Javier Cottet is president of Cottet Óptica. From the 68 generation. He studied Law, started working during the Barcelona'92 Olympic Games in the Cottet warehouse to earn some money. The family sold Indo for one euro after a chaotic handover and internal wars, but overcame the 2008 crisis at Cottet with austerity and a good dose of reality. One also learns from mistakes. He believes in the figure of the external advisor, but not in the Sunday advisor. He recommends that family businesses have bylaws, a shareholders' agreement, and a family protocol. He says he is bad at being calm. His motto is to always look at the good side of life and he does not renounce his critical spirit. His — and Mr. Puig's — is the rule of the 3Hs: Humility, Humanity, and Humor. He would have liked to run the Dakar.
— You come from a family of entrepreneurs. Any memories?
— It's a mix of excitement and responsibility. I remember, as a child, my parents talking at home about the future of the company. Cottet is our legacy. I grew up thinking that one day it would be my turn to lead and make decisions.
— What is Constantino Cottet's legacy?
— I never got to know him, but I would say it's the passion for optics. We have been working on the same thing since 1840.
"Cottet is our legacy. I grew up thinking that one day it would be my turn to lead and make decisions"
— There are business decisions that are slow-cooked at home.
— Absolutely true, and that's an advantage, but also a drawback.
— Why did you decide to study Law?
— I'm from the 1968 generation. In my time, everyone wanted to be a doctor, architect, economist, lawyer, or engineer. I've always been quite weak in math and physics, so I hesitated between Business and Economics, but I ended up studying Law because I thought it would give me a solid foundation. I wasn't even sure about working in the family business.
— And when did you become sure?
— In my fifth year of Law, coinciding with the Barcelona Olympic Games, I told my father that I wanted to start working mornings in the warehouse to have some money. I liked it, I got hooked, and I've never left it since.
— How do you remember the Barcelona Olympic Games?
— It was spectacular! I worked on one of Alcatel's boats where we organized all the client activities for the Olympic Games.
"It's dangerous to enter a position of responsibility in a family business without having started from the bottom or having worked outside"
— You ran in the Catalonia Enduro championship.
— Yes, I took a lot of spills in races, but I would have loved to race the Dakar. I've never done it for work, economic, and personal reasons.
— You also went through IESE, EADA, and ESERP.
— I trained in general management with the PDG from IESE, but before that I also wanted to study marketing, accounting, finance, and management.
— You took over as general manager of Cottet in 2003.
— I started in the warehouse, I was in purchasing and finance, I spent a year selling in stores and then I was marketing director. I recommend working in different areas of the family business or even spending a few years outside to learn to obey and be managed.
— Learn to obey.
— It's dangerous to enter a position of responsibility in the family business without having started from the bottom or having worked outside.
— You promoted the professionalization of the brand and quality improvement.
— Cottet was very linked to our older brother, which was the listed company Indo, which sold in more than 110 countries. We were a very commercial local company that needed to professionalize with, for example, a business plan or a marketing department. We grew spectacularly, from 1996 to 2008.
— And then the crisis came.
— Which affected us a lot because consumption fell significantly. In 2005 we had bought 50% from my first cousins and we went into debt, so the company was obliged to have performance and profits to repay the debt. It was tough.
"The best is when the family is entrepreneurial and the paradigm is the Puig family"
— How did you overcome it?
— With a lot of austerity and a good dose of reality. We understood that if you earn 80 and spend 100, you're missing 20. You're not going to sell more, so reduce expenses however you can. We did an ERE and closed stores. You have to accept reality and make the necessary decisions, no matter how tough they are.
— How do local and global coexist?
— It has a lot to do with the ownership of the company. Cottet was the original company, but it was the small one where my father and my aunt went more to enjoy than to demand.
— Is Cottet a family business or an entrepreneurial family?
— Great question that all families should be asked. Are you an entrepreneur? Are you a rentier? Have you inherited an asset and a good? Depending on the answer, different decisions must be made. The best is when the family is entrepreneurial and the paradigm is the Puig family.
— And in your case?
— We are working on it, although it is not easy. The entrepreneur has to like risk knowing that they can lose what they already have. Buying the main competitor, but not collecting dividends for years? You have to understand shareholders who are not involved in management and also have their rights and obligations. Not everyone has to be an entrepreneur.
"The entrepreneur is born and made. They have to like risk knowing that they can lose what they already have"
— Is the entrepreneur born or made?
— The entrepreneur is born and made.
— How do we distinguish ownership and leadership?
— In a family business, it is essential to distinguish between siblings who help each other, between partners who talk about profitability or risk, and between employees. You cannot fire your brother; it is very difficult to tell him no to a salary increase or to comply with his work schedule. It is much more complex to talk to your brother than to a boss or an employee.
— How to have difficult conversations with family?
— With a lot of education, from a young age, and always speaking with the appropriate hat on. Being a brother is not the same as being an employee or being an owner. There is a schizophrenia there that, if you are not educated with it, the logical thing is that you end up fighting. And if you also bring in politicians from outside... It gets incredibly messy.
— Why is it important to have a board and a family protocol?
— It is essential to have external advisors who can give you honest opinions about this schizophrenia, giving or taking away your reason. I remember we had a refractive surgery company in Madrid; the two minority doctors made an offer to buy my father's and my aunt's share. I managed it, and it was sold for a much higher figure than expected.
"In a family business, it is essential to distinguish between siblings who help each other, between partners who talk about profitability or risk, and between employees. You cannot fire your brother"
— Family congratulations, with or without bonus?
— My aunt congratulated me, and my father gave me a nice watch. It made me very happy, but if I had been an external professional, I would surely have received a bonus and a success fee.
— Without bonus.
— Being part of the family, it was included with my obligation. This is just one example, but this does not happen with an external board. Or imagine that in a family business there are siblings who want to expand and others who want to sell. In a family business, there are no golden cages.
— What does a good external advisor need?
— To be impartial, not to have what one charges as an external advisor as a modus vivendi, and to be clear that one works for the company. I don't believe in the figure of the proprietary director because they are the generator of a large part of governance problems, since it cannot be that they defend a shareholder against the company.
— Against the company?
— The director must be a person with moral authority and with a business background for when there is a problem. Things happen when you don't want them to. When the dog is thin, all are fleas.
— When the dog is thin, all are fleas.
— Even if there is a sibling who wants to leave, if you save the family and company assets, they will end up thanking you years later. Because I, I, I... In the end, an external person is an external person and you pay them to help the company. The best thing is to have two external advisors: one with a more administrative, financial, and legal mindset, and the other, with a more commercial and growth mindset.
"The external advisor must be impartial and have moral authority, be clear that they work for the company, but not have what they charge as a modus vivendi"
— Professor Alfonso Chiner says that "executives are the pilots of the plane and the board of directors is the control tower."
— That's right, because the larger the family, the more flights and more planes there can be, both in terms of education and training, and in terms of needs and expectations.
— What are the key documents for a family business?
— In a family business, there must be bylaws, a shareholders' agreement for dividend policy, indebtedness or CEO election, and also a family protocol.
— Is there any mistake in advancing these 120 years of Cottet's history?
— In 1996, I was marketing director and I prepared a business plan and an organizational chart for an annual meeting we held at the Parador de Vic with the management team and the ownership. I left very happy after the presentation, and then the IT director, who was also a partner, came and told me that I had screwed up because I hadn't presented it to the general director. What was my mistake?
— Not respecting the hierarchy.
— Thinking that because I was the owner's son and the owner's nephew, I could present a plan in front of everyone without having agreed upon it with my boss, who was the general director.
— You confused the company with the family.
— The plan was very good, but the end does not justify the means, and even less so in a family business. I made a mistake; any marketing director would not present a plan without discussing it first with the general director. They couldn't fire me because I was the owner's son, who was the president, but I then destroyed a large part of my credibility.
"The end does not justify the means, and even less so in a family business. I made a mistake; any marketing director would not present a plan without discussing it first with the general director."
— Credibility is difficult to build, and very easy to destroy.
— I had to go to Madrid to work in an ophthalmological clinic and was lucky that some very good years came in refractive surgery. In 2001, I regained the credit I had lost due to overconfidence and ego. The family must always respect managers who are not family members.
— Any other mistakes?
— There is another mistake that was made by the whole family. In 2014, we decided to replace my father after 40 years as president of Indo and also the general director. We were coming out of the crisis with a very large debt, we had a chaotic handover, and in two years we ruined the company until we sold it for one euro to the Sherpa Capital fund. We destroyed the company because we were focused on internal wars instead of looking at the top line of the income statement.
— Internal wars.
— You have to get people in line and tell the family to stop with the nonsense. Sherpa Capital sold Indo for 160 million euros to a German company a few years later. The company had value, and it's outrageous that the president and general director of a company leave without having a clear idea of who will replace them.
"We destroyed Indo because we were focused on internal wars instead of looking at the top line of the income statement."
— What is the 3Hs rule?
— Mr. Puig, who was our general director, started working in the Indo and Cottet workshop after the civil war and had an innate capacity for common sense and problem-solving.
— Common sense is the least common of the senses.
— When Mr. Puig left, I asked him for advice, and he gave me the 3Hs rule. That is, humility, humanity, and humor. If you are arrogant, people will not listen to you, and even less so if you are the owner. Do not treat others as you do not want to be treated. And do not forget the importance of humor so that people work happily.
— How do you see Barcelona?
— Barcelona is a wonderful city, but in a dangerous situation of dying from success. The managers are not aware of the geographical and strategic situation of the city and the country. A large part of the success that Barcelona, Catalonia, and Spain have comes from decisions made in the past. You cannot continuously attack the present and future of the city. The worst enemy Barcelona has is ourselves.
— Any examples?
— Mobility. It is an outrage not to allow Catalans to come to Barcelona easily, whether by public or private transport. Punishing tourism with nine euros a day per person per night is another outrage and, moreover, without distinguishing whether it is a worker or a tourist. Another example? That we do not want the expansion of the airport financed by Aena, which is half ours. Then we complain...
"The worst enemy Barcelona has is ourselves. It is a wonderful city, but in a dangerous situation of dying from success because the managers are not aware of its geographical and strategic situation. There is no long-term state mentality in Barcelona."
— What else do we complain about?
— There is no project to expand the AP7 to Valencia or France. For 40 years, no one has invested a penny. What else do we complain about? Tax policies. We have 28 more taxes than any other community or we have the highest personal income tax in Spain. If taxes are reduced, there are different studies that show that this amount of money goes to consumption, again you recover 21% through VAT and you make populations and cities richer because part of the consumption goes to commerce.
— What kind of commerce?
— Restaurants, bars, hotels, clothing stores, opticians, workshops... We are a consumer country. However, there is also no adequate industrial policy. Recovering factories here is ridiculous because there is much more aid outside. We do not realize the importance of the productive economy in Barcelona and Catalonia. We make decisions thinking in the short term to win the next elections. That is a risk and there is no long-term state mentality in Barcelona.
— State mentality?
— Then we complain that if they take away Formula 1, that if the Open Banc Sabadell is a Master 500 and not a Master 1000 like in Madrid... We don't realize the political and strategic position that Barcelona has with the sea, mountains, good climate, police security, or a Rule of Law. Barcelona could be a top 4 city in Europe if there were a medium or long-term policy.
"Commerce is the integration of the productive economy into civil society. They are killing Ciutat Vella and the Barcelona City Council continues with the culture of prohibition. If the city center dies, there will be a very serious problem"
— Commerce is the life of towns and cities.
— Commerce is the integration of the productive economy into civil society. A city with commerce has much more life, light, and joy than a dormitory city.
— Is commerce supported?
— No, the perfect example is Ciutat Vella, which they are killing. Barcelona's shopping centers are growing at double digits, while the city center is dying at double digits. Many business owners have told the City Council what is happening, but they are not paying attention to us. They continue with the culture of prohibition.
— The culture of prohibition?
— They ask us, we tell them, and they don't listen to us because they continue with political ideals. Prohibiting everything doesn't solve anything. In Ciutat Vella, they have even prohibited opening gyms, and then cannabis shops and 24-hour supermarkets appear.
— What is your recipe?
— Management, promotion, enthusiasm, and no prohibition. Who pays attention when you prohibit something? The good guys or the bad guys? Let's face the reality of life, and it's not enough to punish the good guys. If the city center dies, there will be a very serious problem.
— Is public-private collaboration a reality?
— Fira de Barcelona comes from the transition, but they were about to ruin it. It's a successful format that should be repeated like the Circuit de Catalunya. More public-private collaboration is needed to, for example, recover Ciutat Vella. A pact like the one made with Procibesa during Maragall's time is needed.
"Catalunya is a country without a State with a very strong civil society. Wasting talent and investment capacity is a shame"
— What role should civil society play in the construction of a city?
— In a Rule of Law State, there is an executive, legislative, and judicial power. Law enforcement agencies are very important, but you have to count on civil society. Catalonia is a country without a State with a very strong civil society and with entities like Foment, Pimec, FemCat, Barcelona Global, or Barcelona Oberta. Wasting talent and investment capacity is a shame. How do we solve the housing problem?
— You tell me.
— All entrepreneurs are very clear about it because we understand the law of supply and demand. Why don't we build flats instead of prohibiting? Between 20% and 30% of the construction cost are municipal taxes. They lack political capacity, enthusiasm, desire, and courage. We need to build housing and make housing prices go down.
— The previous interviewee Joan Gaspart asks you the following questions: What is the secret to success and what is the secret to failure?
— To succeed, you must not be afraid, but you must remember that the graveyard is full of brave people. If you don't take risks, you won't succeed and there won't be success. Ego is failure and it destroys everything.
Seven Lives
1. Role model: All those who have done well like Ghandi or Ronald Reagan.
2. Book: Any book by Isaac Asimov.
3. Movie: Gladiator, Star Wars or Blade Runner.
4. Song: Songs by ACDC or Hans Zimmer.
5. Favorite spot: The United States and specifically, Washington.
6. Life motto: Always look on the bright side of life. I'm bad at being calm.
7. Dream: To see my children grow up well and travel more for adventure, for example, in Alaska. I would have liked to run the Dakar.