7 years have passed since the two protagonists of today’s post were also protagonists of one of our coffee-break within the program Ingenio to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit. They have already been on the entrepreneurial world for 10 years. I encourage you to know the members of Manahmana and their project.
The 20th of April 2011 Maialen Oregi and Aitor Guisasola accepted the invitation we made them from the Ingenio program of the University of Deusto and they spent an afternoon telling us what it was for them to start a business and to be an entrepreneur, why they choose to take this step, how they did it, etc. We learned that Manahmana was, in that moment, a small advanced services company oriented to the development of creativity and innovation of people and organizations. Manahmana was created in Labein-Tecnalia after being part of the first promotion of “Leadership Experience” of Team Academy Euskadi, whose another initiative I presented you a few weeks ago. In that moment, from the 9 people who founded Manahmana skoop, there were Maialen, Aitor, Bego, Maite and David. Nowadays, Josi and Andrea accompany Maialen and Aitor. The point is that life has many ups and downs but it’s clear that there are people that when they believe in a project and fight for it, it’s difficult for them to leave it behind, right?
I see pictures from that afternoon in 2011 and I remember the desire to start a project that Maialen and Aitor transmitted and the illusion with which they were willing to transfer their work philosophy based on creativity and innovation to companies and teams of people.
I am proud of being a witness of how an idea designed in 2011 has developed in a consolidated project. If it is said that overcoming the first 5 years of life of a new start up is a challenge, imagine when there are 10 years.
The thing is that almost a year ago, in the Global Innovation Day 2017 celebrated on the 16th of May 2017, I once again run into Maialen and Aitor. I admit that I was very happy to see them and today, because promises are made to keep, they deserve to have this post dedicated to them.
Managmana is presented as a way to create new ways of working with a motto that I personally think is very appropriate:
Go for it, it is the moment.
In Manahmana you’ll find great facilitators, professionals that will be in charge of:
- Designing and guiding processes of work for people, through work in groups, to achieve the expected results.
- Accompanying and orientating you through the whole learning process, creating with you and not only for you.
- Listening to you and connecting with people in a natural way, making them be involved in the creating process.
- Helping you to apply what you’ve learned and adapt it to other contexts.
If anything attracts attention in Manahmana is that during the learning processes (workshops, working sessions, etc.) they:
- Involve people achieving that all of them contribute with something to the project.
- Encourage action creating new spaces and dynamics that allow people to think in a different way, to get excited and to orient themselves to action.
- Optimize time by making them take operative decisions during the different sessions, for which they have to use agile, visual and participative methodologies.
- Detect opportunities and new ways of doing things, that end up with new results, of course, through a creative culture, promoting the experimentation.
All of that is possible thanks to the people who are behind:
MAIALEN defines herself as a practical, dreamer and optimistic person, with a special talent to “make easy what is difficult” and with the ability to bring ideas to the action.
AITOR is a person who transmits trust and is able to infect illusion by projects, he is thoughtful and the person who is in charge of giving that special touch to the projects.
JOSI is like a chameleon, able to adapt to any situation, to create appropriate contexts to work (in teams), to co-create, integrate learnings and to encourage to action.
ANDREA is able to see beyond what is obvious, she enjoys working from uncertainty, she is passionate about diversity and complexity, and, of course, she feels comfortable when she is out of her comfort zone. Like Josi, she likes challenges.
The four of them agree on that it’s very important to enjoy what they do and that the best learning is on the road ahead.
If you want to contact them, you’ll find them in Ermua, specifically in:
IZARRA CENTRE
Zearkalea 36, local 8-08 (planta 8) / 48260 Ermua (Bizkaia)
Tel.: + 34 846 080 060 / E-mail: hola@manahmana.com
Don’t let this opportunity pass.
I wish you a week full of good vibes and many smiles.
Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.