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, producing paraformol and two other number one products in the world in sales...
What are they for?
Water treatment in swimming pools and other multiple industrial processes...
Any secrets to becoming leaders?
desire
What does desire consist of?
Let's see: the trend today is to separate private life and work more...
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 wasn't a question of putting it aside more and more because it was just 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 big together... We were excited. And also, to earn money, and with this money we could create more jobs, of course, if we get it.
Do we no longer have these incentives?
Spain has been one of the countries that has grown the fastest in welfare...
Has the culture of effort been lost?
Hunger has disappeared very quickly, yes, that culture of avoiding scarcity that for decades made us all nervous. In return, the conviction has been installed that you have the right to everything without the obligation of anything. And we will pay dearly...
Because?
Because we cannot have thousands and thousands of employees retire before 60 and expect to receive a pension without working until they are 90 or 100. There simply aren't enough resources in this country 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 for votes; but it does not interest us citizens that we have to pay the interest of this debt with more work and taxes.
That maybe we don't elect the politicians you say are wrong?
We should vote more by electing the people without looking so much at the acronyms…
By what criteria?
To begin with, nothing about lists closed by party bosses at their own convenience. Open lists and that you can vote, if you want, for number 15 and not 1.
And who wouldn't you vote for?
We vote for those who have shown that they can 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 happen to them...
Who is he referring to?
I am also not 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 get the job.
How are the best ones selected? Maybe you were never wrong?
Less, because we trained them ourselves straight out of university, even if it required more investment than hiring them already trained. This is how they grew in the philosophy of our team.
He must have been wrong at some point.
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 look for another professional and train him. And they spent a year of training in the laboratory before touching the factory. We trained others outside if necessary.
In the company, who does not add subtraction?
We do not believe in outsourcing and we will have 2,000 employees in the team. And we grew up in Spain, America and all over the world...
You never left 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 brother by working in the central bank and then in a laboratory doing accounting. Pere Mir came to find me there to take the company to him.
Would you repeat it?
Without companies there is no country.
Is there anything more than companies in the country that you defend?
Unions get money from the government. And the natural authority has been taken from parents and teachers, and thus it has become very difficult to educate our children.
