By Business & Finance 
Alejandra Gonzalez, Innovation & Service Design Manager at Naturgy, takes on the Business & Finance 60-second interview challenge.
Q. What was your first job? While finishing my studies, I started working at Fujitsu’s customer service department. This is where I began to understand customers’ needs. Q. What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date? I am proud my sons have adopted some values like sustainability and a healthy lifestyle from my husband and I. From a business perspective, with a small team and a lot of personal effort, we managed to design and launch more than 10 products to the market and this is something we all take pride in. Q. In three words or fewer, how do you define success? Being grateful. Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? From a young age, my parents would say intelligence is a gift, but kindness is a choice. I was lucky to have kindness not only as a piece of advice, but also as part of my culture growing up in Spain. Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff? I always like to remind the team of the initial idea we have thought up of and pushing us all to see that become a reality. Q. If you could step into the shoes of one business person for the day, who would it be and why? Elon Musk, as he must be living in the future already! Q. How do you relax? Ashtanga Yoga and my daily bike ride to work help me relax. Q. What’s your motto? Be the example you want to see in the world. Q. What are your aspirations for the future of your business? I believe the energy sector has to change towards a less commodity centric business to a more serviced and consumer centric one. Energy use holds a great responsibility for the planet’s health and it’s feasible to mitigate its impact by integrating technology. Service design is a great philosophy for that, as it could help to align business goals with customers’ needs and environmental targets.
Intelligence is a gift, but kindness is a choice.
