Leadership Lessons: Real Employee Rewards vs. Political Rhetoric

Mercadona is one of the 10 most recognized companies in Spain. It is backed by more than 130,000 employees. It has both advocates and detractors, but its gospel is very clear: quality/price.

Founder and Chairman of the Board Juan Roig is praised by his employees, starting with cashiers, which is admirable, and criticized by politicians, which is incomprehensible, especially when one considers that he contributes hundreds of millions or even billions of euros to the Spanish public treasury. Zeros, many zeros, to promote education, healthcare, and infrastructure for the benefit of an innumerable multitude of citizens that far exceeds his own customer base.

Recently, Roig and his board of directors once again shook both the market and society. They confirmed that all employees will receive one additional week of vacation on top of the four already established, and one extra month of salary in addition to the 14 mandated by Spanish law. These are facts, not words. Ante facta non sunt argumenta.

While the great idea of the vice president of the government to help workers is to reduce the weekly working schedule by 2.30 hours, complicating matters for everyone and benefiting no one, the idea from Mercadona’s board of directors is to recognize and reward, with money and vacation time, the two axes through which a leader’s authority is truly demonstrated.

Companies are the backbone of the modern economy. Not subsidies, nor the civil service — important as it may be — nor the so-called social benefits. Bread is bread and wine is wine: one extra month of salary and one extra week of vacation. Because only when wealth is generated does real quality of life emerge.

There are many business leaders around the world who indulge themselves and attempt to polish their image with four miserable scholarships, but in the end they sell themselves to power and ambition in such a vulgar and evident manner that they generate nothing but social resentment.

A Mexican Example

In Mexico, one can find Ricardo Salinas Pliego, chairman of Grupo Salinas, another business leader with real and verifiable commitment. He is backed by more than 180,000 employees. Several fundamental rules are associated with him, which are very much in line with Juan Roig’s philosophy:

1) Pay well.

2) Pay on time.

3) Companies are built on cash flow.

4) Taxes must be fair: to each what is due.

5) The only law for success is effort.

These are the business leaders who transform politics, the economy, and society. Everything else is rhetoric from those who have never taken a risk to create their own wealth, who have never had to meet payroll, nor endure the heavy burden of taxes that obscure and dilute effort and social commitment.

Social aid dismantles any coherent discourse when faced with economic reality. First, they are not aid but fair compensation for the onerous payment of taxes in modern societies; and they are not social, because they do not awaken or strengthen society, but rather lull it with easy bread and water — handed out in exchange for votes, like in a vulgar Phoenician spice market.

Facts, facts, facts. Data, data, data.

This is how society is transformed: through work, effort, dedication, and commitment. Not through easy tears and melodrama. Money and vacation time represented the first step of recognition — not cutting minutes from the workweek.

The list of committed businesswomen and businessmen can be expanded. One simply needs to do some corporate mining to uncover them.

The Artist-Entrepreneur

Let us consider another model: Taylor Swift, the global “multistage” artist, who has rewarded each of her collaborators with bonuses ranging from €85,000 to €400,000 (US$99,000-US$468,000) per month. Great work is recognized only through rewards, raises, and bonuses. A pat on the back can be meaningful, but there is no illusion to be had: quality of life is achieved only through economic means.

Work is a blessing, a therapy, a necessity, a co-creation — and yes, a sacrifice. One can understand why many politicians fail to understand this: because they have never experienced it themselves.