Attitude multiplies in a company. With this phrase, Javier Cottet, president of the Cottet group, began his speech at the Experience Lunch. In front of thirty young businessmen and women, Cottet reviewed his professional history, a history linked to the family business.
The businessman remembered his beginnings when he went through all the departments of the company, to see first-hand how the business worked. At that moment I learned that the sales department is the true key to a company’s success.
While reviewing the family legacy of his great-grandfather, founder of Cottet in 1092, of his grandfather and his brothers, the second generation at the head of the company, and of his father, Javier Cottet brought us closer to the day-to-day life of a company that for These more than a hundred years he has seen them in all colors. From the expansion of the company, to the IPO to the closure of its flagship store, Portal del Angel, which was for many years the largest optical store in Europe.
Currently Cottet focuses on making a good generational change. “You have to understand what a family business is.” His obsession, he acknowledges, is that his children be good owners because as he said, “being a businessman is learned, there are no schools that teach, and I don’t think it is something that is ingrained in our DNA either.”
During his participation in the AIJEC meetings, Cottet vindicated the role of business in civil society. “Barcelona is what it is thanks to civil society and lately we have been guilty of omission. This is a mistake”. The businessman also shared some advice with the young business community present at the event. Among them, his 3 H rule. Humanity, humility and humor. Cottet closed the talk by remembering the importance of forms, as workers, but even more so as businessmen.