MAT CACHET partners and collaborators have a huge accumulated consulting experience, starting by our President Preciada Azancot, whose references we want to illustrate here.
1) SERETES: Paris 1973-1975: As “Ingenieur d’études”
a) Energy savings in urban waste treatment. Study commissioned by the Environment Ministry.
b) The use of nuclear power station refrigeration water in greenhouse strawberry cultivation. Study commissioned by Atomic Energy Commissary.
c) Citizen contribution in the construction of new French cities. Study commissioned by the Environment Ministry.
2) BANCO METROPOLITANO: Caracas 1976-1978: As independent consultant
Initially, her objective was to get Alfredo, the son of the President, ready to succeed his father, Don Carlos Beracasa. After 3 months she proposed the president, while still preparing his son, to create a Strategic Division in the bank. He accepted.
The Strategic Division included the Marketing, Strategic Planning and Business Development areas. She made an organizational diagnosis and worked out a Strategic Plan that was approved by the Board. Preciada created and managed the division. After orchestrating the internal amendments exposed in her plan, she propitiated a complete change of image. After 8 months of work, the bank not only had met each and every of its objectives, but had achieved the first national position in growth rate, starting from 27th position (out of 31 national banks). This attracted attention from the Venezuelan Banking Association, which called her in and named her the President of the Marketing Commission, created by her. The McKinsey consulting firm tried to engage her as its strategy and change manager. The most important consulting companies in the country offered her any position she would accept. That started the harassment she suffered from the consultants wanting to know her secret to obtain such an incredible results. She did not know it.
As a result of her work, Banco Metropolitano was acquired, for a value more than ten times higher than the one it had at the beginning of her consultancy, by a prestigious US corporate bank.
For references: Alfredo Beracasa.
3) AXXA: Caracas 1979-1981: As an independent consultant
The mission of Preciada in this Insurance Broker was triple: to act as the adviser of the president, to coordinate the activity of the 17 companies of the group, and to create the strategic planning division. There she created her own strategic planning methodology that is a part of MAT training today (13th seminar: Plenitude 1). After two years of work, the group companies had tripled their economic results, the strategic planning division was created and Axxa achieved by far the first position in volume and results in the insurance national ranking. A big poster was placed at the Venezuelan Banking Association designating her as “the financial ICU” and as an insurmountable consulting model.
For references: Rolando González Echevarria.
4) BANCO NACIONAL DE DESCUENTO: Caracas 1982-1984
This bank used to be the third in the country, but, due to the unscrupulous business of its president and its board, was seized by the Government. An official auditor was named as president to restructure the bank and try to save it. This president called Preciada in and entrusted to her the coordination of the institution whole activity. She established a deep diagnosis of the bank and developed an action plan that was completely approved by the president, who assigned her its implementation. 147 problems were detected, 30 of which were considered of impossible solution and one depended exclusively on the president, since had to be with his position with the Banking Authority and the President of the Government.
After two years of work, apart from solving its 146 problems, the bank was completely clean and safe, and had doubled the customer base and results it had before the seizure. Furthermore, a perfect mutual understanding was achieved between the old guard (executives recruited by the old management team) and the managers that came with the new president, what had been considered impossible. Preciada then corroborated the value of MAT, which she had discovered during her previous consultancy but had not disclosed to anybody, since it was in experimentation phase. This was the first MAT change process. She keeps the documents that she sent periodically to the president, José Gabaldón Anzola, with the results of her work, and prefers to show them rather than listing the achievements, so incredible that could seem invented. The only problem was a political one and it rested solely with the president. He reported to the government banking supervisor, who pretended to be his protector. Although he was alerted and given a comprehensive recipe to handle the question, he did not want to listen to Preciada and lost the government support as a result of his “protector” intrigues. The President of the Government, from the AD party, decided to close the bank. Even so, the quality of the management team was so high that the other banks bought its branch offices at very high price, and the executives she trained occupied the best positions in Venezuelan banks.
For references: Gonzalo Gabaldón Anzola.
5) TELETTRA ESPAÑA: Madrid 1985-1987
The Spanish consulting firm SOFEMASA entrusted to Preciada a diagnosis that the general manager of Telettra –a telecommunications company belonging to Telefonica and Fiat–, Michaele Giaconia, had asked to them and that they do not know how to do. She began working as an independent consultant subcontracted by Sofemasa. She made a MAT diagnosis of the company and its management team, along with an action plan. Main problems to solve were: to eliminate conflicts among the different divisions fighting for the power, to create a culture able to generate a united team, and to instill strategic planning. After finishing the diagnosis, that amazed the general manager and his colleagues, Telettra contracted her directly.
After two years of work, all the problems of the company had been solved, and the new culture had united the management team. The general manager was already respected and loved, and as an unexpected result of MAT strategic planning, the production and the income of Telettra tripled without the need for more people or new equipment. Seeing this, Telefonica (that held 50% of shares) sold its part to Fiat. Fiat, instead of introducing the model in its entire group, saw a lucrative business in Telettra: they called Giaconia to Italy as a prestigious consultant and sent a new general manager to Spain with the sole objective of selling the company to the highest bidder. Preciada refused to stay with him and left the company. Telettra was sold to Alcatel, but the best manager in the company, Santiago Rebollo, Alliance Manager, followed her advice and, instead of staying with the rest, accepted the job of general manager at ICS, a company of the Ferrovial group.
Price Waterhouse, through its managing partner José Miguel Romero, offered Preciada the position of strategy manager. She did not accept.
For references: Michaele Giaconia.
6) ICS: Madrid 1989-1991
During 1988 Preciada decided to talk about MAT, since it was already proved on 60.000 cases. She wrote the three first books on MAT and launched the MAT Club of Leaders.
She worked at ICS as an adviser of the general manager, Santiago Rebollo. This was also a telecommunications company.
Her first mission was to achieve that the former general manager, which remained as commercial manager and was dividing the company, left without asking for millionaire compensation. She attained it, and they started from nothing, with very high financial liabilities. There she orchestrated a MAT strategic management. As a result, a small and trivial company transformed into a profitable business to Ferrovial eyes, and it was sold to the important French group Dassault, which kept the entire management team and the employees. Preciada, just before that, had gone to Venezuela.
When she came back from Venezuela, where she stayed from 1992 to 1995 and where she launched the MAT Club of Leaders with a colossal success, Santiago Rebollo urged her to continue her consulting with ICS. They had maintained MAT mentality and were successful, but they wanted to improve. Then Preciada taught MAT to the entire management team and to the second level. She continued as a personal adviser of her friend Santiago. After a year of training, Dassault recognized its Spanish subsidiary as the unquestionable leader in management, development and innovation. Francisco López Herrero, who had been second to Rebollo at Telettra and is a member of the MAT Club of Leaders, took the leading role.
For references: Santiago Rebollo Galcerán and Francisco López Herrero.
7) KEON: Madrid 1997-2000
Juanma (Juan Manuel) Soto, General Manager of KEON, proposed Preciada to diagnose the company and, being himself a MAT admirer, contracted her as a personal consultant for two days a week, that soon were extended to three, and integrated her into the Management Committee. They created a new MAT culture that Preciada wrote and Juanma introduced to KEON employees as the grounds and the goal of the company activities. Then they launched several Total Quality committees presided by Preciada: one for Human Resources, one for Innovation, one for Sales methodology and one for Products. The spirit of the organization changed completely. During this consultancy, Preciada developed the MAT Total Quality Management system. She detected the need for a coaching exercise in the commercial area, and it was done. KEON was a kind of paradise and an island within IBV Corporation (BBVA – Iberdrola). Thanks to his growth, Juanma decided to become an entrepreneur and to found his own company. He announced his decision to IBV managers and left the company successfully. Juanma then created InfoSpeech, where acts as President while completing his training as a MAT teacher.
The MAT diagnosis made by Preciada was so good that they decided to present it entirely to all KEON employees in meetings presided by Juanma and accompanied by Preciada. Cultural atmosphere changed very soon and they implemented every action contained in the Action Plan.
For references: Juan Manuel Soto
8) 2004-2005: Change Process Management at InfoSpeech
Preciada carried out a deep diagnosis of the organization and the whole personality and image of the company were restructured. She elaborated a complete Strategic Plan to make the company the leader of its industry. Juanma Soto, its President, is more than ever a MAT enthusiast and, as a sign of gratitude, wrote the book La empresa como ser vivo (Editorial Granica, 2005) about the superiority of MAT as an enterprise consulting instrument.
For references: Juan Manuel Soto
From 2002, Preciada devoted herself again to the MAT School of Managers and to train MAT managers at a personal level. Towards the end of 2003, a company was founded, starting its real activity in May 2004. Consulting is one of the activities of MAT CACHET.