Taking care of yourself when everything is going well (end-of-year grades)

A good season allows for a lot. The beginning of August is an ideal time to take stock of everything that has marked the business and economic course of recent months. Thus, I have reviewed all the columns I have published throughout this section, from the first Por La Diagonal to the last Sin Miedo, also passing through other headlines such as Fera and common sense;Merkelian freedom and Catalan captains; Presidential repoker and Banco Sabadell's ace up its sleeve; The tired ones do the work, Going to the bank is voting, The Pope, the Cercle and the OPA or Catalonia's long gaze.

As you can imagine, a little bit of everything has happened during this course. In October I heard chefs Ferran Adrià and Martina Puigvert saying that "being an entrepreneur is looking for problems". They are not wrong, and time puts much of entrepreneurial resilience to the test. Shortly before the celebration of the Forum for Administrative Reform (FERA) event in November at the Llotja de Mar, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, assured that "public administration needs good managers, highly trained and well paid." And just a few days ago it was made public that the Government has promoted a law so that the selection criterion for public managers is a matter of meritocracy and not political affiliation. The purpose is as easy or as difficult as "reducing the space for arbitrary political decision." The Generalitat estimates that between 400 and 900 management positions are replaced each time there is a change of political color. Definitely, there cannot be a good country without a good Administration.

The consultant Xavier Marcet explains it clearly and concisely: "It is not easy to reform the Administration, but things have to be well oriented towards results. We are going nowhere without trust between the public and private sectors. This is not a war of businessmen against civil servants. We want an administration that we can be proud of and we want things to happen." For things to happen, advances in artificial intelligence and digitalization must also be very present. From Google, Xavier Amatriain already warned during the Femcat Forum that AI can make us smarter but that decisions and responsibility are up to humans. The truth is that with each passing day, AI picks up greater cruising speed. And no, for better or worse, this article is totally handcrafted and has not yet been written by Chat GPT. According to chess champion Garry Kasparov, who attended the Talent Arena, it's not just about solving problems, but about being a little better with each challenge we face. Computers will optimize the answers, but it is the responsibility of humans to ask ourselves new questions, so make good use of these days to think about new horizons.

I also especially remember some words from the lawyer Miquel Roca during the Jaume Vicens Vives conference in December where he assured that "we need strong, powerful, moral, cultural and civic leaderships that overcome the comfort of silence and that assume, if necessary, going against the current." Perhaps we need to dare a little more to have uncomfortable conversations. Unfortunately, throughout this course we have lost some great leaders such as Pope Francis, Isak Andic (Mango), Joan Uriach (Uriach), Joan Planes (Fluidra), Paco Solé-Parellada (7Portes), Pepe Mujica or Joan Guinovart (IRB), among others.

The Catalonia Leads Plan, which was presented at the beginning of 2025, continues its tour, despite the Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC) having asked different television and radio media to withdraw its campaign because it promotes a government action and does not mention specific available services. The Catalonia Leads Plan foresees mobilizing 18.5 billion euros between 2025 and 2030 with 200 measures that aim to "modernize the Catalan economy," and position it as a leading region in Europe in terms of infrastructure, knowledge and innovation, productivity, equal opportunities, and administration reform. As we already warned at the time, time puts all plans in their place, and budget execution too.

Almost seven and a half years have passed for Banco Sabadell, Fundació La Caixa or Criteria to return their registered office to Catalonia. BBVA's hostile takeover bid for Sabadell has filled a large part of the headlines this year. And it still has a long media journey ahead. Surely one of the highest points was the double conversation between presidents Josep Oliu and Carlos Torres during the Cercle d'Economia Meeting and also coinciding with the Government's announcement of a public consultation. I insist that going to the bank is voting.

Precisely the opinion note from the Cercle d'Economia, claiming Sabadell's own legal personality, independent management, or effective management headquarters in Catalonia, marked the path of the decision finally taken by the Council of Ministers with a non-merger formula of 3 years extendable to 2 more years. Both Banco Sabadell and BBVA have celebrated record results during the first semester which, for now, make the takeover bid positive for the shareholders of both banks. The CEO of BBVA, Onur Genç, started the month of August insisting that they will not raise the price of the takeover bid and does not rule out the possibility of withdrawing the offer once the sale of the TSB subsidiary becomes effective: "All scenarios are open." Everyone will play their cards until the last minute to come out as well as possible. We will see how this banking exam continues from September.

I conclude with a summer reflection from footballer Andrés Iniesta during the Princess of Girona Awards gala held a few days ago at the Liceu: "You don't have to be feeling bad to go to a psychologist. You also have to take care of yourself when everything is going well, because life goes very fast and the demands are constant." August is a fantastic time to think about it.

Happy summer to everyone!