English
Español The closure of the PYMEX Sevilla 2018-2019 Program has recently been held in Seville. María Carmona Béjar, operations and investments director of INQUIBA, S.A., was the speaker.
During her speech, the former student of San Telmo remembered her experience in San Telmo’s classrooms thirteen years ago, when she decided to carry out this program. After several years working in INQUIBA, a family business with 50 years of history dedicated to the manufacture of cleaning products and personal hygiene and specialists in manufacturing for third parties, she felt that it was time to start the training adventure.
For Maria Carmona, the changes in the company have been remarkable since she started the program in 2006. "In 2006 in INQUIBA worked my parents and their five children. We did not have protocols, nor governing bodies set up. The company had 136 employees. Currently, it is still a family business, although my parents do not work, three out of five siblings we do, there is a family protocol and the governing bodies work in a professional manner. The company has 380 employees, "she said.
Regarding the question: "what have we managed to change in INQUIBA in this period of time?" The Director of Operations and Investments of the company referred to the three most important milestones that she considered.
First, she mentioned the family protocol. She said that in order to reach an agreement, it is needed time, maturity and generosity from all parts involved. "It is a necessary process to lay the first foundations for the proper functioning of the family and the company, which requires to hand over the management of the business, and “TO HAND OVER" with capital letters. We must give full confidence, being aware of risks and accepting each and every mistake that can be made. "
Secondly, she spoke about the Governing Bodies. "After finishing the protocol and succession process, we began to work and to organize the governing bodies: Steering Committee, Board of Directors and Family Council," she said. As a third milestone, she mentioned the business strategy and company model. She explained how they went through talking about growth, without a foundation, to have a model that collected all ideas in an organized and studied manner.
How to be better
According María Carmona, one can only be better by being a specialist and by relying on the defining pillars of the company's models. For INQUIBA, those pillars are: "people and entities that we need to fulfill our mission, achieve the vision and the strategic plan. Final customer -whom we call number one- distributor, worker, supplier, shareholder and society", she added. She concluded that to fulfill the mission, INQUIBA aims to "be the leading company in southern Europe, recognized by our pillars as the one the best in meeting their needs". To achieve it, she listed several aspects.
- "It cannot be managed what it cannot be measured"
- Do not enter into price wars. "Companies that enter into a price war end up sinking."
- Receipts. "With few clients and so much volume, we cannot put at risk the company with bad client practices. Customers do not do us favors when they pay us. They have the obligation to pay, as we have first to serve according the agreement. The current assets are important. "
- Do not stay in the office. "Buyers do not have to wait for suppliers to come, we have to go look for them, to see their factories, to know their processes, their model, to know new alternatives".
- Do what you have to do, even if you do not want it".
- Planning " to find out in which we deviated and why to correct it and adapt it".
