"Without logistics, there is no reality"
Alexandra Masó Llorente is a doctor in Entrepreneurship and Business Management, professor at TecnoCampus Mataró and independent strategy consultant. She joined the MOST Training course as a guest lecturer — and ended up teaching one of its most unexpected sessions.
Alexandra Masó Llorente · TecnoCampus, Mataró
As a guest lecturer, what differential value do you see in bringing students into real operations?
First of all, congratulations on the project. Universities are increasingly being asked to incorporate project-based and active learning. You have been doing this for twenty years, and it shows — not just in the content, but in how the sessions are led. What the EU is asking of universities today, you already have deeply integrated. What we have here is a model for continuous learning, and that is not marketing talk: it is what we observed.
"Engineers are the best salespeople — they don't repeat a pitch, they live it. Students in logistics have the same asset: real knowledge, real experience. We need to help them put it to work."
You proposed an impromptu session on presentation and pitching. What drove you — and should it be part of the programme?
The motivation was straightforward: marketing has many dimensions we undervalue, and one of them is learning to present yourself, to build your own narrative, to recognise the worth of what you do. We had young people attentive for nearly two hours. That says a lot. Going up to the bridge of the ship — for someone like me, that has something transcendent about it. Logistics is essential in the chain, and we rarely give it the recognition it deserves.
Why a presentation session? Because they need to learn to sell what is good, to respect themselves and value their work. Without logistics there is no reality. All the dreams of marketing come to nothing if there is no one to deliver them.
The teachers - MOST
Students on the bridge of the vessel - MOST Training
What tools would you highlight for logistics students who need to present and convince — not just calculate?
Beyond the pitch itself, there is a strategic challenge the market has not fully solved: how to embed value inside the product. In logistics you have made sustainability a real operational priority — efficiency and sustainability go hand in hand. But in many other business contexts it is still up for debate. How do we sell sustainability beyond what regulation requires? That is marketing strategy: how we position ourselves, what we sell, with what values we convince.
The key is understanding marketing and logistics as a symbiosis, not opposing departments. The companies that achieve this perform significantly better. The net revenue manager — a role linking product design, logistics, pricing and profitability — is gaining ground precisely for that reason. A logistics professional who understands marketing can speak as an equal with their client. That opens doors.
The Escola Europea – Intermodal Transport organises immersive short-sea shipping courses for students and professionals. Alexandra Masó joined as a guest lecturer from TecnoCampus Mataró, and her session on pitch and presentation became one of the defining moments of the edition.
At the start of the course, no student mentioned the environment. Some even called sustainability "greenwashing". How do you read that?
There are two kinds of company. Marketing has long debated its responsibility here — we have enormous power to change how people perceive things. Some companies have used that for greenwashing, and yes, we reject that. But there is something we cannot ignore: when a company puts sustainability out into the market as a value, the market eventually demands it back. Fake it until you make it — they had to integrate it because they were the ones who launched it.
And sustainability has more dimensions than we usually see. It is also economic and social. Logistics integrates this very naturally: European reindustrialisation, distribution capacity, the long-term economic sustainability of a country. Whether we want to or not, we end up being sustainable.
"What will remain constant is change itself. And to adapt, you need to know yourself. That, too, is marketing: creating value. And it starts from within."
How will marketing change with the rise of artificial intelligence?
AI is a transformative technology — as electricity was, as internet access was. They all share one thing: their adoption curve is J-shaped. First comes euphoria, then a retreat, because real integration demands changing structures, mindsets, mechanisms. It is too early to say exactly what the future of marketing with AI will look like.
What we can already see is this: for eighty years, marketing was obsessed with the sale. Today, with big data and the 4.0 revolution, understanding what drives sales has improved enormously. The new challenge is not generating sales — it is sustaining them and converting them into real profitability. AI is already pushing us in that direction. In a moment of polycrisis and constant change, a company that maintains its sales level transmits security inward and outward. In logistics, that has always been second nature.
What competencies matter most for students incorporating communication and persuasion into their professional practice?
Of all the competencies — communication, creativity, client knowledge, technology — I would choose analytical capacity. Starting with oneself: before you can analyse the market, you need to be able to analyse yourself. How do I present my knowledge? How do I convey what I am? We often do this badly, not because we lack value, but because we do not know how to explain it.
What will remain constant is change. To adapt, you need to know yourself. Perhaps today you are not a strong communicator — but that does not mean you will not be, or that communication will even be the most important skill in five years. Tools change. What does not change is the need to believe in yourself and develop the ability to see what you can build. That, too, is marketing: creating value. And it starts from within.
