Tetuan Valley was the first non-profit pre-accelerator program in Europe. It was founded in 2009 by three ambitious entrepreneurs whose goal was to promote local entrepreneurship and regional development towards technology, creating The Tetuan Valley Startup School.

The six-week intensive program that will get entrepreneurs from start to grow

The Tetuan Valley Startup School is a free six-week program designed for entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of their tech project. Each week a different topic is covered, including: legal & finances, effective presentations, product development, value proposition, investment, and business models & metrics. The six sessions are facilitated by Tetuan Valley’s mentors, experienced entrepreneurs that are experts in the topic being covered.

Besides the different sessions, each team of entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to practice their pitch and receive feedback from experts. Additionally, there is a hackathon after the product development session. Teams work on their projects for 48 intense hours of coding with tech mentors to help entrepreneurs launch a prototype or add other features to the product. At the end of the program there is a demo day where all teams pitch and show their demo to investors and accelerators.

Tetuan Valley helps entrepreneurs follow their dreams, but it also helps them find a unique community

Tetuan Valley started with only three people and now it has over 500 entrepreneurs that have gone through the program, accelerators from across Europe, mentors from Silicon Valley, and access to Google mentors. Entrepreneurs that went through this program describe Tetuan Valley’s entrepreneurial community as one of the strongest ones in Europe.

These talented entrepreneurs support each other and offer a safe environment to young entrepreneurs in Spain, which could be hard to find due to the society’s high uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation.

Design sprint in Tetuan Valley: process spreading to teams around the world

“A design sprint is a five-phase framework that helps answer critical business questions through rapid prototyping and user testing”

Tetuan Valley runs more than 150 design sprints with well-known companies such as Blue Bottle Coffee, Slack, and Blue Bottle Coffee. Tetuan Valley has helped teams from around the world with various issues including: domestic abuse in Russia, Kenya’s online tax platform, vehicle registration, etc. The result of these projects motivated Tetuan Valley to create a Design Sprint School, a three-week process focused on Design Sprint. The program was facilitated by Eusebio Reyero, Google Certified Sprint Master, who led over 40 sprints. Tetuan Valley followed up with the teams weeks and months after to see how they were doing and ask if they needed more advice on how to move forward with the project.

Questions for the Tetuan Valley site visit

1. What would you say is the biggest challenge of being an entrepreneur in Spain?
2. Looking back, what do you wish you would have known before founding Tetuan Valley?
3. How did you build your team?
4. When did you know you had the right idea to create Tetuan Valley?
5. How do you think Spain’s culture affects entrepreneurship?

Centuries old and composed of thousands of acres of vineyards and deep underground cellars, the Codorniu company boasts of Instagram-worthy scenery and world-class wine.

Codorniu has a Long History of Making Cava

Codorniu is the oldest business in Spain. Papers from 1551 are the first documents that show records of the Codorniu family making wine. However, it wasn’t until the 1800s that cava was first introduced. Today, Codorniu employs 500 to 1,000 workers, but because it is a private company, the exact number is not public information.

Cava is a Special Type of Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wine cannot be classified as Cava unless it was produced in Catalonia. About 95% of all cava production takes place in the Penedès region. It can take up to three years to produce a bottle of Cava.

The first step in making Cava is to pick the grapes. Cava is created using Macabeo, Parellada, and Xarel.lo grapes. Winemakers softly press the grapes, and the freshly squeezed juice is fermented into the base wine. The juice goes through a round of fermentation next, and then the different grapes’ base wines are combined. Sugar and yeast are added to the blends before each mixture ferments a second time. After the dead yeast cells are removed from the blend, the bottles are sealed, and the wine is finished.

Popular Bubbly is Codorniu’s Biggest Threat

Codorniu competes with champagne companies which produce the most popular form of sparkling wine. Champagne is made in France. Codorniu competes with companies like MOËT & CHANDON, which is a company that many people consider produces the best champagne in the world.

Questions to Ask at Codorniu Site Visit:

How do you know when the grapes are ripe enough to be picked?

Why do you use the blend of Macabeo, Parellada, and Xarel.lo grapes as opposed to other kinds?

What effect does allowing the wine to ferment in the cellars have on the final taste of the drinks?

What types of processes do you have in place to ensure the quality of the wine? Is there a type of Cava that is your most popular product?

In 1988, HP relocated its graphic-arts office from San Diego, United States to Barcelona, Spain. The office specializes in research and development to maintain its leadership in large-format printing. HP Barcelona employs more than 2,000 people which includes those in its engineering and support facilities. Nearly 75% of the staff is of Spanish nationality with around 22% from other European countries and 3% from the United States. Former head of global marketing for the graphics solutions business, Francois Martin notes that the average age of an employee in the Barcelona office is 34 years, highlighting the relatively young workforce demographic.

The Barcelona Office Focuses on Graphic Arts

HP has large-format printers used for publishing, direct mail, label printing, photography, and more. Two printers in particular, the DesignJet and Scitex, are used for printing large photographic images, packaging, and signage. Additionally, the office has a Graphics Experience Center which displays HP printers for clients and employees to view and further learn about the company’s technology. The room features sample prints on a variety of different textures.

Consumer Demands Challenge HP to Deliver High-Performing Printers

Customers look for high capacity, high quality, and low costs when purchasing a large-format printer. HP Barcelona must monitor these aspects when creating its products. Recent developments in print technology allow the company to reduce costs and improve quality. For example, new sensory technology allows printers to handle plain paper instead of any special paper and still provide the same print quality. New printers also have the capacity to hold more ink cartridges which lends itself to improved print quality.

The Office Hosted the HP Innovation Summit in April

The Barcelona office hosted the third annual EMEA Innovation Summit in April 2019. Customers, media, analysts, and innovators came together to share ideas, creativity, and technology to shape the future of innovation. Highlights of the conference include a discussion on the importance of sustainability in businesses and release of a new virtual reality headset in Europe. The most discussed announcement at the summit was HP Sure Sense, a software that will use deep learning artificial intelligence to better detect viruses and malware.

Questions for the Class Site Visit

• What prompted the move from San Diego to Barcelona?
• Are there travel opportunities for your employees? How is someone selected for travel?
• How does your office maintain a culture driven towards innovation, research, and technological development?
• If family or friends were to visit your office, what would be the one feature you have to showcase?
• What newest technology or software has HP developed that is most exciting for you?

The Abertis vision is to be the leading worldwide operator in infrastructure management serving mobility and communications

Since 2012, Abertis has had integrations in Brazil, Chile, Asia, Italy, and created Emovis, a subsidiary dedicated to the development of electric toll technology.
Headquartered in Madrid, Abertis Infrastructure is a worldwide leading corporation in toll road management. In total, the company runs over 8,600 kilometers of toll road all around the world. Abertis has followed a three-way approach of growth, internationalization and profitability.

Almost half of all employees are based in Spain and net profits are up 15%

The evolution of Abertis is constant. However, in terms of their HR department the number of employees has been steadily decreasing over the past 6 years. They currently have 14,119 employees, 3000 fewer than in 2013. In terms of the number employees in Spain vs around the world, Spain hosts almost half (41%) of all geographical workers. This movement of workers into Spain has paid off greatly. With increases in all of its main financial figures, Abertis reports €1,681 million net profit, up 15% from last year. The high jump in net profit is due in large part to the 34% sale of Cellnex Telecom and an increase of €605 million in capital gains. Additionally, Abertis had 3 shareholders (Atlantia, ACS and Hochtief) to join the group to cap off the year.

The Abertis Foundation enters the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration Group

Appointed on April 11, 2019 during the 27th biannual meeting of the United Nations (UN), Abertis became the first infrastructure company to join the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration Group. The UN praised the Abertis group’s work to improve road safety, in particular its commitment to United Nations’ road safety goals. These road safety goals have been proved true as Abertis has reduced accident rates to 6.4% and morality rates fell 10% in the past year. They have brought awareness to road safety regulations through education programs in all of the countries they operate in and forums in the major cities of these countries that 7,500 people showed up to in 2018.

Abertis reaches agreement with Red Eléctrica

Abertis Telecom Satélites, a subsidary of Abertis, reached an agreement with Red Eléctrica Corporación to sell its 89.7% stake in Hispasat for €949 million. Expected to go through during the first half of this year, the deal will help prepay the short-term bridge to the debt facility drawn in the acquisition of Abertis. Once the deal goes through, Abertis will have no stake in Hispasat, keeping the company’s strategy to become a pure toll road operator. 

5 Questions

• Do you see yourself continuing to decrease you total number of employees?
• Why did you see leaving Hispasat was beneficial?
• Do you see yourself continuing to expand throughout Europe?
• How beneficial was the three new shareholders in terms of the growth in net profit?
• Have you been actively trying to get more infrastructure companies to join the UN Committee?

In 2017, Quadpack earned its place in the list of top 20 European packaging suppliers. It primarily designs packaging for skin care, make-up, and fragrance products. The company was founded in 2003 after the successful merger of three packaging companies. In 2012, Quadpack moved its headquarters to Barcelona. Overtime, Quadpack has grown to have almost four hundred employees.

Successful global expansion

Quadpack started with three offices in Barcelona, London, and Paris. From the beginning, it had goals of expanding globally. By creating close partnerships with successful Asian manufacturers, its goal became a reality. Today, Quadpack operates in the following regions:

• Europe
• North America
• Asia-Pacific

Despite its success in global expansion, Quadpack is not slowing down its growth efforts. Recently, Quadpack created sales teams dedicated to expanding its operations in the US and Asia-Pacific regions.

Creative packaging comes from creative solutions

Quadpack specializes in custom wood and plastic packaging. After a material and shape is chosen, the customer works with the decorations plant to create truly memorable packaging. If a customer needs a quicker solution, Quadpack offers products from its Q-Line collection. Q-Line offers a wide range of products, such as lipsticks and glass bottles, to help customers get their packaging when they need it. Despite being premade products, Q-Line allows customers to pick the finishing decorations so the final product looks unique.

Recent challenges tested Quadpack’s resilience

On October 15, 2018 a tropical storm flooded Quadpack’s decorations plant in Torelló, Spain. No one was hurt in the flood, but the plant was practically destroyed. Quadpack was able to clean up the factory and resume normal operations in just six weeks. Despite this setback, Quadpack still managed to increase its sales by 15% in 2018. Quadpack’s CEO Tim Eaves believes this is one of Quadpack’s proudest moments in history and said, “the flood at Torelló highlighted the value of a motivated team, capable of reacting quickly in exceptional circumstances.”

Questions for our Quadpack visit

1. Which region of the world was the most difficult to expand to?
2. Why was Quadpack’s headquarters moved to Barcelona after 9 years of operation?
3. How will the Paris agreement impact your operations?
4. Do your sustainability strategies change depending on what regions of the world you are operating in?
5. How would Catalonia’s potential separation from Spain impact your operations?

Codorniu is the oldest business and Spain and still successful today as one of the world’s premier wineries.

A History longer than the United States itself

Codorniu was first established in 1551, making it 468 years old today.  This is 225 years older than the establishment of the United States of America.  According to the company, this is the oldest business in Spain, and the 17^th oldest in the world.  Codorniu is located just outside of Barcelona, and is the largest vineyard owner in the all of Europe.  The company owns a total of 3000 hectares which converts to over 7400 acres.  In other terms, this is almost twelve square miles filled with vineyards.  Codorniu prides itself on sustainability, claiming it to be the number one reason for the longevity and success of the company for over eighteen generations.  Currently, Codorniu has just under 200 employees that contribute to a large production output. The four core sustainability factors of the company are to care for the environment, the local development, the people, and the promotion of a healthy life.  Codorniu strives to preserve the environment by employing sustainable agriculture techniques and rationalizing water resources to protect the ecosystems that they rely on. 

What you get to try during the site visit

Codorniu is famous for producing cava, a Spanish sparkling wine which is similar to champagne.  This main product for the company was first established in 1872, and now is produced at an astonishing rate of over 100,000 bottles per year.  The process starts with a harvest in the months of August and September, a couple of fermentation periods, and finally mixed and sealed to perfection.  Key challenges in this process include harvesting the plots of land at the correct moment of maturation, and keeping the products in the perfect condition to maintain their characteristics.

European competitors push Codorniu to increase product outreach

Recently, there has been growth of the Spanish cava industry in the United States, but not much in Europe. Codorniu is challenged by European competitors that are producing higher growth products including Italian Prosecco and French Champagne.  Looking forward, Codorniu plans to increase the outreach of their products to by developing marketing campaigns to promote the growth in the cava industry. 

Questions for the site visit?

What are some new products that Codorniu is developing?

Who are Codorniu’s main competitors for cava products?

How has the size of the company changed throughout its history?

What is a current sustainability project that Codorniu is working on?

What are the differences between Spanish cava, Italian Prosecco, and French Champagne?

Abertis is an international market leader in the toll road industry headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Formed by the merger of two great Spanish road building companies in 2003, Abertis is an international toll road management company owning over 8,600 km of toll roads in Europe, Latin America, and Asia with over 12,000 employees worldwide. Although most of its revenue now comes from other countries, Abertis’ roots are in Spain with its 40-year road-building history and status as the largest toll road owner in Spain.

Abertis Represents Most of Spain’s Road-Building History
Abertis was born from the merger of two Spanish road-builders, Acesa and Aurea. Acesa and Aurea were the parent companies of Autopistas and Dragados, which together represented most of Spain’s road building history.

Autopistas built the first toll road in 1967 and over 550 km of roadway throughout Spain. Autopistas started the toll road industry in Spain and expanded the road network from Zaragoza all the way to the Mediterranean.

Dragados was a construction company that built over 6,500 km of roadways and toll roads in addition to other construction projects throughout Spain. Dragados was known for paving the runways of Spain’s airports and the construction of much of the Spanish infrastructure.
Abertis consists of decades of Spanish construction and road-building history and now controls 1,559 km of toll roads in Spain.

Abertis Controls Several Key Industries of Spanish Infrastructure Other Than Toll Roads
Although Toll Roads are its largest business, Abertis also maintains holdings in Spain’s parking garage, telecommunications, and radio signal transmission infrastructure industries. Abertis controls Spain’s largest parking garage company and owns one of the leading TV and radio signaling infrastructure companies giving it control of over 2,400 satellites. These other services in addition to toll road management make Abertis a major competitor in the global infrastructure market. Its key competitors are Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas S.A. and Construtora OAS Ltda. The former is one of the largest Spanish construction and infrastructure companies while the latter is a global competitor in civil engineering.

International Presence Challenges Abertis to Reduce Its Carbon Footprint
In the last 15 years, Abertis has grown from being a Spanish company with minor international influence to being an international business with 70% of revenues coming from foreign countries on three different continents. This has raised new challenges for Abertis in international financing, global competition, and most importantly, reducing its global impact. Traffic congestion and slow roads are bad for business, but also increase Abertis’ carbon footprint. As of 2018, Abertis has begun initiatives to decrease its carbon footprint and make its roads more environmentally friendly.

Abertis is a historically important Spanish business and key global competitor in the infrastructure industry.

Key Questions For Abertis Representatives:

1) How has international presence affected your financing of projects?

2) What steps are being taken to decrease Abertis’ carbon footprint?

3) What does the future of toll road management look like?

4) What new technologies are being deployed on toll roads?

5) What other services or industries has Abertis looked into entering?

When you think of the name “John Ryan”, what do you think of? I’m sure I’m not the only person who doesn’t think of John Ryan Company, but maybe sometime in the future, I, and many others will think of them.

John Ryan’s History

John Ryan Company was founded in Minnesota in 1983. Their line of work is providing numerous products and services that help with banking and other services. They also have expanded to Madrid, Spain, London, England, and Silicon Valley in California.

John Ryan’s Messaging and Banking Based Products

John Ryan has several products and services. Their main product is the Quick Messenger CMS. This product is a content management platform that is bank-ready and able to effortlessly target messaging to single screens with their Smart Slots system. Quick Messenger also allows users to customize experiences at many different levels, easily monitor and manage workflows, and integrate with data feeds and branch systems seamlessly and securely. Another product they have is Automated Content Execution (ACE). It is a program that safely moves content and instructions around a platform. This program also integrates well with existing bank file delivery software, and conserves bandwidth through download-throttling and transfers based on the time of day.

John Ryan’s Various Services

John Ryan also has various services they provide. One big service they provide is Customer Visit Management. This service utilizes a combination of observations and analysis to classify branches by opportunities and challenges. They also provide Digital Communications Programming, which includes setting priorities and establishing a calendar, developing a branded look, tone and feel for messaging, and then setting down the structured processes, workflow, resource requirements and internal and vendor responsibilities. John Ryan also has Content Variety, which is numerous services they provide. One such service within the “content variety” title is the brand river. This multimedia service uses a rich and continuous branding backdrop and repurposed, pre-existing video content assets to make a unified video context for various content. They also have Network Operations, which is support for the field, help desk, equipment, and software.

John Ryan’s Key Challenges

To me, one challenge John Ryan seems to have is that it appears to be a small and somewhat unknown company. This is definitely a challenge because it could be difficult to get their name out there, especially because John Ryan is a very common name and it gets many different results. Another challenge is that there are probably a lot of companies that provide similar products and services as John Ryan. Also, two different John Ryan’s from Minnesota come up on a Google search. One of them is John Ryan Inc. which specializes in graphic design services and the other one is John Ryan Company, which is the John Ryan discussed in this article.

Conclusion

John Ryan Company is a small, private company that has branches across the world. Hopefully in our visit we can obtain a more high level understanding of them.

Five Questions For John Ryan’s Representatives

1. Why, of all countries, aside from the UK, did you decide to expand to Spain?
2. How are you, or how will you separate yourself from and overtake your competition?
3. How will separate yourself from other John Ryan’s?
4. Are there any major companies that use your products or services? If not, how will you get some companies to use your products or services?
5. Where do you plan on expanding to next?

El Corte Inglés is Not Your Typical Retail Chain

El Corte Inglés is not the typical department store you would find in the United States. While it offers the typical products you will find in the U.S., it provides unexpected rooftop restaurant services in many of its retail locations. Its bright green glass store design positions the retailer as a premium department store throughout Europe. 

El Corte Inglés Spans 75 Years of Experience

El Corte Inglés is Europe’s largest department store by net turnover. El Corte Inglés was established in 1935 by Ramón Areces Rodríguez in Madrid. He purchased a tailor shop that was founded in 1890 and established El Corte Inglés. El Corte Inglés has experienced significant growth with over 75 years of experience. El Corte Inglés currently has 94 stores, 92,078 employees, 700 million customer visits a year, and 11.518 million El Cortes Inglés card users. El Corte Inglés’s key statistics show that it is one of the dominant companies in Spain.

El Corte Inglés Offers Latest Fashion and a Rooftop Dining Experience

El Corte Inglés offers a wide range of products and services. I found the typical products that you would find in a department store in the U.S. including the latest fashion clothing, technology, and general home décor. I was quite surprised when I read that El Corte Inglés offers rooftop restaurant services in some of its department stores. 

The photo pictured above shows one of El Corte Inglés’s restaurants located throughout Spain. The restaurant offers various food choices including seafood, pasta, and sandwiches. El Corte Inglés also owns hypermarkets, convenience stores, optical centers, and travel agents. 

Zara Shows El Corte Inglés Must Adapt to the Retail’s Changing Technology

Zara is an international fashion company based in Spain that offers cutting edge technology in the retail fashion industry. Zara has augmented reality shop window sensors in the store that customers can interact with on mobile phones. Zara recently opened the largest of its 2,200 shops in Spain within yards of Madrid’s El Corte Inglés stores. I found an interesting article from Bloomberg in 2017 that explains how the retail model is changing. The article explains how El Corte Inglés offers its own fashion styles and many other products but still needs to adapt to not lose the market to these changes in the retail industry. 

Additional Follow-up Questions for El Corte Inglés

• Do you find El Corte Inglés’s restaurant service to be part of its core range of products and services?
• How does El Corte Inglés manage its various products and services and not lag behind in any of its business units?
• Does El Corte Inglés tailor any of its products or services based on its location in Europe?
• Do you see Zara as a direct threat to El Corte Inglés?
• What portion of Europe is El Corte Inglés most successful in?

The Sagrada Família is a basilica located in Barcelona, Spain. It is officially a Roman Catholic church and holds mass every Sunday. The architect, Antoni Gaudí, began work on this masterpiece over 135 years ago. It is expected to be completed completed in 2026.

The Sagrada Família has Experienced Many Delays in Construction

Construction began on the Sagrada Família on March 19, 1882. The original architect was a man named Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano, but he stepped down from the position shortly after construction began due to differences of opinion with the developers. He was quickly replaced by Antoni Gaudí. He began constructing the original design plan, but he ultimately rejected the original design in favor of his own innovative design.

Antoni Gaudí would not live to see his glorious basilica finished. He passed away on June 10, 1926 and was buried in the crypt of the unfinished Sagrada Família. Despite his death, construction never stopped.

Sometime between 1936 and 1939, some of the buildings near the Sagrada Família were set on fire. This included the workshop that housed the original plans, drawings, and photographs of the basilica. Despite this setback, construction continued. Although the original plans were lost, Gaudí’s innovative design has been respected by all who have worked on the basilica.

The Sagrada Família is currently 70% completed. It is said that the basilica will finally be completed in 2026, which will be 100 years after Gaudí’s death.

Funding for the Sagrada Família Comes from Donations and Ticket Sales

The Junta Constructora del Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família is a non-profit foundation that funds the continued construction and restoration of the Sagrada Família. The church has always been funded by private funds and donations. In more recent times, funding has come from the profits made from tickets sold to visit the church.

The price of your ticket depends on how large your group is and what type of ticket you would like to purchase. Individual tickets range from 17€ to 32€. More expensive tickets offer extra features such as audioguides, guided tours, and exclusive access to the towers. Tickets for groups are slightly less expensive and offer a similar range of options for extra features.

Questions for the Sagrada Família Site Visit

• What is it like to attend mass at the Sagrada Família as a member of the Catholic faith?
• How does the experience of attending mass here differ if you are not a member of the Catholic faith?
• How would the culture in Barcelona change if the Sagrada Família did not exist?
• How has the untraditional architecture of the Sagrada Família affected how members of the Catholic church view the basilica?
• What are the chances that the church is actually finished by 2026?