The book “Re-industrialization in Spain: Industry 4.0 and innovation ecosystems”, co-led by Luis Fernando Álvarez Gascón, General Manager of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions sector, author also of two chapters, has been presented by its editor, the Foro de Empresas Innovadoras (FEI).

The book presentation was combined with the forum’s yearly innovation awards ceremony, the whole event brought to a close by Galo Gutiérrez Monzonís, Director General of Industry and SMEs. It served as the stage for a publication that meets one of FEI’s founding remits, namely, coming up with ideas for driving the country’s development in a sustainable direction, with companies as the star features, innovation as their main argument and science as their staunch ally.

 

Pedro Carreño, journalist of Spain’s public television channel, TVE, led an interview and subsequent debate with GMV’s executive, who is also FEI Vice-President, together with José Molero, FEI President, talking about the key features and main purpose of the publication. As Álvarez Gascón argued “we cannot afford to arrive late at the Fourth Industrial Revolution because what is at stake here is Spain’s right to remain among the richest countries with the highest welfare levels”. To avoid this calamity we need to drive “a series of cohesive policies and close the science and technology gap, bringing out the full value of the former”.

As the executive explained, according to the opinion piece published by the economic review Cinco Días on the issue now being dealt with by this book “to ensure Industry 4.0 is successfully developed in Spain we need all stakeholders to pull together behind the necessary reindustrialization of the country, making this one of their top-priority goals”. Álvarez Gascón went on: “business innovation in Spain has traditionally been hampered by a misconception of the technological risk, among other factors. Other competitiveness tools have been chosen”. Nonetheless, “in the midst of an all-out technological revolution the riskiest option is to stay still”.

Innovating Companies Forum

FEI is a not-for-profit association with the core purpose of driving an innovation-intensive culture in the country’s business fabric, in its universities, in government authorities and, in general, in all areas bound up with the generation of knowledge. It was set up as a company-university cooperation platform in the fields of research, development and innovation. The Forum aims to serve as a social agency whose analysis and ideas can impinge on innovation-related policies, content, guidance and decision-making in Spain.