I don’t know who is responsible for Bankia’s current situation, the people who thought it up, those who induced to it or those who channeled it. What is clear is that the investor who responded to Bankia’s IPO received bad advice, he has lost part of his savings. According to the experts, roughly 400,000 people have already lost 50% of their investment up to now. Now the lawsuits will follow and rightly so. Although it is clear that it will be difficult, since if these 400,000 shareholders would have read the 83 pages of the informative brochure of the OFERTA PÚBLICA DE SUSCRIPCIÓN Y ADMISIÓN A NEGOCIACIÓN DE ACCIONES DE BANKIA, S.A. [PUBLIC OFFER FOR SUBSCRIPTION AND ADMISSION TO TRADING OF SHARES OF BANKIA, S.A.,] I don’t think that they would have invested in it: it is a manual for the risk-taking investor. Whose fault is it? I’ll skip this word. Read More
BANKIA. The Alphabet Game.
CAN WE CREATE 1 MILLION JOBS IN SPAIN?
Why not? This is my suggestion, if each of us believes that it is possible and we begin to contribute ideas with an attitude of achieving this, why not? In recent month we have received more search requests for professionals in the tourist sector than in other fiscal years. This is good news not only because it reflects the healthy position of this sector within the Spanish economy, where it represents roughly 12% of the GDP, but also because it indicates that the sector is becoming even more specialized and more professional. In the year 2011, activities in the tourism sector employed a total of roughly 2 million active persons. This represents 10% of the active persons in the whole of the economy (23.1 million) and 15% of the active persons in the service sector. Our challenge is to be able to achieve 3 million active persons in the sector. This might seem like a fantasy, but movement creates the path, and every person makes his contribution. Read More
LAND WITH WATER. The next opportunity?
If an investor would ask my advice about the next asset to acquire, I would not doubt it: land with high levels of groundwater. I am aware that rural land in Spain is devalued as a form of investment, but I would recommend that anyone who owns real irrigated land and not land with transferred water, should take care of it, and not sell it no matter what. The big food corporations continue to acquire land in Spain, among them the Pascual group or the Ebro, and the large landholders continue to expand their ownership in hectares. It is a silent trend that is not commented on in public. In fact, if someone wishes to find out about the composition of ownership of agricultural land in Spain, he will find out that there are not many reliable sources. Isn’t that strange? Read More
SPANAIR : The misunderstood game of lines
With the news of the end to the operations of the airline Spanair, the dream of having a company under the Catalan flag with a hub in Southern Europe that could compete with Madrid and/or Rome is over. This case will serve as an example to demonstrate that it is indispensable to know the business model in which you are going to invest and the leverage that makes it possible. I have been interested in the airline business since it served as the basis of a project that I presented at the Business Institute (Instituto de Empresa). In this project I found out what the slots are and what a hub is, the main elements of this big business that moves billions and that from its beginnings has attracted all sorts of investors, such as the legendary Howard Hughes, the many-faceted Richard Branson, the Serratosa or Lara families in Spain and more recently the Arabian sheiks of the companies Emirates, Quatar and Ethiad. It is also part of the great geopolitical power struggles such as the open airways between countries, now the USA and Europe and soon China, and the CO2 emissions quotas of the airplanes. It also serves as an example of great alliances / joint business ventures such as those of One World with BA and American (Iberia?), Star Alliance with Lufthansa and Sky Team with Air France and KLM, and in which the Chinese airlines Air China, China Southern, China Eastern and Hainan Airlines will soon unavoidably appear. But with this scenario and exciting ingredients we forget the essential, that it is a GAME OF LINES. Read More
How will 2012 go in Spain?
The 4 horsemen of reactivation are: financial stability, control of spending/balanced budget, economic growth and confidence. Which is the first?
This is the question that we ask every day. In most cases the answer is limited to indicating that it will be an unpleasant and difficult year, without going into much detail. We have the four horsemen of reactivation: financial stability/restructuring, control of spending/ balanced budget, economic reactivation and confidence, which is the key; if we do not succeed at taming them, we will have to reread Blasco Ibañez, at least. And so, using this post and speaking in general terms I will attempt to give logic to this answer in keeping with what I have been seeing. In my opinion, this year is not going to be the one of fresh growth, but completely the opposite. Why should we deceive ourselves? In spite of this, if we have enthusiasm, a dose of goodwill and a lot of vision, we might be able to bear it more easily. The new administration’s first steps, which I hope that they will correct, lead me to this conclusion. Read More
The 200 richest people in Spain and the lottery. A cradle for entrepreneurs?
We are starting off the year with the news that we will have to pay more taxes–we should have seen it coming even though they said that it wasn’t–and with a hangover, since most of us did not win the Christmas lottery. These two circumstances will not help us get included some day in the list of the 200 richest Spaniards that was published last weekend in magazine of El Mundo, a local version of the famous Forbes list. In this list of 200 fortunes what caught my attention was the Old Fortunes and the Lottery. Read More
Internet employment offers. Recruitment 2.0 & Beyond coming.
In my opinion, it’s now in style to speak of recruiting 2.0. Basically, it is a new form of combining supply and demand by using the advantages of the Internet. The selection has really changed a lot lately, and the famous notebooks we headhunters used to carry, filled with years of contacts, are now worthless. The Internet has changed the way recruiting is done. Now the game is at LINKEDIN, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, GOOGLE +, etc. In principle, with the social networks, anyone can access the best database of talent, both for individuals actively searching, as well as those who were not looking for work initially, which was the traditional market of direct search or headhunting. Read More
For you, what is the most innovative businessmodel, and why? From the case of Guaranteed Work
to that of Taxi Online via Breads and Plants.
Today I got a question on this post through LinkedIn. At first, my thoughts went to an academic response, but they later changed to what I really notice about innovation. I believe the most innovative business model is a disruptive one, meaning one that facilitates things hard facts and/or ideas, thoughts, soft sensations that are completely different, better, able to be extended to business, more accessible, more effective, more efficient, having a greater scope but, above all, simple and natural. According to the Royal Academy of Spain, it is the creation or modification of a product, and its introduction onto the market. Read More
The new MARKETING MIX, the 4 D
The current management of the Marketing Mix, which appeared in 1953, took us from the 4 P (Product – Promotion – Position – Price) of the ‘60’s to the 4C (Consumer – Communication – Convenience – Cost/Benefit) of the ’90, and now we have to move on to the 4D. (Differentiated solution – Dialogue – Disponibility – Dynamics). Read More
Do you want to be one of GROUP C? 10 ingredients to achieve this.
With the situation in the markets, and especially the labor market, the companies that are hiring (or making internal promotions) have changed the requirements that they ask of candidates who are going to form part of group C (CHIEF). It is not that before they did not ask for these, but rather that if previously they were key requirements for the winner now they are key requirement for the job.
These required ingredients are very difficult to measure and their detection is based on the capacity of the headhunter to see them and to evaluate them based on their experience in multiple businesses and sectors, but once the technical knowledge necessary to be a CHIEF has been acquired, they are indispensable for forming part of this group. Read More