“Our hiring policy is to hire people who do not have a NIF but do have a NIE (foreign immigrants). We started as a company 30 years ago and one of the objectives is social integration”, explains David Marín, owner of Inaccés Geotècnia Vertical, from Argentona. Marín, also president of the Femcat business foundation, defends the role of businessmen and their role in society at a time when some political parties are questioning their role.
In Spain, beyond the large industrial corporations, 99% of the companies are small and medium-sized that do not respond to the classic stereotypes of the 19th or 20th century. Precisely, Femcat has been offering training in Catalan schools and institutes for more than a decade to vindicate the role of entrepreneurs in society. “We have realized that young people have a negative image of the company a priori but that changes when we explain to them what we do,” says Marín.
These negative stereotypes of businessmen are so established in society –explains the president of Femcat– that even in television programming and children's and youth literature the “bad guy is a businessman”. It is something that little by little tries to correct from different areas such as education. That is why the criticism of Podemos ministers towards companies such as Mercadona or the controversial statements by the Prime Minister himself about Ana Botín (Banco Santander) and Ignacio Sánchez Galán (Iberdrola) after their criticism of the new taxes have surprised by their virulence.
Jaume Guardiola, president of the Cercle d'Economia, which brings together businessmen, executives and academics, sees the debate against companies as something "absurd and primitive". In his opinion, "it is a senseless controversy like the one that was generated years ago with Amancio Ortega (Inditex) and his donations to public health", because it is about "stereotypes from the past that no longer reflect reality ”.
"Companies play a double role, although from many areas they try to deny or distort it," reflects Antonio Garamendi, president of the CEOE. “When a company starts up, a space is covered that was previously empty. This covered space supposes: economic activity, job creation and greater tax collection, because there is a new agent who pays corporate tax or generates new income for personal income tax purposes ”, he adds.
The family business is perhaps the one that best symbolizes the model to follow. Ignacio Osborne, president of the Osborne group, founded 251 years ago, and member of the board of the Family Business Institute (IEF), reflects that "the differential element of family businesses is their long-term vision" and gives as an example that in crises they reduce employment less than other companies. “And at the same time, family businesses stand out for their closeness and speed of action”, he adds. Only the 100 largest companies that are part of the IEF employ more than a million people and pay 24,000 million euros in salaries, defends the association. These hundred companies pay 3,000 million in corporate tax and another 5,200 million in social charges.
“From Foment we claim the relevant role of the businessman as a creator of wealth and employment. Which is what explains why Catalonia is today a rich European region, unlike others. Without businessmen, the history of Catalonia would have been different”, says the president of the Foment employers' association, Josep Sánchez Llibre. But this revitalizing role of society is not the particular heritage of large corporations: "Companies, whatever their size, create wealth, pay taxes and create jobs," says Antonio Cañete, president of Pimec.
Mònica Roca, president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, defends the role of small companies because she believes that, in her opinion, they are the most responsible from a fiscal point of view. “My reference businesswomen were my grandmother and her sisters: one set up a bar, another a bakery, and another a pastry shop. And my mother, a kindergarten. She is the company model that I have lived ”, reflects the also founder of Isardsat engineering.
“A dynamic society that promotes inclusive prosperity for many people needs the development of entrepreneurs,” explains Jordi Canals, a professor at IESE and former director general of the institution. “In the social pact the company plays an important role”, he adds. The academic recalls that the alternative models that have existed, such as communist planning or large state intervention, have not worked. In this sense, Canals highlights the value of public-private collaboration, which had great development in the past. This defense of the role of business does not prevent Canals from remembering the need to maintain an example in the behavior of those responsible. It is something shared by the businessmen interviewed. “You have to have zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior,” Osborne says.
The president of the Economic and Social Council (CES), Antón Costas, believes that it is necessary to differentiate the "entrepreneur from the businessman" because the "entrepreneur is the one who creates a long-term project." In the professor's opinion, to progress a society needs three great instruments: the family, society and the State. "These three must have a strong ethical sense," he adds, before assuring that "I am not capable of seeing economic progress without the company." Costas also believes that a distinction must be made between business and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship creates companies, but "not all entrepreneurship seeks to create a company in the long term."
The president of the CES especially appreciates that good jobs are only created by good companies. Josep Sánchez Llibre adds that "without a company there is neither social welfare nor cohesion, because they are the ones that generate wealth and redistribute it".
