Jorge Zuazola is the main man behind Spanish Leadership. He is also an rabid football fan. We had some time to talk to him about certain topics in Spanish football especially after Barcelona repeated as league champions.

Based out of Frankfurt, Germany, Mr. Zuazola has an extense background in having to deal with huge multinational corporations such as Adidas and Mead Group among many others.

We talked about the development of Spanish Leadership, the Spanish national team, and the new mentality of the Spanish athlete that has been emerging in the past few years. Most importantly what Spanish football will have to do abroad to get brand recognized.


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JUAN ARANGO: Jorge, tell me a bit about Spanish Leadership. How did it come to be and what is it all about?

JORGE ZUAZOLA: A picture is worth more than 1.000 words. This picture (below) together with the banner on the Spanish flag with the motto “Gracias Campeones/Thank you Champions”, taken at the Brussels King Baldouin Stadium during the 2010 World Cup game between Belgium and Spain in (October 2008), is a true example of people´s leadership. 12.000 Spaniards of Belgium, Holland, France, Germany and the UK showed up at the stadium to continue with the relationship with the national team.

Whereas the game was not critical, it did not matter to the Spaniards. Leadership is all about people and we all wanted to be there in the first game in a key European city after the success in Vienna where Spain clinched the European title after 44 years. 15.000 in Vienna and 12.000 in Brussels mean leadership.

When I mentioned to Xavi Hernández (Euro 2008 MVP) in our occasional encounter at Brussels' Zaventum airport that the above banner had inspired me so much as to create something called Spanish Leadership, he told me : “Really”? “Definitely” I said. “Don’t you think that 12.000 Spaniards from 5 leading European countries would not come all the way to Brussels on a Wednesday night if we did not believe in your leadership”? I asked. Xavi nodded.

Zuazola alongside (l-r) Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Xavi (Spanish Leadership)

The old tag of underachievers , which many tabloids in Britain used to attribute to the Spanish national team, is no longer there. It is irrelevant if we get knocked out soon in the World Cup. The question which comes to mind is whether or not the underachievers tag ever existed. If we look at the natural progression of Fernando Torres until he became European Champion scoring the winning goal, it would appear the underachievers tag never existed in the first place.

JA- What is the primary focus of Spanish Leadership ?

JZ- Spanish Leadership is an English speaking treble III (Internet Ideas Incubator). It has to be in English because sadly most of our countrymen and women think that being fluent in English is not a must.

They wrongly believe that someone will come to put them a red carpet to become proficient in English. All the members of Spanish leadership are native Spanish speakers. However, as a team, we bring to the table over a century of international experience in Europe, US, Asia Pacific, Africa and South America. We are all proficient in English. Leadership is just about taking action and motivating others to do the same.

Contrary to widespread belief in Spain, leadership is not just about holding a position or spouting what you believe. Most of Spain´s based people do not understand (or do not want to understand) that positions and job titles come and go. Actions and relationships are the marks of true leadership, and they last forever.

A leader´s greatest compliment and achievement is his or her followers, and followers will reflect a leader´s positive value and missions. Logically the opposite is also true. Flawed leadership – for example, the lack of integrity that, sadly, we so often associate with today´s Spain-based politicians- will also reproduce itself in followers.

That is why Spanish Leadership´s motto is TEAM which stands for Together Everybody Achieves More. That is why we feature only our sportsmen above. We are proud of them. How has (the Spanish athlete's mentality) changed in the past few years?

It has changed thanks to the high-quality decisions made by Cesc Fabregas who with 16 years moved to London in 2003. Rafa Benitez who , in 2004, did not hesitate to move to Liverpool and leave the then reigning Champions Valencia Fernando Alonso who built up his career in England. Pau Gasol who has become the first Spaniard to become a legend in the NBA.

Yet this is very little. If Spain are to dominate the world´s sport arena we need hundreds of sportsmen doing well abroad. If you ask players like Raul or Guti to move to the MSL in the US now, they will tell you, that they do not want to leave Madrid. They can´t help it. Cosmopolitanism is still missing in the Spanish idiosincrasy

Main business lines of Spanish Leadership:
• Retained Advisory Services: 75% . This means mentoring advisory services for a large number of sportsmen and institutions around the world

• Consulting : 20% This means consulting assignment on ad-hoc basis worldwide

• Publications: 5%. The founder has already published two at Lulu.com namely

JA- Obviously Real Madrid and Barcelona historically have been, and still are, the two best teams in Spain. They have been the two best ambassadors internationally for Spanish football. How has that been a hinderance to the other teams?

JZ- I would say it has been a hinderance to the whole Spanish football industry which explain why we have never won anything. Whereas the Madrid media says that we will win the World Cup we feel this is one of their permanent arrogant statements: Spain have never won it, have they. The success of the Euro 2008 was built up on the following pillars:

To our mind none of the pillars exist now, therefore our approach is very simple: If we never ever made it to the semis, how can we say now that we are going to win the World Cup if the six pillars of our success are no longer there.

The Madrid media are not very literate with numeracy. 1 team out of 32 participants means 3.125% chances. Stated simply, if we made it to the semis for the first time in history, it would mean we would have 25% of chances like any other teams.

Likewise the success of Luis Aragonés was founded on an equal distribution of players per team with Valencia adding 4 and Villarreal and Barcelona 3, the same as Liverpool. Real Madrid only added 2 i.e. 8.3% of the squad the same as Majorca with Güiza and Fernando Navarro.

That spirit has now been lost towards an over-concentration on Barcelona and Real Madrid players which traditionally has never worked. Therefore we are back to the losing model.

JA- Why don't more teams in Spain try to market their brands abroad? 


JZ- First of all because of an incredibly poor command of English. That is why Spanish Leadership is an English speaking company Sadly most of our countrymen and women think that being fluent in English is not a must. They wrongly believe that someone will come to put them a red carpet to become proficient in English. All the members of Spanish leadership are native Spanish speakers. However, as a team, we bring to the table over a century of international experience in Europe, US, Asia Pacific, Africa and South America. We are all proficient in English.

Let me give you a clear example: Uli Hoenness, the chairman of Bayern Munich, came up in German TV to make a mockery of Florentino Perez saying: He plays monopoly with us and we, Germans, have more real estate investments than him and speak better English, Perez can hardly speak English fluently. Most of Spain´s business men are not capable of drawing a market plan and business strategy in English.

Thereafter follows bad habits. The country goes to a halt in June, July and August and wakes up in September. By then most of the other countries have already done the homework. Today (May 20th) Sandro Rossell has complained to LFP´s CEO, Mr Roca, that the Premier League TV income in Asia is 6 times bigger than the Spanish.

It all comes down to lack of leadership. Until Spaniards with international experience such as Eugenio Martinez Bravo at Real Madrid and Sandro Rossell at Barcelona take the lead, and bring in a new culture, nothing will change.

I am the first supporter of Angel Maria Villar, but he hardly speaks English either.

JA- Will going abroad be viable for the other teams in Spain to go this route especially given the economic situation that most of them are going through?

JZ- Obviously, but do you think that, with the exception of Barcelona, they have qualified staff in their departments to engage on an international strategy ?
No.

When I was at Adidas, the UK subsidiary was the most profitable. Why?

Because they employed high quality staff. There is no international mindset in the management and structure of the Spanish clubs.

JA- What do you think about Vicente Del Bosque's callup for Spain?

JZ- Let me start by saying that He is a good man but he still needs to prove the excellence in a major competition.

During the Confederation Cup, Spain did not play well against Iran, South Africa, and deservedly lost against USA. We support the continuity of Vicente, the big question mark is whether or not the same ¨tiqui-taca¨ quality of playing will continue. We have serious doubts.

He is adopting a double-pivot role with Busquets and Alonso which kills the ball circulation of Spain. What is more worrying it makes Xavi´s role less critical. Xavi needs to play close to the defenders to start the play there. In short a playmaker.

Last not but not least the absence of Marcos Senna is unconceivable.

JA- Biggest surprise
 of this Spanish Leadership movement?

JZ- The biggest surprise I have had since I founded Spanish Leadership in October is that we have become very successful and have reached all the corners of the world. The use of the LinkedIn platform has been critical to our development as we own Spanish Leadership and have 12 subgroups which make us the most organized of the whole Linkedin platform

We have not had any negative feedback from anybody except those who defend the fundamentalism of Mr Florentino Perez´suicidal galactico model.

JA- Biggest disappointment in this whole process of development in Spain both as an expat and being involved in Spanish Leadership?

JZ- The Spanish press , mainly from Madrid. We have never ever done anything in the World Cup. Yet they continue to wash people´s brain. I question the quality of newspapers such as Marca and AS. I concur with Manuel Pellegrini´s decision of not conceding an interview to Eduardo Inda of Marca. A journalist has no clue on how to run a club.

JA- What are your expectations
 for Spanish Leadership as well as Spanish idiosyncrasy in the coming years through Spanish Leadership?

Spanish Leadership is independent. We see ourselves bigger abroad than in Spain. We want want English proficient native Spanish leaders to surge in the World arena. In the fields of business, sports, research, innovation, entrepreneurialism, and charity amongst many others.
You decide if you want to follow us and become a true Spanish leader.