Fernando Francés. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Fernando Francés, a mathematician from degree program, worked at IBM, Arthur Andersen and, starting in 1996, at DMR, a Canadian consulting firm that he took control of eight years later together with group of employees.
They renamed the company Everis and gave it a new impetus that has allowed it to grow at fees 20% per year and become one of the market leaders. All thanks to a model of management based on people, on the excellence of its professionals. "We go to universities and cultivate long deadline relationships with them to help us identify the best people. And once we have the best, we take care of them," said Fernando Francés during his visit to the University of Navarra. On the occasion, he gave a presentation at lecture and presented the award Entrepreneurs 2011 of the everis Foundation.

What is the secret to achieve in 15 years a company with 9,000 professionals, present in 13 countries, and a turnover of over 500 million euros?
We have been lucky and we have been able to create an environment to attract good people and make the most of these people, motivating them and getting a positive attitude from them.

What do you understand by "the best"? What characteristics must they have?
There is an attitudinal part: they must have certain skills that are important, necessary but not sufficient. And there is another marked by characteristics such as optimism, enthusiasm, generosity, demand, healthy ambition...

The press says that Everis is a consulting firm "obsessed with giving opportunities to development the best talent", how do you manage to materialize this obsession?
What we offer people who come to the company are opportunities for development professional. We aim to be the place where they have the greatest opportunity to make the most of themselves. So, on the one hand, I think we are quite demanding with people, and on the other hand, we are also generous. Normally things are done well, then there are good results, and if there are good results we have to be generous and share the results with those who have generated them. We try to base ourselves on three principles: fairness, exigency and generosity.

Have you taken measures to ensure that the professional development opportunities you offer go hand in hand with a healthy family life?
In our company we work a lot, I suppose like in this university. Those who do degree program here study harder, work harder, than those who do it at a paint-and-color university. People come in spite of that because after finishing here they have work, and in a coloring and painting university, they don't. We try to make people self-manage their own work. We try to get people to self-manage their time, their responsibility, their commitments, so that they can balance it with their family life.

Fundación Everis has just launched award Emprendedores 2011. What is your goal with this award?
We want to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, that there are people who want to do entrepreneurial projects. Apart from the award in cash, we enter the committee as observers to try to help them in the start-up process. Many times a young entrepreneur has an idea but does not have enough business experience.

Will you make a kind of consultancy service?
It will be more fun than a consultancy service. We will try to engage with them and help them succeed.

Do you recognize enough entrepreneurial spirit in our young people?
I think there is more and more but still not enough. There are islands, like elite universities, where there is probably quite a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and then there is a generality where there is quite little, which is dependent on a employment. This is a problem of our society: it has become dependent on the State and this is dangerous because it takes away freedom. We must have more confidence in ourselves.

Will the economic crisis play a role for or against the promotion of entrepreneurship?
I hope it will be in favor and that it will be useful to have a hard time now but to cure the evil that is excessive dependence, forcing them to think differently.

What else can be done from universities to stimulate entrepreneurship?
Give people security, make them see how important it is to work for oneself and to have freedom. To be free is to depend on oneself, not on others.