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Alejandro Oñoro, ILUNION CEO: “The pandemic made us realize we had to reinvent ourselves and rework our purpose”
“The pandemic made everyone realize that things had to be done differently, and in particular that we had to reinvent ourselves and rework our purpose”, said Alejandro Oñoro, CEO of ILUNION, at the latest Desayunos Esade session organized by Esade Alumni in conjunction with CriteriaCaixa. “During the Covid crisis we realized that ILUNION’s purpose shouldn’t be just about integration but also inclusion, and not just about handicapped people but about vulnerable groups too”, he explained and then outlined ILUNION’s international growth, starting in Colombia where they already have two industrial laundries, and strategic alliances with other companies because “we have the capacity to collaborate with any sort of organization.”
Oñoro recalled the obstacles caused by the pandemic which, “stunted ILUNION’s pace of job creation, although one thousand jobs for handicapped people were nonetheless created each year.” Above all, he emphasized what ILUNION managed to achieve in this period by safeguarding their cash flow, keeping their folk enthusiastic, continuing to provide basic services and “showing society what ILUNION and the ONCE Social Group are capable of contributing”. In short, “we had to change, and invent new ways of doing and creating things.”
Economic returns and social returns
As the CEO explained, “ILUNION is based on four cornerstones: people, transformation, excellence and sustainability.” This is a formula that “is often talked about now because increasing numbers of companies believe that things can be done differently, but we’ve been applying it for some time.” “Our business model aims to strike a balance between economic returns and social returns, and we can help other companies make the shift towards this goal”, added Alejandro Oñoro, knowing that Spain “has a very advanced accessibility ecosystem and increasing numbers of companies that understand the inclusive model”.
As regards the people that ILUNION regards as the first cornerstone, Oñoro pointed out that “we have two clear lines of action: the employee experience and the customer experience”. “We believe that happy employees mean happy customers and that this leads to happy accounts”, he said, before adding that according to the company’s latest opinion poll, 89% of its employees “are happy to work there” and that 94% “would recommend it as a workplace.”
“We have a diverse, integrated management team,” mentioned the ILUNION CEO, “and this has enabled us to grow financially and create jobs after the pandemic. “At the moment, we have a workforce of almost 37,000, of which 43% are disabled persons and 50% are women, and more than 3,000 are immigrants.”
The ILUNION CEO was joined at this Desayunos Esade session by the director of Esade Madrid, Mario Lara.