Interview to Mr. Alfredo Bataller, Founder of SHA Wellness Clinic

My objective has always been being able to share with society a treasure that I was lucky enough to know in a delicate moment of my life.

Interview to Mr. Alfredo Bataller, President and Founder of SHA Wellness Clinic, to know deeply the mission, vision and values behind this brand, which has already been awarded with more than 20 International awards.

1. Apart from being a recognized wellness clinic, what else would you say SHA is?

SHA Wellness Clinic is probably the only clinic in which everyone would like to be admitted and leaves with pity, where the guests find new energy, where the horizons are really widen, the spirit grows, the mind is relaxed, the appearance and health are improved.

Here we understand health on a wider sense; not simply as the absence of illness, but as an optimal state of complete physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, in harmony with the environment, keeping the ideal weight and great vitality. Once these principles are present in every day life, peace and happiness are finally achieved.

2. How would you describe the mission of SHA?

We work with passion at SHA to produce a positive, vital and long lasting change on people’s health and wellbeing. We transmit the importance of a healthy diet and integrate the most effective natural therapies with the last traditional medicine advances.

My objective has always been being able to share with society a treasure that I was lucky enough to know in a delicate moment of my life.

I have lost some of my loved ones as my mother, my aunt and my sister because of cancer when they were not older than 50 years old. My father suffered from ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) since he was 48 years old and my father in law died when he was only 54. I wish I had discovered this knowledge some years before to share with them. I know it could have been really useful.

At SHA we try to detox the organism and improve the general state of health using different techniques so that self-curative ability increases. Sometimes, the consumption of popular foods that are scientifically demonstrated to be harmful for the organism cause the malfunction of organs, the accumulation of unnecessary extra pounds and when you are over medicated the accumulation of toxins increases, which considerably decreases the self-curative ability until reaching the extreme case of cancer, where it’s not always easy to go backwards.

3. Which are the reasons of the success of a business model like SHA? If you look backwards and make and objective analysis, is there anything you would have changed or made differently?

The success of SHA, as many other companies, comes from hard work, perfection and special care in everything we do. Passion makes us get up everyday to reach and take care of our dream and SHA is the result of doing things with love and an unbreakable persistence. When work is carried out this way, that spirit pervades the environment, is spread through the team and the excellent service the guests notice is achieved. Mouth to mouth makes de rest. We have always been a very close family and we all do our best with the help of our great human team so that everything goes right.

Life gives us the great opportunity to learn, to improve every aspect now we know more than when we started and probably if we did it again, we’ll take advantage of that experience and will do it even better. We are really proud of the results, though.

Thinking on the three first years sometimes makes me shiver, as we lost more than 9 million euros. But I don’t regret. The satisfaction I feel when a guest tells me how SHA helped her/him is my best regard.

4. Six years after the foundation, SHA Wellness Clinic is already a worldwide-recognized clinic. Which is your dream now? Which is your inquisitiveness now?

My dream is still helping to spread some knowledge that can help lots of people to be aware of the relation between food and health, be aware of the importance of having healthy habits that strengthen self-curative ability in our bodies, to spread very effective natural therapies and of course taking advantage of the traditional medicine.
That’s why we created SHA Foundation, to share knowledge that can help humanity.

5. How would you describe the perfect talent to be part of the SHA team? How does SHA transmit its values to employees and make them feel identified with the company’s philosophy?

As I said before we have a great team absolutely dedicated to offer the best personal service to our guests. Most of the talents should have values that match SHA profile, such as integrity, honesty, coherence and respect. Example is very important to achieve that: the family and managers should always serve as an example of the values we declare. I think it’s the only way these values can be transmitted.

It’s also important to make a correct procedure when hiring. We value human quality as much or even more than professional quality and we are really interested in the evolution of every member of the team. We want people willing to improve through continuous personal development and innovation, being the best version of their selves.

The own word Human Capital explains that: we should be human, be careful and help others promoting their wellbeing with the goal of creating a positive impact in each person. Excellence, this is the way to achieve success, transforming our habits into behaviour.

Tagore used to say “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I woke up and saw that life was service. I served and saw that service was joy”. This is the spirit that encourages us and our experience demonstrates the truth in these words.

6. Taking into account current global context, is this a time for opportunities or a time to wait and see what happens?

This is without doubts a time for opportunities. It’s always the right moment to share the knowledge we have, that valuable information to learn to manage the health, to be able to offer the ideal frame to relax, rest, detox, leave bad habits, improve appearance and health, reencounter with yourself. We are lucky to leave in a country like Spain, improvable in many aspects, but a paradise compared to others.

I wish we were all positive and believed that we are in a good moment, that it’s time to undertake new projects. Economic data indicate that a clear recovery. Spain is probably going to be the country with the greatest growth within the European Union. The Government has said to lower taxation, which means that more money will be in hands of the population. This will revive consumption. We are beating the number of visitors every year. We should bet to believe in this reality and act in consequence.

7. Which are SHA’s milestones for the next 12 months that you expect to achieve?

Just to mention a few, I’d say to start the new cognitive development unit, the 3D Cinema room, the new classroom for cooking lessons, starting SHA RESIDENCE new building, consolidate ESENZA by SHA, two wellness spaces at Madrid Airport, the launch of our own cosmetic line and teas and progress in some other ambitious projects I prefer not to reveal until I’m sure when will they be concreted.

8. What do you feel when you see so many guests that are thankful at the time of leaving?

This is our biggest satisfaction. To share the emotion that joins us at the time of leaving due to the results achieved and knowing that we’ll see each other again soon. We have more and more repetitive guest everyday. One out of three guest has previously been at SHA. Some guests have already been for 20 or 30 times and lots of them have been for 10 times. Having into account that normally stays last for 7 days, this is quite an important datum.

9. Which are the most challenging and gratifying parts of being the president of a company like SHA?

The challenge is to manage that everything works in harmony, that no mistakes are made, that members of the team are happy on their jobs, that our guest feel the affection we have for them and the wish to help them as much as we can.

The most gratifying is seeing that these objectives are achieved, that together we get to accomplish our mission.

10. Who inspires you?

I am inspired by the parable of the talents in the New Testament, (Mathew 25:14-30).
I am inspired by the memory of the great efforts of my grandparents and my parents.
I am inspired by the unconditional support of my wife, my sons and nephew and some managers and talents.
I am inspired by the support and dedication of SHA human team in general.
I am inspired and feel encouraged by my little nieces and what really inspires me on this huge effort is knowing that we are helping people every day.