Pablo Isla praises the leadership of Amancio Ortega: “Now we are very friends”

Next April, it will be one year since he was the former president Inditex, Paul Islandhe handed over the baton to the textile company of which he is the founder Amancio Ortega, Putting an end to an extensive 17-year tenure that saw him help position the group as a world leader in textiles, after multiplying its value by six. Since then, the position has been held by the entrepreneur’s daughterMartha Ortega.

In an interview for Financial Times (FT), the CEO recalls the successes achieved before his departure and the special affection he still has for Ortega, whom he praises for his leadership. His departure, essential for the successful transition of power within the company, did not change their relationship: “Now we are good friends […] It’s the closest thing to being a family without not being a family,” he explains.

He also praises the philosophy of the multinational, which he copied during the years of his mandate: “For me, it is important to lead by values”, and among them he counts commitment. The same one that Ortega demanded when he was looking for a captain for the company in 2005 and made it a condition, reminds the FT, that the chosen one move to Galicia, in the heart of Inditex. At the time, Isla was the head of the tobacco company Altadis. He did not hesitate for a moment and joined the company.

When asked what the secret of the group’s success is, he does not hesitate to point it out local production has enabled them to be more agile than the competition: “If you have fabric, you can send it to a factory in Galicia or Morocco and you could bring the clothes back to the logistics platform in two weeks, for sale,” he explains. It is a model that other textile multinationals have tried to emulate, but without the same success. And it is about the fact that about half of Inditex’s clothes are produced in places close to its headquarters Arteixoincluding Portugal and Morocco.