He has breathed information technology since he was very young, when as a teenager he worked in his father's store in Madrid, one of the first establishments to sell computers in Spain. Thus, Alberto Granados grew up at home surrounded by names that sound familiar to a generation, such as Atari, Zx Spectrum, Commodore 64, which were the brands with which the Spanish began to discover technology, while he began to program (do you remember of the Cobol language?).
But the family business was unlucky, and so he had to combine studies and work. For a season he gave classes to groups with difficulty, from the unemployed to the blind.
The experience marked him, because he understood how to accept failures and the importance of learning. “I learned it from my father. We were almost broke, but we were still spending money on books,” he explains. "Today I still periodically follow a training course and have mentors who are younger than me."
He joined Microsoft in 1995, a key year, when the mythical Windows operating system was launched. He climbed several steps in the company, until Granados understood that he had to make the leap. From there he went to Miami to follow the development of the company in Latin America. Almost nothing. "I've spent a lot of time on planes," he repeats himself several times. He couldn't sit still and so he gave his professional career another twist to settle with Microsoft in Asia.
It was during this stage that he set up what he called “the wall of failure” in the office: “In a space like a blackboard, I asked the employees to write down their mistakes so they could improve. At first, the board was empty. I am a lover of mistakes, so I began to write, until after a while it was filled...”.
His desire to progress did not stop and he went even further east, towards Japan. “I understood that a traditional management style there was not going to work. He first had to learn from the Japanese, their pace and their mentality. For example, I discovered that it is not true that they are resistant to change. And this learning process in the end makes you very humble,” she recalls.
In fact, a certain Asian philosophy is also perceived in the mantra of the current CEO of Microsoft, that of the Indian Satya Nadella. "He always tells us that we have to generate energy and enthusiasm, that our work manages to eliminate some obstacle and that we be clear in communication." He also cites Chairman Brad Smith's credo to his employees: “If you want to be cool, go to another company. If you want others to be cool, work with us."
Finally, eleven months ago, Alberto returned to Madrid to preside over the Spanish division. He was encouraged by the desire to give something back to his country, to contribute to the challenges: training in technology, helping to reduce unemployment. He has just met with Pedro Sánchez to present his investments. “65% of Spanish GDP will be digitized in a year”, he assures.
A strong advocate of artificial intelligence, Alberto Granados believes that the available technology is already here. "Now we just have to look for the problems so that she can solve them."
His family has followed him during his journey over the years. “It is true that for my children there were many changes but they had the opportunity to make different friends. It is something enriching. When I came home and they had parties, it was like the UN,” she recalls.
Alberto Granados has cultivated a passion for drawing and comics since he was a child. He says that he still paints and makes caricatures in his spare time and that there are even colleagues who, astonished after seeing their portraits, ask him if the sketches are for sale. He is also a huge fan of Tintin, whose essential scripts and graphic quality he appreciates. Ironies of life, because Alberto Granados, a passionate reader, has ended up being the protagonist of his own adventures.
