Chapter 8: Marcel Planellas

What value can Sapiens provide in the field of strategic business decision-making?

In this in-depth episode of “Connecting knowledge”, economist and historian Marcel Planellas addresses the fundamental role of the Sapiens methodology in his work as a professor in the Department of General Management and Strategy at ESADE.

Planellas is a deep connoisseur of elBulli since 2005 and a close collaborator of Ferran Adrià. What role has Sapiens played in the understanding about innovation? How has it influenced the innovation audit and Open Innovation? The professor presents the keys to how the Sapiens methodology can become a driving force behind ideas and strategy in the world of economy.

This is how Marcel Planellas sees the priorities of companies regarding management and innovation:

“Companies are very focused on day-to-day management and very pressured by results in current businesses, and they spend little time exploring new businesses, innovations and future issues. This has an explanation. If you invest in your current business, the possibility of success or recovering the investment is much more predictable. On the other hand, with investments in innovation, and especially if these innovations are very radical innovations, you don’t know how long it will take or the result you will get. There are many failures. So there is a bias in management and the tendency is to focus more on the day-to-day and instead being afraid of the risk of investing in the future, in exploring innovations”

About Marcel Planellas

Marcel Planellas has a degree in Modern History and a PhD in Economic and Business Sciences. Professor of the Department of General Management and Strategy of ESADE Business School (Ramon Llull University) since 1986. On the evolution of elBulli, he is the author of a case study (Harvard Business Case Library), several articles (Journal of Organizational Behavior, Long Range Planning) and presentations (ExpoManagement, WOIC). He is the coordinator of the Challenge for Business Innovation – C4BI, organized by ESADE and elBullifoundation, to apply the creative audit.