English
SpanishInterview with José Luis Blanco, Executive Managing Director at Instituto de la Empresa Familiar
Topics: Family Businesses, Trends
José Luis Blanco is a lawyer. He holds a law degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and later completed his Master of Laws degree at Yale University School of Law (LLM Yale “86”).
His professional career began at Arthur Andersen, where he was a global partner. He was part of the integration committee between Arthur Andersen and Garrigues, which gave rise to Garrigues & Andersen.
In 1999 he joined Cuatrecasas as national M&A coordinator.
In 2007 he founded Latham & Watkins in Spain, a firm of which I was Managing Partner until 2017, when I became Retired Partner of the firm.
In 2020 he joined Instituto de la Empresa Familiar (IEF) as Executive Managing Director.
In addition to this professional responsibility, he continues to practice as a lawyer, advising companies in strategic transactions and special situations. He also acts as arbitrator in national and international proceedings related to mergers and acquisitions.
Since its foundation in 1992, the Instituto de la Empresa Familiar (IEF) has become one of the leading business organizations in Spain. What is its organizational structure, what are its objectives and what added value does it bring to its members?
The IEF is a non-profit association formed by a numerus clausus of one hundred members that brings together the most important family businesses in Spain.
The work of the IEF focuses on two main areas. Firstly, to promote best practices within family businesses with the aim of encouraging better corporate governance and the necessary actions to address the specific challenges of family businesses such as generational change, the integration of the different family branches in the business project, among others.
Secondly, the IEF’s mission is to give prestige to family businesses and to ensure that society is aware of and values everything they represent as a vehicle for integrating people into society and as an instrument of progress and prosperity.
“The IEF is a non-profit association formed by a numerus clausus of one hundred members that brings together the most important family businesses in Spain.”
How does the Institute collaborate with other institutions and organizations to strengthen the family business ecosystem? What are the benefits of networking and partnerships in this context?
These actions are developed by the IEF in coordination with the eighteen Territorial Associations (AATT) with which it is linked, present throughout Spain and to which almost two thousand family businesses are affiliated.
Thus, the IEF and the eighteen AATTs, with the utmost respect for their autonomy, work together in the pursuit of shared objectives.
In the development of this task, the IEF and the AATTs collaborate with academic, public and private institutions to deepen their knowledge of the reality of family businesses and in the analysis and study of their main problems.
By way of example, it is worth mentioning the “Red de Cátedras” which brings together thirty-nine university institutions that have academic centers specialized in family businesses.
In addition, the IEF, together with IESE, has launched the annual forum for reflection on family business, which reviews issues of major interest to family businesses with the participation of academics and entrepreneurs.
Other areas of institutional collaboration include the development of a forum on family business and capital markets, in collaboration with the Comisión Nacional de Mercado de Valores (CNMV), Bolsas y Mercados and leading professional firms, which addresses the main issues related to the access and permanence of family businesses in the capital markets.
Finally, the IEF is the Spanish representative in the European Family Businesses (EFB) and the Family Business Network (FBN), international business organizations of which it has been an active promoter and committed member.
“The IEF is the Spanish representative in the European Family Businesses (EFB) and the Family Business Network (FBN), international business organizations of which it has been an active promoter and committed member.”
In Spain, private family businesses represent almost 90% of the business network. What value does this group contribute to the Spanish economy as a whole?
Spain is one of the countries in the world whose business network shows the greatest presence of family businesses.
In Spain, family businesses have been an extraordinary example of growth, modernization and development.
A major part of the transformation and growth of Spain in the last 45 years since the 1978 Constitution can be better explained and understood when the extraordinary impulse that family businesses have given to our economy and our society can be seen.
Without losing their roots in our country, Spanish family businesses today compete successfully throughout the world, demonstrating the capacity for innovation and commitment to customers and to the society’s needs that justify their international success.
From an international perspective, what are the main sectors in which Spanish family businesses have achieved a leading position beyond their borders?
Spanish family businesses have achieved an international presence in practically all sectors. Even in those sectors that are apparently more closely related to the Spanish territory and geography, as could be the tourism sector, family businesses in the sector have been a clear example of internationalization, with investments in other tourist destinations in America, Africa and Europe, providing very high value management methods.
We find examples of family businesses in leading positions in the textile sector, infrastructure, automotive components, land and maritime transport, engineering, food and beverages, beauty and fashion products, among many others.
Some studies show that the main strategic objective of family businesses is to “guarantee the survival of the company”, ahead of the profit-making that usually characterizes non-family businesses. From your point of view, what factors determine the survival of a family business over time?
In a context of continuous technological innovation and where most of the 100 companies with the largest market capitalization in the world barely existed just 10-15 years ago, the average longevity of IEF companies is eighty years. The longevity of any company faces enormous challenges.
For family businesses, the challenge is even greater, since they must meet the challenges while preserving control of the family. We have been able to verify, through recent studies, that family businesses have a high degree of efficiency in innovation management, both in technological aspects and in the renewal and adaptation of processes. One of the tasks that most interest the IEF is precisely to help family businesses to share their respective experiences in order to face the challenges raised not only by markets and competition, but also by the incorporation of new generations and the change of leadership in management. Without underestimating the importance of these challenges, the progress and improvement experienced by IEF member family businesses in this area serves as an example for our entire business network.
“We have been able to verify, through recent studies, that family businesses have a high degree of efficiency in innovation management, both in technological aspects and in the renewal and adaptation of processes. One of the tasks that most interest the IEF is precisely to help family businesses to share their respective experiences in order to face the challenges raised not only by markets and competition, but also by the incorporation of new generations and the change of leadership in management.”
Digital transformation, sustainability, internationalization, new generations… From your perspective and experience, what are the main challenges currently facing IEF members and family businesses in general?
In the current situation, the main characteristic is that all the issues raised in this question must be addressed simultaneously. Without falling into complacency, I believe that the members of the IEF have been able to rigorously and diligently address the need for internationalization, which is essential to compete in a globalized economy. This internationalization effort is impossible without incorporating the tools of the digital economy into production processes. And the demands of our society make sustainability a necessary part of the definition of competitive business models.
The emergence of new generations in the management of family businesses is contributing decisively to the adoption and promotion of all these practices with great ambition and efficiency.
Today’s Spanish family businesses are, by far, the best companies that Spain has enjoyed in its history. Precisely because of the awareness and commitment to continue improving in all these areas, we can feel very proud of the reality of today’s family businesses.