an example of training and research in the gastronomic sector

Work that is bearing fruit, since the first classes have already obtained their diplomas. New professionals who have been able to benefit from the “DNA of Comillas” and the impetus of Madrid City Hall, as Morales points out: “As the Pontifical University of Comillas, we have been a reference for many years, through ICADE, in terms of teaching business management, business management, with decades of experience, both at the level of diplomas, masters and courses for professionals. With this in mind, a few years ago we launched the MACC, a diploma in gastronomy linked to business management.

“The chair intends, in collaboration with Madrid City Hall (adds Morales), to boost this sector from the point of view of contributing to the training of professionals (workers with different qualification levels: middle managers or managers, directors or owners of different types of companies in the catering sector in Madrid), with an important emphasis on “management” in business management, with several courses in 2025.”

Excellence training

In “Numbers in the kitchen”, this training is aimed at professionals with less experience in the sector, so that they can learn everything related to the digital part of management “not so much from the culinary point of view (emphasizes the director), but in aspects such as planning and analyzing the costs of a recipe and a menu, etc.

In the case of “Innovation and business management for the future of the gastronomic sector”, it is aimed at students, owners or managers, a priori, of SMEs (in the catering sector or with a more varied profile). “We talk (emphasizes Morales) about how to manage the business to increase profitability, how to market your value proposition, how to communicate it to the public, how to innovate, how to lead the management of the team and the process, how to make the management of what we call ‘the room’ more efficient, etc.”

To these two courses, which lasted more than eight weeks (with internal sessions taught by professionals of recognized prestige in the sector and, in addition, Comillas professors), is added “The Customer Experience”, shorter and divided into modules. In any case, in accordance with the line of excellence inherent in this training, as highlighted by the director of the chair: “We have Ferrán Centelles, who has been a sommelier at El Bulli and is part of the elBulli Foundation, and Óscar Gómez, a gourmet expert in popular cuisine, with extensive experience in the media and specialized blogs. “Both brought their perspective from a business perspective, on how this improves the customer experience, but also from the perspective of the customer themselves.”

Train, research and disseminate knowledge

“The chair (indicates Morales) has three functions. The first is the aforementioned training, the second is research: we have formed a research team made up of teacher-researchers from the university and we are working on different axes. We take field data and initial surveys (basically, we analyze the indicators that impact the effective management of a catering business and identify and analyze the factors that determine the success-failure of a business). One of the axes of this performance is, for example, research on catering micro-SMEs, restaurants with fewer than five employees, some of them in the markets of the city of Madrid.

In the case of the third, dissemination, awareness, transfer to Madrid society, these are all kinds of actions “like those (concludes the director of the chair) on which we rely at Vocento, as well as our work on the web, social networks, memory of activities and the creation of a repository where all the learning from this training and research will be stored and made available to society”.