Yesterday I had lunch with a US diplomat who’d like to settle down somewhere, after spending many years in many different countries. “I would love to live in Madrid for good, but the problem is there is no diversity here,” he pointed out. So to the eyes of a foreigner, residents in Madrid we all look very similar. This observation stayed with me throughout the afternoon, until I started listening to Antonio Garrigues at Fundación Ortega-Marañón. He was presenting the book “Hetero-doxos”, written by Mario Palaotti, which is a compilation of profiles of 57 individuals, from Spinoza to Ava Gardner, who changed the course of humanity by straying from the orthodoxy of their times.
Carlos Alvarez (Paris, 1962) is many things. But above all, he is a heterodox. We decided to have lunch at Bar Tomate to discuss the level of competitiveness in Spain and to decry the lack of direction of the Spanish government and big business when it comes to deciding where to focus on to be excellent in XXI Century’s world economy.
As a true heterodox, he is in love with innovation, a concept to which he has devoted his entire professional life. He is founder and president of The Innaxis Foundation and Research Institute; owner and CEO of the IT Consultancy Telenium and Chairman of both CXP and Skybus.
He also happens to work as a committed volunteer to the Fulbright Association in Spain.
From this professional and volunteer position, he has a very comprehensive view of the talent in Spain and how we have evolved in terms of innovation throughout the last 15 years, especially in the telecoms industry.
In this sense, and as an authentic heterodox, he is critical of certain traits of our recent history, but not with arrogance. Empathy and patience stand out in his complaints. “We are living in a relentless state of comfortable anger,” he said (cabreo comfortable, would be the Spanish expression) in reference to how the Spaniards confront the crisis by talking too much and not doing enough to come out of the comfort zone. He sees things differently to the average español. For example, when describing the current situation, he repeats again and again two statements:
1. “Our workforce is highly qualified and competitive”.
2. “We are productive in the world economy and we have reached a point where the outsourcing in Spain is an option for many companies.”
He claims that we don’t see these two important strengths in ourselves, that they are best perceived abroad. “Spain has become a great platform for companies who want to do interesting stuff here and sell it to the world market,” he assures. “Look at the German GFT. It’s got 2.000 Spanish engineers working off its premises in Madrid and Barcelona, and so far so good!”
He also acknowledges our weaknesses, of course, the lack of language skills and better client management. But above all is our fear to disrupt, to innovate, to become outsiders of structures, to stray from the mainstream. As a result of this, he says that our economic structure has not changed much in 35 years. “Compared this to the American economic structure,” he explains. “15 years ago Microsoft was leading the world’s tech sector, and is now lagging behind Google.”
In the case of Spain, corporations like Telefonica or Banco Santander still remain the big and most important actors, not due to their innovation capacity, but to their marketing strategy in emerging markets. Spanish IT consultants that have been providing their services to big companies like Telefonica have had to sacrifice quality and innovation for lower prices. The result of this is that many of them haven’t seen much added value here and have moved out to places like Silicon Valley instead.
What has happened in the Spanish IT sector is precisely the contrary to what Harvard Business Review recommends as the 3 rules for success:
1. Better before cheaper
2. Revenue before costs
3. There is no other rule
Carlos says that we don’t like outsiders, disrupters in Spain. “In Spanish organizations there is a point when an employee gives up to its innovative drive for the sake of loyalty to the organization,” he claims. Outsiders are typically not welcome in any organization, but Carlos sees this reluctance higher in Spain. We joked about the red ties that Emilio Botin likes to see on his employees at Banco Santander as an example.
He thinks that the government and companies like Banco Santander and Telefonica should be the ones leading the answer to the big question-mark: “Where Spain needs to focus on to succeed in a global world?” I leave it open for answers.
