Few words are so established in the first line of our economic-managerial vocabulary as that of "competition." The Single European Market and the aspiration to Monetary Union have meant that competitiveness and competition have become the motor of future economic progress. It is one of the few doctrines generally accepted by the practical entirety of the experts, but I believe that it is as well to separate the image of competition as a purely formal, artificial and institutional abstraction, from the real competition necessary to become an authentic source of value and economic progress. This second sense of the word competition has a lot to do with the necessity of "being competent."

As opposed to that formal and abstract competition with which we do complex graphic and intellectual juggling that tries to reflect a hypothetical and continuous tendency towards balance, it is as well to highlight the necessity of a more humanized, mutually binding and responsible image of competition that derives from the unfolding of true freedom as an instrument of constant improvement.

The logical and healthy search for profit in all personal and managerial performance is moderated in daily events by free competition. Those continuous attempts to increase one's own wealth, stimulates the best application of human work to material realities by means of specialization, the mutually beneficial voluntary exchange and the search for a better service to other proprietors of wealth. Inventive capacity in its whole range of applications, from the merely technical and manual to the intellectual, organizational and reflexive, is motivated by that human and dynamic competition that allows others, by communication and transmission of information, to also end up taking advantage of those innovations and the profit of the first innovators is reduced. According to these continuous Schumpeterian cycles, when the initial benefits decrease, new innovative stimuli appear for the adventure of personal, managerial and social improvement.

Although convenient, the most important in that context is not that the appropriate legal framework exists for the unfolding of competition; it is not about acting in a competitive environment with the same rules of the game for everyone, but rather the most important is that we are competent in that competitive environment. Fundamentally and definitively, we have to habitually improve our original capacity for invention personally as well as managerially in the whole wide range of meanings of the word innovation.

It is not about fighting against the others but fighting against oneself, demanding more of ourselves. It is not about growing outwards but rather it is fundamental to grow inwards. It is important to participate, but to win it is necessary to be well prepared because otherwise, ridicule is assured. It is not only about growing in sales, markets and managerial profit but also about growing within the managerial organization, growing in value. While reading Villacís's book about the work of Germán Bernácer from Alicante, an especially attractive idea stood out for me: "From value the necessary money is born to make it possible." External success will be the consequence of internal success, of the value of the projects. It is not simply about competing, but rather that which is really important is being competent.

Joseph John Franch Menéu
Gaceta de los Negocios, Monday March 22nd 1993