By 
Alejandro Betancourt Lopez describes his approach to running companies with a simple mechanical image: a dial, not a switch. Instead of a binary choice between hands-on and hands-off, he adjusts his level of involvement based on how well each company runs on its own, turning that dial up or down as circumstances change from one quarter to the next.
Two companies inside his portfolio illustrate the full range of that dial. Banque de Dakar sits at one end, largely self-governing under its own leadership, while Hawkers sits closer to the other end, receiving his direct attention at the leadership level even as day-to-day decisions stay with its own executive team. Setting the two side by side shows how differently that same philosophy plays out depending on what a company actually needs from him.
Banque de Dakar Runs Itself
Betancourt Lopez helped launch Banque de Dakar through BDK Financial Group in 2014, and the bank opened its doors in Senegal the following year. It now serves customers across French-speaking Africa, operating under its own management team rather than under his direct supervision. More than a decade after the group launched, the bank still runs on decisions made inside its own offices rather than ones handed down from outside.
He names Banque de Dakar as the one company he doesn’t manage on a daily basis, an admission that fits neatly into the dial he describes. “When things fly by themselves and they go so well, you just follow them through,” he has said, and the bank’s steady performance since 2015 has kept his dial turned firmly toward the hands-off end. A bank that needs no phone calls from its founder is, by his own logic, a bank doing exactly what it should.
Hawkers Keeps Him Closer
Hawkers sits on the opposite side of that same dial, closer to the hands-on setting than Banque de Dakar ever gets. Betancourt Lopez is president and largest shareholder of the Spanish sunglasses brand, and he stays involved in fundraising, institutional relations and direct oversight of its CEO, CFO and COO. That level of attention reflects the size of his stake as much as the stage the company is still working through.
Even there, his involvement stops short of the operational floor. Product decisions, marketing and pricing remain with Hawkers’ own executives, which means his dial turns toward hands-on only at the leadership level, never reaching into the daily choices that keep the stores running. Compared with Banque de Dakar, the distance between the two settings shows just how wide his dial can swing.
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