The Spanish Google (Sort of)

For one of our "business outings" whilst in Spain, we got to visit Santander, a global banking giant. To give you all an idea, here is a brief summary from the Wall Street Journal talking about banking in other countries...

The Santander Bank is Spain's most important private bank and its network of branches, stakes in other banks and take-overs extends well beyond the Spanish borders, to Portugal, Britain (see article about Banco Santander take-over of British bank Abbey National) and further afield to Latin America and the USA.

As you can tell, it is pretty incredible, but not for the financial reasons. The Banco Santander´s corporate culture is absolutely fascinating. In a very different, Google-esque style, the corporate culture at the bank has broken pretty much every Spanish norm when it comes to culture! The bank headquarters sits on a massive expanse of something like 150 acres where there is a bus stop, a metro stop, AND a train stop for those commuting not via their personal vehicle. It comes with the standard things you would think of in a corporate headquarters: full-service child care, gym (complete with pool, tennis courts, racquetball, etc), golf course and country club, art museum, shopping, andHUGE dining complex...

Although Spain is a very laid back and siesta-y culture, they are huge on tradition and their past. That being said, it was incredibly interesting to me that they were so liberal on these benefits that they give their employees! The campus itself is modeled after the technology firm out of Carolina, SAS, and they have taken that management approach that happy workers are good workers and good workers make customers happy! The corporate culture at Santander was completely different than anything I would have expected, especially after spending a few weeks in Spain. Things here seem to be quite hierarchial. Meaning, I think that there are definite differences between lower, middle, and upper class. Whereas at Santander, they take everyone from the secretaries to the upper-level executives and give them these incredible benefits! In the same light, looking at it from a national perspective, since it is based on an American business model, it seems like they would have to be very careful not to Americanize their employees. Not that Spain is a slum or anything, but their are definite differences in our national cultures! Going even further, I wonder if the employees at Banco Santander are your typical everyday Spaniards (thanks Dr. Bolino, I kinda stole your question...)? My humble opinion is that they still siesta like everyone else! Spain is all about time with family and belonging to the collective whole. I don´t think that working at a more "Americanized" corporation would change that. I think that Santander probably does more to instill those values of traditional Spain than most employers...

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