Executive Meeting with Agatha Ruiz de la Prada
Patience and perseverance, the keys for entrepreneurs according to Agatha Ruíz de la Prada
OBS begins its cycle of Executive Meetings 2022 in collaboration with the radio station Onda Cero. These interview sessions are conducted by the Dean of the school, Dr. Casilda Güell, and feature the participation of the most renowned management leaders in the business world. The first guest in this series of interviews is the internationally renowned designer and businesswoman Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. During this interview, Ruiz de la Prada gives us the keys to entrepreneurship in the fashion sector and the rise and new business trends in the textile sector.
During the interview, which took place in the studios of Onda Cero in Madrid, the designer explained how she had just arrived in Madrid at the age of 20 during the "Movida Madrileña". This made it much easier for her to make herself known, as in the 80s, without the Internet and without a globalised world like today's, it was much more difficult to stand out. The businesswoman also explained that her father was a very hard-working man, just like her. "I thought I would be happier working. Work is a plus in life, it's what gives you the most satisfaction".
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada admitted that she never wanted to be a businesswoman, it was something that happened by chance; she considers herself fundamentally a designer and a creative. "To be free in this world, the world of fashion, I had to have my own company. To be free, I had to be an entrepreneur". To be successful in this world, according to the designer, you have to be learning all the time.
"You always have to know how to adapt because things change and that's the fun of it"
Ruiz de la Prada explains that fashion is an old-fashioned sector in certain areas, for example, when it comes to producing a piece of clothing, it is still made as it was centuries ago, by hand, on the same looms and rugs that were used back then. "There is a revolution in communication, in prices, in democratisation and now, the next important step, which is so difficult and so interesting and so wonderful, is for fashion to become part of ecology, to become sustainable".
For all those who wish to become entrepreneurs, the designer and businesswoman advises patience, "there are many intelligent people who enter the fashion world, but they have little patience. When you've been doing the same thing for a year, two years, ten or even twenty years, someone has heard of you. For me it's a question of perseverance. But it's not just about perseverance: "You need young and new people in your team. New people bring you new ideas and keep you on the crest of the wave, which is where you have to be. If you get used to only liking your own people, you get used to a way of doing things". For this reason, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada gives the following advice to all entrepreneurs:
"Sometimes you need to change your team, change your environment to open your mind and open your spirit"
Find out more about entrepreneurship in the fashion world with the OBS Executive Meeting videpodcast with Agatha Ruiz de la Prada here:
