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Mobly is the largest furniture and decorative object e-commerce in Brazil.
In just five years of operation (since November 2011), it has tripled its portfolio and, today, there are almost 100,000 items available on the site.
At Mobly, a virtual and physical furniture company, the conversation about potential and succession began in 2018 when the 3 founders, Mário, Marcelo and Victor, spent 30 days outside the company dedicated to the IPO.
On the way back, the three realized that the company did not die but almost nothing had evolved in terms of optimization, continuous improvement and innovation. With this realization and reading about the history of Zappos, the founders realized that there was not yet a group of directors capable of succeeding them.
Mário remembers that ‘Zappos did very well in selection and succession and we didn’t have a methodology to assess people, both from within and to assess who we wanted to bring in from outside’.
That’s how Mobly started looking for assessment methodologies, something that was also quantitative to map people. So Lívia, responsible for People and Management, won the mission to find the solution and received the recommendation of the L.A.B.E.L.
First, the founders took the L.A.B.E.L., received an individual feedback on their mapping of potential, identifying their strengths, what to look for and what to avoid. Then came a meeting showing them where each one should focus, how they should distribute the areas, projects and challenges to have more satisfaction and even better results. From this stage, the most important thing reported by the trio was self-knowledge. Marcelo says that they did things on the feeling. Once it became clear who is strong and weak at what, how to maximize each, they redistributed areas and projects. Which, in their words, has helped a lot.
Afterwards, Lívia was trained at the L.A.B.E.L. to be trained in the too
l and from then on the mapping of the board’s potential began. Since then the L.A.B.E.L. it is part of the selection of new professionals as well as contributing to the definition of promotions and mapping of successors.
With the mapping of potential, using the L.A.B.E.L., Mobly fulfilled the objective of better understanding the strengths of each person and the points to be developed. The tool started to be used to make decisions to change directors, change area director and to make new hires.
Thinking about the main lessons learned, Marcelo says that now the trio has greater visibility on the dimensions of each professional. According to him, ‘there are things we don’t see because they don’t reach us. With the L.A.B.E.L. very cool things came up, concretely we used them for important decisions: hiring, exchanging, moving, leaving. There are things that the person will not develop, there is no point in continuing to try’.
As a result, shares Victor, today the team is much more qualified than it was back then. Even when the L.A.B.E.L. indicates that the promotion will be against the current, what they call ‘risk promotion’, Mário, Victor and Marcelo take the risk knowing the weaknesses to pay attention. They promote being more prepared to deal with deficiencies.
Not everything was easy. A challenge for Mário was to learn hard lessons about some people, people they thought had more space. It was hard to see the reality of some. On the other hand, the L.A.B.E.L. guided important decisions very right.
Regarding self-knowledge, Marcelo says that he started to accept that he should focus on what is good and give space to others to touch on other fronts and developments. As a result, he felt that he gained more freedom to do what adds more value. And about the weaknesses, being aware of them, it is possible to police yourself more. Victor tells that he tried at times to work on his weaknesses and found himself in very strange situations, almost embarrassing.
Marcelo recommends, for those who are undertaking an undertaking, to use the L.A.B.E.L. before the problems started, without waiting to do that when you’ve had a lot of problems, you’re sunk with some things. Victor adds that it is necessary to pay close attention to deficiencies, less in terms of how to improve and yes to identify how to fill them.
He recognizes that they are lucky to be complementary and to have that on the board as well. However, he adds, an entrepreneur alone will have more gaps than as a team and there you will see with the L.A.B.E.L. who needs to hire to have the complete skill set.
Marcelo sees a very large value for funds. He explains that when looking at the L.A.B.E.L. from the group of entrepreneurs, it is possible to understand who has the necessary characteristics. No matter how well graduated, if the professional has a specific serious disability, the company does not have the money to surround itself with people to supply. It’s seeing which teams to invest and not invest in.
Sometimes you’re used to someone very important to the past and it isn’t anymore, or you have to complete the team with characteristics that you didn’t even think you needed. The company has moved into something you didn’t even know it would be and suddenly you need other characters.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK At first glance, says Marcelo, the L.A.B.E.L. it feels ethereal and soft. That’s why it’s necessary to make it clear that it’s to get to know people and then take advantage, make decisions about the allocation of people, it’s not just a book of curiosities, ‘look, he’s cute’, but what’s the point?!
