To understand the phrase, we must first understand the man. Jose Miguel F. (whose full last name is often omitted by those who follow him, adding a layer of mystique) is a Spanish business strategist and organizational psychologist. Unlike the typical MBA-touting executive, Jose Miguel F. built his reputation not in the skyscrapers of Madrid’s AZCA financial district, but in the fertile soil of Castilla y León.
, the musician and former president of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE).
Interestingly, this Spanish phrase has started to appear in English-language management blogs. They translate it as "Less process, more product" or "Cut the fluff, keep the stuff." But it loses something in translation. The word patatas is almost comical in its ordinariness, and that is the point.
Jose Miguel F. once gave a keynote at a London business school. He brought a single raw potato onto the stage. He placed it on the lectern. He said nothing for thirty seconds. Then he said: "This is worth more than any slide you will see today. This feeds people. What does your protocol feed?" -Menos protocolo y mas patatas- - Jose Miguel F...
Published in 2024, the book offers an "acid and fun" portrait of the Spanish high society that Fernández Sastrón knows intimately from his own upbringing and his former marriage to Simoneta Gómez-Acebo, the niece of King Juan Carlos I. Core Themes and Content High Society Satire
The Unspoken Rebellion
Imagine two competing Spanish cervezas (beer halls). To understand the phrase, we must first understand the man
They thought he was joking.
The night of the summit, the officials arrived in pressed suits. The table was bare wood. No name cards. No wine glasses with stems. Just a single, giant clay cazuela in the center, overflowing with patatas a la importancia —golden, garlicky, crumbling at the touch of a spoon.
The manager wears a suit. Waiters use scripted greetings. The menu is a 12-page leather-bound book. The beer is the same industrial lager as everyone else’s, but served in a branded glass with a slice of overpriced jamón. The staff fears the owner, who stays in an upstairs office. Unlike the typical MBA-touting executive, Jose Miguel F
His restaurant became known as the "Cuartel General de la Amistad" (Headquarters of Friendship). It was a place where the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, might be dining in one corner, and a famous bullfighter in another, yet the energy in the room was uniformly convivial
A Madrid-based corporate lawyer once retorted: "Jose Miguel F. can keep his potatoes. I'll keep my contracts. When his potato causes a salmonella outbreak, let's see if 'less protocol' helps him in court."
