The Efficient Energy Cluster of Catalonia, the Foodservice Cluster, the Innovi Cluster, and the Packaging Cluster have joined forces to offer a space for reflection and networking among more than 400 companies from the energy, food, wine, and packaging sectors through the Immersió Estratègica 2020 event, which is being held virtually from Sabadell this week.
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The Immersió Estratègica event is an annual meeting where challenges are evaluated, knowledge, experience, and new business opportunities are shared, and innovation is promoted. This year, after a "very difficult" year due to the pandemic, it brings together four clusters for the first time with the aim of creating synergies to overcome the crisis. They have done so through a disruptive platform, which has allowed public participation and interaction with speakers, asking questions and suggesting ideas.
On the first day, the program had a more general character, with topics of great value for the four sectors involved. The presentation was given by the mayor of Granollers, Josep Mayoral, and the representatives of the four convening clusters: the general director of Serhs Food and president of the FoodService Cluster, Raimon Bagó; the general director of Paymsa and president of the Packaging Cluster, Artur Costa; the president of the Efficient Energy Cluster of Catalonia (CEEC), Esther Izquierdo, and the general director of Juvé & Camps and president of the Innovi Cluster, Álvaro Bailo.
Also participating in the first day were the editor of The New Barcelona Post and president of Giró Consultants, Jaume Giró; the founder and CEO of Factor Energía, Emili Rousaud, and the CEO of Zyrcular Foods and controller of Grupo Vall Companys, Santi Aliaga, who focused their presentations on debating the future from different perspectives. Representatives from the Generalitat, Comexi, Schneider, Electric, Áreas, Cavas Vilarnau, and Barry Callebout also participated. On Friday, the 20th, several parallel presentations will be held, focused on the different sectors, with profiles such as Damm, Danone, Coca-Cola, Ametller Origen, or EIT InnoEnergy.
The geopolitical context that influences companies
The first presentation was given by the editor of The New Barcelona Post, Jaume Giró, who provided a geopolitical and future analysis of the times we live in. Titled Reflexions al voltant d'una societat en transformació, Giró explained that truly profound transformations are not technological, which are purely instrumental, but rather those that affect our way of coexistence. In this sense, he emphasized the crisis that democracies worldwide are experiencing due to the collapse of the middle class, intensified by the 2008 crisis and the current one caused by covid-19. This scenario is what makes us face an "interesting and singular moment in history," where international relations have become "a jungle" and power has fragmented among many actors.
All of this has led to a polarization of society, with an increase in poverty and inequality rates. For example, in Spain, currently 23% of households are below the poverty line (below 60% of the average income) and the school dropout rate stands at 18.3%. And the most worrying figure for Giró is that youth unemployment is at 43.9%. For the executive, this environment should make companies reflect and be aware that, although geopolitics seems distant, it also affects their daily lives.
Asked by the audience about what to tell children in this scenario, Giró stressed the need to convey a message of optimism and confidence for the future, with an eye on giving them enough tools so that they can solve what their parents have not been able to do better.
Sustainable future for companies and society
The founder and CEO of Factor Energía, Emili Rousaud, also spoke about the future, but focused on the role that renewable energies can play in it. Rousaud emphasized that Spain can be a leader in this field, considering that it is the European state with the most solar radiation and has a great diversity of winds: "It can become the first generator of economic energy in Europe and opens up the possibility of being an industrial power." Rousaud argued that sustainability should not only be seen as a business opportunity but from the perspective of species, in order to advance towards a reasonable consumption of resources to guarantee their survival. Regarding the energy future, the CEO of Factor Energía called for extending self-consumption to families and among communities of neighbors and, in addition, to explore selling the energy they do not consume to others and being able to share energy on a larger scale.
Changes in eating habits with innovation and startups
Under the title L'estratègia empresarial vista des de la innovació i l'ecosistema startups, the CEO of Zyrcular Foods and controller of the Vall Companys Group, Santi Aliaga, reflected on the future of food and changes in habits towards more sustainable eating. For Aliaga, "one must have the conviction to adapt and little laziness" to achieve these transformations and stressed that "competencies and skills must come before finances." The executive assured that time must be dedicated now to studying new business models to guarantee competitiveness when they arrive.
With habit changes that Aliaga expects to arrive in a decade, Vall Companys is already working to promote this transition, through innovation and the support of emerging companies, which can bring "passion" to large companies like theirs. Although there is still time for plant protein or others to win over animal protein, Aliaga believes that alternatives must be provided to the market and the model must be shifted towards a more sustainable one, always respecting its origins.