Gabriel Ginebra is part of the Regional Expert Council of the TUI (Time Use Initiative) and will be one of the speakers at the Time Use Week that is being held from October 19th to 21st in Barcelona. He is part of a family of twelve siblings, he has raised seven children with his wife, and now he has two grandchildren.

Catalonia retreats slightly in the incorporation of new commercial companies in August. Business creation has decreased by 1.1% in year-on-year terms in the Principality in the eighth month of the year, according to data published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). Thus, in the analyzed period, 1,469 new businesses were incorporated in the country. Despite the retreat, it is the fourth best figure for an August in the historical series, surpassed only by the two previous years, 2025 and 2024, and by 2016.

Catalonia maintains its status as a benchmark for entrepreneurship within the Spanish state. This is revealed by data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, which shows that entrepreneurial activity in the country broke its historical ceiling in 2025. According to the study, the Catalan entrepreneurial activity rate (TEA, for its acronym in English) last year stood at 9.7%, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 percentage points and the highest value in the historical series, which began in 2004. Furthermore, it shows that the gender gap in the entrepreneurial world is practically closed.

The announcement by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, of the dissolution of the Cortes and the call for general elections on November 29th has put the country's productive fabric on alert. The Catalan association of small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, has demanded that the main parties ensure the upcoming election campaign serves to "place the productive economy and SMEs at the center of the political debate." In a statement, the organization presided over by Antoni Cañete demanded that "the political situation does not sideline the reforms needed by the productive fabric."

On September 15th, I had the great fortune of sitting on the stage of the Illa Diagonal auditorium with José María Batalla, founder of La Casa de Carlota, a creative studio where people with Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder are part of the team. I left with a question that keeps going through my mind: what talent are we failing to see? Often, when we look for it, perhaps it is not that talent is lacking, but that we lack the eyes to see it.

Surrounded by a strong smell of liquorice and equipped with gloves and hairnets, operators knead blocks of a tar-black color with an elasticity similar to bread dough. They place them on various trays to let them dry while, in another room, the pastes that have already completed their resting process are rolled and cut into small portions to then be packaged. The image, straddling the scenes of a bakery and those of a pharmaceutical laboratory, is the day-to-day life inside the Juanola lozenge factory, located in Sant Quirze del Vallès (Vallès Occidental). The legendary cough drop brand is celebrating 120 years and is doing so by preserving the essence of its product, while at the same time opening up to new business lines to reinvent itself for the future.

"We will always be there for Japan". With these words, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, explained his government's intervention at the beginning of August to curb the fall of the yen, the Japanese currency, in the markets. The declaration of support and friendship, however, has been followed by certain tensions between him and the Asian country's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, as the White House considers that she is not doing enough to stop the decline of her currency.

Noelia Acosta is the second vice president of the Association of Chartered Accountants (auditors) and a partner at Baker Tilly. Acosta, 49, asserts that her profession, to which she has been dedicated for 25 years, is subject to many regulatory changes that often arise in the wake of financial scandals. An expert in measuring the sustainability of companies and entities, she receives Companiesat the collegiate headquarters, the Torre Moré, a modernist mansion in the Barcelona neighborhood of Pedralbes, remodeled by the architect Òscar Tusquets, whom this organization, with some 2,000 members, will pay tribute to next Wednesday. Precisely on that day, they will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the association and its headquarters with challenges such as artificial intelligence (AI) and improving the balance between men and women. In the group as a whole, there is still a significant gap: 80% men and 20% women among the members. Among practitioners, the difference is reduced among those at the base: 65% men and 35% women. On the other hand, regarding executive partners, the presence of women is below 30%.

Labor productivity growth has doubled in the United States, going from a 1% annual average over the previous decade to 2% during the last five years. It is too early to attribute this fact to AI (artificial intelligence) and it also does not seem to be the result of better performance or a higher weight in GDP of the activities most directly associated with ICT (information and communications technologies). The main cause must be found in those service activities that have learned to make more effective use of ICT in recent years, adapting their organizational and commercial systems to new technologies. From this side of the Atlantic, it is surprising to observe how in the US between 2019 and 2024, productivity growth in retail trade and hospitality has stood above 4% and 2% on average per year, respectively, surpassing the manufacturing industry in both cases. In fact, productivity in American manufacturing stagnated throughout the previous period, 2000-2019, being widely surpassed by retail and hospitality. Other service activities such as wholesale distribution, education, or technical and professional services have also recorded productivity growth rates higher than the average for the American economy.

The average remuneration of directors of listed companies who held the position for the full financial year increased last year by 12.2%, to 477,000 euros per year. That of executive directors, who have management responsibilities, grew more than double that of non-executives, with a rise of 26.3% and an average of up to 2.4 million, according to the report by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on corporate governance and remuneration of directors of listed companies in 2025. These documents include information from 113 companies listed on the stock exchange.

The tourism fair B-Travel, the supermarket chain Ametller Origen, and the health sector knowledge business association Catalonia.health have announced changes to their leadership this week, which has also been marked by new appointments in the transport and real estate sectors. Furthermore, Anthropic, one of the giants of artificial intelligence (AI), has landed in the Spanish market with the appointment of a new head in the country, while in the United States, billionaire Warren Buffett has announced that he is leaving the chairmanship of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway to his son Howard Buffett.

More than a dozen prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers warned last week that the technology companies in the sector are building is becoming a risk to humanity. The problem, these researchers asserted, is that companies are not good at controlling the systems, no matter how hard they try. Following revelations that so-called OpenAI AI agents escaped from their testing system and hacked another company's computers, new alarms raised within the AI research world have accentuated fears that, for years, companies have prioritized development speed and money over safety.

The history of spas is closely linked to the use of medicinal waters and the evolution of ancient bathing spaces into new centers for health, rest, and summer holidays. They were also a new economic activity and a true industry, which knew how to turn the properties of the waters into a business linked both to the stay of the bathers and to the commercialization of their products. Some establishments even went as far as bottling their waters to market them. A part of these establishments had their origin in springs known for centuries, while others were born as a result of the expansion of the spa culture that, during the second half of the 19th century, spread throughout Europe.

The former secretary of state and technology specialist Carme Artigas and the Empordà businessman Antoni Escudero are two of the prominent names in the Catalan business world who have been involved in appointments this week. Furthermore, the entry of new executives into the leadership of the tobacco company Philip Morris in Spain and the French automotive group Renault, which has a new vice president, also stands out.

This week, Pimec went to Madrid to defend a law that facilitates business growth. Antoni Cañete, the president of this Catalan employers' organization, is a man who is insistent and persistent in the defense of what he considers affects small and medium-sized enterprises. His phrase is a classic: "SMEs must be on the bridge of command," which means that these companies, which are the main component of the country's industrial and business fabric, must be present in all areas where the regulations and rules that affect them are decided. A sign of this is the constant demand for rules and measures aimed at combating late payments, an evil that stifles many companies, especially the smallest ones and, of course, the self-employed who work as suppliers for larger industries and companies.

Communicator and sommelier Meritxell Falgueras (Barcelona, 1981) grew up among wines, bottles, and labels: “I remember my grandmother, my mother, my father, everyone working in the shop and me doing my homework behind the boxes”. Her first job was also at the family business, the Celler de Gelida, in Sants: “During the summers, with my brother, we had to wrap bottles so that the old labels, from before the war, would not get damaged”.

He is seen smiling, with his finger raised and a backpack on his back. But Jordi Sarrats chose this photo for what is behind it: a river. "The horseshoe-shaped curves of rivers have always seemed to me a whim of nature, and this one, of the Colorado River, is iconic." Today he is retired, but he owned an elevator company for many years and today he presides over the guild that groups this sector.

On Ramón i Cajal street in Barcelona, right by Joanic square, Vell Món is an authentic temple of antique furniture. Siblings José María and Cristina Ruiz run a furniture restoration and sales business where you can either bring in worm-eaten or unglued furniture to be repaired, restore a table with great sentimental value, or buy a beautiful piece of furniture that has decades (or centuries) of history impregnated in its wood. It is addictive and fascinating to hear a lifelong artisanal trade spoken about by an artisan who knows it, because the craft is their life.

Pimec has brought its request for a state law that "rewards business growth instead of penalizing it" to Madrid this Wednesday. The president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, assured during an event in the state capital that there are entrepreneurs who want to gain scale and who "find themselves with a new obligation, a new administrative burden, or a higher cost precisely when they make the leap." He also warned that "small business size hinders competitiveness in Spain." At the same time, a Pimec report—which includes 348 interviewed companies—shows that 45.3% of companies have not received any aid in the last five years to favor their growth.

An eraser, a ruler, a pair of pens. Also two highlighters, a pencil sharpener and, of course, a few pencils. This week, with the return to classrooms, pencil cases have been filled again with school supplies. And on the back of many pencils –especially those that students will use for the most artistic subjects– there will be stamped the same name: Faber-Castell. They are the two surnames of a German dynasty that has been manufacturing them for more than 260 years.