Where can Pablo Isla continue adding value (and it is not in the Ibex)

At the beginning of 2005, he received a special assignment: to find CEO for Inditex, who would replace José María Castellano, until then the only visible face and manager of the textile empire founded in the sixties by Rosalía Mera and Amancio Ortega. It was not easy, but Carlos Alemany, managing partner of the senior management valuation and selection firm Alemany & Partners, found Pablo Isla, from Altadis, after a thorough search, in just over three months, the ideal candidate to take over the reins and accelerate the international flight of the fashion firm, based in Arteixo (A Coruña). In 2011 he was promoted to president of the group, a position that he will leave on April 1, 2022, and that Marta Ortega, the founder's daughter, will occupy, as the group announced on Tuesday.

Under his mandate, Isla and his team have multiplied Inditex's stock market value by 10 times, making it the largest listed company in Spain, the largest textile company in the world by stock market value and ninth in the world distribution ranking, according to the Market capitalization data from Bloomberg. Since May 2005, the Inditex share has risen almost 900%: it has gone from being worth 14,716 million euros to 90,725 million, after rising 4.49% on the stock market this Wednesday. Its record is brilliant, from all points of view. view, but after being president of Inditex "few companies can be interesting for a profile like yours", says Alemany, who assured at a press conference, after announcing his departure that his future "will be seen", since these four months will be focused on the transition and the transfer of powers to the new president.

To begin with, unless the group's board of directors agrees to reduce the period of non-competition, he will not be able to work for any company "with a similar corporate purpose" for the next two years. In Alemany's opinion, he is a manager who "because of his characteristics, can contribute to any sector that he proposes, but I also see the person, his circumstances and what surrounds him, and there I have doubts that all sectors are suitable." Although there will be no shortage of offers, the consultant, an expert in analyzing top management profiles, points out that a good professional opportunity for Isla would be to "set up a foundation or philanthropic association related to education and employment."

Because if there is something that the discoverer of Isla does not see, it is the fit of him in a company. He “he has been in the best company on the Ibex, within an unregulated sector, where he has given very good results”. It would be repeating the same model. “However, due to his prestige and credibility, he could contribute much more in the field of education and employment. Social leaders are needed, and he will be listened to. They're going to raffle it off." In this sense, he points out that he could be a lecturer at prestigious universities such as Harvard or MIT, activities that will allow him to attend a pending subject, such as family.

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Jon Segovia, professor of people development and change management at Deusto Business School, also refers to this, "despite the fact that his life has been resolved, his work has required a lot of personal sacrifice, if one takes into account the results achieved in 16 years". The first step to be taken into account by the one who was considered the best manager in the world by Harvard Business Review in 2017, and entered the 26th position of the best businessmen in the world by Fortune magazine, assures this teacher is to analyze what he wants to do with his life.

He has international recognition as a great manager, now he has to assess different factors. “The extrinsic ones, those that a third party gives you, and this has to do with salary, then there are the intrinsic ones, which come from within, about how I can be my best version, and there are also the transcendental motivations, those in which the well it is not for me but for third parties. And I think that his decision may be between the intrinsic and the transcendental, ”says Segovia, who does not see Isla in an Ibex 35 company either, except in an electrical, construction or real estate company. "In a sector that is in the process of change and in which it can truly innovate."

It is not easy to find companies to suit you, the two experts consulted agree, "because the boxes are all filled," says Segovia. “And others won't call him, even though he is much admired, for fear of rejection. That's why I don't think he gets a lot of calls."

Another outlet is the board of directors – he is currently on Nestlé's board – "where he can add a lot of value, since he has knowledge of how the five continents work," says Alemany, for whom the 57 years of Isla, "is the perfect age, especially to contribute something different to society in terms of education and employment”.