"Let's vote for whoever has proven to earn a living outside of politics"

When did you start managing an SME?.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
29 May 2023 Monday 04:24
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"Let's vote for whoever has proven to earn a living outside of politics"

When did you start managing an SME?

Derivados Forestales was founded in Sant Celoni, a small and local company, and in 52 years we managed to transform it into a world leader in its sector manufacturing paraformal and two other number one products in the world in sales...

What are they for?

Water treatment in swimming pools and multiple other industrial processes...

Any secret to becoming leaders?

Desire.

What does the desire consist of?

Let's see: the trend today is to further separate private life and work...

Don't believe in conciliation?

We were able to grow because the values ​​then were that the company was at the center of our lives, it was not a matter of separating it more and more from them so that they were only a salary.

Why do you think it was easier then to dedicate yourself mainly to work?

Because the company gave us the opportunity to achieve something great together...We were excited. And also, earn money, and with it, create more jobs, of course, by achieving it.

Don't we have those incentives anymore?

Spain has been one of the countries that has grown the fastest in well-being...

Has the culture of effort been lost?

Hunger has been lost very quickly, yes, that culture of avoiding scarcity that for decades made us all wake up. In return, the conviction has been installed that you have the right to everything without obligation to anything. And we are going to pay dearly...

Because?

Because we cannot retire thousands and thousands of employees before they are 60 hoping to receive a pension without working until they are 90 or 100. Simply in this country we do not generate enough resources to maintain this rate of spending.

What do you propose instead?

Common sense. What we are doing now only interests the politicians in power, who can generate unlimited debt in exchange, they believe, for votes; but we citizens are not interested in the fact that we are going to have to pay the interest on that debt with more work and taxes.

Don't we elect the politicians you say are wrong?

It is that we should vote more by choosing people without looking so much at the acronyms...

By what criteria?

To begin with, no lists closed by the party's top brass at their own convenience. Open lists and that you can vote, if you want, for number 15 and not 1.

And who would you not vote for?

Let's vote for whoever has proven to earn a living outside of politics: in business or in a profession that does not depend on their partisan militancy; because today there is a queue at every game of people waiting for something to play...

Who are you referring to?

Nor am I in favor of female quotas because they discriminate against women who have deserved to be promoted on their own merits. I believe, on the other hand, in meritocracy: let those who have already shown that they know what lead.

How to select the best ones? Were you never wrong?

Less so, because we trained them ourselves right out of university, even though it required more investment than hiring them already trained. This is how they grew in the philosophy of our team.

You would ever be wrong.

We were pioneers in selecting with psychotechnical tests and also in not hesitating when someone did not fit into the company's culture: we were not lazy to find another professional and train him. And they spent a year training in the laboratory before touching the factory. We trained others outside if necessary.

In the company, who does not add subtraction?

We did not believe in outsourcing and we had 2,000 employees on the team. And we grew up in Spain, America and the whole world...

Have you ever left over anywhere?

My father was the founder of ERC in Girona; He died in the war and I had to stop studying to help my mother and my brother by working in the central bank and later in a laboratory doing accounting. There Pere Mir came looking for me to take the company to him.

Would I repeat?

Without companies there is no country.

Is there more than companies in the country that you defend?

The unions collect from the government. And the natural authority of parents and teachers has been taken away, and thus it has become very difficult to educate our children.