With a degree in Law, with a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston and another in General Management from the IESE Business School, Jaime de Jaraíz has a long international career in the competitive consumer electronics sector and is, without a doubt, one of the Spaniards who know him best on a global level.
The first question is obliged: how does a Spaniard manage a subsidiary of a large South Korean company in which all the leaders of subsidiaries of the other countries are South Korean?
On a personal level, with work, effort and commitment. At the corporate level, understanding well, empathizing with the different cultures that are part of the company and making them participants in an ambitious common goal. It is the result of the work of my teams that allows me to continue presiding over the LG Iberia subsidiary.
How do you think a good leader should be in the 21st century?
You must always listen to all members of the organization, at all levels; You must inspire trust among your people, know how to share a long-term vision and continue to be a worker alongside your teams; paddle alongside them. Companies are mirrors of the people who run them.
His father, Jaime de Jaraíz, was a relevant painter and musician from Extremadura. Have you inherited any of your artistic hobbies?
Unfortunately not, but his character and his sense of humility did.
Do you consider yourself a technophile?
I am passionate about all those solutions that make life easier and help personal relationships. Technology, without those goals, is meaningless. It has to be at the service of man , it has to give us time to dedicate it to what really matters: family, hobbies, talking with other people …
Do you think artificial intelligence will one day surpass human intelligence? Could a machine ever have a soul?
Yuval Noah Harari talks about something similar in Homo Deus ; And after reading the book, I feel comfortable stating that the machine can never have a soul or the human capacity to communicate, empathize, or feel. Furthermore, as humans who make machines, I believe that we should never give up on that.
Have you ever had a nightmare where machines ruled the world?
I am sure that this planet is for people and other beings of nature; and so we must start protecting it right now, without delay.
Speaking of protecting the planet, are we in time to stop climate change?
We have time to reduce the rate at which the environment deteriorates as a result of man. And each and every one of us must act on it. We must be aware of the current consumption rate: today the resources of two planets are needed to meet the demand of the world population. Consumption that is associated with a still inefficient waste management process and absolutely unsustainable CO2 emissions. The solution lies in ourselves, and also in nature itself: there are studies from prestigious universities that say that it is possible to reverse the effect of CO2 emissions from the last five years by planting more trees. Trees are the most effective anti-CO2 technology out there.
Is the development of the technology industry positive or harmful for the environment?
The technology industry that I represent, LG, has been working for decades to reduce the corporate impact on the environment and the impact of each and every one of our products at each moment of their life cycle, especially at the time of consumer use. We have the washing machines and refrigerators with the lowest energy consumption, which provide the greatest electrical savings to homes and which emit less CO2. LG’s business and commitment is much more than technology, it is energy efficiency for the consumer, which translates into less consumption of resources for the planet.
And what is true about the planned obsolescence that brands apply to their products?
As far as LG is concerned, we have long proclaimed our total rejection and action against planned obsolescence. So much so that our R&D teams have the main rule of bringing products of maximum guarantee, safety and durability to the market. That is why we are the only ones who can say that we have refrigerators with at least twenty-two years of guaranteed useful life –and intensive use–, twenty years in the washing machines, twenty-five years in our solar panels and a long etcetera. The technology that pollutes the least is the one that lasts the longest in perfect condition.
When will the great leap in domestic connectivity come, the moment when all our devices become part of the internet of things?
The great and definitive leap will be the majority access to 5G networks, which will mark a before and after in this deployment. Luckily, it won’t take long to see him in Europe; in South Korea the 5G network has been a reality for a few weeks.
When all the data of our daily life, from the temperature of our living room to our laundry routines, travels through the network, don’t you think we will lose privacy?
There are three elements to take into account: the machines collect usage data –behavioral patterns that help them predict user needs, such as what time and at what temperature you like to have the living room in winter–, not people; On the other hand, you have to consider where that data is stored and, finally, if it is shared between different manufacturers of different devices. LG is the engine of the technology industry in the implementation of the strictest security standards on its devices so that data is never compromised.
If you were a young electronic engineer just graduated, which country would you choose, today, to develop your career?
South Korea.
Do you think that Asia and the United States are winning the technological war against Europe?
If we look at the number of patents registered by continent or country, it is evident that it is. If we look at the capacity to innovate and research of our companies and entrepreneurs, and the demands of our consumers, the comparison is undoubtedly won by Europe. This is why many of the engineers and a large part of the talent of the largest technology multinationals are of European origin. A greater, firm, common European commitment is needed to keep local talent and also promote the creation and development of technology from Europe to the rest of the world. As a Spaniard who has been fortunate enough to run our subsidiary in Canada and work with more than fifty nationalities, I am proud to say that the character, talent and commitment of Spaniards in global settings are highly valued by the rest of the world. Perhaps we also need to believe it a bit ourselves.
Photos: LG Electronics
