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FPdGi, Entrepreneurship

Conclusions and Closing Conference of the 3rd CEDE Managers Meeting

Fainé says character and attitude are the keys to dealing with the economic situation

01/12/2010

*    The President of the Spanish Confederation of Managers and Executives (CEDE), Isidre Fainé, closed the 3rd CEDE Managers Meeting, which was held today in Girona with the attendance of over 1,200 managers.

*    Antoni Esteve, President of the Prince of Girona Foundation, which co-organized the event, and Fernando Ruiz, President of Deloitte and member of the CEDE Board of Directors, presented the conclusions of the Meeting.



Girona, 30 November 2010.- This afternoon the President of the Spanish Confederation of Managers and Executives (CEDE), Isidre Fainé, closed the 3rd CEDE Managers Meeting, which unfolded throughout the day at the Girona Auditorium and Conference Center. Organized jointly by CEDE and the Prince of Girona Foundation, the Meeting was a big success in terms of attendance, bringing together over 1,200 managers and executives.


CLOSING CONFERENCE – ISIDRE FAINÉ, PRESIDENT OF CEDE

The President of CEDE began his speech by recalling that we find ourselves in a difficult situation, marked by a certain distrust of the markets with respect to our country. Mentioning the differential between German and Spanish bonds, he also went on to say that “we will emerge from this situation and we will do so in good shape because things will start to fall into place”.

He stated that in order to emerge from these unfavourable circumstances we should be aware of the complexity that we are confronting. Despite all this, however,  Fainé affirmed that “the world will grow by more than 4% this year”. “For us this crisis has been like graduating from Harvard”. He then quoted Horace, saying “adversity has the effect of eliciting talents”.

One of the current opportunities is the access to new markets but we should not forget our own market, which will gradually recover its sturdiness and stability.

“We should have no qualms about moving beyond our borders”. In this respect, he gave the example of Spanish firms like Telefónica and Abertis. The President of CEDE mentioned several formulas for competing in our global world: growing and investing  more, diversifying risks, increasing efficiency and reducing costs, improving processes, and contacting new markets. Globalization implies large efforts but it boosts the prestige of brands, it is an excellent school for first-class managers, and it creates the jobs that are so necessary at this time.

Fainé recommended that “we should not resist change. We have to avoid inertias and embrace transformations”. He emphasized that managers should have vision, identity and passion, and know how to communicate because fellow workers should always identify with the projects to be carried out.

He went on to point out five values of the manager who is competitive in the global world: “Avoiding what’s comfortable, being realistic, striving to understand businesses, having decision-making capacity, and building clear strategies and sharing them.”

He stressed the importance of timing, since big projects are sometimes only possible thanks to discretion whereas speaking too much may cause an opportunity to be lost, and he pointed out the advantage of solid principles and ethical values. Such principles allow fads to be avoided and provide a greater capacity of consistency.

One of the problems faced by our companies is a tendency to enter into spirals of frantic activity without attending to priorities. Seemingly unending meetings without a clear purpose or the abuse of PowerPoint prevent the dialogue and the expression of opinions that generate a rich discussion of real value.

“Managers should anticipate problems, with the absolute determination to overcome difficulties. They do not let themselves be overwhelmed by frustration. Good managers should be aware of their own limitations because no one can know more than everyone else. They should contribute their ideas but they have to let all their fellow workers do so, too.” Fainé added that “it is necessary to avoid the natural tendency to generate controlled processes for working teams since such processes serve only to impede their creativity.”

Fainé concluded by recalling that, “even though we find ourselves in an exceptional situation, there are opportunities that call for attitude and character in order to be identified. Circumstances determine the dilemma but, in the end, the decisive factor is character.”

 

Before the closing conference was given, Antoni Esteve, President of the Prince of Girona Foundation, and Fernando Ruiz, President of Deloitte and member of the CEDE Board of Directors, presented the conclusions of the Meeting.

Fernando Ruiz
Ruiz recapitulated some of the main ideas that were expressed in the first part of the Meeting, and pointed out several positive points for the Spanish economy, underscoring the solidity of the financial institutions in comparison to those of such countries as Ireland and Greece, which have nothing to do with our system. The President of Deloitte then recalled the conference of Javier Solana, who mentioned the change of location of the big power centers.

Likewise, Ruiz added that one of the important concepts expressed in this part of the Meeting was that we should not let ourselves be overcome by pessimism and that we should strive to improve productivity and work more and better to continue motivating our management teams.

Antoni Esteve

For his part, Esteve summarized the main ideas of the wide-ranging discussion held on the profile of the manager of the year 2020, pointing out how important it will be for the executives of the future to have a large technical capability and an excellent training combined with a great emotional capacity.

In his speech he spoke out for the role of young executives since they will be the ones who, with their enthusiasm and sensitivity, will be able to find the right paths to be competitive and to continue looking hopefully to the future.


CEDE - www.directivoscede.com

The Spanish Confederation of Managers and Executives (CEDE) is the organization representing managers in the Spanish social and economic sphere and it now has a membership of over 94,000 professionals. From the time of its founding in 1997, CEDE has grown constantly through intense activity, thanks to the coordinated efforts of the 43 manager associations that form it.

Indeed, from its beginnings CEDE has carried out numerous activities and projects in connection with the managerial world, including the organization of Manager Conferences and Meetings like the one just held in Girona, as well as the CEDE Breakfasts, which are held monthly with the participation of prominent figures of the country’s economic, political and business life as guest speakers.

Prince of Girona Foundation - http://ca.fundacioprincepdegirona.org/

The Prince of Girona Foundation was founded on 26 June 2009 as the Royal Household’s response to the initiative of the Girona Chamber of Commerce, Caixa Girona, the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation and “la Caixa” to organize a foundation primarily addressed to promoting the education and training of young people and to dealing with social problems.

Within the frame of its endeavours to provide support and training to young people and to attend to the social issues arising in our area, the Foundation works in four areas of activity: social affairs and cooperation, culture and sports, science and academics, and business.

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