Recently Gustavo Grobocopatel He made a dream that was around him years ago: writing a book. “From the field” (South American), in co -authorship with Luciana Vázquez, is a review of the Grobo and their business challenges over 40 years. As today its artistic facet is the orders, perhaps it has been easier to observe that “another life.”
He argues that one is one, with his multiple interests and that is moving according to the circumstances. He celebrates having planned the withdrawal of his business activity for many years because he says that this decision allows him to make others with much greater freedom. Who is the one who mediately baptized “the king of soybeans”, which today has 5 % of the share package of that company, and who is determined to be a good musician?
News: At what time did Gustavo de the 63 years begin to penetrate?
Gustavo Grobocatel: The body asks you. We are already older, let’s say it was a transition. In recent years I began to value time a lot, do what one wants. Get up in the morning without alarm clock and do whatever you want. It is never exactly like that, because one always depends on others, but I feel free and I do more or less what I like. It was little by little, as he was no longer responsible for a thousand people. Now that I have been able to relieve myself, it gives me a lot of happiness.
News: What do you feel regarding the direct impact of the situation of the Grobo on their city, Carlos Casares?
Grobocopatel: Well, it is obviously an issue that worries me, it is not being able to close the circle definitely, and that generates a lot of anguish. It is a company that has the name of my family, with all the history we build, both with people, with customers, with a huge number of ideas, utopias, successes, failures. But one is optimistic. They are very deep crises that generate problems and damage but I understand that they are trying to seek the best exit and sometimes companies are strengthened from these processes. I hope it is the case.
News: Always talk about crisis as an opportunity. It is paradoxical that the critical situation of the company was known publicly in December and the book came out in July.
Grobocopatel: Yes, I was about to leave when the financial crisis came. With Luciana Vázquez we decided to wait a bit to read it again and see if something had to be modified. And the reality is that we do not modify anything. We did decide to place some references in the prologue and in the epilogue, on the diffuse limit between success and failure. But if someone buys the book thinking that there will be something of this crisis, a disappointment is going to arrive: it is a book about the history of the last 40 years in Argentina, about the personal challenges, of the country, of the company.
News: He always talks about the Grobo in terms of deed.
Grobocopatel: I like the concept of deed. Look, I believe that companies have a purpose, a meaning and a soul. And that deed that seeks to transform. That took us a lot of time, not only my family, but many people who worked in the Grobos. Everyone came out with a kind of DNA, branded on this of transforming the interior, transforming Argentina, transforming the way of seeing the world. It seems to me that it was worth it.
News: Keep living in Uruguay. That “stand” far away, how does it feel?
Grobocopatel: I think we are more and more citizens of the world. That does not mean that I am Argentine, culturally I am deeply Argentine and the reality is that living in Colonia is like living in Argentina.
News: Living in Colonia is living in Uruguay; And it is a decision.
Grobocopatel: Well, it is a decision to live in a culturally very similar place, where I can come back quickly and go fast, you can be. I do not see it as a different thing, I see it as part of the Eastern Band of Paraná that Artigas dreamed.
News: Doesn’t you bother you to comment on the political, economic or social reality of Argentina being outside?
Grobocopatel: No, I feel like I am, my links are with people, I have my family, my parents, friends of the soul. Anyway, I found in Uruguay a kind of paradise, with the good things that Uruguay has, this thing that nothing happens. And that is an advantage and a disadvantage, but for me, at 63, it is an advantage.
News: Why do you repeat that you choose the things that do not take time?
Grobocopatel: All my life I chose the things to do based on the impact I could have on society. Now, if there is something that is very good, but it takes me a long time, I prefer not to do it.
News: Was something punctual to do that click?
Grobocopatel: No, it is a change. Look, I think life is short, and if one can in a life have two is much better.
News: Do you feel that it is going that path?
Grobocopatel: I go on that path, this life that I have now is very different from the one I had 10, 20 or 30 years ago. And it’s what I like to do, I like to get up without emergencies, read books, write, sing, study music, record a record. Also, do consulting, although I started doing it a few years ago, I now enjoy traveling the world trying to learn and return things that I have learned. That generates a lot of illusion.
News: How much of this has to do with love, with a couple construction like the one they have been doing with the soprano Verónica Cangmii?
Grobocopatel: Obviously everything has to do, the fact that I am more dedicated to music has to do with the existence of Veronica, obviously. We met for music and yes, it is a personal development, but it has to do with who is the person with whom you live and share moments.
News: Do you want or need social guarantee as a musician, like the one that has as an entrepreneur?
Grobocopatel: No, I don’t think about it. Obviously that as an artist, one wants to be endorsed and excited. But it is not that I want to have the endorsement, neither was the company like that. That is, it cost me a lot to do what I did. I did not have the easy yes when I was a young character, half hippie, of Bermuda and broken shoes, it is not that everything was easy for me. And neither now in music: everyone knows you as an entrepreneur and looks at you as saying: And this crazy? But beyond prejudices, I want to be a good singer, a good musician, deliver good things. And it seems to me that my testimony serves many people who want the same. You know the number of entrepreneurs who have told me: “All my life I wanted to play the guitar, my old ones did not leave me, then the company did not leave me.” There are many people who need to get their luggage off and be freer, look for other things.
News: Let’s move on to the political context, what do you feel with government decisions regarding INTA, for example?
Grobocopatel: INTA is a very dear institution for agronomists, has been important throughout the country, where you go, there is an INTA; It has a lot of impact. The point is that the organizational model has not made modernizations and adjustments, the bureaucracy occupies an important portion of its budget, it was denatured. And this is something that has been known for many decades, but nothing was done. You have to change many things: the research strategy, the link with the private sector, with the public sector, and so on. The things to be done have to be done with chainsaw? I think no, that one does it with chainsaw because it does not know what needs to be done, so it is “I kill you and then we speak again.” And that happens on many sides. For example, with the National Arts Fund, an important institution in the Argentine culture that also denatured: 80% of the budget was going to pay salaries including those of the directors. It is part of a broader reflection. You have to make deep modifications, you have to review everything, make labor, educational, pension system reforms, of all these institutions that we are talking about. The government prefers to do it with a chainsaw, with the argument that it is very difficult to modify something with the same people who did the problem. I tend to think that that is true but it seems to me that it is chainsaw and brick. That is, destroy but build.
News: We are almost averaging this management, did it surprise it for better or worse?
Grobocopatel: In the government asset, there are many things: macroeconomy, inflation, deficit, this entire overburocratization agenda. He has the second half, the deep reforms that have to do with the pension, with the work, with the educational, with the tax, with the reform of the State. They are the deep reforms that are needed. If that ends more or less well, the government that comes will have a lot of things resolved and will not have the political cost. So there we will be able to choose. If we don’t like how Milei speaks, someone who speaks better, someone who runs better. And if none appears and Milei is still the best, it will be Milei, I don’t know.
News: For a long time he was known as “The King of Soja.” Who are you?
Grobocopatel: A human being, a human being who enjoys life. And look at life with hope.
