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Santiago Íñiguez de Onzoño (Madrid, 61 years old) is the executive president of IE University. He is also an insatiable writer. Last year he published his third book and this one he just released
Pensadoras y visionarias. The ideas of ten philosophers applied to management
(Lid). Like a good teacher, he takes advantage of his long vacations and his house in Brazil, “where there is no connectivity,” to retire to write, “to concentrate and attend to inspiration a little.” With this work he has connected two of his passions: philosophy (he has a doctorate in Moral Philosophy) and business management, present in his day-to-day work. In it he highlights facts such as the fact that the first university was founded by a woman in Fez (Morocco) because she believes that “it is necessary to rescue female history and milestones, which are not highlighted enough.”
Ask.
Is philosophy fashionable?
Answer.
Yes. The great advantage of this boom is that it has an informative focus that tries to answer people's need to answer the big questions in their lives. Which is very good for philosophy, which has always been seen as a hermetic, cryptic discipline, closed to the world in general. Since it became an academic discipline, with Kant in the 18th century, all the specialized articles that are published follow that hermetic language that makes them inaccessible to the general public.
Q.
Why have you chosen to write about women philosophers?
A.
Philosophy is the area of the Humanities where there are fewer women in the academic world, even in the most progressive countries that have implemented reverse discrimination measures, such as Australia or Canada, the percentage of female professors or department heads does not exceed 35 %, when in the rest of the Humanities area its presence is dominant. There is a systematic relegation of women in philosophy. That's why I wanted to vindicate the figure of women. I am an open defender of quotas: if measures are not taken to make change happen, it will take decades.
Q.
You say in your book that it was a student who made you realize the lack of practical business cases in business schools featuring women.
A.
It was the first session after completely changing the Strategy program and it had a huge impact on me. One of the common criticisms of business schools is that their use cases are always the same. I had changed them all. But an English student stood up and told me: “You are talking to us about diversity, but all the protagonists of these cases are men, white and Western.” I felt touched and that same night I went to the Harvard case library and only found 10% in the Strategy area, almost all of them referring to glass ceiling issues. And only two practical cases where the CEO was a woman: Mary Barra, from General Motors, and Marjorie Scardino, from Pearson. The student's great lesson is that universities should not be satisfied with telling what happens, but rather they have to try to convey to their students what the world should be like. We have to inspire them.
Q.
Why have you chosen those ten thinkers?
A.
The selection has been fundamentally due to the usefulness of some of his ideas for the world of business management. Unfortunately, there are not many more women who fall into the category of philosophers. The usual suspects are these, led in the 20th century by Simone de Beauvoir, perhaps the most respected philosopher. But then there are thinkers, and that is why she used the title of thinkers, whom she did not recognize as philosophers; They were not given that category due to certain sexist connotations such as the fact that they had not gone through the academic path or were not recognized in the community of philosophers. This is the case of Ayn Rand or Simone Weil.
Q.
Which of the thinkers is your favorite? And it is not worth sweeping home and opting only for the Spanish one.
R.
Adela Cortina is exemplary. She has coined the word aporophobia which is so right. Hatred of the poor is what often makes people react to immigration. It is hatred of the poor because immigrants with money are welcomed with open arms. Something that should make us reflect on our commitment as global citizens. But if I had to choose a thinker, I have been very impressed by the work of Patricia Churchland and one of the branches that is opening up in philosophy: neurophilosophy. In the end the brain is the most similar thing to the human soul. Descartes and other philosophers were trying to find the connection between the mind and the body and medicine has taught us that the brain is the control knob of our personality, of our body and, in fact, brain death is what determines the end of life. our lives. What neurobiology is discovering is that by applying certain hormones and treatments we can improve sociability. Experimentation is being carried out on animals and it is conceivable that in the future they could insert a chip into our brains capable of memorizing, associating and reasoning. And who knows if in a few years there will be a leadership pill that turns company professionals into people with more charisma, ascendancy and more commitment to their company because those hormones stimulate the sense of identity.
Q.
But wouldn't that pill make us as false as
fake news
?
A.
I think that, as long as it is not abused and the medication is supervised by doctors, it is the same as taking hormones to grow hair or estrogen or antidepressant treatments. Why not take pills that stimulate sociability? In fact, we already take them to keep us more awake or more asleep. As long as the personality is not disrupted, we are within the limits of what is permissible.
Q.
Among the ten virtues that you highlight in your book, which is your favorite?
A.
They all seem important to me. Especially love, compassion… for the business world. But if I had to highlight one, it would be humanism, which is what makes us, it seems redundant but it is not, precisely human. And now it is the target of many attacks. Since Sarkozy, who wanted to avoid questions about
The Princess of Cléves
, which is a classic French novel, in the public administration entrance exams
, because he thought it added nothing to a civil servant. The Humanities, knowing classical literature, history... is what populism avoids. It is what prevents ignorance of other cultures at a time when we are witnessing polarization in politics and the rise of populism. Accusing neighboring towns of being enemies of the country, as is being done right now, is only the result of ignorance.
Q.
Do you use any of the teachings of these thinkers in your daily life?
A.
I use Iris Murdock's example of the sovereignty of good very frequently. Also the argument of virtues developed by Philippa Foot. There are three major paradigms in ethics to justify a decision in the business world: Should I do an ERE or not? Do I seek profit above all else or do I implement inclusion programs? One is the classic deontological Kantian, which explains that decisions must be justified according to a series of principles. From these principles it is inferred what to do in a given situation. Another paradigm is utilitarianism, which is the most common in the business world, which defends justifications based on consequences, results. And finally the system that over time has been most attractive to me and most applicable to the world of management: the philosophy of virtue. What this is saying is that the important thing is to cultivate the classic virtues: exemplarity, compassion, love, humility... Since businessmen are neither saints nor demons and they will never be one hundred percent sure of their decisions. complicated, the important thing is to be able to justify them in the public arena.
Q.
How do you say Warren Buffett does it?
A.
Yes, and Francisco González also told me this once in an interview, who I believe was inspired by Warren Buffett. What Buffett was saying is that the important thing is that the decision you make can be published the next day in the
New York Times
.
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