In today’s El País (Spain’s leading daily), I argue that exporting management talent, entrepreneurs and professionals to other countries is not necessarily bad news for Spain. First, it is a sign of Spain’s competitiveness in certain industries–if Spanish banks or football teams weren’t doing great, no one would pay much attention to Spanish bankers or footballers. Second, exporting talent will contribute to the stock of globally minded leaders and global social capital that will be instrumental in driving the competitiveness of Spain’s economy. While many in Spain moan about the incipient brain drain, I would argue that Spain will benefit from having many more executives in key hubs around the world than it currently does.
The full article, in Spanish, is available here.