THE INTERVIEW | MIGUEL TELLEZ


Tellez became managing director and sole employee of Tele Radio America in 2005, embarking on a journey of growth and development.


businesses in the future. Accepted as a key member of that business family, he found himself being offered the position of managing director by the owner – an expression of great trust – but a change in market dynamics meant that move did not come to pass.


As is typical with many start-ups, there were issues with funding, so Tellez moved on to a new company – industrial weighing systems manufacturer and radio remote control systems distributor Motorman. He had developed a relationship with the company through his work on electrical as part of radio control systems, so he had the knowledge and skills to step into this new role, eventually becoming export manager by 2005. “Like everything in life, I was never afraid, or even if I was afraid, I still stepped up,” he says. During his time at Motorman, Tellez developed his specialist knowledge of radio controls and industrial weighing systems, coming to understand in depth the Spanish, Portuguese and broader European market. His next step, however, would take him away from Europe entirely. Once again, it was the result of him following his heart.


Crossing the pond In his sales role at Motorman, Tellez was selling a Taiwanese radio control system that was inexpensive, but not as reliable as some customers would have liked. His search for an alternative led him to open talks with Tele Radio. In his role as manager of imports and exports for Motorman, he began reselling Tele Radio systems in Spain.


Learning about the company’s history, he was impressed by how the owner had turned a local


28 Winter 2025 | ochmagazine.com


Swedish company into a business that sold its products worldwide and was attracted to working for such a successful and expanding business. Then fate would play its hand.


“Going back 34 years, my girlfriend at the time had moved to the US to study, and we had a long- distance relationship while she was away,” Tellez explains. “She came back to Spain after college and we were going to give it a chance there, but really she wanted to go back to the US and she asked me if I would go with her.” “I asked the owner of the company if that gave us an opportunity to open a subsidiary for the North American market, and he said okay, so I followed my girlfriend to the US,” he adds. “That was 20 years ago, and I have not looked back. I was stepping into the unknown, moving to a new country where I knew no one and nothing about the industry. We were building everything from zero.”


So, in 2005 he became managing director – and sole employee – of the newly formed Tele Radio America. When he started the business there was no infrastructure, no team, nothing. He was one man, newly arrived in Miami, trying to build a business that could sell to the whole of the US, Canada and Latin America. “For two years, I was MD, technical expert, logistics manager, sales manager, head of accounting, everything,” he says. “Now, under my oversight I have 35 people, combining our US operation and our subsidiary in Brazil. I am also still MD of Tele Radio Spain. I came here wanting to create a network of distributors in Latin America, too, so when I moved here, I was a European trying to adapt to both North American


and South American cultures, all of which are totally different markets with very different mentalities.” Over the past 20 years, Tellez has succeeded


in growing the Tele Radio family – the operation in Miami now has more than 170 employees and he has further expanded his role. Since 2018, he has been the company’s director of worldwide subsidiaries. Have there been some lucky breaks along the way? Possibly. But as the stoic philosopher Seneca once reportedly said, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity”. “People often tell me I was lucky, but I have


worked hard for it,” says Tellez. “Not all of the moves I made sounded like a great idea at the time.”


Cultural shift


Arriving in the US knowing only his future wife, with sole responsibility for setting up a new international arm for a successful business and no local business contacts to learn from, Tellez had to quickly get to grips with a very different culture. Fortunately, he is eager to learn and refuses to be rigid in his thinking. “My greatest strength is that I am flexible and adaptable,” he remarks. “I could come to this country and think only in terms of how things worked in Spain or Sweden. I can’t apply the same approach to markets like Chile or Mexico. This is a Swedish company, and we need to have some core values, but you have to adapt to each economy.”


One of the first things he noticed was a difference in approach to solving problems.


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