In this interview for The Luxonomistthe managing partner of PROALucía Casanueva, Lucía Casanueva, describes her life and professional career, and details the concepts that define the communication agency she directs.
Giuseppe Tringali: What is your link with Cantabria?
Lucía Casanueva: I was born in Santander in 1975 and lived there until I was 16. Then I went to Vancouver (Canada) to finish high school and later I began my studies at the University of Navarra. Since then I have been going to Santander on holidays. I like my hometown very much and the company is called PROA because of my mountain ancestry.
GT: If you had to describe your family, what would you say?
Lucía Casanueva: I am the daughter of a businessman, a housewife and the youngest of four siblings. My family has left a strong mark on me and I believe that I am an entrepreneur because it is the breeding ground in which I have lived. Both because of my father and because of family friends.
GT: Why did you decide to study journalism?
Lucía Casanueva: I liked to write. As a child I won the Coca-Cola writing prize. Everyone around me was studying law, which is a catch-all career. The son of some good friends of my parents, Ramón Pérez-Maura, studied journalism at the University of Navarra and encouraged me. I think it was a very wise decision.
"I was very touched by the sight of my father always reading".
GT: Where did your passion for writing and reading come from?
Lucía Casanueva: My father. He was a very cultured man, he wrote articles about painting and literature in "El Diario Montañés". I remember him always reading, so I suppose that marked me. Then came other teachers such as Eduardo Terrasa, Teresa Imízcoz, Juan José García Noblejas...
GT: What does writing give you?
Lucía Casanueva: You have to keep writing all the time. It is essential to make the intellectual effort to give your opinion. In this world in which we are hyper-connected and in which we do everything in real time, short-termism is killing everything. Reflection and reason have disappeared to give way to emotions and feelings. Writing disciplines the brain and brings order to life. In my case it is an enormous effort.
GT: What was your first job?
Lucía Casanueva: I started at Expansión Televisión. At that stage the schedules were endless. We did coverage not only for television but also for Actualidad Económica and for Expansión. It was an absorbing and demanding period, surrounded by good professionals.
GT: How did you make the leap to communications consultancy?
Lucía Casanueva: By chance. I was working at Expansión TV and they put me in touch with José Antonio Llorente. He made me an offer and I started working with them. Since then practically my entire career has been linked to communication consultancy.. In Germany I worked at the Spanish Embassy and in the UK at Edelman's London headquarters. Both were very enriching experiences.
"At PROA we don't want to be big, we want to be very good".
GT: Your last professional experience is LLYC... When did you decide to capitalise on your experience by creating your company?
LC: The experience I had before founding PROA was with Felipe Portocarrero. It was there that I discovered that I really liked commercial work and opening business channels. After four intense years with him, at the age of 33, I created the company. It brings together the experience accumulated in LLYC, Kreab, Edelman, Portocarrero... and my various journalistic collaborations. PROA was created to provide a service based on excellence. Our aim is to be, in whole or in part, an outsourced communications department.
GT: Tell us about your entrepreneurial challenge and PROA.
LC: Thirteen years after its foundation, PROA is the best decision I have ever made in my life. I wanted to create my own company and do things my way. I wanted to dedicate time to each client, write well, surround myself with a senior team, go qualitative rather than quantitative... I couldn't do all this in a multinational where I had no controlling position. It gets its name from a magazine, "Proa a la mar". I like short names and, besides, it had an emotional logic for me. My parents' house is suspended over the bay of Santander.
GT: How many people work at PROA and with what philosophy?
LC: We are 10 people on the payroll and 12 collaborators. Our philosophy is effective and valuable communication. We have a senior team that brings a lot of strategy to each process and that is accompanied by the best implementation. We are also distinguished by a real vocation for service. We are more qualitative than quantitative. We don't want to be big, we want to be very good.
GT: What do you offer your customers?
LC: Our services are divided by areas of specialisation. Corporate communication, crisis communication, litigation communication, public speaking courses, writing, audiovisual projects, event organisation, website development... Our offer is constantly evolving.
"In Spain we are too afraid of failure".
GT: How are you different from your competitors?
LC: In the quality of service. We offer the best senior talent in the Spanish market with no or minimal rotation. Something that many clients criticise about the big consulting firms in our sector is that the project is sold by a partner of the firm and interns appear in the meetings and in the implementation. This is not acceptable. Our consultancy service is reasoned and reasonable. That is where our competitive advantage lies: in excellent execution.
GT: What is your medium-term goal?
LC: To continue with an annual growth of 30 % and thus have a medium-sized company in 2025, with a diversified business portfolio and the best talent in the market available to clients. We want to expand our international alliances and be a benchmark consultancy for Latin American investors who are committed to Spain as a safe haven. Another objective is for the PROA Observatory to continue to be a forum of thought for entrepreneurs and decision-makers from different sectors of activity.
GT: What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs or women in general to have a fulfilling career?
LC: Don't be afraid to fall down and get up. We women demand too much of ourselves and have too much guilt. Goodbye fears and complexes. I think you regret the things you haven't tried. Some go right, some go wrong, but life is for daydreaming. I think that something very good that has happened to me is that I come from a family and an environment of entrepreneurs. In life, to win you have to take risks. In Spain we are very afraid of failure. I still maintain that maxim of Steve Jobs in the speech at Stanford University: "Stay humgry, stay foolish".
"50 is an excellent age for women".
GT: I know you like mountaineering, what do you get out of it?
LC: I like to walk outdoors. It brings me peace, serenity, balance and a connection with my inner self.with the real me. When I can, I go to the mountains of Madrid as well as to the mountains of Cantabria.
GT: What kind of books do you like?
LC: All kinds of books, many of them linked to current affairs. I'm currently reading "We need to talk about Putin" by Mark Galleotti. I also like biographies.
GT: What is your latest book and one that you would recommend as a must-have?
LC: I am reading "Locos por los clásicos" by Emilio del Río and I would recommend as indispensable the entire bibliography of Stefan Zweig, a master in the discernment of the human soul.
GT: Do you have dreams that you have not yet realised?
LC: I am a permanent dreamer. One realisable dream is to travel to Japan and get to know this country that I have heard so many wonderful things about.
GT: What do you see in your near future?
LC: I see PROA picking up cruising speed. I think 47-50 years old is a good age for a woman. Many fears disappear, we know ourselves better and we also know better what we want. I like this moment in my life. As the great poet José Hierro said: "I arrived at joy through pain".