8 QUESTIONS WITH ENRIQUE DANS
Where did you grow up?
La Coruña, Galicia in Spain.
What do you teach?
Innovation, Information Systems, Managing the Tech Startup, Personal Brand, and other related courses.
What’s your motto?
El valor de la innovación no está en evitar que te copien, sino en conseguir que todos te quieran copiar. The value of innovation is not to prevent others from copying you, but to get everyone to try to copy you. (see my blog post.)
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a doctor, then I studied biology and wanted to have a fish farm, and now I am a proud professor.
Where is your favorite place in Madrid?
In fact, I don’t really like Madrid that much. Too big, too busy, too stressful and too many people for me. Actually, I believe Madrid is a beautiful city, but impossible to enjoy unless half of the citizens are out, which usually happens in August, when the weather makes it impossible. I am definitely a small town type of guy.
How do you relax?
Diving. A warm day at the beach, diving and fishing, in my hometown.
What book is currently on your nightstand?
I don’t read paper anymore; considering the amount of underlining and annotating I usually do, reading on paper became absurd. But currently on my Kindle is “Smarter than you think,” by Clive Thompson.
Is there someone who has inspired you?
Absolutely: José Mario Álvarez de Novales, the person who brought me in to IE as a teacher after graduating from my MBA. An incredible innovator, an amazing person, and definitely a role model for me in many, many ways.
Professor Enrique Dans was interviewed and photographed by Kerry Parke on NYC’s High Line (March 2014.)