People. Everything begins and ends with them. Together with his brother Iñaki, Aitor Zumarraga leads the large company which CMZ has become nowadays. The quality of the product is a key aspect, but this would fall short without a strong human team behind it. The two brothers' management of the company they once inherited from their parents has yielded results. Aitor opens up the box of memories and appears on #wearecmz to give us some of the key points.
If any sector has undergone a true revolution, it's the machine-tools sector. The Basque Country is a place with a long industrial tradition where manufacturing companies emerged decades ago. However, the different economic and social crises cut short the future of most of them which were closely related with the machinery sector. Aitor remembers perfectly the time when he took over at CMZ. They weren't easy times. It was in the 1980s and the main turnover was generated from exports to Mexico, which declared a suspension of payments. Aitor and Iñaki inherited an ailing company which they had to rebuild from scratch. But their parents' bad luck, due to the aforementioned circumstances, did not affect their future. It was a good spur for taking control, establishing a viable business plan and carrying it out with steady hands.
Aitor recognises that luck, hard work and good strategic decisions have greatly helped the growth which the company has been experiencing for years.
An investment and growth plan at CMZ continues the established route with a firm step, which will significantly increase productive capacity. It's not necessary to play 'spot the difference' to see what the company CMZ of today has in common with that of 30 years ago. Although it's currently the size of a large company, with more than 400 employees in 5 countries, it 100% preserves its essence as a family company. This is transmitted to each employee in terms of values, work culture, professional career, future... "Here people are not just another number," confesses Aitor.
One of the greatest challenges when including people in the team is qualifications. It's increasingly difficult to find committed professionals who want to carve out a future in the sector. The attitude is 100%. To want is to be able to.
It's not every day we have the honour of interviewing the person who was selected as Best Basque Entrepreneur 2019. It's strange because actually it's as if we had more than 400 people in front of our camera. According to Aitor, they are the true "entrepreneurs" who take their lathes to the top every day at CMZ.
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