President of Microsoft Spain, “Economic recovery will come in the last quarter of 2010”
María Garaña, the President of Microsoft Spain, expressed optimism yesterday about the current state of the economy and spoke of recovery in the last quarter of 2010.
Her analysis, based on the behaviour of her own customers, is that large companies are doing reasonably okay; SMEs are the hardest hit, but, although they fail to show signs of recovery, the fall in sales has actually halted; and consumers are behaving quite well with greater sales in all things related to the world of Internet and, more specifically, greater sales of games, according to some because the crisis causes people to stay at home more. Another positive point: so far in 2010, sales of computers in Spain have risen by 1.3% as opposed to the 0.9% fall recorded in 2009, the first fall in the history of the sector.
María Garaña spoke to Caja Navarra's Board of Directors and Supervision Committee yesterday at an informative session in which she addressed 'Innovation in action: response to the current challenge'. She then met the media.
The President of Microsoft Spain focussed her speech on the concept of R&D, which she believes should be reduced because the important thing is “applied innovation”, given that technology lowers the cost of production processes, helps sell more and cuts costs. By means of example, she said that new technology was capable of cutting both energy costs and travel expenditure by 30%. She stated, however, that the chief obstacle to the introduction of technology in companies was training. Along similar lines, she spoke of the responsibility of both public and private initiative to bolster supply, train demand and support entrepreneurs.