I have to confess that I do not know the business world, let alone the company and the managers. I don't know what they are, what their concerns are, the rest of the company's situation...
They are all tireless, they must be tireless in getting their company through. And, in turn, they must be great observers and have a special capacity for human relationship, as is usual in this life. So the entrepreneur has to talk to the suppliers, to the unions, to the funders… With a lot of people! The entrepreneur, or a senior position, spends most of the time talking. And sometimes he thinks. And that's the first advice I give to the high office. “Always take the most important tasks and try to control the urgent work!”

He said it easily… A
high office would enter work in the morning and should not open the e-mail for the first half hour. Don't think. If you start reading messages and reading the papers that have left you on the table, you won't do it, you're going to leave it for another time, because the messages and papers received in the morning won't let you do anything else. The main mission of the senior office is to lead the company, and for the company to work as a block it is preferable that this leader be a team leader. However, the leader must influence the team's work and create that culture. When an organisation is fully organised, it slows down the work of one committee, another group... And for a long time, slowing down work is not good.

If you have examples of leader.
Founder of Viscofan, for example, Leopoldo Mitxelena, Irunés. I think the genius of intuition and the natural leader. But he wasn't an excessive leader either. It allowed people to come out the best. If the leader is total and rigorous, it is something else. For example, Elon M., while he has genius, wonderful, but the day he doesn't get it right, when he gets a big failure, he has to see the reds, because I'm looking from the outside, I don't think he's created a team, and if he's created it doesn't seem to take the team's opinion into account. Maybe yes, and I haven't noticed, because I only get what I read in the press.

You speak of Leopoldo Mitxelena. I didn’t have a verb… The truth is, if you asked me for the names of thirteen entrepreneurs, I wouldn’t form the list.
Leopoldo Mitxelena, Cenia is of lifts, Pingon of cranes… Very important Gipuzkoan businessman. No wonder you do not complete the thirteen list, because there are many more companies than companies. Today many companies also belong to the third generation, are purely organisational organisations, lack entrepreneurship. First and second generation actors have an entrepreneurial spirit, but as the company grows, and its new generations lead, the organization dominates.

Do employers hide?
It's possible. Sometimes, exaggerated discretion or even excessive occultism. Maybe because they live quieter and more focused on the business. If made known, their names will be present in the media. They live quieter by doing what they know, living dedicated to their work, but nevertheless, I think they can do good social work explaining their work. In Gipuzkoa, for example, they have more than eleven companies, which would result in a magnificent section telling their story. In Navarra there is also that, and you only have to go to Peralta, or to Cintruénigo… The history of many companies are adventures, wonderful, they have resisted and many penalties have come forward. And many times by chance, because merits are made by many, but not all of them are equally successful.

Is chance the key?
Yes, no doubt. At least one of the keys. There is always something that puts your company at risk. Imagine that great crisis [2007]. I predicted there was something, but I didn't think I was going to take that dimension. Or the era of the pandemic: more than one opened the restaurant the day before and the day after the pandemic. There is no one! Good luck! These are extreme cases, but there is no doubt that chance greatly influences a company’s path. And not only in the company's path, but also in his career. I have my case as an example.

What's your case, can you know?
He was the director of a small cooperative and we connected with Leopoldo Mitxelena's company. On one occasion it happened that my son Luis Mitxelena met me. He was an engineer, very demanding in his work. It was he who brought Viscofanera the culture of quality, for example, that was key for the company to thrive. Then we met, Luis [Mitxelena] and I listened. I thought I could make a contribution to the business strategy, which we could complement one another, and so I took over the management of the company. Until then, I never presented myself to a selection process and I would certainly not introduce it. Chance made both meet and signed me up for Viscofan.

Taking the lead of a large company is not a mistake.
Well, I'm going to tell you, it's easier to lead a big company than to run a small cooperative. You can’t hire an attorney in a big company, you risk losing something in it or in it… In a small cooperative, you risk, and if it doesn’t go well, the cooperative can hit bottom, because there’s no possibility of expanding capital. For example, it's easier to be director of General Motors than Viscofan. And it's easier to drive in Viscofa than to run a small cooperative of 45 people. Moreover, I would run General Motors, but I cannot manage a bar. Because I don't have the necessary know-how. The big company is the cruise, the inertia takes…

As I know, there are many more companies that fail than those that progress.
Much more! It is pure distortion! We read the economic press and there are always one and he, who has increased the capital, who has bought a company like this, who has increased the profits… That press shows a happy part, the opposite part, but not the swirl. Let's take the world of startups. I don't have any concrete data, but I would say that up to 90 percent of startups don't do it, they don't target it. And that's normal, too. Be careful to recommend your child to be an entrepreneur: he must be tireless, tireless. The company requires a great deal of effort and the issues are always more difficult than the image at first glance. And at first, when the plant is weak, a little hoarseness is enough to waste it. Another thing is when it comes to a large company, with risks, but with much greater resources to deal with them.

The company has been a great culture among us. The small and medium-sized enterprise in Gipuzkoa has set an example to both. Is that culture yet? Hard?
The conflict has done much harm to us. To be an entrepreneur, you have to live on a given, it's almost a mission. And if that mission leads you to lose prestige, and the social enemy label, it's not easy. Of course, it is not the most appropriate seed. The conflict has damaged us fundamentally. However, I believe that it is profitable for society to admire the entrepreneur, although there is also everything among the entrepreneurs, even discarded and criminals, but in any case I apply to the entrepreneur, especially the first generation. In the case of the fifth generation entrepreneur, see how it works. To the entrepreneur, first of all, my applause. And the guys and girls who work at these startups, also the txapela!

It talks about the loss of prestige of the entrepreneur… It has also been seen as
part of the regime. But the truth is that the entrepreneur has to fix well with the government, has to have good relationships. Suppose EH Bildu leads the Government of Navarra. The entrepreneurs here, although most of them vote otherwise, would be resolved in a good way with the government, because it suits their business and because it is up to society to make their contribution, whatever the government. To start with, solve it right with government. Then, if you disagree, try to change it in the next election. But it's always in everyone's interest for the government to do its job well.

How did you experience the relationship between the governments of Navarre and the Basque Country?When
Franco died and the Transition began, the Basque economy was in a very serious situation. It seemed that the entire industrial structure of the CAPV was in decline. Everyone wants next to the winner or in the shadow, no one with the losers, as they say in America. “Losing”, I hate this expression… At that time, the CAV was on the side of the “losers”, in the Spanish state they were enthusiastic about the bad situation in the Basque Country. Thus it extended to the four margins, disrepute was systematic, defeatism. I therefore had a bad image, and in Navarre nobody wanted to have any connection with it. The Basque country also related it to ETA, to conflict, to attacks, to violence.

Lingua Navarrorum also put the Navarre right in the same bag.
Yes, then! Those great forces manipulated everything, the Basque and the feeling towards the Basque culture, and I would say that they are still in that, today. Ten years after the disappearance of ETA, they use the same motto. I believe that some fascists, and the Spanish nationalists, would like to see some crazy attack or omission in order to justify their speech. They are enemies of the Basque Country. I do not understand.

What do you not understand?Being
Spanish, they should be happy and proud to have in their country the Basque, the Catalan, the Galician... and some languages. But instead of being proud, they have formed Spanish advocacy groups. To protect yourself from the “risk” of the Basque Country? Do you know any Basque who does not speak Spanish? Or Catalan?... Where is the risk? A cult, open, ethical, democratic Spanish, for example, should regard Euskera and Catalan as a wealth, and should promote and encourage them. If Spain were to do so, it would show us that it is of a high intellectual and ethical standard, but unfortunately this is not the case.

What do you think of cooperatives?
The cooperative phenomenon in Euskal Herria is impressive. Trajectory of the work started by Arizmendiarrieta in the last 50 years. The latest movements [Orona, Ulma] do not show good results, we have lost points, we continue to withdraw a great difference from similar projects, but the current cooperatives are not those of Father Arizmendiarrieta. Along the way, we've all lost it, and that should be one of the biggest concerns of the government, but of course, these are not issues that are addressed in four years, and the politician is always on the horizon.

It defends cooperation ...
No doubt. It's the company, the team. I believe that this spirit should be promoted from the ikastola, from the school itself. In our case there is a word: auzolan. As I say, the Basques should define the words auzolan. Auzolan is a determined way of life, a concrete way of facing life, a philosophy of life. That is what I would highlight. And at the ikastolas they should also strive for it, encourage children to do things together, from a young age. Do whatever you want, but together. If this is done, the tendency of the Basques to cooperate with each other will increase and improve. Attitude is the key.

What do you mean?You
have to establish civic values, neighborhood labor is the key. Our education system must work the attitude, much more than the content, that is on the Internet. We need attitudes like the ingenuity for collaboration, the constructive character, the ability to make open criticism… If we work these values in universities, we would be invincible, from there! The bases are important because the technique is developing at full speed, and the one developed today is aged tomorrow. Some basic knowledge, attitude and ethics. And tirelessness, as I said at the beginning, and perfectionism, the desire to do things better.

* * * * * * *

Spending words

“Words are spent, especially when they lose their original meaning. That is the case for idiot or teacher words, for example. The same applies to the word company. New entrepreneurs use entrepreneurs to define themselves, because that still has prestige and social sympathy. The misuse of the words enterprise and entrepreneur in many cases has distorted the essence of the terms.”

Gender

“The business world is dominated by men, who do not care about conciliation and who have also ignored some family responsibilities. However, we are experiencing a period of change in which women appear increasingly in the top positions of companies. The best thing is the balance between men and women, because views are enriched, enhancing the recognition of human factors”.

Leader, team

“You always need a leader and, together with him, a team. In the long term, the leader is uncertain, but even if he is out for three months, the company has to work so much or better than with that leader.”

LAST WORD

nationalist

“I once jumped into a taxi and saw the taxi driver wearing the colors of the Spanish flag hanging on a tape. And I said, ‘Look, nationalist!’ He didn't like it. ‘I nationalist, no! Spanish!’ And I fear: ‘Yes, then, Spanish nationalist!’ Ha ha ha! Again, with the director of a newspaper and: ‘Look, Sixto Jimenez! You are nationalist, right?’ And my answer: ‘Not so nationalistic, but if I am a bit nationalistic, yes’. They think they are not nationalists!”