic educational system. We have to give importance to values and to the human being; but today our education systems are only giving importance to skills.

If you were to read the managerial programs for most corporations, you would see training for skills, training for self-knowledge, training for team-oriented groups, training for corporate values, training for leader values, and training for leadership. This means that the business now has to support what years ago was a very normal part of our basic education.

The value of family

Today, what makes me happiest is when people are friendly towards me, when we say hello to each other, and I ask them about their family and their lives. If you ask people what the most important thing is for them, they will immediately say it is their family. It is the same in all cultures. This becomes the first value in order for man to live in society.

I think that everyone is capable of sustaining the family unit if everyone in the family wants to do this. But we must not consider the sustainability of the family as simply a matter of giving money to the family. The family needs many more things, and your presence makes for a much richer family life.

What I have observed is that most people who are younger than 30 years are beginning to give much more value to the family and are sticking with those values. I don’t have a lot of time with my family; but all of my free time is devoted to my family and not to anything else. And I give time alone to every member because every person needs me in a different manner.

Purpose of Business

Our responsibility as leaders is not about ensuring that the company survives for even the next few years. Our responsibility is to ensure that the company will survive and thrive for the next 120 years. When you begin to think this way, you are really entering into the spirit of family, into the spirit of a multi-cultural environment, and into the spirit of humanity as a whole.

Defining and Measuring Success – for one’s Career and for the Organisation

Success means for me, and probably for most people, realising our dreams, making them happen. If those dreams permeate throughout the organisation, then I know that I am transforming the organisation. If the organisation is transformed in the right direction, then it follows on that I have achieved the right financial results. If I achieve the right financial results, the shareholders are happy, whether or not they believe in spiritual leadership.

In the end, if the transformation takes place, everyone recognises that you have added additional value to your business – and that you are adding something else, your values as a person. But that “something else” is also what actually brings about and maintains the transformation, especially in difficult periods.

The higher you are in a company, the more your decisions affect things over the long-term. This means you must go through a maturity period. Critical turmoil periods always happen in organisations when you want to make big transformations. You cannot avoid these periods of immaturity. It is like aging wine: you need the maturity period, you need the tests and trials, you need to prove what you are doing – and maybe after a long time you can claim that you have a good wine. Both the leaders and the staff members must understand this type of process.

Importance and Priority of Financial and Productivity Goals

We cannot be naïve and downplay the role of financial goals. They are important and absolutely necessary. I personally think you must achieve financial goals for one reason: in the achievement of these goals it gives added financial value to the company that is the only thing that can guarantee the survival of the families working for the company; no other value of the company can provide this sustenance.

A company has to create profit because 70% to 80% of it is going directly to the families of the employees, not the shareholders. Thus as part of our social obligation, if we really want to contribute to putting order within the family, we must make sure that our employees’ families have the means to get proper food everyday, to sleep in a comfortable place, and to be trained and educated.

Developing an Organisational Culture

My dream is to create a company that is identified with the following three concepts.

The first is synchronised efforts. I have to accept the weaknesses and the strengths of my colleagues and adjust to them. And they must also adjust to my strengths and weaknesses. I speak here of a team spirit that means we must all accept each other as we want to be accepted, and work together to overcome the difficulties in our weaknesses and strong points.

The second is excellence. We must work passionately toward both inner and outer excellence. Excellence requires a continuous effort to improve oneself and the organisation in a holistic way. Today we are working in a society where employees, customers, and other stakeholders are more demanding and are better educated. The difficulty here is that each of us thinks that we have the truth and so to adjust at a managerial level can be difficult.

The third is personal communication. I encourage this through training and through a lot of personal communication. I have spent a lot of time in the last six months in meetings to express my personal message to all of the 2,600 employees in our organisation. I do this face-to-face as much as possible. I realise that the only way to change an organisation is to communicate what you want. Then everyone must realise what needs to be done. I cannot change them; I can only inspire them to do this.

Role of Business in Benefiting the Local Community, Nation and Society as a Whole

All organisations are working to survive and to thrive in society. A company can only be excellent as long as their people are happy to work there and to develop themselves as human beings. When this happens, our organisations will fit more into the network of society and will create more value for society. This is much more than providing economical value.

Today we are observing signs of change that disturb me: there is more violence on television; there are more homes for old people who are no longer part of or being looked after by their families; and there are more people living alone in isolation. Sooner or later, society will realise the negative aspects of all this and will change the paradigm. Or there may need to be a big disaster which will show us that we are vulnerable in this world, and in the face of suffering and dying people, we will begin to react. When our life’s experiences like this begin to happen on a global scale, things will begin to change.

Relationship with Other Executives

All of the top leaders throughout this international organisation imbibe the spirit of contributing to the long-term well-being of everyone, even of future generations. There is a great respect for human beings in our organisation, therefore, I do feel that I fit in very well.

Even the leaders of the overall Epson organisation try to know all the employees. Of course, it is impossible to know all 84,000 employees, but we are a company with a great, great level of knowledge about each other. Leadership requires this important factor of connection with others, which includes respect and understanding.

During all of the years that I have worked here at Epson, all of the top management has always stressed that we all have the same rights and obligations and that whatever happens within the organisation we have to respect our duties to society. This means we have to be respectful of others and we have to be respectful of the rules. I feel very comfortable with these views.

Continued Growth as a Spiritual-Based Leader

My dream for the future is to become a teacher. I would feel very comfortable at the end of my professional life if I could transmit to others what I have learned through my experience. Then hopefully it will help future generations. It would be going against my principles if I were not able to transfer this to others in a proper way.

Yes, I am doing this now as a part of my job, but I am talking about doing this in a university with students who are challenging me and helping me to keep my mind fresh. When you train others, you are also receiving training from them. I think this is a very rich part of life.

For example, what makes us good fathers and mothers is not just limited to how we bring up our children; it is also our capacity to transmit our values to other people and to future generations. In this way, being a good parent is not just related to one’s family.

Inner Processes that Guide Decision-Making

I have always asked myself one critical question throughout my life, “Is there consistency between what I am thinking and what I am doing?” My thoughts and my practices must be the same. This is perhaps the most difficult part of being a public figure, which I am as a leader in a large international company. I must have consistency between my thoughts and actions.

Many of the stands I have taken in my life were based on the conviction that everyone is as equal in their total integrity as I am. This is in line with what my first manager taught me: “do for others what you want them to do for you.” When I want to change the culture of the company or I want to reorganise it, I have to think of how others will be affected by those decisions. When I am internally clear about this concept, then it is easy to lead people. But I must always be aware of how the decisions I make will affect their lives.

When your leadership is founded on a value and belief system that considers the person as a total unity of the spiritual and the material, you cannot segregate which part of your daily activity is which and just consider one side of your total integrity. I have tried all of my life to be consistent with myself and to be a whole person. This has created problems many times in my day-to-day business because if others do not share these same views, it is sometimes difficult to explain one’s decisions to them.

Guidance and Advice for Aspiring Spiritual-Based Leaders

If someone wants to become a spiritual-based leader, they must first put themselves in order. After that everything will follow. You must also have the passion to make things happen. This means that sometimes you have to be a little bit irrational, but your irrationality will always come from your spirituality.

I believe in God, I pray, I think my life is more than my job, my title, my career and my salary. So when I speak about this publicly, there is a lot of respect for you. You must have the capacity for human respect, which means you must avoid using strong words even when you feel unjustly blamed by others or you feel others have acted in an unacceptable way.

I am a spiritual person and I speak openly about my values, my faith, God. But there does seem to be a resistance in others to speak out like this. When people lose the capacity to speak about these things openly in public, things change for the worse. I do not believe you can be true to yourself, stay consistent with yourself, by just ignoring these things.

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This case story is excerpted from an interview with Ramon Ollé conducted by Dr. Peter Pruzan and Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen in 2002 and originally published by the Global Dharma Center as part of its research on Spiritual Based Leadership. You can view the full interview of Ramon Ollé and 3 dozen other executives at: https://globaldharma.org/sbl-knowledgebase1volumes.htm