Administrations must try to understand businesses while streamlining their operations and articulating a tax system that takes entrepreneurs into account as a crucial actor for the economy. These are some of the demands launched by retail representatives at a Comertia meeting focused on Companies with Soul. The association's XXI Retail Conference featured interventions by entrepreneurs such as Joan Font (Bon Preu) and Anna Sorli (Sorli), Olympic medalist Ona Carbonell, innovation expert Alfons Cornella, and doctor and essayist Mario Alonso Puig.
"Sometimes they treat us as if we were potential criminals" and not as generators of wealth and jobs, the president of Bon Preu stated regarding administrations. Joan Font has asked them for more flexibility and agility, and a fiscal policy that takes into account that companies generate future returns, and not one that only seeks results for the immediate present. At the same time, he has maintained that companies must put themselves in the place of those seeking employment and be flexible to adapt to their needs.
In a round table with Sorli and the founder of Dormity and president of Comertia, David Sánchez, Font has asked to avoid sending messages such as that there are rights without taking duties into account, and that "work is a biblical punishment that, the less it is done, the better." In the same vein, Sorli has highlighted that the family tradition of transmitting a company and knowledge from generation to generation has been lost. "Nobody seeks job stability," but other objectives, something that generates challenges with an still pending answer, according to Sorli. The president of the supermarket chain has agreed in asking administrations "to be closer to companies and to make everything easier for them."
Ona Carbonell encourages "to be immune to what does not contribute, wherever it comes from," when it comes to criticisms that do not add upSorli has defended that the soul of a company consists of what identifies it, and has highlighted the creation of the Sorli Foundation to advance gender equity in companies. And it is that,"beyond the profit and loss statement, what matters is the real positive impact on society,"David Sánchez has stressed. The president of Comertia has focused his demands on the administrations on taxation, and has warned that society collapses if the production of companies and the consumption of citizens fall due to taxes. In a previous intervention at the opening of the conference, Sánchez called to "recover the cosmopolitan Barcelona eager to conquer the world." To do this, he has pointed out as key to maintain a certain attitude, which includes "moving from complaint to proposal."
Olympic medalist Ona Carbonell also has the conception of complaint as a central axis of her life philosophy. "The good ones complain, the best ones adapt" is the lesson one of her coaches gave her. The athlete has recounted this at the conference, where she explained that she is creating a sustainable swimwear brand, and that she is also focused on raising awareness about the difficulties of reconciling elite sports and motherhood, in a "fight to make visible that you can be an athlete and a mother."
Both in these new goals and in her acclaimed career as a swimmer, Carbonell is committed to taking advantage of adversities and turning them into strengths. This is how her Olympic team did it, taking advantage of the difference in height and weight of the swimmers, instead of lamenting not giving a more homogeneous image. From her experience she also draws another lesson: criticism is essential, but sometimes, it does not add up. In these cases, she has encouraged to "be immune to what does not contribute, no matter where it comes from."
Criticism has also been part of the talk by innovation expert Alfons Cornella. The founder of Institute of Next advocates using this criticism to improve, to the point that he has suggested changing complaint boxes for innovation spaces. And he sees it as crucial precisely to innovate and to do so from rebellion and nonconformity. "Why do we have to be rebellious? Because there are other people in the world who are, who experience it, and who are constantly testing to change the status quo," he warned. Cornella has also warned that innovation and great ideas mostly come from experience and knowledge. "Although they say that initiatives suddenly appear in a garage, which can be, the truth is that most are the result of people with a lot of experience and who know the market," he remarked, before encouraging attendees to dare to be rebellious.
Mario Alonso Puig warns that thoughts of the soul generate projects, while thoughts of the ego cause pettiness and rivalriesAnd this rebellion is necessary to question reality to identify elements that can improve it, but also to put these ideas into practice. This was highlighted by surgeon and writer Mario Alonso Puig: "What is difficult is to execute," he warned. "Many people have good ideas, but you have to have a sufficiently high level of conviction to execute them,"has continued. Alonso closed the day with a positive warning: thoughts of the soul generate projects, thoughts of the ego, trivialities and rivalries. In this way, it is the soul and conviction in one's own values and purposes that move companies and, inherently, the people who make them up.