Can you earn money from other people’s work without stopping to do good?
Of course. I have been fortunate to work side by side with founders of family businesses and have found that most want to transcend mere financial performance to leave the next generation with a better company that serves society as a whole…
And have you done it yourself?
I was lucky that I suffered a bankruptcy as a child…
Not everyone here would say it’s luck.
I was born in Barcelona, ??in El Guinardó, and the family was four people in a 60 square meter flat. I never had great luxuries, but I was lucky that my father, who was a humble businessman, went bankrupt when I was 12 years old.
I still don’t see the luck…
I remember that people showed up at the house to loot it because it had been confiscated. And this generated some intellectual restlessness for me…
Rage against the system?
I just saw how hard it is to progress when the system isn’t ready for certain circumstances regardless of your talent. Perhaps that is why my first obsession was to achieve financial independence for my family. And I set up my first company at the age of 17.
What was the business model?
I will tell you before that I am proud to have studied professional training, the FP, in Image and Sound, and with this knowledge I created a production company with a partner.
And did it work?
The situation was in our favor: it was the 1980s and the boom in audiovisual communication was beginning while new private televisions were starting to broadcast and I went from being behind the cameras to being in front of them.
It was the great era of television, but it ended.
I took advantage of it and continued my studies while working. That’s how I realized that I was very attracted to the corporate world. Above all, technology. And with other partners I set up another pioneering company in artificial intelligence, which at the time was called machine learning.
did it work
So much so that in 2011 we sold it to Deloitte, because it needed to grow and have partners. It was my first serious and powerful business venture. I was making progress, but I wanted to do something for others. So I became interested in philanthropy.
Because?
Because I felt the ability and at the same time the need to help and it gave me satisfaction to give in exchange for nothing. While I continue to work as an entrepreneur I decide to dedicate part of my time and resources to helping others. So, in 2000, I discover philanthropy capitalism with Limited from Cameron.
The British Prime Minister?
He designed a body that injected 100 million pounds from the British lotteries into companies that, in addition to being productive, generated social and environmental impact.
Was it replicable in Spain?
We did it here with Limited until I switched to Indra….
Gigantic technology company.
The first employer of engineers in Spain, where I was commercial and marketing director of 52,000 employees, which I tried to align with our goal of serving sustainability and social impact.
With?
I wanted to turn them into business activists who, in addition to seeking economic performance, would achieve a positive social and environmental impact at the same level as the economic one.
did it work
So much so that I decided to set up a small boutique impact company that helps big entrepreneurs and managers redirect their companies with double accounting: they measure the economic performance on the one hand, and the social and environmental impact on the other.
Won’t everything be greenwashing, the face washing of companies?
This happens in companies linked to obtaining short-term economic returns; but it is also true that the EU is legislating so that they comply with the social and environmental agenda, even if they do not believe in it.
How does an entrepreneur differ from a mere speculator with foreign capital?
The entrepreneur, in addition to providing a product or service to achieve profits to maintain the company and employees, generates well-being in society starting with the community where it is located. An entrepreneur also works for the following generations; the speculator only for himself and at the expense of others and the environment.
Is Spain a country of activists who want to be subsidized?
Spain is a country of entrepreneurs and the company is the great engine of social progress when it is able to transcend the search for short-term profit.
