Telecommunications engineer, 47 years old, with an MBA and postgraduate training, Andreu Casanovas has spent his entire professional life at Sony, where he has directed the audio and video area at the European level. For seven months he has been in charge of the business in Spain and Portugal.
Ask. He studied Telecom. Very hard, right?
Answer. I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to study cardiology. My father bought me a few books when I was little, he knew every bone in my body. But the day before formalizing the university registration, the night before, he asked me if I was sure. He told me: “Think it’s six years of college, three of specialization, and the MIR… that’s ten years.” Then telecommunications were developing. And that’s how I chose the career. In my fourth year of college I joined Sony as an intern, part-time. It was my opportunity to enter the professional world.
Q. Do you consider yourself an ambitious person?
R. Yes, but more than ambitious I like to progress naturally, not in a rush. When I was 23 or 24 years old I had the opportunity to have a conversation with the CEO. He asked me where I saw myself in ten years and I told him: “In your chair.”
Q. It’s lucky that he didn’t throw him out.
R. (Laughs) He reminded me of that years later, when I got his job. He told me, “You took a little longer than I expected.”
Q. You have said that, from your position at Sony, you want to promote creativity. Are you creative?
R. I’m not, but I really value people who are. I like to help creative people by bringing realism and structure to ideas. I consider myself a very disciplined person, very constant.
Q. What do you like to do when you don’t work?
R. I really like music, movies, sports. The last concert I went to was Pearl Jam, with my oldest son. We came out and said: what a great time we had.
Q. Are you able to disconnect from work?
R. I am one of those who get up early, I go running in the morning. On weekends I try to be with my children, I am one of those who thinks that more than quantity, you have to provide quality time.
Q. How do you plan your weekends?
R. I have three children, like many parents of teenagers I work as a taxi driver. I like to go shopping at the Boquería market. I like the hustle and bustle, getting lost in the streets of the Raval area. Help children with studies.
Q. A restaurant?
R. I couldn’t say one. When you live outside of Spain you realize how lucky we are here with the restaurant industry, a super rich sector in every sense.
R. What applications do you use the most?
R. Instagram and little else. Spotify music. Of platforms, Netflix and Prime Video.
Q. How long can you go without looking at your phone?
R. It depends if I’m working every so often. When I get home we all respect a rule of separating ourselves from our cell phones at dinner time. I usually have family dinner.
Q. Do you travel a lot?
R. Quite a bit, two or three days in London each month, twice a year to Japan, and during the month one trip a week falls to a city on the Peninsula.
Q. Tell me a city to live in.
R. I would say Palma, I think it has a good quality of life… although in Barcelona it is very good.
Q. He is at a moment in his life…
R. Personally calm. The children are already alone. Professionally, with a challenge every day.
Q. How are your children’s adolescence going?
R. You have to do an active listening exercise, you have to be flexible. If you are constantly facing them it is complicated. In my case I see that they are evolving in a responsible way, and that must be told.
Q. Do you think young people have a low tolerance for frustration?
R. Each generation is different. Their concerns, their interests… you have to know how to understand them. Not everyone has to be a photocopy of what you have been. Today’s generations value their free time, you may be surprised by their attitudes that are sometimes misinterpreted as a lack of commitment. I don’t think it is.
Q. Advice you didn’t listen to and should have followed?
R. Be patient. Anyone who knows me knows that I like things to be done at a speed… but not everyone has it nor do things turn out the way you want. You have to know how to plan, but have patience to know how to handle circumstances.
Q. What worries you most when thinking about the future?
R. I worry that we forget things. The war in Ukraine has been going on for two years, but since there is another more recent outbreak it seems to have been forgotten. I am worried about wars, that they do not fall into oblivion.
Q. Do you consider yourself a happy person?
R. Yes, I’m lucky.
