The speaker is also the producer of the short film entitled El Corredor (The Runner) which recently won the Goya award for best short film and has won the most awards for shorts in the history of Spanish cinema. 

The presentation started with a screening of the film. As Torres himself explained, the idea for the short came about as a result of the project “Second Chance” which he himself is promoting. The idea is to give a second opportunity to entrepreneurs or businesspeople who have failed. 

Torres started the session by explaining the background of his own achievements. He started his career in the world of karate, a sport in which he was twice World Champion, five times European Champion and ten times Spanish Champion. He competed up to the age of 30 and later tried his luck as a trainer at a karate school before giving classes to the police and security firms (bodyguards, army personnel, etc.) and worked as a security manager for top business moguls and Hollywood stars (George Clooney, Nicolas Cage, etc.) when they visited Barcelona. 

However, in 2002 he decided to take a new path in life and founded Numintec, a technology company specialising in telephone-based cloud computing. Although initially things were not easy, José M. Torres said he was always very clear about the type of business model he wanted: “A company has to exist to provide a service to society. We need to try to create sustainable companies that generate employment and for the money they earn to come back to society too.” 

With regard to the “Second Chance” project, he explained that although a law on second opportunity was passed, it is insufficient needs to be taken further. “In Spain there is a need to overturn the ‘culture of failure’: we stigmatize failure here. In other places, failure is simply a part of success.” 

After a question and answer session during which students could share their queries with the entrepreneur, Torres offered himself as a mentor for students in their professional future and to share his experiences with them. 

José M. Torres has also taken part recently in the IV Symposium “Companies with a Human Side” which is organised every year by the Chair of Management by Missions and Corporate Government.