Entrevista a Eloi Planes, Presidente Ejecutivo de Fluidra

Good morning.

Look, innovation is what I believe ultimately drives all companies to keep moving forward, to seek new opportunities to solve real problems — real user problems — with existing solutions, or solutions to things that perhaps haven't yet come to light. For me, it's the engine of business and the ability of companies to evolve, advance, and truly lead their sector. As for the second part, whether innovation really has to be disruptive, I believe there is great value in technology transfer from what already exists. When companies have access to, or position themselves to access, what is truly being innovated in other sectors — in specific topics that are perhaps very cross-cutting and can help solve clear problems in your sector — I believe the value there is extraordinary, and the risk is relatively low because we're leveraging already-existing knowledge. I really value technology transfer: the ability to know what already exists in the world that can help us solve problems we've identified in our sector. This is where I believe most sectors, most companies, can find very clear value.

We have strong, specialized internal innovation leaders. We have a broad range of solutions that we need to maintain and develop. We have several internal hubs, but we also have an extremely high level of external collaboration. We keep our antennas up to find the right partner for the solution at any given moment — when we face a problem or an opportunity that we see but don't know how to solve. We look through technology centers, universities, and specialized innovation companies, sometimes looking in sectors completely different from ours, because we know they may have a similar problem and may have found a solution. We work a lot in this sense — our eyes are wide open outward, and we're very open to collaboration. We know not everything can be done internally, so the important thing is to identify where these innovation points are that can help us improve what we're already working on. We follow a very open innovation policy.

We have carried out some cooperation in technological topics, in lighting, and in some aroma-related areas for certain products. We've held joint innovation sessions with some companies to analyze and tackle similar problems. It's a line we work on, supported by the innovation hubs we have. We also seek external collaborations as part of our development. Sometimes an outside-the-box perspective on the same topic can help us advance and evolve. We've done some things as I mentioned, and we've also arrived at concrete solutions through co-innovation.

Surprisingly, I'd say many countries where we've operated or have a presence. We have strong innovation hubs in France, Spain, the US, South Africa, and Australia. You can find innovation in many places. It's true that some countries have better-prepared ecosystems for it to flourish. The US is obviously one of the references in this regard. You'd also find it sometimes in Israel, which is another very clear innovation hotspot. But as I mentioned, in South Africa, France, Spain, Australia — even in China we have specific innovation centers, and in Malaysia. I believe that countries that bet on a sustainable economy also try to develop ecosystems that support innovation, and it's surprising how many countries around the world today make this a reality.

I think there are several factors. For me, it's more important — it's primarily a cultural issue, a matter of education and information. I believe the culture of not fearing failure, which perhaps other Anglo-Saxon cultures have, is something we lack. In our cultures, someone who hasn't failed is almost looked at as someone who doesn't know how to do business or be an entrepreneur, because in order to succeed you first have to experience failure. In Mediterranean cultures, this is harder. It's a matter of deep cultural change — embracing the culture of entrepreneurship with the risk that implies. Beyond the culture of failure, I think there's much more: teaching how to entrepreneur, fostering the capacity for self-improvement, innovation, having the right profile for this. I think it's very important. Having role models — this eventually creates references in the country, which generates a positive cycle. Everything directed at education, from primary education to universities to business schools, in the sense of understanding entrepreneurship in depth — this is key for me. We're a country where a lot of entrepreneurship already happens, but I think all of this would help even more. Beyond that, creating ecosystems that help transfer experience in this world through mentoring, through sharing experiences — I believe these references I mentioned earlier can help. From a structural standpoint, laws, fiscal policy — helping those who succeed to share and help new entrepreneurs. I think this is another important element. Creating an environment where aspiring entrepreneurs can easily find mentors, access technological concepts, find startups and investors — generating this hub and this infrastructure around it. There's a part that's clearly private investment and you have to see how to attract it, and another part that's public investment because it's longer-term and also very important. These three elements also help attract talent, because attracting talent also makes local talent stay. It's a positive cycle: having the infrastructure, the talent, the people you can learn from — it makes good people want to stay here. So for me: education, fostering cooperation, and having infrastructure that really makes the path easy because people can find support easily. Those would be the three elements I believe should be strengthened.

I believe that here in Barcelona, many things have come together to generate what I was describing earlier — this environment. We have certain hubs that are recognized worldwide. First, we have a positive social environment beyond the business side — we're in a modern city where people are open, accepting, and welcoming. That's important. We have entrepreneurs from here, people who left and came back saying this can be done here. There's been a willingness from individuals to make it happen, and the city's commitment to supporting it — creating facilities, generating zones and environments for companies that wanted to start. All of this has come together with a clear will: we have a city that can attract talent, we'll create an environment to generate it, and we have entrepreneurs from here who have succeeded globally. People like Carme Artigas, Miguel Valls, many others we could name — they generate this path that people follow. Many factors have coincided here, and once you enter this virtuous circle, everything becomes much easier — the attraction of talent, of companies, the growth of the ecosystem generating more value for the city and the country. It enters a very positive cycle.

It's interesting because I believe the entrepreneurial world needs two things that are sometimes contradictory: it needs passion and the will to believe in what you're going to do despite all the problems anyone might put in front of you. But at the same time, it needs the levelheadedness to be very clear about what the risks are and what the difficulties might be that could make the business fail. You have to have this duality — the passion to move forward and the realism to understand what you'll encounter. If you don't have both, it'll be impossible to reach your goal. So what I always advise entrepreneurs is: fall in love with your idea, and surround yourself with people who make you reflect and think about how to overcome these steps. In the end, success requires a lot of personal effort and generally more time than one expected. Resilience in this sense is also a very important element. What we sometimes thought would take three months or six months with a business plan — things need their time, and you need both mental and spiritual resilience to tackle it.

We as a company had already taken steps toward telework in many areas. I wouldn't say we were super advanced, but we really had a structure prepared. Obviously not for the kind of telework that had to be implemented in the last few months — everyone at home in one week. The fact that we managed to do this in record time — I think we all realized the infrastructure was there. Certain fears or mental barriers we had, like it couldn't work in certain areas — we realized it does work, and in many cases it's much more efficient. I'll give you the example of our management committee meetings. As an international company, half our management committee is in Santiago and half here. We have these beautifully equipped rooms for videoconferencing, but it actually works worse than videoconferencing from an iPad, because groups form. Even though the rooms are well-designed, people end up in groups. Whereas with everyone at their own place, focused, it works. I think the efficiency level of meetings has increased exponentially. So many of these things will clearly stay. These meetings where sometimes we'd fly to the other side of the world for a meeting and come back — I'm not saying some won't continue, but many, we've realized, are much more efficient this way. It's better for the world, for visits, for the planet's sustainability. Telework is here to stay. Whether it's here to stay — I think it's too soon to say. We're still on the other side of everything, and it's a bit unreal because we've all been working from home, so things are efficient because everyone was in that mode. That won't be the case going forward with more normality. So we need to see how this settles when it's over. In our internal discussions, I tell people not to rush to define grand telework policies. We're still in an impasse situation, especially as an international company — here things are one way, but on the other side of the world it's different. We don't know how autumn and winter will play out. But it's clear this is here to stay for many reasons: meeting efficiency, work efficiency, personal efficiency, and sustainability of the planet. Everything points in this direction, and we've seen it works. I do believe there are still risks — particularly cyberattacks. Companies will need to raise their security standards. We were already under pressure, and with everyone working from home, the systems were what they were, with their existing vulnerabilities. This needs to be thoroughly worked on as well. But telework has come to stay.

We've always seen three great elements that are interconnected: health, wellness, and sustainability. For us, these are the clear elements of the future, both at a general level and within our sector. Health — at the extreme end of the spectrum with a health problem, but beyond that, taking care of yourself, being in good, healthy environments — people have always valued this and will value it even more. Wellness — the peace of mind of having things be easy and not complicated — this is a clear trend. And sustainability as well — the world has become much more conscious of this necessity. These are medium-to-long-term trends that are here to stay.

I believe digitalization is, for me, one of the great technologies that can help society's development enormously. Digitalization in a broad sense — connectivity, artificial intelligence, the digitalization of processes and systems — this is clearly one of the key elements. From a human perspective, I can't imagine the pandemic without connectivity and digitalization. I don't know what would have happened, I don't know how we could have managed. This is about human relationships — being able to see each other, even if you can't kiss or hug, but being able to maintain relationships. From a deeply human standpoint, I believe the pandemic has humanized this aspect, which perhaps we saw as more transactional. It has humanized it because it has a clear foundation in this regard.

I believe there is still a clear difference today. You just need to live it and observe it — both internally at Fluidra and externally in the world. Women still don't have the representation they should have in many aspects: from salary recognition to executive positions to the number of women in entrepreneurship. If you look at any of the data, there are two big takeaways. One is that the trend is positive — the world is paying attention to this and things are changing. But gaps still remain. I think it's an important issue. We can frame it as a women's issue, but I think it can be broadened to diversity in the widest sense — cultural diversity, which I believe is important because ultimately human richness lies in diversity, and this also generates innovation. We've been talking about innovation — we have innovation precisely because of this. In our corporate social responsibility policy, this is a clear priority: how we foster diversity. We have our internal plans, and as I said, we're still far from where we should be, but the direction is right. One can question whether the pace could be faster or slower, but we're on this path, and I believe society in general is on this path as well. So this is positive.

Thank you very much.