When Andrea Grobocopatel decided to join the family business, there were only five employees. It was the 80’s and The Grobo It was just beginning, after the dissolution of the previous partnership that his father had with his brother. She graduated from Economy, she at the time realized that this was not the most suitable career for the position, but she was learning from her experience. “At that time there was no training, at most we hired someone to teach us Excel. But everything was brilliant because we always wanted to be better, ”she maintains. On that path, in which she defines herself as “everyone”, she had to go from answering the phone to opening the gates every time she went to the field, and she feels it as the best learning for leadership that came later, where she became CFO of the company along with its exponential growth, which led it to become one of the main business groups in Argentina.
Parallel to these early years, Andrea married her longtime boyfriend, Walter Torchio, and the following year she had her first daughter, Agustina. The baby was born with spina bifida, a disease they found out about at the time of delivery, and which also meant many years of treatment, operations and learning. They even moved to Buenos Aires from their original Carlos Casares, in search of better medical quality, but ended up returning to the town when it was difficult for them to get kindergarten due to their daughter’s disability. “We returned to a community that sheltered us more, and at 33 years old, today Agus continues to choose it,” she says. This first daughter was followed by Delfina and the twins Paulina and Luciano.
News: Was it strange in those early years to be a woman in the world of agriculture?
Andrea Grobocopatel: I never realized. For me, working alongside men was not a problem. At that time, between family and children, I didn’t even have time to conceptualize anything. Until I was CFO and I came to events and banks, and I realized that I was alone… I did feel many times that I was not a good leader.
News: In what sense?
Grobocopatel: He had another style to lead. He asked for many opinions and suggestions, such as a leadership that today I call more feminine. More responsible. It came from having my father first and then my brother, male leaders, traditional, more top-down. And I come from a family where my dad was the one who worked and my mom was at home with us. She still asks my dad for money. I do think that she greatly influenced who we are, but from the emotional side. Y his role was never paid, so the estate was always in my father’s name. I also think that it was important to define myself in what I have been doing for more than 10 years. And it’s part of what drives me to want to sell. I was already thinking that I wanted to run from the company because I had nothing more to learn and I thought that I wanted to give back to society. If I was still in Los Grobo I wouldn’t have had time.
News: Did that detachment cost you emotionally?
Grobocopatel: Very much. I felt that he was my fifth child, but I could. But he already had the FLOWER Foundation since 2012, with which we seek to transform leaders and organizations for a better society. I also had my agricultural company set up, because Los Grobo had grown, so we had our own assets. That gave me freedom, but I also sought the freedom to decide what to do every day. That’s why I sold my share in 2016.
News: Has your relationship with your family changed?
Grobocopatel: Yes, it even got better. I always got along very well with my brothers, because part of my mother’s role was to teach us to say what we felt and not to accumulate inside. I became vice president of the company and I had the presidency of one of the companies in Paraguay, but I always felt that I had a ceiling. My brother was chosen, by everyone and by me too.
News: Was he chosen because of his abilities or because he was the only male among the brothers?
Grobocopatel: Everything added up. By skills no doubt, but he was also the male and the oldest. We came from a macho upbringing, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to suggest that I wanted to be president and I don’t know if my sisters would have voted for me either. Today I am happy that I can understand that without any hard feelings. It serves me to tell and inspire. I am very happy to have sold, I had already set up the agricultural company where I had a small field of mine and where the brothers also carried out division processes, all very organized, by lottery. That helped make sure there were no problems. Having financial independence also releases many tensions.
News: Would it open the door to politics?
Grobocopatel: No, it doesn’t work for me. Yes I can accompany. I want the officials to do well, and not because my husband is today as a senator for the province of Buenos Aires, but because I want the one who is here to do well. It’s like in companies, you have to make the leader do well, whether you agree or not. You have to say your opinion in the directory, not to the public, otherwise it’s a mess.
News: And how do you see the relationship between the ruling party and the countryside?
Grobocopatel: You are just asking me at a time when some measures have been taken that are giving value to the field. Before you felt that everything was against the countryside, that people thought that the countryside is the one that earns money and the one that has to pay. On the contrary, we have to fan the field for everything it gives us. I do a lot of calculating how much the countryside contributes to the country, and 60 or 70% of my income is for the national, provincial and municipal state. So for each hectare of soybeans that I am planting for next year, hopefully I will have 100, 200 dollars left, because it is not a year with a favorable equation, but the state still collects 500 dollars. And that is to value it, not to be thinking how more can be taken from it. I think luckily we are realizing that and the field is reporting in another way as well.
News: Was there a demonization before public opinion?
Grobocopatel: That is another of their challenges, showing that they are not the big landowners. You win if it rains, if your crops didn’t freeze, you have a lot of inclement weather, and sometimes things go well and others not. You have to thank the field a lot and continue to see how to enlarge the cake, not take more from the only one who contributes to you. And I also think of this in terms of men and women. It cannot be thought that because they take on more women, they take place away from men. There has to be more companies, more directories, more room for everyone.
News: Does the quota law work?
Grobocopatel: Of course. But then you have to see how you sustain yourself, because first you have the entrance, and then you have to make it sustainable. The people who enter must have courage, not be sitting there simply for the quota. But this opens doors and evens the field. It is clear that in 130 years we may achieve it, but the challenge is that it be less. I don’t want to die without seeing this. At FLOR we work hard not only for women and gender, but for diversity in general. That is why meritocracy is very much under discussion today, because you want trained and prepared people, but if you choose everyone by meritocracy there are those who will never arrive, because they start from a much more difficult place. It is as if someone in a wheelchair competed in a race and had the same start as people who normally run.
News: How do you feel you managed to balance work and family?
Grobocopatel: One is never in permanent balance, it is always a search. But I feel that I ran a lot and that I put together support networks. Normally I don’t have people next to me who just execute, they always have to be able to be my replacement. People sometimes get disappointed, why are they waiting for me to come and give the talk, but I always have people ready to help me. At FLOR we have 700 women to give them visibility, many with better stories than mine.
News: Is it hard for us to recognize ourselves as ambitious women?
Grobocopatel: We women have to start thinking that being ambitious is not a bad word. You have to be ambitious in a kind and respectful way, not going against everything and everyone, although in some cases ambition needs to be marked with force. And if we don’t start exercising it, let’s not complain. If you want something, look for it. And if you can’t do it alone, seek help. We are not going to make this change only to women doing our work, we also need organizations that open the door.
News: What do you feel are your challenges today?
Grobocopatel: I want my children to have the same freedom to choose what they want to do that I did. But let it come earlier for them, because I lived through it at 50. I also dream of more accessible spaces. From Agus, I look at the world with that wheelchair and I think how many people miss out on discovering incredible places due to lack of accessibility. And I want more SMEs to be large companies, as well as to continue building bridges so that in a few years there will be equal opportunities, with many women in decision-making spaces.
