When I open the newspaper in the morning, there is usually a new article about some catastrophe in Spain: a high percentage of unemployed young workers, that the country is bankrupt, some sort of confrontation with the EU, something about the bank crisis.

I was in Spain several times this year, and it does not look that bad. Wherever you look, you see well-dressed people (nicer than in Frankfurt or London), full restaurants, and a nice bottle of wine on the table during lunch. Plus, the people that I have my appointments with are not depressed, but rather are planning for the future, are looking ahead and are highly ambitious.

Throw into the mix a job market in which it is currently hard to find good people – like anywhere else in the world. Our turnover is good, but that is no standard because we have not been in Spain very long. Competitiveness is increasing, at the very least because twice as many people now speak good English compared with ten years ago, in my opinion.

I bet that when Spain comes out of its crisis, a dramatic ascent will follow. As the small and mid-sized businesses have always had it hard with the banks. Since one or the other market participants wanted to sell us their company lately, I have seen a few balance sheets. No bank commitments, because the banks have often gotten out of medium-sized business long ago. This means a whole lot of retained earnings. And because of this, one can survive a sales collapse. We are sticking to our investment in Spain, and we are looking forward to experiencing the fast upward trend.