Oscar de la Hera Gomez: An Inspiring Persona in Search of Excellence

Steve Jobs has well asserted, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” Passion and dedication are the prime ingredients of an outstanding entrepreneur, especially in this super-competitive world. A zealous entrepreneur not only encourages his or her team to achieve the impossible but also set a grand example for young business minds out there.

Business Talk has been a great appreciator of all the c-suite executives who have created history by revolutionizing their respective business domains with new-age solutions. Here again, we are back with another excellent success tale of a mesmerizing leader, Oscar de la Hera Gomez. Our editorial team had an interesting and joyful virtual meet with the visionary leader. In the cheerful conversation with us, he shared numerous unknown facts about his entrepreneurial journey so far and some hidden facts about his business venture. We truly hope and desire that this fascinating read will add some extra value to the lives of our global readers and will boost their motivation. We will be more than happy if the reader could encourage the young minds out there to break their barriers and chase their dreams.  

A ZEALOUS PERSONA

Oscar is an award-winning multidisciplinary designer & technologist and founder of delasign. His work has been sold in 30+ countries by the Museum of Modern Art and can be found in over 200 Apple stores around the world. Born in Basel, Switzerland, Oscar is Spanish and was raised in the Netherlands. As an extraordinary lawful permanent US resident, Oscar holds a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London and a Master of the Fine Arts in Products of Design from the School of Visual Arts.

Our curious team asked Oscar to share the motivation factor that insisted he pursue his business journey, he says, “I have always wanted to be independent and create products, services, and experiences. My heart was filled with illusion and joy at the idea of creating things that other people would use. ‘Could you imagine!’ I used to tell my grandfather every time an idea came into my head. I started carving this path in 2010 when I began to develop iOS apps and subsequently leveraged my masters in Mechanical Engineering to try to launch a portable football (soccer) goal. Both of these taught me a lot about what it takes to make things and also how important supply, demand, and investment are to having a healthy business. 

Around this time I took courses at the Royal College of Art that made me realize that I lacked the design background required to be a complete entrepreneur. This would ultimately take me to Allan Chochinov & the MFA Products of Design, where in the first few weeks I would create the brand behind delasign, and whose extraordinary two years would very much shape who I am today. 

I owe my entrepreneurial path to my parents & my education, who kept my feet on the ground as I earned two products in the MoMA Design Store – the Illusion Spinner & the Ambi Chopsticks & Holders. This also propelled my belief that passion leads to excellence, and if it wasn’t for Solace I would not be given the chance to work with Nike leadership and deliver the product demo for the Apple Watch Nike+, which eventually granted me the honor to work on Beats Tempo & allowed me to build a name for delasign. 

delasign is expanding in 2022, but we are firm on our mission to be the place on planet earth known for its independent, entrepreneurial culture and creative excellence centered on creating products, services, and experiences for clients and the general public. As it has been clear on this journey that to achieve greatness you must create work that creatively feeds both your soul and the soul of others.”

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

“I am not interested in scale nor scaling in the same way that the industry constantly discusses and attempts. I don’t ever want delasign to grow past 25 people, as I think excellence is limited to a limited number of players – as can be seen, by Real Madrid’s first squad is limited to the best 25 players on planet earth. 

Instead, delasign will be a place where clients can achieve things other places cannot through very few highly-skilled, passionate individuals. These people will have work environments and produce work that other places cannot match.”

“How do you prototype well while balancing speed, resources, and learning?” This was our question to which, Oscar replied, “I owe my prototyping knowledge to Michael “Pickles” Piccuirro who was my manager at R/GA and whom I had the blessing to work with on the Apple Watch Nike+. Thanks to him, I learned that prototyping is all about discovery, exploration, and validation. Prototyping should be all about speed and learning, allowing you to quickly change things and to not worry about the stability of the end product and should be done with one to two resources, whilst having a separate team dedicated to building the final thing.” 

Oscar says that he thinks disruptive is a word that’s overused to sell things that are overhyped and which often do not have an impact. People that often use this word do not test or place the product in the hands of the customer or end-user. They merely make an advert or speak with energy to give an idea of something that is not true. His domain has evolved to be more focused on open-source knowledge to boost the industry as well as continuous user testing to make sure the customer is at the center.

Sharing his words on business culture, he affirms, “We don’t necessarily see but’s as negatives. It’s important to call out when something is a bad idea however, we are grateful to have individuals at delasign that give constructive feedback – so instead of it being from yes but to yes and, it’s more of going from yes but to, well have you considered this? I see this as a potential pitfall perhaps, this is a better way to go about the same objective?”

WORDS OF WISDOM

Before signing off, the visionary shared some pieces of advice for the budding leaders out there by quoting, “I believe this article by Scott G is one that should be read, and to be remembered across time. Particularly ‘You should be able to walk into a room and believe you could overpower, outrun, or outlast every person in the room.’ To this, I would add focus on your physical and mental health, and stamina-and ignore those that tell you it’s not possible. Cut drugs and those that consume them out of your life at all costs; go for a run every day and focus on your evolution. As my mate Adam Turnbull recently reminded me ‘It’s more important to become the person you want to be than to be with or around those you think you want to be with.’”

delasign on Social Media

LinkedIn | Instagram