Dat i beneït. 2024 has ended with a December somewhat more eventful than we expected. In fact, a bit of everything has happened. Let's review just some of the business headlines to keep in mind for this new year:
--- Cementos Molins, the first large company that returns its registered office to Catalonia after leaving due to the October 1st referendum.
--- Stoneweg buys the old Comedia cinema that will be revived with the Carmen Thyssen Museum.
--- Josep Borrell will be the new president of Cidob to reinforce "the international positioning" of the Barcelona-based think tank.
--- Fira de Barcelona has once again broken its revenue record, exceeding 300 million euros, and incorporates the Barcelona Circuit starting in 2025.
--- Barcelona has stabilized its annual number of tourists at 15.5 million and an impact of over 10,000 million euros for the city.
We also said goodbye to the year with the visit of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Barcelona, where she presented her new book Freedom (RBA, 2024), in which she recalls her childhood and youth, as well as her 16-year mandate in Germany. An essential journey through 21st-century European history, with prominent figures such as Trump, Putin, Sarkozy, and Sánchez, among others. "What is freedom to me? This question has occupied my entire life. Without democracy there is no freedom, rule of law, and protection of Human Rights. Freedom means discovering where my own limits are and walking towards them. For me, freedom is not stopping learning, not standing still, going further, even after leaving politics," she reflects.
Merkel has visited Barcelona reminding that "without democracy there is no freedom" and that freedom means discovering one's own limitsAnd, unfortunately, we also said goodbye to 2024 with the sudden death of great businessmen like Isak Andic, the soul of Mango, and Joan Uriach, the father of Biodramina. His brave, advanced, and committed legacy to the company, culture, and society will forever be imprinted on the character of current and future generations. I recommend recoveringthis fragmentof the Aijec meal (year 2011) with Andic. The recent words ofToni Ruiz, CEO and current president of Mango, mark a path that should be in fashion: "Isak taught me that teams make the difference. One of the great lessons I take from him is that we have to embrace and lead changes. Thank you for being a captain, for being a lighthouse that shows us the port." Embracing and leading changes as a team.
The historian Jaume Vicens Vives gave a lecture on October 16, 1958, titled The Captain of Industry in the Last Hundred Years at the Círculo de Economía, where he vindicated the importance of civil society as a motor of progress. In mid-December and at almost 85 years old, the lawyer Miquel Roca gave the now called Jaume Vicens Vives Conference in memory of that moment, and left some phrases that resonated in La Pedrera and beyond. "Identity is no longer just a historical fact, it is the quality of the country"; "we need strong, powerful, moral, cultural and civic leaderships that overcome the comfort of silence and that assume, if necessary, to go against the current", or "no economic policy is free from its social function", are just some outstanding examples. Let's add some more: "Democracy is the will to make it possible"; "there is no good politics without sober parties", or "the most important thing in the face of a problem is the will to solve it". This same will for impact that Jaume Vicens Vives himself demanded at the gates of society.
Miquel Roca recovers the spirit of Vicens Vives vindicating "identity as the quality of the country" and "leadership that overcomes the comfort of silence"We have also recently lostscientific Joan Guinovart,that founded and led the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) and that, as he says Professor Andreu Mas-Colell, he was "a prophet in his own land." With Guinovart, I shared different board afternoons at Aula Escuela Europea, and he always had the right word with a good dose of vision and sense of humor about pedagogy, dissemination, scientific vocation, and the knowledge society. We will miss him very much. Joan was not wrong when he said that "the complicity between Barça and a very important part of Catalan society is wonderful," adding that "we must recreate this same type of complicity regarding universities and research centers." Guinovart had Catalonia and Barça in his head for victory, La Masia, and teamwork.
El contracte (Grup 62, 2024) is Ramon Maria Piqué's book about Johan Cruyff, Armand Carabén, and Catalonia. Beyond football, the friendship between the Carabéns and the Cruyffs changed the history of Barça and Catalonia. "An involuntary philosopher, a born leader, a fundamental optimist, and a winner by vocation, Cruyff is a success story of our country, but he is also a mirror for Catalans. Cruyff is an excuse to talk about what kind of country we want to be," explains Piqué. Gallina de piel, seny i rauxa.
And to finish this article and wish you all a happy new year, I join Xavier Marcet's words of gratitude on the occasion of the publication of his book Management del sentido común (Provecho Editorial, 2024), which read as follows: "Thanks to those who make difficult decisions. Thanks to those who grow by making others grow. Thanks to those who know how to digest success and to those who rise from failures. Thanks to the simply wise people who survive amidst the glut of experts. Thanks to the providers of common sense." Thank you.