Orenes executive says family firms must keep changing the business, not their values

Pedro García Cuestas, director of institutional relations, communication and CSR and general secretary of Grupo Orenes, said family gaming companies must change their business continuously while keeping their values, speaking at the XIX Congreso de Juego de Castilla y León. He took part in the second panel discussion at the congress, titled "El futuro de la empresa de juego: transformar sin perder la esencia", moderated by Ramón Cubián, director general of Suelo of the Comunidad de Madrid and delegate for gaming regulation and management.

García Cuestas spoke from a company with 58 years of history, where he has worked for 26 years. He described three phases in a successful company that also internationalises. The first, which he said is not simple, is knowledge of the business: knowing how to buy, manage costs, distribute, set margins and achieve profitability. The second, when that success is sustained over time, is sustainability, which requires vision, meeting commitments to workers and customers and, where necessary, giving up short-term returns in favour of the long term. The third is the phase of trust, reputation and brand, which requires relationships outside the sector, in other regions and other countries.

Asked what should change and what should not, he said it is in the first phase, the business, that companies must anticipate changes in technology, regulation, quality and sales channels. What should not change, he said, is what corresponds to the second and third phases, because that is what realises the company's values and principles: trust, the brand, and recognition that the company acts well towards its customer, its environment and its employees.

He cited time as the main advantage of the family company over other models for strategic change, saying it has a very long time horizon and is not bound to limited results or pressure from short-term indicators, because its aim is to pass to the next generation. He illustrated this with a comparison he said he had recently heard between long-term planning in the Chinese economy and short-termism in quarterly results in the United States. He added agility in decision-making and the family culture itself as advantages, and warned that family companies must be alert not to fall into resistance to change and always doing the same thing.

On professionalisation and family identity, he said the entrepreneur who starts a business knows its model, and that when the company evolves and generational succession arrives, the governing body, which knows the company's values, should order processes and place the best possible person in each post. That person may or may not be from the family, and if from the family must be prepared, he said. He rejected the idea that young people are unprepared and recalled that many family successions have been clear examples of success. If a family member is not prepared for management, he recommended participation in other bodies but not in management, with the recipe: "Preparación, preparación, y mirarlo como si fuera un profesional".

On attracting talent, he argued for continuing work on sustainable, multichannel and multiproduct gaming with improving results for society, saying the regulated sector has done well and in recent years has become a model sector with an interesting offer for certain professional profiles. He also defended entrepreneurs, saying that without risk-taking and investment there would not be the progress seen in society.

Asked how to build social legitimacy in a heavily regulated and publicly exposed sector, he said that over the last quarter of a century what society expects of companies has changed, and that economic values alone are no longer enough. Companies must first attend to the business, because without profitability there is no company, but must also seek to have a positive impact on their environment and reduce negative impact as far as possible, he said. In gaming he argued for focusing first on a sustainable business offer, on premises and on product, and then on conveying to society that the sector generates quality employment, innovation and technology, concluding that company growth must be compatible with the general interest.

On concentration in the sector, he agreed with the moderator that competition can be positive in strengthening family companies. In his closing minute he encouraged continued backing for the sector, arguing that successful family companies should believe in it because it attracts talent, has technology and "tiene todos los ingredientes" to keep growing.