Conesa Asociados Law Firm sponsored a lunch on 18 March at the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Barcelona to mark the launch of the new book by Leopoldo Abadía, economist, engineer and IESE professor.
Leopoldo Abadía is the author of La Crisis Ninja, the bestselling book that offers the clearest explanation of the subprime crisis for Spanish-speaking readers. At the lunch, he presented his second book, La Hora de los Sensatos (The Hour of the Sensible), in which he sets out the key values and business principles needed to emerge stronger from the current economic climate.
A few words with Leopoldo Abadía
First of all, Mr Abadía, what was the core message you wanted to leave with the business leaders who attended the event?
L.A.: The message is that it will be businesses — not governments — that pull us out of this situation. We need to stop expecting solutions to come from government. If governments do take useful measures, all well and good; but what really matters is that businesses create jobs, because the unemployment rate is the only reliable indicator of the state of the economy. If I read that GDP is forecast to grow by 0.1% and that doesn't translate into a fall in unemployment, it means nothing to me.
Have you asked yourself why your books have been so enormously successful?
L.A.: I'm the most surprised of anyone. I'm not an economist, yet people come up to me and say: "We finally understand what this crisis is all about!" People don't want talks full of empty jargon — they're looking for plain, clear explanations. To explain a cash flow plan, for instance, you just need what I call the "back-of-the-envelope" method: money coming in minus money going out equals what I have left. From there, you ask yourself: what happens if I earn double? What if I earn half? In my latest book, La Hora de los Sensatos, I try to explain these things clearly and without resorting to empty words.
I won't ask you when we'll come out of this, but I would like to know whether you're an optimist or a pessimist on the subject.
L.A.: Thank you for not asking, because I genuinely don't know when this will end (laughs). But we have to have confidence, spend money wisely, and work harder than ever. We also need to stay optimistic, because people are sensible and have an entrepreneurial spirit. Just recently I spoke with someone who had been unemployed and had just set up their own business — which, for now, has created one job: their own. The company is called Sevilla al Cubo, and it collects rubbish bins from people's homes. It's just one example of how, if all Spaniards moved forward with that spirit — without waiting for the government to act — we would emerge from this crisis far more quickly.
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