The round table was one of a series aimed at ‘serving as a meeting point, in this case for debate on relations between the public and private sectors’, explained Óscar Cortés Abad, vice-president of the ESADE Alumni Public Management Club, during his introductory remarks. ‘Today we will hold a dialogue between the public sector and the business world from the viewpoint of both providers and users of services. We will also discuss what the government can do to create ideal conditions for business development.’ Mr. Cortés then introduced the speakers who would offer their points of view on various aspects of government and business.

The first speaker was João Miranda da Sousa, Director of General Affairs and External Relations at the European Union Trade Marks and Designs Office (OHIM), based in Alicante, which has an optimally rationalised internal structure in terms of resources and costs, thereby allowing it to provide quality service to businesses. Mr. Miranda da Sousa began by describing OHIM’s makeup and services. OHIM was created to work alongside the national trademark registries of each EU country in order to offer ‘an EU-level trademark and design protection system that allows companies to protect their trademarks in all EU countries with a single administrative procedure’, he said. The keys to OHIM’s success, according to Mr. Miranda da Sousa, included having full power to decide how to organise itself to carry out its mandate, and the fact that the organisation’s revenue comes from fees paid by the companies that use its services. Moreover, it is a transparent, user-oriented entity that measures the performance of its own employees and processes. According to Mr. Miranda da Sousa, OHIM’s highly qualified professionals are required to receive ongoing training and make intelligent and intensive use of new technologies. 

The next speaker, José Luis Bonet, President of Freixenet and Chairman of the Leading Brands of Spain Forum, discussed his experience as a user of OHIM’s services. He recognised the hard work of the organisation: ‘It is managed with professional criteria, and a fair part of its success is due to its having introduced new technologies to its procedures, as well as the significant human factor.’ He then discussed the experiences of pioneering companies such as Freixenet and business associations such as the Spanish National Association for the Defence of Trademarks (ANDEMA) in the pursuit of trademark and copyright protection, concluding that ‘collaboration with OHIM is very positive’. According to Mr. Bonet, OHIM reliably and effectively responded to the needs expressed by ANDEMA. The two entities were able to help one another, he said, though he added that there were discrepancies that require some improvement. Mr. Bonet expressed the opinion that, in the future, OHIM will have to play a larger role ‘as an active instrument for protecting designs, trademarks and titles in a society that it unfamiliar with its work’.

The next speaker, Juan Pablo Lázaro, Vice President of the Business Confederation of Madrid (CEIM-CEOE), offered the perspective of the Madrid business community. Mr. Lázaro emphatically defended the liberal economic model applied to government agencies’ provision of services to private companies. He noted that, in this regard, ‘the government needs to focus on its core business’. Mr. Lázaro explained how the business community generally perceives the government: ‘It is slow and full of bottlenecks, with many cases where procedures and documents are duplicated, and sometimes it fails to effectively communicate changes in laws and procedures.’ He went on to mention several other barriers and difficulties. These agencies need to improve themselves, he said, ‘with great government professionals’. He declared his support for the externalisation of services and the application of the business-management model, to the extent possible. He wrapped up his talk by urging the government to provide ‘verticality in the business world’.

The next speaker was Héctor Casado López, Technical Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Consumption of the Community of Madrid. Mr. Casado shared some new ideas and solutions that the government is offering companies, in accordance with its liberal economic policies. He mentioned some of the positive aspects of this policy, which ‘supports companies without being interventionist, using a legal framework based on freedom and security’. Mr. Casado then discussed the problems that companies now face in terms of competitiveness. He explained some of the main measures that the Community of Madrid is taking to solve these problems, including its industry competitiveness strategy, the identification of strategic sectors, and the creation of a network of logistics and technology parks and clusters. Addressing the issue of bureaucratic rigidity, he explained that the government is currently working to pass a law that would modernise commerce. ‘Mainly, it would make it easier to create retail stores’ by eliminating red tape, he said.



Programme:

Round Table: Public Innovation in the Interest of Business Competitiveness

The ESADE Alumni Public Management Club invites you to a round table aimed at promoting dialogue between the government and the business world on what role the public administration should play in boosting business competitiveness. 

Business and the public sector are two indispensable actors in any region’s economic progress. They are linked to one another in an increasingly close and necessary relationship as both providers and users of services.

This round table aims to initiate a dialogue between business and the public sector using successful cases of advanced public services. One such case is the Trade Marks and Designs Office (OHIM), an EU organisation headquartered in Spain. Its performance in recent years has been truly remarkable: its production has increased by around 20% every year, and it is rated the world’s number-one public trademark registry. 

How has OHIM achieved this? What do the companies that use its services say about its performance? After analysing the case of OHIM, the discussion will focus on what the government of the Community of Madrid has done for local businesses. The debate will address the following questions: What do Madrid’s business owners want as users of public services? What solutions has Madrid’s government offered?