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Agatha Ruiz de la Prada: 30 years in fashion

designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada marks 30 years in the fashion world. The daily El Mundo devoted a report with the title: 30 years in the fashion world .

Some years ago I was in the studio and company Agatha Ruiz de la Prada chatting both she and the Director General, Fernando Aguirre, about fashion, business and management. The holder of that interview was: "It's wonderful when you find someone who fits your project, that's priceless." And other phrases that I noted from that meeting were: "Never look at the CVs of the candidates" or "I've always done what I liked and tried to do my best and if you act like you run out of things going well."

I leave you a summary of that conversation and the rest of the interview you can see in the following link :

ALCAIDE FRANCISCO: Agatha is now a firm international presence in more than one hundred countries. What are the keys to that success?

AGATHA RUIZ DE LA PRADA: One is that my design is easily recognizable, another is that we are a very small company and that makes every aspect of management control much. We have spent many years bad from the economic point of view (though I've had a great time and I've been just as happy selling very little). As I am accustomed to live in hardship, I am working with a chip that saves everything. Rarely in business we are asking for all different budgets and analyzed in detail. For example, other designers when they go to Paris hire a driver, I catch the metro, but as a natural thing, I do not poses no trauma. All these things make the business work.

FERNANDO AGUIRRE: Agatha for me is something that no designer has: Design. Agatha invented a model and said: I am only a designer, and managed to convince (something that Spain is very difficult because there was no great faith in the English design or wanted to change) into a series of business, to buy these ideas and factories and circulated as Agatha the intended. There were people who trusted and put the money to carry out those ideas. It was a clever way start and that time has proven successful.

FA: You're a little "accidental entrepreneur." He once said: "The truth is that I never considered myself an entrepreneur. Rather long seemed the antiempresaria, in the sense of what really interested me was to create." After many years of career, what is the least and you like the commercial world?

ARP: I have always liked me and I've tried to do my best and if you act like things just work out well. I do not think anything business, but to name a few things I do not like owing money anyone try always be people being happy with my work and being honest. Then I think I have enough common sense, tried to introduce into all the details and pass it to my computer.

FA: Agatha has been an entrepreneur for his ability to take risks. When things started to go well, is not resting on our laurels, began to grow out without conforming. In addition, growth has been step by step, without rushing. First store in Paris, then Milan and later in New York, when each of them and was working.

ARP: Everything takes time. Some people say, I open a store and I earn much money, and it is not. Moreover, our growth is self-funded. When I started I had to resort to the banks and I am horrified ... All the money is reinvested in my business.

FA: In our conversations with management specialists, often repeating the selection of staff is the most critical and important function of RR. HH. What do you most value in their employees and what they endure worse?

ARP: The most work has given me in my life by far are the collaborators. Many people do not fit and you get bored of a test and another, by Otherwise, it's wonderful when you find someone who fits your project, that's priceless. Never look at the curriculum of the candidate. People are known to work, that is the best proof of the possibilities of a person. However, one thing I treasure is a good education. I prefer a well-educated person to another with eight masters. On the other hand, today there are people with a background of relevant but suffer from other series that are essential skills, for example, know how to catch a call. I think it's important to start working young man and learn how to work. I always say I want to go to college Amancio Ortega.

FA: We seek to open people, who likes culture, art trends (not just fashion) ... In short, an educated person, educated, concerned and in a spirit of austerity.

FA: Visiting your study have verified that everything is connected and interrelated: the area of \u200b\u200bdesign, workshop, office ... This facilitates communication is one of the key issues for the business world.

ARP: Yes, that is fine and makes a big difference. You know what people are doing at all times and better control. You can jump from side to side continuously. It also helps that all the world knows a little about what others.

FA: Once you said: "My problem is that I very badly organized, produce many ideas, but another thing is that they are well served, packaged, distributed." Is not that one of the keys to creativity, a certain disorder and chaos, because creativity needs space and freedom to manifest and can not have limits too strict?

ARP: No creativity has nothing to do with the organization. Can be very creative with a spectacular organization. One example is Apple. The same is true .. Swatch or Camper Are organizations that have both great design and a great organization.

FA: You also said: "I'm not a designer who makes dresses everyone dares to be, but people trying to put different things. For years you find a huge opposition by many, because people does not like change, but then everything changes and is a joy. " Has sailed upstream in addition to strong opposition from many areas. How have you managed these external difficulties added?

ARP: What designer has the opposition that I have? None. Nor is the fashion press has helped me. But that it is a "threat" is also an "opportunity" at the same time as it does not you settle. The enemy is always close to me what makes me smart. The enemies in the end, always helps you. If it had been complacent I had not left Spain. When I left, I had to find life and I have been good to get ahead.

FA: Every time we talk over feminine side of organizations. Alicia Kauffman says the woman leads from the heart and the man from the right . The heart is red, inclusion and affection. The reason is linear, exclusion and logic. And the profile seems more appropriate to address at a time as we live. Paulo Coelho stated that the twenty-first century be the century of the feminization of male . Do you think that women have qualities necessary for leadership positions?

FA: I think every time you have to take more account of male and female person. Every man has a feminine side and every woman a masculine side. There are men who have a huge sensitivity and there are women who have a well developed male part. What is important is that we must handle with sensitivity. There are values \u200b\u200bthat society increasingly has more in mind.

ARP: I helped a lot to live very closely and with great intensity the current economic, political and social, typically male, because it gives you a chance to know how things work.

FA: Finally Agatha. Tell us a phrase or quote that reflects your philosophy of life:

ARP: One of Camilo José Cela, "He who resists, wins." And then as a philosophy of life seems key to enjoying your job. I love what I do. To me the site that I enjoy the world, more than a party or anything else, my study. There are always problems, obviously, but the trouble after all they are fun.

* You can read more about the designer in the book of Dolors Massot: Agatha Ruiz de la Prada .

* Today I leave an interview Gaizka Mendieta Learn in Sport (@ aprendeldeporte) and The 10 most incredible stories Twitter (@ davidcantone).