In mid-1976, POC, a Colombian-American company, was in serious financial straits. L.G. Jaramillo, Plant Manager, launched the first strategic planning process for the company. The company overcame the crisis in a short time.

In 1982, another company in the Coltejer group, Textiles Telaraña, suffered a similar fate. The president of Coltejer appointed Jaramillo as the general manager of Telaraña, specifically to deal with the crisis.

When Jaramillo asked the company’s employees for their thoughts on the crisis, each expressed an opinion. A subsequent analysis of those opinions revealed multiple causes, which can be grouped into five main areas:

1. Problems with technology and understanding the market
2. Lack of a genuine business plan
3. Poor motivation and disarray in human-resource leadership
4. Obvious lack of control over management and results
5. Shortcomings in company communications and public relations

Immediately, with the support of the management exercise (PDCA cycle) conducted at every level, the entire organization set to work on five committees that were set up to eliminate each of the weaknesses revealed in the diagnosis done with all the employees.

Eventually, the company managed to deal with crisis and, in doing so, firmly re-established itself on the road to success.

In 1986, POC slipped into another coma and, at the decision of the president of Coltejer, Jaramillo was appointed as the company’s executive manager. This time, he officially introduced the “The Manager’s Basics Subjects” or the MBS concept, which had been applied at Telaraña.

“MBS” was implemented throughout POC and became the basis for the efforts undertaken by each of its executives.

The company responded in a positive way and was quick to emerge from the crisis.

The concepts in that theoretical-practical model were published in 1990, first in the POC company bulletin. Later, accompanied by comments on the upcoming Persian Gulf War, which was already in the making, they appeared in an article published in the October 1990 edition of the Medellín University Magazine (No. 57).