Staff Spotlight: Andreu Gual i Falcó

At that time I was living in Johannesburg and with my girlfriend we decided to do a road trip to Moçambique. After driving countless hours with my old Nissan on bumpy roads we hit Tofo. Beautiful little village on the coast, with white sand beaches, like in the postcards. The excitement made want to jump into the ocean not realizing that my car keys were on my pocket. With wet keys the old Nissan wouldn't turn on. DHL didn't want to send the spare key to me, as there was no name streets in Tofo. We decided to leave the car in Tofo and continue the trip hitchhiking hoping the key would dry after few days. On our way back 5 days later the car was still there and after invoking all sorts of unknown gods the car turn on an allowed us to continue our trip.

It is hard to talk about underrated or overrated destinations. For me your perception comes from your expectations before traveling as well as on how you experience the place, how open you are to new experiences and how comfortable you are getting out of your comfort zone. If you are both, it is very hard to be disappointed about a destination. You will always discover something fascinating that will make the trip worthwhile. However, it also true that I have visited places where it was hard to blend with locals, experience the off tourist sites and that made the trip a bit disapointing. However I believe it was not the destination, but the fact that i did not have enough time to explore it the way I wanted and also that I didn’t know anyone on the ground that could help me experiencing out of the tourist sites.

One destination that I really enjoyed was Venice even though my expectations were very low before I got there. I dislike crowded places and tourist site seeing. However, I was staying at friends house, locals from Venice ( I believe ones of the few that still live intramuros) and made the experience amazing. We found the streets and bars away from the crowds we managed to visit the city from a completely different angle.

What makes a company successful? Their capacity to maximize ROI to is shareholders and investors, the % increase on revenue? I do not think these are the only nor best indicators to define the success of a company.

Both, society and economy are changing at a faster pace than ever. Companies have to adapt to these changes and have to have defined very clear what do they want to achieve to know whether they are successful or not. So the place to start would be to have a clear vision and objective. Dream big, otherwise is not a vision.

However, there are several factors that play a major role to make a company successful, but in a fast pace changing society the biggest might be their ability to solve problems fast. Learn in quick cycles, adapt and pivot if necessary.

In Corkscrew we firmly believe in the need of collaboration between companies. Things change quickly and a company alone won't have the know-how or resources to adapt on its own. It is the time to share, open and collaborate. So the company that manages to do that in a smartly way will grant success in achieving their objectives.

Corkscrew has allowed me to see how working in an open and collaborative manner grants great results and experiences. Like the african proverb says "if you want to go fast, walk alone. If you want to go far, walk together." Alone I can go fast, but not where I want to go. Let alone the fact that the road alone is just boring. You can have fun while working.

This collaborative way of working comes hand in hand with trust. And with trust comes growing your confidence. Working with Corkscrew has challenged me to push myself to my full potential. In my understanding these are basic elements of a great company culture.

Corkscrew is unique in the approach of experiences abroad. We are not a traditional internship provider nor a training provider.

Corkscrew provides a mix of experience (professional and personal) abroad with start up thinking training. Corkscrewers work on real company projects as consultants at the same time that work on developing their own business ideas.

Our programs are located in the most vibrant co-workings spaces in start up references city, which make the experience also unique as allows the participants in the program to working in an thriving environment, surrounded by like-minded creative souls.

These elements make Corkscrew unique and that is why we call our programs experienceships.