INNOVATION TO CONQUER HALF OF THE WORLD

Blu:sens was created in 2001 and centred in the electronics consumer sector, making a wager for a market apparently captured by large name brands. Its two Galician partners have made the company known in Spain and begun to colonise half of the world. The Executive President, José Ramón García, recalled the beginnings of the company as the birth of a start-up with limited resources but with an ambitious idea in terms of its exponential growth: to achieve a billing volume of 100 million Euros in 2013 and presence in at least 30 countries.

AT THE BEGINNING, BLU:SENS FOCUSED ITS

differential value in creative technology, “to achieve certain markets before others do so,” as the way to gain resources and to reinvest in what are defined as its two greatest strengths: innovation and brand. The success achieved by the company since that time has created the situation that, today, the company invests 15% of its annual income in innovation and brand. This amount is greater than 60 million Euros in Spain, close to 20 million dollars in Mexico and Central America, and supersedes 6 in South America and 4 in the Middle East.

The company plan included two consecutive objectives to be achieved. The first was to create a product and sell it on the national market and they focused on this target until 2008. Since then, they have made a more important wager for innovation as the step previous to entering the exterior market, which was the second objective. “We knew that we could be creative in Spain but, in the world as well, it is important to be innovators,” José Ramón García emphasised.

The liquidity crisis affecting the country has obliged the company to grow at a slower pace than that demanded by the market. Nevertheless, the international expansion plan continues to move forward and Blu:sens hope to increase its presence in the exterior with the opening of new affiliates in countries such as Brazil and Colombia in 2012. The Executive President of the company explained that growth continues to be 40%, “thanks to having entered the exterior market.”The company plan included two consecutive objectives to be achieved. The first was to create a product and sell it on the national market and they focused on this target until 2008. Since then, they have made a more important wager for innovation as the step previous to entering the exterior market, which was the second objective. “We knew that we could be creative in Spain but, in the world as well, it is important to be innovators,” José Ramón García emphasised.

The company do not only attribute these successful results to internationalisation but also to the capacity of Blu:sens to search for new market niches and to move ahead of its competitors. Today, the Spanish figures are supported by corporate sales and the company have reached an agreement with the financial entities BBVA and Banco Santander, to which they provide the televisions that are given as presents to capture clients. The company have also closed a technological agreement with the group Telefonica, in order to convert itself to a valid provider of Internet Protocol TV devices.

The latest great achievement has been ‘Web TV,’ a product integrally designed in Galicia that brings Internet to television and in which the company have invested five million Euros for its development. “It is a very radical wager with which we are trying to become 100% innovators and leaders. We are achieving our goal,” claimed García. The device permits watching streaming films and series, access to social networks, reading the press, or enjoying the possibilities of Internet via multiple applications, all of that from the television. “Any person of any age will understand it without the need to understand how to manage a PC. It is similar to the time when black-and-white was substituted by colour,” he pointed out. In addition to ‘Web TV,’ the company plan is to incorporate into the market at Christmas a product with no international competition: Blu:sens electronic tablets with a very fine aesthetic appearance and very complete functions and applications.

To innovate is to sell something different. the one who is going to sell is the one capable of producing di!erent or better things. A company that does not consider internationalising and innovating is not going to survive. Only businesspersons and young, educated people will rescue this country from the crisis. They will be able to do things in a different way”. Xosé Ramón García

One step ahead of the competition

When Blu:sens was initiated in 2001, the two partners who direct the company dedicated an entire year to an evaluation of the market in order to understand what the competition was doing and to determine how to be different. Today, there are some 200 highly qualified direct workers in addition to many indirect positions that the company generate with different subcontracts and collaborations.

One year later, in 2002, they were the first to launch and market a star pro duct that no one had previously considered: a DVD that is compatible with divX. Success consists of “contributing more than the competition, being faster, and constantly up-­dating each product,” all of which are aspects associated with a good quality-­price relationship that has situated Blu:sens in the best position in the market. “We need to gain an elevated margin that will permit us to reinvent ourselves, to create our own R&D&I, and to create our own brand and structure. Our prices were in the medium range but we offered more than even the most expensive brand,” Garcia remarked.

The product for which Blu:sens was most known was the MP3. The incorporation of wireless connectivity to those devices via WIFI and Bluetooth allowed the company to remain on top. The second niche selected was that of televisions which the company began to offer in small and medium-sized dimensions. The process of fabrication and assembly is performed completely in Galicia thereby obtaining an "infinitely superior” level of quality. The company produce 2,000 units per day in Galicia. In 2011 alone, they sold 350,000 units of LCD and LED TVs in the national market.

Once that Blu:sens achieved success in the Spanish market, they moved into the exterior for which they allowed the entry of capital from Manuel Jove who then held 47.5% of the company, permitting the two founders to maintain control of the company. Since then, the company has achieved presence in more than 20 countries around the world with affiliates in Mexico, Dubai, China and South America. This objective was successful because international sales today represent 30% and will represent 70% in 2013. “We have not gone outside of Spain in order to conquer the world. We have gone out into the world in order to conquer the world," García clarified.

This company head­quartered in Galicia does not export, rather international branches are opened which receive the innovation and the know how from Santiago de Compostela. “We think globally but we act very much locally,” a formula that is the key to being innovators in all of world because “we have sent our way of understanding the business of electronics outside but we adapt to the different countries in order to be true innovators,” Garcia added.

Throughout its trajectory, the company have also collaborated with the University of A Coruña or Vigo by means of the Technological Centre of Telecommunications of Galicia (Gradiant). The backing of the Regional Government was also significant during recent years and now represents approximately 12.7% of the invested capital in R&D&I dedicated above all to product innovation. “We rely on innovation and, every six months or less, we put products on the market that no one else has,” emphasized the Executive President of the company.