latin trade (english edition) - nov/dec 2012

LA

TIN

TR

AD

E

LA

TIN

TR

AD

E 2

0T

H A

NN

IVE

RS

AR

Y IS

SU

E

N

OV

EM

BE

R /

DE

CE

MB

ER

20

12

20 ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

YOUR BUSINESS SOURCE FOR LATIN AMERICA » WWW.LATINTRADE.COM NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

2011 ENERGY SURVEY

86%of CFOs, Government Policy Makers and Energy Professionals

Agree that energy assessments should be mandatory for companies that use the most energy.

The financial, environmental and reputational benefits of energy efficiency are evident: businesses gain from lower energy bills, lower pollution and CO2 emissions – reducing the risk of suffering penalties from regulators – and better relations with employees, customers and other stakeholders. An energy assessment can spur a business into making positive changes, through optimizing energy use, acquiring new equipment and adopting new habits. Our survey found that 86% of respondents favored mandatory energy assessments for energy hungry industries, showing how seriously they view the need to become more energy efficient and boost productivity.

Energy

Produced by Bloomberg Businessweek Research Services in partnership with ABB. For more Information visit www.abb.com/betterworld

Electric cars: 15 minutes charging, 200 km driving?

Certainly.

Having to wait eight hours to fully recharge an electric car is the main reason for not buying one. But things have changed: With ABB’s direct current (DC) chargers charging time has been slashed to as little as 15 to 30 minutes. No wonder the Estonian govern-ment is relying on ABB to build Europe’s largest electric vehicle fast-charging network. By the end of the year the Estonian main roads will have fast chargers every 50 km. Once accomplished the goal to significantly reduce CO2 emissions by 2020 moves a lot closer. www.abb.com/betterworld

2 LATIN TRADE NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012

Profile14 Sebastián Piñera

16 Innovation and Change18 Latin America: 20 Years of Evolution

A New Region22 Luis Alberto Moreno

President Inter-American Development Bank

24 Agustín Carstens Governor Bank of Mexico

26 Enrique García President CAF Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina

28 Susan Segal CEO Council of the Americas

New Enterprises30 Luiz Fernando Furlan Member of the Board BRF Brasil Foods

32 Alessandro Carlucci CEO Natura

The Multilatins Revolution34 Carlos Raúl Yepes President Bancolombia

35 Juan Pablo del Valle Chairman Mexichem

36 Pedro Heilbron CEO Copa Holdings

37 Woods Staton Chairman Arcos Dorados

The New Business Models38 Gerardo Mato CEO HSBC Global Banking for the Americas

40 Frederico Fleury Curado CEO Embraer

42 Germán Efromovich CEO AviancaTaca

A More Productive Region44 Juan N. Cento President FedEx Express

46 Andrew Vesey Executive VP AES Corp.

48 Luiz Meisler Executive VP Oracle Latin America

Features

CONTENTS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 VOL. 20 No. 6

Editor’s Note6 20 Years of History

The Scene 10 CFO World: Earnings & More

Opinion12 The Contrarian: Searching for El Silicon

Valley of Latin America By John Price

Events 85 Special Event Coverage: BEST OF BRAVO 2012 Highlights from the Latin Trade Symposium and the 18th BRAVO Business Awards gala celebration.


Cover: 20th Anniversary Issue

WebFind us online at www.latintrade.com

CONTENTS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 VOL. 20 No. 6

48 James Quigley Executive Vice Chairman Bank of America – Merrill Lynch

50 Jaime Szulc President Latin American Operations Goodyear

52 Leo Rodríguez President Emerson Latin America

A New Frontier: Tourism 54 Kirk Kinsell

President for the Americas IHG

54 Osvaldo Librizzi Co-President for the Americas,Starwood Hotels & Resorts

55 Rob Steigerwald Chief of Operations for Marriott International

Age of Services56 Eduardo Eraña

President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Visa International

57 Manuel Medina-Mora CEO Global Consumer Banking and Executive Chairman of Lat Am and Mexico, Citi

60 Alberto Alemán Zubieta Former CEO Canal de Panamá

62 Hernán Rincón President Latin America Microsoft

63 José Tomás President Latin America and the

Caribbean, Burger King

63 Ferdinand Kurt CEO for the Americas Panalpina

64 Rodolpho Cardenuto President for Latin America and the Caribbean, SAP

66 Stephen Fenwick CEO Americas DHL Express

HR & Demographics 68 Armando Laborde Co-Director for Latin America Ashoka

70 Lucía Herrera President Pantaleón Foundation

Latam Tech to the World72 Claudio Muruzábal CEO Neoris

74 Blanca Treviño CEO Softtek

The Secret Behind the Miracle76 Walter Bayly CEO Banco de Crédito del Perú

77 Ricaurte Vásquez VP Government Affairs and

Public Policy GE

78 Celso Amorim Defense Minister of Brazil

79 Admilson Monteiro Managing Director of International

Business and Affairs Banco do Brasil

80 Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Former Minister of Economy of Peru

A New Concept 82 Alexia Keglevich CEO Assist-Card

83 Juan Benavides Member of the Board

Banco Falabella


A good magazine will always strive to portray current issues

accurately. Its pages should refl ect the points of

view and events of the region that matter most

to its readers. Th ese are all strong reasons why a

good magazine should keep up with the times.

We believe that Latin Trade, over the last

20 years, has become an eff ective narrator of

the region’s business stories.

It began as US-Latin Trade, a magazine that

focused on new business opportunities that

were opening up for the United States in the

rest of the continent.

Back then, the magazine was written mainly

for US-based multinational companies, cover-

ing every detail as they took their new prod-

ucts, technology and practices south.

US-Latin Trade gradually turned into Latin

Trade, and became the main point of contact

and information for business, social and po-

litical leaders in Latin America. It took note

of the awakening of South American-based

international companies, now known as the

multilatins. And of course the rise of Chile and

Mexico, as well as Brazil, Peru, Panama and

Colombia later.

Along the way it has told stories of suc-

cess and explained those of failure, all of

which have had a profound impact on the

ever-changing region.

Today, Latin Trade is a magazine for

executives working in companies that have

grown far beyond the horizons of their

countries of origin; multinationals and

multilatins that operate in the region as part

of a global strategy. Th ey share the same

concerns, whether they are about human

resources, infrastructure, economic stability

or social issues throughout the region. Th ey

also see the same opportunities arising

as the world’s economic powers shift and

the middle classes in many of the region’s

countries develop and grow.

Latin Trade Group is a business dedicated

to providing information, networking and

intelligence services to companies operating

regionally in Latin America. In addition to

Latin Trade magazine, published as the leading

source of information for Latin America and

the Caribbean, online news and market intel-

ligence Latin Business Chronicle and Latin

Business Traveler, the Group off ers networking

opportunities through a series of events includ-

ing private C-level roundtables and regional

forums of discussion Trade Americas and the

Latin Trade Symposium and BRAVO Busi-

ness Awards.

For our 20th anniversary, we have invited 40

special guests who have witnessed fi rst-hand

EDITOR’S LETTER

Years of History

the great changes that Latin America has seen

in these past two decades.

Each one of them, from their personal

viewpoint and that of their companies will help

us to paint a comprehensive picture of Latin

America’s transformation. And that transfor-

mation, in the coming decade, will create new

markets and new opportunities.

Th e themes that run through this narrative

are innovation and change: new business mod-

els, diff erent ways of spotting opportunities and

new leadership styles.

Th is is are what Latin Trade will emphasize

in this anniversary edition.

We invite you to share with us this col-

lection of business stories and visions of the

future that show the road to development

in the region, as related by 40 people who

helped pave the way.

Santiago Gutiérrez,

Executive Editor

[email protected]

ExExExExExExExExExExxExExExExEExEExEExExExExEExExxEEExEEExxxxxxE pepepepepepepepepeppepepepepepepepepepeppepepepepepepeppppppppppppep rtrtrtrtrtrtrttrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrttrrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrttrrrtrtrttttr ssss s s s s s sssssssssssssssss agagagagagagagagaggagagagagagagagaggagagagagagagggagagagagagagggggrererererererererererererereeeereeeererrerree:ee:e:e:e:e:e:ee:e:e:eeeeeeeeee ttttttttttttttttttthehehehehehehehehehehehhhehehehehehhehehheheehehehh sssssssssssssssssssssssssssececececececececececececeececeececcececrerererererererereereerererererererererereerreet tt t t t tt ttttttttttttt totototototototototototototototoooto aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaaeeaaaeaaeaaltltltltltltltttttttttthyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyyh llllllllllifififififififfffifififffesesesesesesesesesesesesessesssssseseseeeee tytytyttytytytyyttytytytytytytytyylelelelelelelelelelleeeee ininininnnininininnnininnninininnnnininnnnnnnnnnnclclcccclclclclclclcccccclcclclccccccccc udududududududududududududududududududududududududdudddududuuuuuddudesesesesesesesesesesesseseseseessesesesseseeseeessesssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ccccccccccccccccccccccccomomomomomomomomomomomommommomomommomomomomoomoommmmmmmmmbibibibibibibbibbibibbibibbibibibbbbbinananananananannannanananannanaananannnnnnaaanatitittititititititiitititittitttttt ononononononononononononoononoo ooooooooooooooooooooffffffffffffffff a a a a a aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bababababababababababbbababbbababbababbaabbbabbb lalalalalalalaaalaaaallalaaaaalaaaalancncncncncncncncnccncnccnnncnncn edededededededededededeededededdeded nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnutututututututtuututututtuttuutu riririririririririiirititititititittittitttttt onononononononononononononnnonononnononnon ananananananananananannnananannannnnannnndddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd phphphphphphphphphphphphphphphpphphphphphhpphphhphhphhphhysysysysysysysyssysysysysysyssysyyyyysysyysssyssyyy icicicicciciciciciccicicicicccciciccciccciciccaalalalalaalalalallalaalallaaaalalaaala aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactctctctctctctctctctctctctctctctctccctttctctctctc ivivivivivivivvvivvivivviviivvvvititititititittttttititititittitititittttttty.y.y.y.y.yyyyy.yyyyy.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

ThThThThThThThThThThThThThThhThThhThThThhThThThTTThTThTTTTTThThThhatatatatataatatatatatttatttatttaatataaaataaaa ’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’ss’ss’’’s’’ss wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyhhyyyyhyhyhyhyhyhhyhyhyhyyhh AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArcrcrcrcrcrcrrcrcrcrccrcrcrcrcrccrccrrcrcr osososososososososoosoooooososoosss DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDorororororoororororooorroooo adadadadadadadadadadaddaddadaddda ososososososososososososoosossssoo , , ,, , , ,, McMcMcMcMcMMcMcMcMMcMcMcMMcMcMccMccDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDDoDDoDooooooDoD nanananananannaananaldldldldldldldlldldldldldd’’s’s’s’s’s’ss’s’ss llllllllarararararararararaaaarra gegegegegegeggegegeggegegegegggeegeg ststststststststsststttt opopopopopopopopopopopopopopppopoopoppopopopopoppppereerereerererereeerererereeereerataatatatatatatatatatataatatataataa orororororororororrorororrrrororrrrorrorrrrr iiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn thththththththhththththththtthhthttttthththhhtt ee e e e e eee eeeeeeeeeeee wowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowwowwowowowowoworlrlrlrlrlrrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrlrrrlr d,d,d,d,d,d,ddd,d,d,dd,dd,dd,d, fffffffffffffffffffffococococococococooocococcococusususuusususususussususususssusesesesesesesesesesesesssesseesse ooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn ofofofofofofofofoffoooffoffo fefefefefefeefeefeeefeeeriririririririririrrirrriringngnngngngngngngngngnngnnnggngngnngngng aaaaaaaaa vavavavavavavavavavavavavvavavavavavaaaaaaririririririririririiriririririiriirirririirrr eteteteteteteteteteteeteteteteteteteteteteeeeeeeteteteeeeeee yyy y y y y yy yyyy yyy yyyyyyy yyyyyy yy y ofofofofofofoofofooffofofoofofoooo hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheaeaeaeaeaeaeaaaeaeaeeaeaaaeaaeaaeaaeaeeeaeeeaaeealtltlttltltltltlttlttttthyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyyhyhyhyhyhyhyhyyhyhyhy mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmenenenenenenenneneneneneeeneneeeneeneeeeeeeeenuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu itititititittttittttitttteememememememmemeememmememeems s s s s ssssssss sssss inininininininnnnnnnnnin iiiiiitstststststststststststtsstststtss rrrrrrrrrreseseseeseseeseesesesessestatatatatatatatatatatatattaaaaurururururururuurrrrurananananananannaantststststststtststsst .......ItItItItItIttIttItttItIttttt’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’ssss’s’ss’s’sssssss’sssssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaallslslslslslslsllslslslsslsllsllslsssl o o o o o o ooooooooooooooooo whwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwwhwhwhwwhhy yyy y yyy y yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy thththththththththththththttthhhhhhththtthhhe e e ee ee e eeeeeeeeeeeeee coccococccococoococococoococooompmpmpmpmpmpmpmpmpmpmpmmpmmmmpmmpmmpanananananananaananaaaananananaanaannany yyy y y y y yyyy yyyyy prprprprprprpprrprrprprrpprprp omomomomomomoomoomomomoomommomoomotototototoototototo eseseseseseseseesesesseses iiiiininininnininininninnnn titititititititiatatatatatatatatattatativivivivivvvvvvvesesesesesesesessss thththththhthththththhthththhththththththhhhhhhtt ataatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatattatattataatataa eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeencncncncncncncncncncncncncncncncncnccnnncncnnnncnnnnnnnn ououououououououououououuuouououououoououurarararararararararararararaaraarrrrar gegegegegegegegegegegeggegegegegegegegegegeg hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaaeaeaeaeaaaeeaealtltltltltlttltlttltltlttltttltttlltltthyhyhyhyhyhyyhyhyhyhyhhyhhhhyyhyhyyyyy llllllllllllllifififififfififfiffififififfesesesesesesseseseeeeese tytytyttytytytytytyttyyttytyytyyyylelelelelelelellllelleeeees s s s ss s ssssss fofofofofofofoffff r r r r rrrrrrr rr ththththththththtthhthhththhhhhtt e e e e e e eee eneneneneneneneneneene tittititititititttitiit rerererererrererrer fffffffamamamamamaaamaamamilililillililiiiii yy.y.y.y.y.yyyy

FoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFoFooFoFoFoFooor rrr r r rrr rrrrr rrrrrr exexexexexexexexexexexexexxxexxexxe amamamamamamamamamamamamamamaammammmamamaaaamaaamama plplplplplplplplplplpplplppppppplpppppp e,e,e,e,e,e,e,ee,eee,eeeeee,e,, ttttttttttttttttttttttttthehehehehehehehehehehehheheheeee MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMcDcDcDcDcDcDcDDDDcDDDcDDDc ononononononoonononoononoonoooonono alalalallalalalalala d’d’d’d’d’d’d’ddddd s s s s ss ssssssssss WoWoWoWoWoWoWoWoWoWWoWWoWWoWoWWooomemememememmememmmeememmmemmmen’n’n’n’n’nnn’nnnns s ss ss ssssssss 5K5K5K5K5K5K5KK5K5K55KK5KKK55 RRRRRRRRRRununununununununnuu ,, ,, , ,,, alalalalalalaalalalalalalalalaalalalalla sosososososososososososososoooososososoososooooooo kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkknonononononononononoonnoon wnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnwnnwwwnwnw aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssssss ththththththththhthhthththhhthththhhe e e ee e eeeeeeeeeeeee M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5M5MM5M55M5MMM K,K,K,K,K,K,KKKKKK,KKKKKK,K eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeencncncnnccncncncnccncncnncccouououououououuuuuuuouourararararaaaarararaaar gegegegegegegegeegegegegeegeeeeessssssssssssssss pepepepepepepepeepp opopopopoppopoppoppoppppopppplelelelelelelleeeee tttttttttto o oooooooleleleleleleleeeleleeleeleleleeeeeeeeeeeaadadadadadadadadadadadadaddaddadaaadadaaadaaaadaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaa mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmorororororoorooororoororororooroororooroooro e e eee e e ee eeeeeeeeeee acacacacacacacacaccacacacacaccactititititititititittittitittttt vevevevevevevevevevveveeeve lllllllllifififififfifffififffffi eseseseesesesesseseseseseeesese ttytytytyttytytyttytytytytytytytyleleleleleleleleleleleeleleeeeee......

InIInnInInInnnInInnInInIIInInInInn jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjusususususususususususussususususususussussussusst t t tttt tttttttt tttttt twtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwwtwtwtwwtwwwwo o o o o oo ooooooooooooooo yeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyeyyeyeyeyeeeyeeyeeeararaararaarararaaraaararararararaa s,s,s,s,s,s,ss,s,s,s,,,s,,, ttttttttttttthehehehehehehehehehehhehehheheheheheheeehhee MMMMMMMMMMMM5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5KKK5555KKK hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhasasasasasasasasassa bbbbbbbbbbbbecececececeececececceeeccee omomomomomomommommmoome e ee e eee eeeeeeeee ththththththhthththththhhthhththee e ee e eeee lalalalalalalargrgrgrgrgrgrgrgesesesesseseseseeee tttttttttwowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowoowowowowwowowwwww memememememememememememememememmmeeemm n’n’n’n’n’n’n’n’n’n’nn’nn’nn’nnnn sssssssssssssss rarrararararaaaraaraaaaraaraaararacececececececececececececececceecccecceceeeeeece iiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnn thththththtthththththththtththththtt e e ee ee e eeeeeeeee rererererereererererereeerererrreegigigigigigigigggigigigigigigigigigg ononononononononoooonononononno aaaaaaaaaaaaandndndndndnddndndndndndnndd iiiiiiiiiis s ss ss sss papapapapapapapapapapppp rtrtrtrtrtrrtrttt ooooooof f f f f f ff LaLaLaLaaLaLaLaaaLaaatitititittiitiitit nnnnnnnAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmmAmAAAmAmmererereeeererererererereeereeeeeeeeeeeeee icicicicicicicicicicciiciccica’a’a’aa’a’a’a’a’a’a’a’aa’a’aa’aaass s s s s s sssssssssss aanananananananananaananaanananaanannnnnnannunununununununununununununununuuuuunnnunnunualalalaalalalaalaalalalaaalaaaaalaaa rrrrrrrrrrrrrrroaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoooooaaoooaddddddddddddddddddddd rururururuururuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn inininininnnnnninnnnnnnnng g g g gggggggggggg cacacacacacaacacacaaac leleleleleleleeeeeeeendndndndnndddnddndndndnn ararararararraraa ....

ThThThThThThThThThThThThThThTThTTTT isisisisisisisisisisssisississs yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaaaaeaaeaar’rr’r’rr’r’r’rrrrrrrrrrrrssssssssssssssssss rararararararararaaarararaaaraaaracecececececcceecececececeecececeeee wwwwwwwwwwwwwwasasasasasasasasasaasasaassasassaa hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheleleleleeeeleleleeleeeeeleeeeeeeeeeeeeld d dd d d dd ddd ddddddd sisisisisisissisisisisisisssisiisimumumumumumumumumumumumummmumummmmmmumultltltltltlttlttlttltlttltltlttltllttananananannannananananannannnannnnaannnnnnananannneoeoeoeoeoeoeeeoeooeoeooeoeoeoeoeooooeoeeooousususususususususususussusususususuuususususlylylylylylylylyylyylyyyyyyyyyyyylyyyyyyy iiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 1818181818181818181818181818181881818181181818888181888181111888818 cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccitititititititittititititittitittittitttitititiittieieieieieieieeeieeeieieieieieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssacacacacacacaccaccaacccacaca rorororororororororororrorroorroororosssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss 11111111155555555555555 LaLaLaLaLaLaLaLaLLaLaaLaLaLaLaLaLLaL tititititititittitiiittttt nnnnnnnnnnnnnn AmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAmAA ererererererererererererereeereerere iciciciciccicicciciccicccciccanananananananannananannanannnnnnnnn ccccccccccccccccccououououououououououououuuuuouuuuntntntnntntntntntntntntntntntntntnntntnnnntriririririirrriririririrrrrrr eseseseseseseseseseseseseseseseseseseseeeeeeseeeess,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbbrbrbrbrbbrbrbbrbbbbrinininininninininnnnninninninnnnnnnnnngigigiggigigigigigigigigigigigigggigigiggigiggigg ngngngngngngngngngngngngngngngngngngngnnngngngngnggnnnngnggggg tototototototoootototoogegegegegeggegeggegegeeggggg ththththhthththththtththththtthtthhhheererererererererererer ooooooooooooooveveveveveveveveveveveeevvevevevver rr r r rrrrr 6060606060606060600000606660606066 ,0,0,0,0,0,00,0,00,000,0000,000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwomomomomomomomomomommomomommmomommommenenenenenenenenenenenenenenneneeneen, , , , , ,,, inininininnninnninnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnclclclclclclclcclclclclclclclclclclclluddudududududududdududdudududududdudduduuu ininininininininnininininnininiininnninnni g g gg ggg g gg gggggg ggggggggggg mamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamammaaamamamamammmmmmmmmmmmm nynynynynynynynynynynnnynynnynynynynynynynynynynnnynyynyynyy McMcMcMcMcMcMccMccMcMccMcMcMMcDoDoDoDoDoDoDDoDDoDDDDDDoDonananananananananaannnanannaldldldldlddldddldlddddd’s’s’s’s’s’s’s’’s’’s’’ssssss eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeempmpmpmpmpmpmpmpmmpmmmpmpmmpmpmpplololololoolooloolloooyeyeyeyeyeyeyyeyeeeyyeyeyeyeyeyeeesesesesesesesesesesesesessesesssesessee ,, , , , ,,, , , ,, ananananananananananananananananaannd d d d d d dddddddddddd ththththththththththhhhththhthhthtt eieieieieieieieeeeer r rr r rr r rrrrrrrrr fafafafafafafafafaafafafafafaafafafaafafaaafaamimimimimmimimimimimimimiimiimiimimmiiimim lilililililiillilililillilillliiiil eseseseseseseeseseseseseseseeeseesees.. .. .. ... ExExExExExEExExExExEExExExExExExExExExxEExExxxciciciciciciciciccicicicicicccicciccccccc teteteteteteteteteteteeteeteeteteteeeetttteeeeeeememememememememememememememeemememmmemmemmememmeeeeeentntntntnntntntntntntnntntntnntnnnnnn , , , , , ,, ,,,,jojojojojojojojoojoy yy y y y yy y yyyyyyyy ananananananananaaa dddddddddddddddd heheheheheheheheeheheeeheeealalalalalalalalaa thththththththtthththtthh wwwwwwwwwwwwwererererererrererrerrreerreere e e e e eee onononononononononoonnonnonnoo cecececececcecececececececceccecc aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagagagagagagaagagaggagagagagagagaggag ininininiininininnnininninnin ttttttttttttttttttheheheeheheheheheheeehehhehehhhhehheeeh bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbigigigigigigigigigigigiggigigiggigigigigigggggig wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwininininininnninininnninnnnninnnni nenenenenenenenenenenenenennnenenenennennnnnenennnn rsrsrsrsrsrsrsrsrsrsssssrsrssss........

ItItItItIttItIttttttttttttIt’s’s’s’s’s’s’ss’ss’s’sssssss aaaaaaalslsllslslslsslsssso o o oooooooo imimimmimimimimmmmpopopopopopopopopopopopopopopopoppopooop rtrtrtrtrtrtrtttttrrttanananananaaanaaaanaananaa t t tt t t t ttttt totototottottototttotttooo mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmenenenenenenneneneneenenenneeeenntititititiitittt ononoononononononononoonnonon tttttttttttttttthahahahahahahahahahahahaahahhahahhahhaahah t t tt tt t tt t t t tt ttttttttttt ttt papapapapapapapapapapaaaapapappapapaaartrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrrtrtrtrtrtrtrrtrtrtrtt oooooooooooof f f ff f ff fffffffffffff thththththththththththththththhthhhhththhhhhhhhhe e e e e eeee ee eeeeeeee momomomomomomomomoomomooomoomoomomomomomomoom nenenenenenenennenenennenenenenennnenneneeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyrararararaaaraaarrr isisisisisississisededededededeededee bbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyyyyyyy thththththththhhhhhhhtheeeeeeeeeeee evevevevevevevevveveveveveeveneneneneneneneneneennnnnntttttttttttttttt wiwiwiwiwiwiwiwwwwwwwwwwilllllllllllllllllll bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dododododododododododdodddodododddd nanananananananananananannananannaatetetetetetetetetetetetteteeteteteeteeteetteteddddddddddddddddddddd totototototototototototoototototoooototo LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLatatatatatatatatatattatatatattatttatataaattininininiininnininininnninnnnnnnn AmAmAmAAmAmAmAmAmAmAAAmAmmAmmerererererererreree icicicccciccccananananananna ccccccccccchahahahahahahhahhahahahhaptptptptptptptptppptttptpttttppp ererererererererereeeereeee s ss s sss ofofofofofofofofoofoofooooooofo tttttttttttttthehehehehehehehhehhhhhehhh RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRonononononoononooonoonnonoonnno alalalalalalalalalalalaaalalaaaaaldddddddddddddddddddddddd McMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMcMMcMMMMcMcM DoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDDoDoDooDoDooDooooooonanananananananananananananananananannnaaldldlddldlddldldldldldldldlddddldlddldlddlddldddd’s’s’s’s’ss’s’s’ss’s’s’’ss’sssssssssss HoHoHoHoHoHoHoHHoHousususususususssse e ee e e eeee ChChChChChChhCChC arararaaarararaaraaarraaraaa ititititittitti ieieieieieieeeeeees,s,s,s,s,,s,s,,,s,ss, wwwwwwwwwwwwwhihihihihihihihihhhhihihhichchchchchchchchchcchchhhhhcch ssssssssssssupupuupupupupupuuuupupupupppupuppopopopopopopoopopopopopoopoopoopoortrtrtrtrtrttrtrtrttrrrrrtrtsssssssssssssssss chchchchchchchchchchchcchchchchcchchcchccccchhililililililiiiliiildrdrdrdrdrdrddrdrdddrdrdddrrrdrrenenenenenenenenenenenenneneneneennenennnnnnnnen aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandndndndnndndnddndndndnnddndndndndndndndddd ththththththttht eieieieeieeee r r r rrr fafafafafafafafafffamimimimimimiimimimmmmmmm lilililililiiiiieseseseseseseseeeeeesseeee ddddddddddurururururururrurruuruurrru ininininininngggggggggggggg seseseseseseeeseseseseeeeeeririririririrririririiriouououououuouuuouuuuous s s ss ssssssssssssssss hehehehehheheheheehehhhhehhehhealalalaalalalalaaalalaalaaaaaaaaaa ttththtthththththththththththttthtt ttttttttttttttttttttttrerererererererererereererereeerereeeatatatatatatatatatatatataatataatatatatataaaaata memememememememememememeememememeeeemeemeeeeeentntntntntntntntntntntnttnttntntntntnnn s.s.s.ss.s.s.s.s.ss.s.ss..s.sssssss

ArArAArArArArArAAArrA cocococococoocossssssssss DoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDoDorarararararararaar dododododododododdoododoooddd ssssssss anananananananaanannnanna dddddddddd McMcMMcMcMcMcMMMcMcMcMcMcMMMcMcDoDoDoDoDoDDoDDoDoDoDoDDDDoDDoDooDonanananananananananananananaaaanaaaldldldldldldldldldldldlldlldll ’s’s’s’s’s’ss’s’ss’ssssss hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhopopopopopoopopopopoopopopopopoopoppope e e e e e eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee totototototototototootototototototootoooo rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraiaiaiaiaiaiaiaaaaaaaaiaaaaaaa sesesesesessesesesesesessesseseseseseeeess awawawawawaawawawawawarararararararrenenenenenenenenenesesesesessesesesee s s sssss abababababababababbaabbbouououououououououuo t t t t t t ttt acacacacacacacacacacaaacacaaacaca tititititiitittttitittttt vevevevevevevevvveeve lllllllllifififififfiffififffesesesesesessssesssssssstytytytytytytytytyytytttyttyyleleleleleleleleeelelelleleeees s s s s s ssssssss ananananananannanaanaaaanannd dd d dd d d d ddddddddddddd eneneneneneneneneneneneeneneneneenenee cococococococoocccococccocococoocoooocoococ ururururururururruururrururruu agagagagagagagagagagagaaagagaaggaaaagggaggee e e ee eeee eeeeeeeevevevevvevevevvevvve eneneneneneenenenene mmmmmmmmmmmorororororororreeeeeeee rerererererererererererererrerregigigigigiggigiggggiggggggg ststststststststs rarararararararaaraararaarantntntntntntntntntnntn sssssssss ofofofofofofofofoffoffofofoffoooooff rr r r r rr rrrrrrr ththththththththhttt eeeeeeeeeee 202020202020202020202020202020202202200200202 313131313131313131313131311131313 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K5K55KKK55K5KK5K........ ViViViViViViViViViViViViiiViViViViViiiViVVVVVVVV sisisisisisisisisisisisisisssisisisisisissssisis ttttttttttttttttttwww.5kmcdonalds.com fffffffffffffffororororororoororooroorooorrroro mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmorororororororrorororororoooorrooo e e e eee e eeeee inininininninninininininiinnfofofofofofofofofofoffofofofofofofoffofoformrmrmrmrmrmrmrmmrmrmrmmmmmmmrmmmmrr atatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatattatatatattaa ioioioioiooioiooioioioiooooion.n.n.n.n.nnn.nnnnnnnnnnn

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTThhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnntttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttlllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllldddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn............................... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn tttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttttrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttttttttttttttttttttttssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo............. TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTThhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy’’’’’’’’’’’rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 666666666666666666666666666666666666666600000000000000000000000000000000000000000000,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddddddddddddiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbllllllllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooo rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn tttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMcccccccccccccccccccccccDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ssssssssssssssssssssssss 555555555555555555555555KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...........

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwww .ar.ar.ar.ar.ar.ara.ar.ar.ara.ar.araraaaaar.arara coscoscoscoscoscoscosccosccoscoscocoscosocosoccosososssdordordordordordordororddorrdordordordodordorddooodo adoadoadoadoadoadoadoadoadoadoadoadadaddadoadoadaadaaaaaaaaa s.cs.cs.cs.cs.cs.cs cs.cssss.s.cs.cs.cccs.ccccss omomomoomomomomomomomooommmmomomm


CEO

Rosemary Winters

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER

María Lourdes Gallo

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Santiago Gutiérrez

MANAGING EDITOR

Élida Bustos

ART & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

Manny Melo

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Vincent Becchinelli

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Gabriela Calderón (research), Mark Ludwig

COLUMNIST

John Price

CORRESPONDENTS Argentina: Charles Newbery, David Haskel • Brazil: Thierry Ogier & Vincent Bevins (São Paulo), Taylor Barnes (Rio de

Janeiro), Tereza Cruvinel (Brasilia) • Chile: Gideon Long • China: Ruth Morris • Colombia: John Otis • Mexico: David Agren, Nancy Ibarra (Monterrey) • Peru: Lisa K. Wing, Ryan Dube • Spain: Sergio Manaut • US: Joseph Mann Jr., Alejandra Labanca (Miami), Mark Chesnut (NY), Ángela María Riaño (Washington), Pablo Calvi, Isabel Piquer,

John T. Sullivan (NY) • Venezuela: Peter WilsonTRANSLATION: Ken Emmond COPY EDITOR: Ruth Morris PROOF EDITOR: Jude Webber

EVENTS & CONFERENCES

CONFERENCE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Alexia Sagemüller

PROGRAM MANAGER

Victoria Kenny

EVENTS EXECUTIVE

Sandra Bicknell

EVENTS MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Suzana Fiat

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR

María Vega

SALES & CIRCULATION

SALES REPRESENTATIVES

Miami/Pan-regional sales: Silvia Clarke, Senior Account ManagerMercedes Fernández, Business Development Manager

Colombia/Panama/Peru: María Cristina RestrepoDubai: Stephen Dioneda

Special Projects Director: Mary ArdaSpecial Projects Coordinator: Rebecca Miller

Sales and Marketing Coordinator: Silvia MoralesFor advertising/sponsorship opportunities: [email protected]

LATIN BUSINESS CHRONICLE

Marketing Associates: Rosemary Begg: [email protected], Estefanía Delgado: [email protected]

CIRCULATION COORDINATOR

Claudia Banegas

CHAIRMAN

Richard Burns

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Joanne Harras

ACCOUNTS MANAGER

Kathy Pollyea, [email protected]

Latin Trade Group is a division of Miami Media, LLC, an affiliate of Isis Venture Partners

Executive, Editorial, Circulation and Advertising offi ces are located at Brickell Bay Offi ce Tower,

1001 Brickell Bay Drive, Suite 2700, Miami, Florida 33131, USA.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please visit www.latintrade.com to order online or call +1 (305) 749-0880. Latin Trade (ISSN 1087-0857, USPS 016715) is published bimonthly, with editions in English and Spanish, by Miami Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photograph

or illustration without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

Visit Latin Trade online @ www.latintrade.com

Latin Trade Group

Marketin

AN AFFILIATE OF

THE LATIN TRADE GROUP

Place your gift order TODAY!

Phone: 1.800.765.0453 or +1.305.749.0888Email: [email protected]

*Available only through January 4th

This holiday seasonarm your colleagues, business associates and friends with an annual subscription to Latin Business Chronicle- the one stop source for unique market intelligence when doing business with Latin America.

Limited Time Offer

$299*(25% Off Original Price)


IST

OC

K P

HO

TO

S

Th e youngest are in Europe and South

America, the biggest earn-

ers are in North America and, once again, the ones left behind are

the women –in terms of the jobs they hold and the pay they receive.

Th ese are some of the results to come out of a survey carried out by

Michael Page among 4,388 managers and fi nancial directors from

around the world, 680 of whom work in Latin America.

Th e Global CFO Barometer 2012 lifts a lid on numbers within the

corporate world –for example, it reveals the fi nancial service companies

pay the highest salaries.

Th e results also show that one out of four CFOs in the fi nancial sector

has an annual income of more than $255,000.

THE SCENE

CFO World

Earnings and more

Compensation (gross annual pay packages, including benefi ts and bonuses, in thousands of US dollars as a % per region)

Low proportion of women CFOs worldwide (percentage of women CFOs, as a % of those surveyed)

Source: Global CFO Barometer 2012, Michael Page

Women CFOs earn less (percentage of women in the income groups in thousands of US$, as a % of those surveyed)

Europe and Latin America have the young-est CFOs (percentage of CFOs younger than 35 years of age, as a % of those surveyed by region)

Pacifi c 18 Asia 17Europe 16North America 15South America 5

Up to $ 80 25%$ 80-119 20%$ 120-154 15%$ 155-189 12%$ 190-254 9%$ 255 or more 6%

Europe 49%South America 43%Asia 31%Pacifi c 30%North America 21%

Up to $ 80 8%$ 80-119 14%$ 120-154 15%$ 155-189 16%$ 190-254 19%$ 255 or more 29%

SOUTH AMERICA

Up to$ 80 1%$ 80-119 7%$ 120-154 15%$ 155-189 12%$ 190-254 16%$ 255 or more 49%

NORTH AMERICA

Up to $ 80 16%$ 80-119 21%$ 120-154 22%$ 155-189 15%$ 190-254 14%$ 255 or more 13%

EUROPE


IST

OC

K P

HO

TO

S

Politicians across the globe

are fond of tout-

ing their nation’s high-tech cluster as the

next Silicon Valley. Few examples around the

world, however, can stack up to the Califor-

nia original. None on that short-list can be

found in Latin America.

Modern Latin America can boast several

fi elds of excellence but innovation is not

one of them. Latin America continues to

perform abysmally by one of the simplest

measures of innovation– patent creation.

Over the last twenty years, neither Brazil nor

Mexico has accumulated more patents than

companies like IBM or Siemens produce in a

single year.

Latin America, home to 6.5 percent of

global GDP, publishes c. 400 patents per year,

or less than 0.2 percent of the world’s total.

More than half of the published patents in

Latin America’s private sector are owned by

foreign multinationals. A high proportion of

homegrown patents are published by univer-

sities and have little or no commercial value.

Taiwan’s Foxconn, the subcontractor of

choice to Apple, HP and Dell, announced

plans for a $12 billion investment in Jun-

diaí, near São Paulo. After much political

glad-handing, a lack of skilled labor obliged

Foxconn to reduce the plant to an assembly

facility, adding marginal value to imported

components, just enough to satisfy the de-

mands of Brazil’s protectionist industrial

policy. If it were not for import tariff s on

assembled products and Brazil’s burgeoning

consumer demand, how much IT invest-

SEARCHING FOR EL SILICON VALLEY OF LATIN AMERICABY JOHN PRICE

ment would the country attract? Too often,

“high-tech” parks in Latin America are thinly

veiled sweat shops. Latin America competes

with Guangdong province, not Silicon

Valley. Even most multinational-funded

R&D spending in Latin America is designed

to comply with juicy tax breaks granted to

greenfi eld investors, not “to tap the scientifi c

talent” of the region.

Th e crux of the matter is the lack of

confi dence in the region’s legal system and

the ability of entrepreneurs (and their inves-

tors) to defend intellectual property rights.

Without adequate legal protection, angel and

venture capital fi nanciers are scared to back

new inventions. Without fi nancial investors,

Latin entrepreneurs have no recourse but

to go to strategic investors for funding– the

same investors who have the political clout

and deep pockets to steal their ideas.

Some argue that Latin America does not

have the distribution and promotional

channels to absorb new technologies

ahead of more mature markets like Europe,

the United States, Japan and Korea. Most

backers of innovation in Latin America

prefer to import proven intellectual property,

negotiate the distribution rights to it across

Latin America and tweak or tropicalize the

product to better fi t the middle income reali-

ties of the region.

With the odds stacked against them, Latin

inventors fi nd their way to the original Sili-

con Valley where their ideas fi nd a welcom-

ing ecology of fi nancial, technical and legal

advisors. Th ey are not alone. In 2011, 76

John Price is the managing

director of Americas Market

Intelligence and a 20-year

veteran of Latin American

competitive intelligence and

strategy consulting.

[email protected]

percent of patents published by the top 10

universities in the United States had at least

one foreign-born author registered.

Innovation in South America is making

headway in two areas of natural competitive-

ness. Access to cheap commodities and en-

ergy gives Latin America a global advantage

in the transformation and fabrication of

secondary goods such as refi ned oil, glass

and metals, as well as extraction machinery.

In these fi elds, Latin inventors produce their

most commercially viable patents.

Capturing the imagination of global mar-

keters is Latin America’s unique mix of mid-

dle-income consumer power, highly urban

and reasonably effi cient distribution networks

and open trade access. An increasing num-

ber of multinationals that provide consumer

goods and services see in Latin America a

laboratory for the creation of tomorrow’s

base-of-the-pyramid products which, once

perfected in Colombia or Brazil, can be rolled

out across Asia and Africa.

In the past, the threat of globalization

was the rallying cry of those who argued for

weaker patent protection. Going forward,

it may be the very motive that strengthens

enforcement.

THE CONTRARIAN


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

GO

VE

RN

ME

NT

OF

CH

ILE

The man: Sebastián Piñera Echenique.

Th e job: President of Chile.

It would be hard to fi nd a more in-

teresting post in Latin America than

Piñera’s. He leads a country which not

only has the sixth largest economy in the

region, but also the most competitive. In

addition, Chile is likely to be the fi rst in

Latin America to join the ranks of the

developed nations –the government aims

to eliminate poverty by 2014.

Th e presidency is every Chilean poli-

tician’s dream job but, for 63-year-old

Sebastián Piñera, the achievement is not

at all unusual. Th is native of Santiago is

used to achieving his goals in life.

He could have been a great academic

economist. He was top of his business

engineering class at Chile’s Catholic

University. From there he went on to win

a scholarship from the Fulbright Foun-

dation that took him to Harvard. Th ere

he published a paper about the history of slavery in the United States in

the Journal of Economic History. In just three years he fi nished a PhD

in Economics –a feat in itself – having presented his thesis on education

in Latin America.

President Piñera confessed in an interview that he regrets having

fi nished his formal studies so quickly.

He continued his professional career having been hired by Richard

Musgrave, the economist who at the time was advising several govern-

ments in the region on public spending. He became an adviser himself

to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, where he

studied poverty in the region, while at the same time lecturing at the

Adolfo Ibáñez and Catholic universities.

But Piñera left economics for business, where he proved to be a great

innovator, overcoming all types of obstacles. With the $50,000 he earned

for working with Musgrave he founded a real estate company. However,

after going broke during the 1982 Mexican crisis, Piñera managed to

launch new construction projects and worked with the fi nancial assess-

ment company Infi nco, where he had been a shareholder since 1978.

As he built up his construction portfolio so, in 1997, he became a

partner in Constructora Aconcagua. In 2008 he took over the assets of

Constructora Fourcade.

During his time in Infi nco, Piñera developed the Bancard credit

card business in Chile, as well as partnering with the Talca and

Concepción banks. With these he held a small percentage of shares,

which gradually grew.

In 1994, Piñera bought a 16 percent

stake in the Lan Chile airline at a time

when the share price was 80 pesos.

Within 15 years, Lan Chile became the

world’s fi fth largest airline in terms of

market share, boosted fi rst by domestic

growth, followed by an international ex-

pansion to Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.

Th e share price reached 12,200 pesos by

December 2011. At that point, Piñera

held 26 percent of the company.

During his business career Piñera

brought Apple to Chile. He also became

a shareholder in Chilevisión and the

Colo-Colo soccer club, a small tribute to

his passion for the world’s favorite game.

After he was elected president, Pi-

ñera decided to sell his Lan and Chi-

levisión shares, as a gesture of trans-

parency. Th at was when he decided to

become a full-time public servant, his

third major career move.

Piñera has already said he has no wish to go back to business, al-

though his personal fortune is reckoned to be close to $2.4 billion. If

personal fortune is a yardstick for success, this number says it all.

And success has continued to follow Piñera in his most recent career.

During his time as a Congressman, from 1990 to 1998, his colleagues

named him the best senator. He became president of the Partido de la

Renovación Nacional from 2001 to 2004, presidential candidate in 2005

and again in 2009, when he won with 51.6 percent votes in his favor

against Eduardo Frei.

As President of Chile, Piñera has continued to deliver. He led the

reconstruction of the country after the 2010 earthquake, one of the most

devastating in Chile’s history. He aimed to conclude the reconstruction

project within three years, and it is already 80 percent complete. Japan

had estimated the project to last 10 years.

Meanwhile, Piñera’s government generated 5.9 percent economic

growth in Chile last year and is heading for close to 4.3 percent in 2012,

a considerable achievement a country that has strong ties to what is a

troubled global economy.

Sebastián Piñera is a fi ghter. Th at much is for sure. He is also decisive,

innovative and impatient. Th is potent mix has helped him to accomplish

the goals he has set himself over the last 40 years. Piñera most certainly

has a vital spark that will surely make him one of the most infl uential

Latin Americans for decades to come.

Santiago Gutiérrez reported from Bogotá

BY SANTIAGO GUTIÉRREZ

PROFILE

The remarkable career of the President of Chile and winner of the BRAVO Leader of the Year Award 2012PIÑERA

SEBASTIÁN


TWO DECADES that shook Latin AmericaL

atin America is a far diff erent place than it was back in

1992. In historical terms, the region has never been better

in almost every way, nor does it off er so many opportunities

for the achievement of prosperity.

Information to support this claim abounds. A Latin

American newborn child in 1992 had a life expectancy of

up to 69 years, now the projected lifespan would be 74. Th at

same newborn infant would have had an 86 percent chance

of fi nishing primary school; now he or she would be almost

certain to reach that level. If the child were Brazilian, he or

she would only have had a 14 percent chance of owning a

computer and 10 percent of having a mobile phone.

Now, computer ownership has reached more than 50

percent, while mobile-phone penetration is practically 100

percent. In 1992, that same child would have had a 21 percent

possibility of ending up living on the streets, and a 45 per-

cent likelihood of living in poverty. Today, those fi gures have

dropped to 12 and 30 percent, respectively.

Population in the region has grown by 30 percent, and now

stands at 600 million people, while the region’s economy has

grown by more than 50 percent, reaching almost $50 trillion.

Th ese signifi cant changes point to a very relevant trans-

formation –one that was achieved by ordinary people, often

confronting very extraordinary challenges. Some of these

people were from private companies, others from govern-

ments, and all of them made the most of a more connected

and open world.

Innovation and change have been achieved in the way

things are done. Changes in business models, in the percep-

tion of opportunities and in leadership.

Th is special anniversary edition of Latin Trade aims to

highlight this transformation in the words of a select group

of people who have helped shape these changes from their

workplaces.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012 LATIN TRADE 17


INNOVATION AND CHANGE

IST

OC

K

In 1992, just as Latin Trade was taking its fi rst steps, two historic

events were in the making. Th e fi rst was obvious. Th e signing of

the NAFTA agreement between the United States, Mexico and

Canada was destined to reduce trade barriers and promote business.

As for the second, no one could imagine how it would transform

the world of business and daily life itself: the fl edgling services of

email and the Internet became available in United States.

Th ree years later there were 16 million users. Today there are 2.4

billion users throughout the planet, 34 percent of the world’s popu-

lation.

In 1992 the fi rst short message service (SMS) was sent from a

computer to a mobile telephone in the United Kingdom. Years later,

this technology would bring the world of fi nance to people in the

most remote corners of the world – for example, by sending prepay-

ments of money using mobile telephones.

Th e Internet provided mass access to information and enhanced

many services. Online banking was born, transforming many

banking services; logistics were improved by the ability to follow

packages in transit in real time; and even more creativity resulted in

an explosion of new uses and services through the “world wide web.”

Today in Latin America, almost 230 million people –almost 40

percent of the region’s total estimated population of 580 million– are

Internet users.

Th e following tables show some of the many economic changes

the region has undergone.

NEW BUSINESS

OF AN EYE

IN THE BLINK

The Internet provided mass access to information and enhanced many services. Online banking was born, logistics were improved by the ability to track packages in transit in real time; and even more creativity resulted in an explosion of new uses and services through the “world wide web.”


INNOVATION AND CHANGE

1995 2011

MOBILE CELLULAR SUBSCRIPTIONS

EXPORTS OF GOODS AND SERVICIES AS % OF GDP

NUMBER OF LISTED DOMESTIC COMPANIES

Argentina 1 135Brazil 1 123Chile 1 130Mexico 1 82US 13 106

(N/A 1992-94) 1992 2011

Argentina 7 25Bolivia 20 42Brazil 11 13Chile 30 44Mexico 15 28

1992 2011

Argentina 175 99Brazil 565 366Mexico 195 128Peru 287 202

(per 100 people)(on the domestic stock exchange)

(Net infl ows)MARKET CAP FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

1992 2011

Argentina $18.6 billion $43.60 billionBrazil $45.3 billion $1.2 trillionMexico $139 billion $408 billionPeru $2.6 billion $79 billion

1992 2011

Argentina $4.43 billion $7.24 billion Brazil $2.06 billion $66.66 billion Mexico $4.39 billion $19.43 billion Peru -$79 million $7.32 billion (2010)

Source: World Development Indicators

SPECIAL ADVERTISING FEATURE

Hospitality Reimagined

Some people never choose between work and play, because they switch between

them, effortlessly. Some people never choose between style and substance, because

they know that real style is a mix of ease and sophistication. Some people know no

boundaries and embrace all cultures.

That’s why they choose Marriott Hotels & Resorts. Because modern travelers need a

hotel that knows how to combine the high-tech and the high-touch. Because they want

their travel to enhance their work, their play and themselves. Because they expect their

unique needs to be understood and met.

Learn more at marriott.com.

AT MARRIOTT HOTELS & RESORTS, WE KNOW MODERN TRAVELERS AND HOST THEM BRILLIANTLY.


Marriott Hotels & Resorts is part of Marriott International (NYSE:MAR), a leading lodging company with

more than 3,700 properties in 73 countries and territories and operating and franchising hotels under

15 brands.

In Latin America and the Caribbean alone, Marriott International is represented by 69 hotels in 25

countries and territories, offering more than 17,500 rooms and spanning nine lodging brands. And with

35 hotels under development, we expect to double our total number of hotels in the next fi ve years.

Which means we’ll have the pleasure of hosting you more often, in more places.

Hospitality Reimagined. Marriott Hotels & Resorts.

PERSONALIZED SERVICE

Our secret to being a brilliant host is knowing how each guest, each

culture and each moment is unique.

HEART & SCIENCE

Brilliant hosting is realizing what matters most to each guest and

committing ourselves to personally and generously making the big

and the small things happen right.

A WORLD OF EXPERIENCE

Our people, our hotels and our services display a refi ned confi dence,

acquired through more than 50 years as leaders in lodging.


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

IA

DB

“Over the last 20 years we have learned from so many errors and

so many crises,” said Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-

American Development Bank, referring to what he believes is the

most important development in Latin America in recent history.

Learning those lessons was painful. Th ey were paid for in blood.

“In 25 years we have had 31 fi nancial crises and in each one of them

poverty in Latin America increased,” he told

Latin Trade in Bogota. But the price paid

did bring about some good results at the end

of the day. Poverty has since been reduced

through enrichment of nations and their

middle classes, and through the success of

some social policies, especially subsidies, that

proved very eff ective. Twenty-fi ve years ago,

45 percent of the population was mired in

poverty. Today that’s been whittled down to 31 percent, he said.

Over the last 20 years the most important social indicators have im-

proved, “not in all countries, but we have advanced,” Moreno said. He

mentioned those that cover basic health care and secondary education.

“Now we have the enormous challenge of producing better professionals,

better adapted to the needs of a changing labor market,” he added.

However, in other areas time was squandered. Manufacturing produc-

tivity, for example, was stronger 20 years ago than it is now, he said. Th e

problem has to do with infl exible labor markets that perpetuate informal

labor, and a lack of effi cient infrastructure. Th e region needs port services,

airports, highways, and energy at competitive prices. “Energy rates are

very high compared with those of India or China,” he said.

The quality of education also must be improved. “It’s hard to

be more productive than China if barely 1 percent of 15-year-

olds in Latin America understand mathematics as well as stu-

dents in Shanghai,” he said.

MORENOHaving learned from the lessons of the past, Latin America will confront the challenges of improving education and infrastructure and building effi cient and sustainable cities


31

A NEW REGION

fi nancial crisis in Latin America in 25 years

For Moreno, the next 20 years will be full of interesting trans-

formations. For one, the commodities bonanza, which has created

the curse of imbalances for some countries, can be converted into

an opportunity. Moreno expects that commodity prices will stay

high for the next 15 years, due to the process of urbanization that

will bring 50 percent of the population of China and 70 percent

of the population of India to the cities. Th ese

mega-cities, he believes, will require huge

amounts of materials from the region.

Latin America’s middle class will keep

on growing over the next 20 years. Seventy-

fi ve percent of Latin America’s 500 million

inhabitants will earn more than $10 per day,

he predicts. As well, the number of cities

with 1 million to 2 million people will grow

substantially, and this will force countries to take on the challenge of

making cities that are more effi cient at providing services, and also

more sustainable.

He also expects a considerable increase in the number of Latin

American companies that fi gure among the world’s 500 largest. Th ere

will be Mexican, Brazilian and Chilean companies on the list, he said,

but at the same time Colombian and Peruvian fi rms will also be in the

big leagues.

Lastly, there will be a growing group of medium-sized companies

that venture outside the region, and a good part of the investment

within the region will be done by Latin American companies. Even

now, 25 percent of the investment fl owing into Latin America comes

from multinationals based in the region.

Th ese trends are proof of a promising future for Latin America, and

show that in the end, yesterday’s lessons are being taken to heart.

Santiago Gutiérrez reported from Bogota

LUIS ALBERTO

PRESIDENT INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

ME

XIC

O C

EN

TR

AL

BA

NK

It was almost 20 years ago that Mexico was

looking down the barrel of a peso crisis. Lax

banking, declining dollar reserves and low oil

prices, among other factors, had conspired to

push the economy to the brink, and the peso

came crashing down.

Today, though, there are analysts who point

to Mexico as a model of macroeconomic ma-

nagement. And they credit Agustín Carstens,

Mexico’s central bank governor, as one of the

main contributors to crafting the policies that

will hopefully make calamities like the peso

crisis a thing of the past.

So stark is the turnaround that Carstens

now measures his country’s economy, not

against his southern neighbors, but against

some of the biggest players on the world stage.

“Th e advanced countries have problems with

large defi cits, with debt-to-GDP that’s very

large,” he says. Th ey face “problems in their fi -

nancial systems, of monetary policies that have

had to be oriented to attend to objectives that

are not traditionally those of central banks.”

But in Mexico, “the reality is that we’ve not had

any of these problems.”

Indeed, Mexico is expected to generate eco-

nomic growth approaching 4 percent this year,

while interest rates have remained unchanged at

4.5 percent. Mexico’s debt-to-GDP ratio rests

just north of 30 percent, and the banking sys-

tem, Carstens notes, is well-capitalized, extend-

ing credit. Reserves have reached record levels.

Carstens has held senior positions in the

Central Bank and International Monetary

Fund, and put forward a credible bid last

year for the IMF’s top job. He also served as

Mexico’s fi nance minister in the cabinet of

Felipe Calderón. Since he became Mexico’s

central bank governor in 2010, his country

has emerged as a bright spot in an otherwise

gloomy global scenario. “It’s gratifying that this

recognition is being given to Mexico,” Carstens

says. “Th e reality is that we’ve worked to reach

this place so that... Mexico is one of the most

solid economies, not just among emerging

countries, but the whole of the G-20.”

Mexico wasn’t always such a sexy selection

for emerging markets investors, though. In

2009, the economy contracted nearly 7 percent,

having been hit hard by the world economic

downturn and H1N1 viral outbreak. Carstens,

then the fi nance minister, acted in advance of

the crisis with aggressive hedging of oil sales–

Mexico’s main income source. But Carstens

credits the country’s comeback to having pur-

sued sound fundamentals since the peso plunge

of 1994, with low infl ation, low interest rates

and low debt-to-GDP ratio.

Th at era, the so-called Tequila Crisis, put

Mexico’s back to the wall and forced offi cials

to come up with some sobering solutions, like

strengthening the banking system. “After our

own crises... Mexico made strong, conservative

decisions,” Carstens says. Th e result, he adds,

was a fi scal regime that was even stricter than

systems in place outside of Mexico.

Other risks remain, though, and many

must be resolved in the political realm. One is

achieving structural reforms in labor markets to

incentivize hiring. Another is overhauling the

tax system through fi scal reforms so Mexico

can increase revenues.

“For many decades the main stumbling

blocks were macroeconomic topics, which

we’ve overcome, establishing a trustworthy

platform,” Carstens says. “Now the next step

is how to take advantage of this platform to

be able to generate more growth,” which he

says can reach 6 percent and be encouraged

by healthy banks having optimal conditions in

which to operate.

Carstens, for his part, intends to keep to his

cautious approach. He quotes from Napoleon to

make his point, recalling a phrase the emperor

told his butler: “Go slow because I’m in a hurry.”

“It’s better to go slow, but steady because

you’re in a hurry,” Carstens says. “I think that

applies to the fi nancial system.”

David Agren reported from Mexico City

BY DAVID AGREN

MEXICO’S CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR

A NEW REGION

CARSTENSAGUSTÍN


A NEW REGION

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

CA

F

Moody’s Investment Services downgraded

15 of the world’s largest banks, including

Barclay’s and Citigroup, on June 15. Th e same

day, CAF Banco de Desarrollo de América

Latina, received its 16th credit upgrade.

Th e juxtaposition of events isn’t surprising,

said CAF President Enrique García, who has

led the Caracas-based development bank since

1991. “Non-performing loans make up zero

percent of our portfolio,” García told Latin

Trade in an interview from his offi ce. “We have

been very careful in what we do.”

Credit agencies have taken note. Th e bank’s

long-term debt currently carries an A+ invest-

ment grade rating from Standard & Poor’s and

Fitch Ratings, and an A1 investment grade

rating from Moody’s Investment Services.

CAF was a small regional trade bank when

it began operations in 1970. Assets were less

than $1 billion, and it had fi ve sharehold-

ers– the governments of Bolivia, Colombia,

Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Today the bank,

formerly known as Corporación Andina de

Fomento, has more than $21 billion in assets.

Th e number of shareholders has now grown to

18 countries, including Brazil, Spain and Por-

tugal, as well as 14 private banks.

Garcia said innovation and sound banking

principles were key to CAF’s growth. “To be

relevant, I knew we had to be more than just a

bank for fi ve countries,” said García, a former

vice president of the Inter-American Develop-

ment Bank (IADB).

To grow its operations, CAF focused on

three key areas: credit expansion, membership,

and funding, all of which were intertwined.

“Th e bank’s original role was in trade fi nance

and we knew we had to broaden that,” García

said. “We saw that there

was a need for develop-

ment fi nance, especially

in infrastructure.”

Focusing on

transportation and

energy projects, CAF

began extending credit

to its sovereign shareholders. Attracted by its

early successes, more countries applied for

membership, which boosted the company’s

capital, allowing it to expand lending.

As of Dec. 31, the bank’s loan portfolio

totaled $15.1 billion. “Th e mix between public

and private sector loans is about 70 percent to

30 percent,” García said.

Th e bank’s success has occurred in spite

of regional credit crises, and the troubles of

individual members, who have weathered

devaluations, foreign exchange controls,

and radical shifts in economic policies since

the bank’s creation. For García, the most

diffi cult challenge came when Venezuela’s

banking system melted down in 1994-1995,

threatening to undermine that country’s

private borrowers and their ability to repay

CAF. “We were meeting non-stop with

members of the Venezuelan government in

a bid to avert a crisis,” said García. “It was a

tiring time but we succeeded.”

Th e bank has also successfully overcome

ideological diff erences among its members,

some of whom embrace neo-liberal economic

systems, while others tend toward a more

active state role in their economies. “We are

very respectful of the diff erent cultures, the

diff erent countries who are our shareholders,”

said García. “Th ey may have diff erent ideas of

the role of the state, but there has never been

an ideological impasse.”

García, who is starting his fi fth fi ve-year

term as president, said the words that will guide

CAF’s future are growth and consolidation.

“Assets of the bank should double in the

next fi ve years to more than $40 billion,” Gar-

cía said. “In 20 years, our assets should be above

$100 billion.”

Th e bank forecasts increased lending

throughout the region. “Our objective has

always been to provide fi nancing for develop-

ment projects that are sustainable, high quality

and spur economic growth,” García said. “We

see that continuing in the next 20 years.”

Peter Wilson reported from Caracas.

BY PETER WILSON

Assets should double in fi ve years to more than $40 billion

GARCÍAPRESIDENT OF CAF

ENRIQUE


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

CO

UN

CIL

OF

TH

E A

ME

RIC

AS

Susan Segal has been travelling all over Latin America since

1976, fi rst as a banker, then as a venture capitalist, and for the

past nine years as President and CEO of Americas Society and

Council of the Americas, a hemispheric

organization whose members include some

of the most important global companies.

Segal has seen the continent evolve from

a region swamped by the debt crisis of

the 80s and 90s to where it is today– a

dramatic transformation that, despite the

threat of a possible slowdown, “will not

turn back.”

Segal gets excited when she talks about

the changes that have taken place in the region in the last two de-

cades, many of which are still underway. “Twenty years ago countries

such as Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Peru were just focused

on the macro-economic reforms. Much of that has changed,” she

said during a recent interview in her New York offi ce. “Th e policy

focus has widened to include challenges like education, social inclu-

sion, and quality employment. Latin America is at a totally diff erent

stage of reforms and regional and global integration, through agree-

ments like NAFTA and the Pacifi c Alliance, have played an impor-

tant role in that process.”

Transformation has also come and it’s being refl ected in the

private sector. As a growing trend, the executive cites how “Latin

American companies are investing all over the region and buying

other companies in the United States, Europe and Asia.” She

points to examples in Brazil and Mexico such as Grupo Bimbo,

Mexichem and Gerdau. She also

speaks enthusiastically about

the growing percentage of Latin

Americans involved in entrepre-

neurial ventures like Argentine

companies Mercado Libre and

Globant, thanks to the develop-

ment of an ecosystem that is

increasingly supporting entre-

preneurship in the region. “I get

inspired when I think that very

soon, some big innovative tech-

nology will come out of Latin

America,” she says.

Still, Segal recognizes that

there are many challenges, and

insuffi cient infrastructure is one

of the largest. “People forget

that what converted the United

States into a real union was the

railroad connecting the Atlantic

with the Pacifi c,” she says. “In

Latin America a huge percentage

of goods travel by road. Talking about social inclusion… if you

can’t connect one side of the country with another and then the

entire continent, it makes it diffi cult to have social inclusion as

well as regional competitiveness. Infra-

structure continues to be a phenomenal

challenge in Latin America in the 21st

century as it was in the past.”

Challenges apart, Susan Segal con-

siders herself an “optimist” and believes

that Latin America is strong enough

to withstand slowdowns in China, the

United States and Europe. “Of course

there are cycles and no country is an

island… in a global economy we are all connected. But I don’t

believe there is a possibility of an implosion like happened in the

80s and 90s. Th e growth of the domestic consumer markets par-

tially shelters some of the countries from outside downturns.”

Segal is a strong advocate of the economic empowerment of

women, from the ones who own microbusinesses to CEOs and

women on boards. “Th is is a huge cultural and practical challenge

for Latin America. But it is critical and makes absolute economic

sense, as women make up 50 per cent of the population, 50 per

cent of the voting power and 70 to 80 per cent of the purchasing

decisions. Growing economies like the Latin Americans can’t be

competitive if they leave half of the work force outside and for

me that is one of the biggest challenges, biggest issues and big-

gest opportunities in the region.”

Isabel Piquer reported from Nueva York

BY ISABEL PIQUER

I get inspired when I think that very soon, some big

innovative technology will come out of Latin America.

A NEW REGION

SEGALSUSAN

PRESIDENT AND CEOAMERICAS SOCIETY AND COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS


Luiz Fernando

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

BR

AS

IL F

OO

DS

Luiz Fernando Furlan doesn’t

believe that innovation only

means applying new technolo-

gies or inventing new processes.

For the former Brazilian minister

of Development, Industry and

Trade, innovation also means a

new way of thinking.

In the case of Brazil, he says,

“innovating was about under-

standing what was possible to

build the future.” With former

President Luis Inácio Lula da

Silva, “there was a very important

change (in thinking) that is called

self-esteem,” Furlan said in an

interview with Latin Trade.

Th is executive isn’t easy to label.

Over the course of his 65 years,

the grandson of the businessman

who founded Sadia, one of the

most important food companies

in the history of Brazil, has been

a military cadet, a chemical en-

gineer, a businessman, a board

member at several multinational

companies and a cabinet minister.

One of his achievements was

guiding Sadia through the worst

crisis in its history, which ended

in a merger with Perdigão, to

create Brasil Foods (BRF) the

nation’s biggest food processing

company. Furlan is currently an

independent member of the com-

pany’s board.

Furlan speaks almost reve-

rently of the achievements of

Lula, even as a corruption

scandal has threatened to stain

Lula’s legacy. Several weeks ago,

Lula’s one-time right-hand-man

José Dirceu was found guilty on

a corruption charge related to a

widespread scheme to buy votes

from legislators to secure their

Kirk Kinsell

support in Congress.

“Th ere was a time when Brazi-

lians felt small when they went

abroad. Today it’s the other way

around; people have recovered

their national pride with Lula

because Lula always treated in-

ternational authorities as equals,”

he said. “Lula always presented

himself as the president of a great

country that was progressing.”

Furlan is proud of his country,

which delivered 40 million people

out of poverty in just ten years,

and which today has the lowest

level of unemployment in its his-

tory. He is especially proud of the

fact that Brazil has “enough re-

serves to pay its public and private

debts, and no longer depends on

the IMF, Washington, London,

or the Pope,” to manage its eco-

nomic policy.

But as a businessman he admits

that Brazil has yet to solve many

problems that aff ect the competi-

tiveness of its companies, such as

a lack of infrastructure, a bloated

bureaucracy, high tax rates, an

inadequate education system and

corruption.

Nevertheless, the former Lula

minister insists that the country’s

sound management in 2008

helped save Sadia, which suff ered

enormous losses due to a series of

bad bets made by the company’s

fi nancial department during the

international market crisis.

“If Brazil hadn’t sustained itself

as it did during the crisis, the

company couldn’t have come out

of it,” says Furlan, who had retired

from Sadia but was called back to

help resolve the crisis.

What also helped Sadia was

what Furlan calls the “common

sense” of its shareholders and their

ability to accept a new idea.

“Th e shareholders understood

what was needed to save the com-

pany,” says Furlan. Facing three

alternatives –to seek investors to

recapitalize the company, to sell

it, or to try for a merger– Sadia’s

shareholders chose the latter, an

option that certainly wasn’t the

easiest.

“Th e last option was the hard-

est, because the (potential partner)

was the competition, Perdigão.

Th e employees hated the com-

petition, and all of a sudden they

had to accept that now we were

all part of the same thing,” said

Furlan. Th e merger created Brasil

Foods (BRF), which last year had

almost 119,000 employees and

net sales of 25.700 million reais

($12.7 billion), and produced

more than half of Brazil’s pro-

cessed food. Ironically, the board

of Sadia had been playing with

the idea of the merger for at least

a decade.

“Th e dream was always to join

with the competition to create a

company with enough muscle to

compete and become a multina-

tional,” says Furlan, who neverthe-

less made it clear that, at the time

of the crisis, the decision appeared

more of a risk than a vision.

“When the bingo game ended,

everyone knew the numbers had

been right. But at the time it was

hard to know for sure what the

best answer was,” he says.

Alejandra Labanca reported

from Miami

BY ALEJANDRA LABANCA

There was a time when Brazilians felt small when they went abroad. Today that is not the case.

NEW ENTERPRISES

Member of the Board

BRASIL FOODS

FURLAN


Natura brings glamour from the heartbeat of the planet to millions

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

NA

TU

RA

The biodiversity of the Amazon region off ers

an unbeatable wealth of aromas, textures

and essences. By the end of the 1990s, the

management team at Natura knew that.

Th ey also knew that no other cosmetics

company in the world could compete with their

know-how in harvesting the Amazon’s bounty.

On top of that, the Brazilian company’s chiefs hatched a sustainable

production plan that would help to improve the quality of life of partici-

pating indigenous communities.

Executives, chemists and technicians set out, all full of enthusiasm.

Th eir aim was to get to know the native cultures and traditions, but

the road to knowledge was at times a rocky one. “It was a very diffi cult

learning process,” Natura’s chief executive, Alessandro Carlucci, tells

Latin Trade.

To begin with, people work hard in the Amazon. But modern capital-

ism –its demands in terms of commitment and its rewards in terms of

money– was alien to the villagers. Natura had to teach new values and

learn traditional ones.Th e Natura teams had to fi nd the villages, interest

the residents in the project, determine which ingredients each one could

produce, and then educate people to achieve continuity and commitment

to production. Th en came the tasks of verifying in the laboratory that

the harvested plants really had the properties the indigenous communi-

BY ÉLIDA BUSTOS

NEW ENTERPRISES

ties had claimed, obtaining a constant fl ow of raw materials to maintain

industrial production, adjusting logistics to conditions dictated by nature,

and working with authorities on the new regulations.

“We had to develop a new internal corporate culture,” says Carlucci.

He recounts how they had to reorganize their procedures starting with

the most basic of all: changing their way of thinking to solve the unique

problems that arose each day. “Before, everything was easy. We’d call up a

supplier and tell him, ‘I want a ton of such and such,’ and he would send it

the next day. With a community in the middle of the jungle you can’t call

anyone because there are no telephones. And if there’s a downpour and the

rivers are in spate, you can’t get there at all.” You need to develop a diff erent

kind of supply chain and accept that it simply isn’t stable, he adds.

Innovation was matched with tenacity, and at last the project began to

show results. Dozens of families from remote villages joined the produc-

tion chain, improving their quality of life, while Natura created the unique

products known as the Ekos line, on sale throughout Latin America and

France. Th e Ekos line of creams, essential oils, deodorants, soaps and

shampoos “bring the aromas of the Amazon, along with the tradition of

the communities and the respect that comes from the sustainability of the

way the products are made,” explains Carlucci.

Th e successful outcome of the Amazon project has given Natura a

competitive edge. “No other company in the cosmetics world has the

credibility and know-how to obtain ingredients from the Amazon’s

biodiversity in a sustainable way,” claims Carlucci. Sales in France

constitute a real challenge because France is the mecca of cosmetics

and “we come from a region that doesn’t have much of a name in the

cosmetics business.”

Before the Amazon adventure, Natura was no upstart. Th roughout its

history, the company’s growth was always tied to being one step ahead of

the competition in innovation. During the 1970s it was a pioneer in using

a direct sales network, and in the 1980s in promoting refi llable containers.

In the 1990s it discovered the Amazon.

Nowadays Natura is a multilatin with

2011 revenues reported at 5.591 billion

reais (US$2.751 billion) and profi ts in the

neighborhood of 830 million reais (US$408

million). Th e workforce consists of 1.4 million

beauty consultants who serve 100 million

customers in every corner of Brazil, as well as a

full-time staff of 6,800.

Natura is a remarkable company in many ways, not least in the training

of its salesforce. Every three weeks the company organizes get-togethers

attended by 450,000 to 500,000 beauty consultants. New products

are presented and the information about them passed along. Some

100 million Brazilian customers get the message from the formidable

salesforce. But that’s not all. Far from resting on its laurels, Natura’s

management continues to push on. Carlucci notes that Latin America

has 600 million inhabitants, a potential market half as big as China’s. It’s

not enough for Natura to increase sales in Brazil – where the brand has 60

percent penetration – it has to expand in the rest of Latin America.

Within its home territory as well, increasing sales means launch-

ing between 250 and 300 new products per year and cutting delivery

times to the bone. Th e logistical challenge is formidable in a country

as huge as Brazil.

Élida Bustos reported from Buenos Aires

100 million customers and 1.4 million beauty consultants only in Brazil.

CARLUCCIAlessandro

CEO, NATURA


A tale from recent fi nancial history. How the fi nancial sector has aided regional development. Bancolombia’s new strategy for creating a more humane bank.

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

BA

NC

OL

OM

BIA

Banking has undergone a very important

transformation over the last twenty years,

mainly in connection with the way banks relate

to their customers, says the president of Banco-

lombia, Carlos Raúl Yepes.

Bancolombia is Colombia’s biggest bank

and came in at No. 19 in Latin Trade’s regional

ranking. Yepes, meanwhile, is surprisingly

young for a post typically held by executives of

50 years or older. But he knows recent banking

history backwards and he has no doubt as to

the transformations his sector has undergone.

At the beginning of the 90s, he says, banks

off ered basic services and tried to build a tran-

sactional banking operation. At about that

time, telephone and digital channels were in-

troduced to complement the work of branches.

Later, the emphasis shifted to full-service

banking, or fi nancial supermarkets.

Th e use of technologies like Customer Rela-

tionship Management programs (CRMs)

made it possible to personalize fi nancial off er-

ings and hone in on the needs of each custom-

er, making the bank more relational, he said.

During the last few years the banks’ business

model has focused on making access to the

bank easier.

“We were looking for what was convenient

for the customers anytime and any place,” he

said. He characterized this period as more

relational still, because customers’ experience

improved substantially, thanks to increased use

of mobile, digital and telephone channels, in


PRESIDENT BANCOLOMBIA

THE MULTILATINS REVOLUTION

supermarkets and in non-bank outlets.

Yepes indicated that advances in banking

have also served nations, because they

promoted improvements in other key areas.

In the 80s, with the introduction of

electronic banking, many telecommunications

problems were also solved, such as

incompatibilities between hardware and

software, as well as legal vacuums. In the

90s, online banking helped highlight and

solve other problems related to personnel

qualifi cations, as well as security issues tied

up in legal loopholes. Finally, starting in

2000, the so-called Generation C (connected

consumers) arrived on the scene. Th eir arrival

coincided with the adoption of new models

for interacting with customers that rendered

obsolete earlier, non-digital means.

Now Bancolombia is preparing for what

Yepes calls the consumer era. “Now custom-

ers have more ways to compare, comment and

recommend products or a company; social

media and communications media make this

easier,” he says. “Customers are changing their

habits and they are very demanding. Th ey want

things to be immediate, easy, and intuitive,” he

adds. Th at’s why he’s looking to technology to

transform the customer experience by provid-

ing services whenever, however and wherever

they’re needed.

To date Bancolombia has operated like the

region’s other banks, riding the same trends, and

following more or less the same path as other

institutions. But in this new hyper-connected

environment, with less distance between

the client, the producer and the product,

Bancolombia has found a way to diff erentiate

itself. “We want to be the best example of a

more humane bank,” said its president. Th is

explains, for example, its company slogan:

‘We add soul.’ Its internal campaigns are also

designed to cultivate more respect, closeness,

warmth and inclusion in labor relations.

Th is direction would appear to signal a

new direction from the usual path followed by

banks—a model more concerned with off ering

a broad and effi cient portfolio of services. Time

will tell if Yepes’ bet pays off . For now, Banco-

lombia, with its strategy of organic growth and

acquisitions, will take its idea of humanizing

banking to more people in Latin America.

Th ose who know the region understand the

power of this proposal.


GROWTH 1995-2011

Assets 53 timesProfi ts 27 timesShare Price 8 timesADR Price 4 times

YEPESCARLOS RAÚL


Growth has sometimes gone against the grain. But the bets have paid off.

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

ME

XIC

HE

M

Innovation for Mexichem emerged a decade ago from a mine in the

central state of San Luis Potosí, where the Mexican chemical concern

had the world’s largest reserves of fl uorite. Th e fl uorite’s quality was high,

but it had some impurities. “We said, ‘If we fi nd a way to remove the

impurities, we’re going to see a great growth opportunity,” Mexichem

chairman Juan Pablo del Valle recalls.

A team of engineers went to work to solve “a question that seemed

impossible because big chemical companies in the United States couldn’t

do it.” But Mexichem engineers did fi nd a solution, and their innovation

cut Mexichem’s costs by 90 percent, “detonated” growth and transformed

the company. “We were a company in fl uorite that used to sell rocks,” del

Valle says. But “upon defi ning a strategy of vertical integration and sy-

nergies, we began to compete with our customer and... become a supplier

of value-added products.”

Th at was the fi rst step to becoming the sucessful multilatin Mexichem

is today. Over the past decade, the company consolidated its position in

the chemical industry in Latin America and emerged as a global player.

Sometimes, it’s gone against the grain, such as its 2007 purchase of

Colombian PVC pipe-maker Amanco. At the time, few Latin American

companies were buying other companies in the region, and in eff ect,

Mexichem paid a premium for growth potential in an emerging market.

But Mexichem’s bet paid off , and it has not been drawn into a bad deal,

or allowed its balance sheet to be blemished.

Th e company has found ways to carve out profi ts from it core pro-

ducts of vinyl chloride and fl uorine by lowering costs and adding value.

Outlining a corporate vision and staying the course has helped too. “We

have two (lines of business) that are easy to understand,” del Valle says.

“We don’t move from these businesses.”

Investors have understood the approach, or at least the company’s

record of stellar results: Mexichem’s stock price has surged 400 percent

over the past fi ve years. A September bond off ering raised $1.15 billion

and was 16 times oversubscribed. “It’s recognition of the company’s track

record, of which we’re very proud,” del Valle says.

Growth has characterized Mexichem since Antonio del Valle, Juan

Pablo’s father, became the controlling shareholder in 2002. More re-

cently, Mexichem purchased Dutch pipe-maker Wavin. Europe may be

considered an unattractive market by many, but del Valle sees potential,

especially in countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey. Like

the bond off ering, the purchase speaks to Mexichem’s stature. “Wavin

was our technology supplier,” del Valle says. “Th e opportunity to buy the

leading pipe-maker in Europe… when we bought Amanco, this was

unthinkable.”

Mexichem also recently signed a memorandum of understanding

with Occidental Chemical Corp. to build a “cracker”– a distiller for pro-

ducing ethylene. “Th ose that are doing big business right now are those

who own the crackers,” del Valle says. “It’s going to supply 50 percent of

our need for resin,” along with providing “spectacular savings” over the

long-term.

Savings in Mexichem come from its vertical integration model and

“adding value,” to its raw materials– fl uorspar and salt. Mexichem wasn’t

always so single-minded, though. Th e company, previously known as

Camesa, made steel cables for the construction sector and had a chemi-

cal component. Th e cable part of the company was sold to pursue the

chemical business, which del Valle says had better growth potential.

Its purchase of Amanco was another example of pursuing better

growth potential. Mexichem paid $600 million for Amanco, more than

double what it would have paid for a U.S. competitor that it was also in-

terested in buying. Th e U.S. company served the more established North

American market, so buying Amanco was somewhat counter-intuitive.

But it turned out to be a well calculated bet for Mexichem on long-term

growth in Latin America. “We saw the possibility to grow in Latin

America justifi ed paying double the price,” del Valle said.

Th anks to the purchase, and to the company’s decision to turn down

an innovative path, Mexichem now is growing in markets outside Latin

America too.

David Agren reported from Mexico City

BY DAVID AGREN


DEL VALLEJUAN PABLO

CHAIRMAN, MEXICHEM


PH

OT

O:

AN

A B

ER

GE

R

From quiet beginnings as a small domestic air carrier, Panama’s Copa

Airlines has rocketed. Now it plays in the big leagues, and has be-

come one of the fastest growing airlines in

Latin America, adding new planes and ca-

pacity, tacking more and more destinations

onto its map, and steadily attracting more

passengers.

For Pedro Heilbron, 54, CEO of Copa

Holdings and Copa Airlines, it has been

about building the foundations to deliver.

“What we see today has happened over the last 20 years,” said

Heilbron, of the airline’s strong and sustained growth. “Th is year and last

marked 20-plus years of capacity growth... We adopted world-class stan-

dards and service and a small airline became world class.”

Heilbron pointed to several factors that helped lift Copa: innovation,

new technology, a well trained and committed workforce, and robust

economic growth in Panama, Copa’s home base. Other parts of Latin

America also surged economically, creating greater demand for better

connectivity and direct fl ights among the 29 countries Copa serves.

Copa, which celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, responded by

purchasing new planes and expanding its network.

“We were ahead of the curve,” said the businessman. “We connected

the dots for intra-Latin America travel.” Before Copa developed the

Hub of the Americas, travelers had to take multi-stop fl ights, he noted.

A trip from Panama to South America often meant a stopover in Mi-

ami. Meanwhile, there were no good alternatives to fl ying, like rail and

road transportation. And as trade and investment expanded, there was

new demand for air connectivity.

Th is year alone Copa, with an enviable on-time performance of over

90 percent, added fl ights to Las Vegas (USA), Recife (Brazil), Liberia

(Costa Rica), Willemstad (Curaçao) and Iquitos (Peru), and now fl ies

to 64 cities, including North America, Central America, South America

and the Caribbean. Copa has also increased the frequency of departures

from its Panama hub. Th e payoff is in the numbers. Last year the airline’s

parent company, Copa Holdings posted net income of $310.4 million,

representing 17 percent of its $1.83 billion in operating revenues.

Profi ts in 2011 increased by more than 22 percent over the previous

year. In the fi rst half of 2012 Copa Holdings, which is traded on the

New York Stock Exchange, logged net income of $127.9 million on

operating revenues of more than $1 billion.

In 1998, Copa agreed to a strategic alliance with Continental, at the

time a leading international airline based in the United States. “We

adopted their service standards, their frequent fl yer program, shared

fl ights and offi ces, co-branded our presidential clubs and adopted their

livery under Copa’s name,” Heilbron said.

Th en in 2005, Copa acquired Aero Republica in Colombia.

Implementing the new standards and operating Copa’s expanded

system required investment in recruiting and training, as well as high

quality employees at all levels. Today, it has over 8,000 employees, with

about 6,500 based in Panama.

Technology also plays a critical

role in the success of Copa. Th e

airline currently operates a fl eet

of 83 planes, including the most

modern Boeing 737s (700s and

800s) and Embraer 190s, and

is acquiring 11 more latest-

generation 737s in 2013 and 2014. Th e company invests $250 million to

$300 million a year, mostly in new planes. It has one of the most modern

fl eets in the world.

Th ese modern, fuel-effi cient planes mean Copa has lower maintenance

and fuel costs and can use satellite approaches to airports. Copa was also

a pioneer in off ering its clients Web-based check-in and is the fi rst Latin

American airline to off er passengers check-in via their mobile devices.

Looking forward, Heilbron said airlines need to make the airport

experience easier for passengers. “After 9/11, traveling by air –which used

to be a romantic experience– became a hassle. I think technology will

change that by making it easier to pass through security,” he said.

And after the Panama Canal expansion is completed, Heilbron ex-

pects Panama to increase its capacity as a major logistics center, which

means new business opportunities for Copa.

Copa carried 8.7 million passengers in 2011, up from 8 million in

2010. It’s forecasting 10.3 million this year.

Joseph A. Mann, Jr. reported from Miami

BY JOSEPH A. MANN, JR.


8.7 million passengers to 64 destinations

HEILBRONPEDRO

CEO, COPA HOLDINGS

We were ahead of the curve. We connected the dots forintra-Latin American travel.


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

AR

CO

S D

OR

AD

OS

Is it possible to innovate within the standardized parameters of a fran-

chise? Arcos Dorados, the biggest McDonald’s restaurant operator in

Latin America and the world’s biggest franchisee of the brand, off ers

plenty of examples of just this.

Among its innovations, it opened a kosher restaurant in Buenos Aires,

installed dessert centers in most of its Latin American locations, adapted

McCoff ee to local tastes (using real crockery, rather than paper) and of-

fered young people with Down’s syndrome a chance to work in the res-

taurants. Now it’s set on becoming a more eco-friendly company.

“Th e McDonald’s system has three fundamental rules on which

everything it does is built: off er good food, hire good people and be good

neighbors,” says Woods Staton, chairman and CEO of Arcos Dorados,

from his offi ce near Buenos Aires. Within these rules, you can innovate

and still maintain the franchise parameters.

“We can serve kosher food or dulce de leche desserts here, arepas in

Venezuela, chicken with hogao in Colombia, Mexican meals in Mexico.

But we have to keep the main menu, the Big Mac, the Quarter-Pounder.

So long as we are faithful to this, we can also have some local content,”

he says.

On the topic of being a good neighbor, he says, “If a neighborhood

wants kosher food... I can off er it without abandoning the essence of

McDonald’s.” To this end, Arcos Dorados executives went to Israel, saw

how the restaurants were operated there, spoke with a rabbi in Argen-

tina, and soon afterward opened the doors of Latin America’s fi rst kosher

McDonald’s restaurant in the Abasto district of Buenos Aires. It was a

complete success.

Something similar happened when the company incorporated young

people with Down’s syndrome into the powerful machinery that is Arcos

Dorados’ 90,000-strong regional workforce. At fi rst there was reluctance,

BY ÉLIDA BUSTOS

Staton admits, but the end result was positive for everyone– for the

youths who now had a chance to work, and for their colleagues who

had the chance to learn from them. And so this program that began in

Argentina more than 20 years ago was repeated in Chile and Brazil. Th e

next step will be to expand it into Mexico and Colombia.

With all these innovations that Staton has been introducing in

the restaurants since he joined McDonald’s in the 1980s– fi rst as an

employee and then as a partner– the business has fl ourished in Latin

America, especially over the last two decades.

McDonald’s was launched cautiously in the 1970s in Brazil, Puerto

Rico and several Central American countries, but it began to grow

steadily after 1986, under Staton’s stewardship, with three new locations

in Argentina. “Th ey sent me here to be the regional director of Chile,

Argentina and Uruguay,” he tells Latin Trade. And, he adds, he started

literally from scratch: “looking for land, suppliers and people.”

From then on, the chain grew and restaurants multiplied, despite the

region’s volatility. In 2007, McDonald’s decided to sell its businesses in

Latin America. Th ere was an international bidding process and Arcos

Dorados, a company formed by the region’s operations managers, won.

Th us the new company, headed by Staton, took charge of the chain in 19

Latin American countries and became the world’s largest franchisee of

the American brand.

Th e numbers for this multilatin company (with American roots) are

awesome: it serves 4.3 million customers per day in 1,840 restaurants all

over Latin America, with 2011 revenues of more than $3.65 billion.

Another interesting aspect of the work plan is that most of Arcos Do-

rados’ employees are under 25 years of age. “Every restaurant sells almost

$3 million a year and they are managed by people who are 22 or 23 years

old, with 60 or 70 people reporting to them,” says Staton. Insisting that

meritocracy rules at Arcos Dorados, he adds, “We have people who man-

age country operations who started out as cashiers.”

Staton says Arcos Dorados is always innovating in new areas. It may

be looking for healthier food, incorporating new products, or introducing

changes in daily operations to become more environmentally friendly.

As for the green initiatives, Arcos Dorados already has three inter-

nationally certifi ed ecological buildings in Latin America, uses energy-

effi cient lighting and recovers condensed water from air conditioners to

water the grounds. Now the company is looking to convert used oil from

its kitchens into fuel for its fl eet of vehicles in Argentina and Brazil.

“Being good neighbors means recycling, reusing and reducing con-

sumption of certain things,” says Staton.

Th e businessman believes that encouraging creativity and innova-

tion among personnel means allowing people to have a level of freedom

while doing their job. And they have it, even within the parameters of a

franchise.

Elida Bustos reported from Buenos Aires


4.3 million customers per day

in 1,840 restaurants

STATON

CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF ARCOS DORADOS

WOODS


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

HS

BC

It’s no wonder Gerardo Mato is enthusiastic about emerging econ-

omies. As CEO of HSBC’s Global Banking for the Americas– a

region that comprises all of Latin America and Canada– he believes

that over the next twenty years a crucial part of HSBC’s business

will be associated with these new global growth centers.

Developing effi cient mechanisms at the local or international level

to fi nance corporations, and even at times to help governments get

fi nancing, is one of the tasks that has occupied Mato since he began

leading this area of HSBC a little more than two years ago. “Th e

only way to develop the corporate sector is through low-interest

loans and medium- to long-term fi nancing,” said this United States-

based Argentine, who in the past has also worked with Merrill

Lynch. “Th is can be done locally with some limitations,” he said,

“but if it’s a question of fi nancing large corporations as Brazil did,

corporations with global penetration, outside fi nancing is needed.”

Th e results don’t lie: between 2010 and 2011 before-tax profi t of

HSBC Global Banking for the region grew by almost 30 percent,

from $1.8 billion to $2.3 billion. Th e growth is even more dramatic

if you consider that in 2009 the sector generated barely $1.1 billion,

less than half of the 2011 result.

“HSBC’s business of global banking, corporate banking and in-

vestment banking was very limited in 2002,” Mato explains. “We

began to focus our eff orts on developing key relationships, which

helped us develop these areas, starting with focusing more on the

debt issue. But our approach is to build lasting relationships. When

you build long-term relationships, business follows naturally.”

Innovation was key to many of the businesses Mato is referring

to, especially as relates to consolidating the “south-to-south” axis–

that is, the commercial and fi nancial relationships between Asia and

Latin America.

“We opened the Asian market using perpetual bonds,” he says.

“We reopened the pound sterling market, and recently we were

fi rst with a “dim sum” bond for América Móvil, which became the

fi rst renminbi bond in the history of the region.” Th rough HSBC,

América Móvil became the fi rst company ever to issue debt in the

local currency of the China market.

“We have also done 30-year europeso bonds for Televisa and

América Móvil– that is, transactions in pesos purchased by for-

eign investors. We specialize in fi nding whatever is going to be the

most effi cient denomination in terms of costs for the company, and

that’s how we diff erentiate ourselves.” Mato adds that the presence

of HSBC at both the global and regional level in Asia and Latin

America has been central for consolidating this trend.

At the same time, management has paid careful attention to the

China-Brazil corridor, which, thanks to the enormous demand for

infrastructure in China, grew by more than 30 percent in 2011.

Trade between China and Brazil totaled $77 billion last year, and

among the 6,250 Brazilian companies whose trade with their

Chinese counterparts required fi nancing, more than half turned to

HSBC.

As for the region’s stars of the future, Brazil is the runaway leader.

“In Brazil, many companies have started construction projects for

the Olympics and for the World Cup, and the raw materials and

fi nancing are all internal,” says Mato. “Th ey want fi nancing in reais

with payment in reais, and obviously the banks that have the ability

to do local bonds or local fi nancing have an advantage over banking

institutions that don’t have a local presence.”

Th is hinge role between developed economies and developing

ones will be the key to success for the next few years. “It’s crucial to

maintain this double role that enables us to develop not only our

local presence– which is very strong in places like Brazil, Argentina,

and Mexico where we can off er fi nancing in reais, Mexican pesos or

Argentine pesos—but also the international presence, which enables

us to help export companies to fi nance in dollars or any other inter-

national currency whenever they need it.”

Pablo Calvi reported from Nueva York

BY PABLO CALVI

A NEW BUSINESS MODEL

CEO HSBC’s Global Banking for the Americas

When you build long-term relationships, business follows naturally

MATOGerardo


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

EM

BR

AE

R

Frederico Fleury Curado is a high-fl ying

executive with simple manners and, as the

thinking (and talking) head of the world’s third

largest aircraft manufacturer, he makes it plain

that innovation is part of Embraer’s DNA.

For one, the company has had to diversify

its range of products to adapt to market forces,

while maintaining its focus on regional aircraft.

It has also been experimenting with biofuels,

as pressure intensifi es around the world to fi nd

alternatives to fossil fuels.

Curado joined the São José dos Campos-

based company in 1984 as an engineer and has

been at the helm of the prominent Brazilian

multinational company since 2007. Th at put

him in the driver’s seat during the prolonged

fi nancial crisis, which he admits has taken a

toll. Embraer has had to reinvent itself, invest

again in the defense industry and diversify into

executive jets.

From his offi ce in São Paulo, Curado says

2008 “was a big blow. We felt the impact in

2009 in terms of delivery and since then we

have not yet recovered.” Th e company’s deli-

very fell by 20 percent that year. In the second

quarter of 2012, Embraer’s profi ts dropped by

25 percent (year on year), to 114 million reais

($56.2 million). Over 90 percent of Embraer’s

sales come from exports (9.85 billion reais last

year, $4.86 billion).

But a relaxed Curado says Embraer is doing

alright. “We have never been afraid of invest-

ing. We have consolidated a respectable posi-

tion in the marketplace. We have more than 65

customers in over 40 countries. Margins are not

great, but we are running a stable business…

It’s been rewarding.”

Th e history of Embraer, born as the

state-owned Empresa Brasileira de

Aeronáutica, combines scientifi c innova-

tion and entrepreneurship.

“In Brazil we had a long-term project

that dates back from WWII, which was to

generate knowledge in aerospace, technology

and science, rather than trying to acquire

technology. In the 1950s, the Brazilian

government launched an engineering school,

and also established a research center for

aerospace sciences. So the country went from

books and academic knowledge and science

to industrial capability. Embraer only exists

because there is a very solid foundation of

knowledge: thousands of engineers, graduates

over a period of 60 years. It’s something very

unique in Brazil. It’s a model that worked:

technology associated with the Brazilian spirit

of entrepreneurship.”

Th e company almost went bust in the 1990s,

then took off after its privatization in 1995.

Segmentation was part of the new commercial

vision. “Embraer had the strategic view to go

for market segments where we can diff eren-

tiate ourselves, where we have opportunities for

tailor-made products.”

Curado says the company saw an opportu-

nity a few years ago in regional e-jets– a range

of Embraer jets that are bigger than executive

jets but smaller than regular regional jets, with

between 70 and 120 seats. “So we came into

that segment and made it fl ourish,” he says.

But then the global crisis hit. In order to

compensate for the slump in civil aviation mar-

kets, Embraer has invested in reconnaissance

and military aircraft.

“We have been in the defense market from

Day 1, but it became a very small part of the

business until a few years ago. We are trying to

reinvent that business with very encouraging

results. Th is year it will reach $1 billion in re-

venues for the fi rst time,” says Curado.

Looking forward, Curado believes the use of

bio kerosene could be a way for the industry to

show its concern for the environment.

“Th e technology to transform oil from plants

into kerosene is there. But the scale and the

cost just don’t work at the moment,” he says. “It

works perfectly. Is it commercially viable? I don’t

have the answer to that, but it’s not something

short term. It’s more like 10 years or more.”

Th ierry Ogier reported from São Paulo

CURADOBY THIERRY OGIER

Embraer’s CEO explains the strategy

behind the company’s success

NEW BUSINESS MODEL

FREDERICO FLEURY


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

AV

IAN

CA

TA

CA

Twenty years ago, in 1992, Germán

Efromovich and his brother José were just

beginning to set forth the structure of Grupo

Synergy. Th ey had started up with the produc-

tion of hydrocarbons and they had already con-

solidated their off -shore construction, medical

services and inspection businesses. But they

had not yet waded into the aviation business

with AviancaTaca-- today one of the biggest

airlines on the continent.

Skip forward two decades and Efromovich

has transformed a mid-sized family business

into a vast conglomerate with interests in areas

like agriculture, petroleum and mines, aviation,

tourism and services. It’s a sign of the times,

where local companies blossom into multila-

tins... and global players.

There are plenty of tools available that

make life easier for today’s businessman,

but the method of identifying opportuni-

ties hasn’t changed during those twenty

years. Even though rotary dial telephones

and faxes have been replaced by telecon-

ferences and the internet, Efromovich

says he still makes decisions the way he

did when he became a partner of the

super-successful Pacific Rubiales, or when

he decided to create a hotel chain.

Efromovich only does what “smells right,”

he says, touching his nose with his index fi n-

ger for emphasis. Th is formula, which would

be looked upon with suspicion by almost any

business school graduate, has nonetheless

yielded extraordinary results.

He notes however that during this time the

region has changed radically. “Th e political

stability generated an economic stability and

growth never seen before,” he says.

At the same time, other conditions favorable

to growth have been established, he says. Le-

gislation has permitted the opening of markets

and the arrival of foreign investment. Monetary

and fi scal discipline has lowered the threat of

hyperinfl ation and fl exible exchange rates have

eliminated currency black markets.

Th e new danger, he says, is that the markets

move on speculation. “Some people want to

sell smoke, businesses with no base.” He thinks

tracking the tangible value of projects is a basic

element for returning sanity to investment,

while speculation has the capacity to turn the

region’s business environment into a big casino.

He thinks that in the next twenty years the

region’s new businesses will be closely linked to

infrastructure, given that all countries have to

invest heavily to catch up in this area.

Meanwhile, he predicts that airlines will

consolidate into large groups, and that there

will be less space for small ones. He thinks that

airlines that prioritize market participation over

effi ciency will disappear. “Th is has already ha-

ppened to the state airlines. Th is formula leads

to bankruptcy,” he said.

Efromovich was born in Bolivia, and is

citizen of Brazil and Colombia. He thinks of

himself as an innovative entrepreneur who

“evaluates risk diff erently from all other mor-

tals, who defi nes opportunities diff erently from

all other mortals.” In any case he has built his

business empire by accepting bets that others

wouldn’t take.

He sees opportunities beyond the ups and

downs of economic cycles and short term

obstacles, makes decisions quickly and thinks

beyond his borders.

In this, he resembles other successful Latin

American businessmen.

Th at’s why his vision of the region and

its development is so interesting. Because

surely it’s Efromovich and people like him

who will mold the region’s reality in the next

twenty years.


As Latin America adopts a new way of doing business, glance the future through the eyes of an entrepreneur with a Midas touch.


THE NEW BUSINESS MODEL

Airlines that will prioritize market participation over

effi ciency will disappear.

EFROMOVICHGERMÁN

CEO, AviancaTaca

we CONGRATULATE LATIN TRADE MAGAZINEfor THEir 20th anNiversary

THANK YOUFOR

20YEARSOF INSPIRATIONPROVIDING USEVERYTHING WE NEEDEDKNOWTO

ABOUT BUSINESSIN LATIN AMERICA


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

FE

DE

X

For FedEx, innovation and technology

have been key elements in building the

company’s fast-growing operations in Latin

America and the Caribbean into a service

network that links regional customers large

and small to business opportunities in the

global marketplace.

“I’ve been in Latin America for over 20

years and I’ve seen us go from a company

that introduced time-sensitive parcel service

to one that has become a pillar for economic

growth in the region,” said Juan N. Cento, the

Miami-based regional president for FedEx

Express in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We have evolved into a solution-specifi c

company to meet growing customer needs,”

added Cento, who joined FedEx in 1989 when

the company took over the Flying Tigers Line

and added a large international network to

its system. “Not only have we built a physical

and technological infrastructure in the region,

but now we have become a company that can

build ‘me’ a solution,” meeting and anticipating

a wide range of services needed by new and

existing businesses and provid-

ing each client with the specifi c

services they require.

FedEx began operating

in Latin America and the

Caribbean in 1989 and today

has about 17,000 employees in

the region serving 50 countries

and territories. It off ers

express, air and ocean freight,

with options for standard or

expedited delivery, as well as

logistics and trade consulting.

Th e company has an air fl eet

of 40 planes in the region and

some 1,900 trucks. In terms of

technology, FedEx uses one of

the world’s largest computer and

telecommunications networks

for real-time package tracking

of each shipment. Aside from

the hand-held computers used by FedEx

employees, Cento said the company introduced

mobile tracking access to customers in Latin

America about two years ago, so clients can

follow their shipments from anywhere on their

mobile devices, and in their local language.

Cento pointed to other innovations in

Latin America and the Caribbean. Beyond

time-sensitive parcel service, FedEx deve-

loped the Global Trade Manager program, an

online tool that permits small- and mid-sized

businesses in the region to reach unfamiliar

and complex foreign markets.

“I’m a small company in Argentina that

makes pens. I know how to ship my pens

from Buenos Aires to Rosario, but I don’t

know how to reach the German market,”

Cento said. “We have the expertise at

FedEx.” Using Global Trade Manager,

the customer can learn about documenta-

tion and regulations for shipping from

Argentina to Germany, as well as ship-

ping options, costs and other details. Th is

way, they can fully prepare for the export

operation before sending the merchandise.

Innovation also extends to management

and human resources, Cento noted. “We used

to import expertise into the Latin American

market,” he said. “Over the years, we stopped

bringing in executives from the U.S. and

invested in our own people to develop a pool

of executive talent from the region. Today, all

key executives in our markets are local staff .”

As part of FedEx’s commitment to innova-

tion, Cento and his team spend considerable

time watching for new business developments

in the region and working to meet emerging

needs of new and existing businesses.

In Mexico, Cento and his team also pro-

vided new services for the growing aerospace

industry in Querétaro. As Brazilian and Ca-

nadian aerospace companies began planning

new manufacturing operations in Querétaro,

FedEx met with company offi cials to antici-

pate their needs and off er solutions as they

move raw materials and parts to facilities

making passenger planes.

Cento also saw an opportunity to move

fresh cut fl owers from Colombian producers

to FedEx’s U.S. hub in Memphis, where they

could quickly be dispatched to customers in

Los Angeles and other parts of the country.

Th is initiative provided FedEx with new

business and off ered Colombian fl ower pro-

ducers an alternative to moving their fl owers

through Miami, the main entry point for

most cut fl owers from Latin America. Since

the fl owers reach dealers quickly, they don’t

have to be stored in Memphis (as they are in

Miami), thus increasing shelf-life.



regional President for FedEx Express Latin America and the Caribbean

A MORE PRODUCTIVE REGION

We stopped bringing in executives from the U.S. and invested in local talent.

Juan N.

CENTO,


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

AE

S

If energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, at AES Cor-

poration the energy business is multiplied by the speed of innovation

squared.

According to executive vice president Andrew Vesey, “innovation is to

trust people. If you ask me what I prefer, I prefer small everyday innova-

tions of our people.” And that, for Vesey, is where the power of innova-

tion lies.

Examples abound in the company’s two decades of operation in Latin

America— among them the award-winning Angamos project in Chile,

the fi rst hybrid coal plant in the world that uses a bank of batteries. Th e

system eliminates the need for reserves and increases total plant produc-

tion, and came about as the solution to a gas supply shortage from Ar-

gentina in 2008. For this project, AES Gener received the international

EEI Annual Edison Award, the highest honor in the electricity industry.

Another example is AES Nejapa in El Salvador, a 6 MW plant that

can serve up to 12,000 families. Th e plant generates electricity from

methane gas collected at the country’s largest landfi ll. It’s a fi rst genera-

tion project of AES in El Salvador, and the fi rst of its kind in Central

America.

In Brazil, AES Eletropaulo distributes electricity to more than 6 mi-

llion customers in 24 municipalities in the metropolitan region of São

Paulo. Because the plant provides electricity to low-income communities,

where reliable service and aff ordable energy are critical to improving

security and social development, the company established a program to

transform consumers into clients– working to improve power supply and

also disseminating knowledge on the safe and effi cient use of electricity.

Since 2004, this program has benefi ted nearly 2 million people in over

1,100 communities.

Vesey says innovations like solar panels and wind turbines are crucial,

but he also sees innovation in daily operations: from formalizing service

in Brazilian favelas, to increasing consumer awareness of the importance

of paying energy bills to obtain a reliable and safe service, to working

with Panamanian authorities on environmental solutions for the pro-

posed construction of a hydroelectric plant.

Vesey also says one of his main endeavors is to get a team of 27,000

employees to live a culture of innovation in day-to-day operations.

“First, try to make each person feel proud of the results of the com-

pany, feel that their work contributes to achievements,” he says, outlining

his strategy. “Second, it is vital to listen to the opinion of each person

who works in the company, customers, and stakeholders. And third, pro-

mote performance excellence in all operational processes.”

Th ese three pillars of innovation have enabled the company to enter

Latin American markets and overcome what Vesey sees as the most

important change of the energy industry in the last two decades in the

region: the privatization of the sector.

“We entered the Latin American market with the fi rst wave of priva-

tizations, starting in Argentina. It was our second investment outside the

United States. And for us it was our fi rst investment in a non-English

speaking country. Today the most common spoken fi rst language in

our company is not English. It says a lot about our investment in Latin

America,” says Vesey.

After two decades of learning about Latin American markets, politics,

economies, governments and communities, Vesey believes that the main

innovation in Latin America over the next 20 years will be to achieve

regional integration in the electrical energy sector. In other words, inte-

gration would be the multiplier to transform rich natural resources into

energy for the region.

Ángela María Riaño reported from Arlington, Virginia, US

BY ÁNGELA MARÍA RIAÑO


Innovations every day from providing services in favelas to major hydro plants.

VESEYANDREW

EXECUTIVE VP AES CORP

All products are written by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of AIG Inc. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions and is subject to actual policy language. For additional information, please visit our website at www.AIG.com.

Global solutions

CUSTOMIZED.

Beaded craftwork, South Africa – Where AIG

insurers have done business since 1962

We understand that no two multinational businesses are alike.

Every organization has its own risk exposures and risk tolerance. At AIG, we’ll work

with you to help create a program tailored to your specific needs, virtually anywhere

you do business—whether that means local policies in some or all of the places you

have exposure or a single global policy. Learn more at www.AIG.com


Successful international banking is a craft that re-

quires not only a gift for math and credit analysis, but also an understanding of cultural nuances and business habits. James Quigley, executive vice chairman at Bank of America – Merrill Lynch, brings these diverse talents to his role.

Quigley joined Merrill Lynch in December 1982. He started within the New York Syndicate Group where he received his fi rst opportunity to work on Latin American credit– the fi rst global bond issuance for the Republic of Argentina.

Twenty years ago, Merrill Lynch was a typical securities dealing house. Bank of America on the other hand, provided a host of bank-ing services ranging from trade fi nance to foreign exchange trading, as well as structured lending to sovereign and corporate debt trad-ing. On January 1, 2009, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch merged to become Bank of America – Merrill Lynch (BAML).

Quigley oversaw the transition in Latin America. “The cultural cross-currents (in) Latin America dictated that our strategy should not be a country-centric one, but a well diversifi ed one across ge-ographies, industries, asset classes and market capitalizations,” Quigley told Latin Trade.

Looking forward, BAML is on target to grow the lending and se-curities underwriting aspect of its business model. In 2011, the Debt Capital Markets Group (DCM) underwrote 47 transactions totaling $10.4 billion, capturing 13 percent of all Latin American transac-tions. Aggregate BoFA credit exposure to Latin America was ap-proximately $13.9 billion as of June 30 this year .

BAML has also garnered awards recognizing its cash manage-ment services and its Latin American Research division. These strengths provide the platform for BAML to grow region-wide. Vibrant markets throughout Latin America and the Caribbean are being evaluated, with Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Trinidad identifi ed as countries that might provide future opportunities. John T. Sullivan reported from New York.

PH

OT

OS

: C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F O

RA

CL

E A

ND

BO

FA

-ME

RR

ILL

LY

NC

H

Trying to summarize a recipe strategy for success in an industry which by its very nature constantly revolutionizes the way we do things is no easy

task.”You have to have a clear, complete strategy at any given time that revolves

around the task at hand and engages with the tools available today,” says Luiz Meisler, executive vice president at Oracle Latin America, the computer tech-nology company, from his São Paulo headquarters. ”You adapt this as needed to the era you are in and the space you occupy.”

Meisler, now at the head of one of Latin America’s most important com-panies in a competitive growth sector, seems to have benefi tted quite well from this approach. After 12 years at the company, he oversees relationships with clients throughout Latin America, as well as innovating new methods for project management.

More broadly, he is involved in the industry’s current shift toward cloud-based computing, which he says should yield huge results in terms of data security and computing effi ciency, and sooner than many realize.

“Now all of these various technologies and devices, such as smartphones, computers, data centers, the cloud, etc., all are separate,” he says. ”In ten years, everything will be integrated. In most cases there have not even been standards across platforms and systems. We have to sell solutions now that maximize potential at all times.”

Meisler is also keenly aware that we rely more and more on technologies that we understand less and less. ”It’s fundamental to our work to understand that there is much more technology being made available than people know about or know how to use,” he says.

One project quite a few people know is a recent collaboration between Oracle and the Discovery Channel for the Spanish-language show, ’2111,’ in which the company uses its expertise to draw a picture of the world a century from now. Meisler makes one more prediction: as technology revolutionizes, he says, ”technology will be more and more transparent.”

Vincent Bevins reported from São Paulo

BY VINCENT BEVINS

BY JOHN T. SULLIVAN


MEISLERLUIZ

EXECUTIVE VPORACLE LATIN AMERICA

QUIGLEYJAMES

EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRMAN,BANK OF AMERICA – MERRILL LYNCH


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

GO

OD

YE

AR

Roads that are poorly constructed or badly repaired --no roads at all

in some cases– extreme topography and temperature ranges, a huge

extension of terrain for off -road driving… it all makes Latin America a

diffi cult region. And not only for logistics, but for tires too.

“Th e conditions on our highways are very diff erent from those of Eu-

rope and the United States,” Jaime Szulc, president of Goodyear Latin

America, tells Latin Trade.

And thinking of the region Goodyear has met these very special

challenges by designing some special products. Tires using AquaMax

technology include a composite that improves adhesion and improves

maneuverability whether roads are wet or dry.

FuelMax tires, which are new to Latin America, save fuel as a result

of their low-rolling resistance. Goodyear reckons that what one of these

tires saves in a lifetime amounts to the equivalent in fuel of what it costs

to buy a full set of tires.

Szulc explains that Goodyear has a history of innovation. It has always

been on the lookout for the latest material or product, and the Latin

American subsidiary sticks to that tradition. Latin America was, in fact,

the fi rst region of the multinational to set up an innovation department.

Th at achievement, together with others in terms of management and

resource handling, won the Utah State University’s prestigious Shingo

prize for operational excellence. “We’re the only Goodyear plant in the

world that won it,” Szulc says proudly.

Technological innovations are also developed for use within produc-

tion plants and company processes. Goodyear plants in Brazil have not

dumped any residues into the natural environment for the last seven

years. In addition, 100 percent of the water used in production processes

is recycled.

Th e spirit of innovation is not limited to the laboratory, adds Szulc.

It has reached the management process, creating “solutions that are

diff erent business models”.

Szulc is still surprised by how much has changed in the region –in-

cluding fabulous levels of growth in gross domestic product– when he

returned a couple of years ago after working for several years in Europe.

Th ose last 15 years of change also include radical changes in the way of

doing business in the tire sector, he adds.

“With the latest cars came a new degree of complexity,” he says. “It

used to be that each market was straightforward. With a limited produc-

tion range you could satisfy all your consumers’ needs”. Not any longer.

Szulc reckons that the number of cars in Latin America has grown

over the past seven or eight years, and will grow by just as much in the

next fi ve years. On top of that, the increase in the variety of cars has

directly aff ected tire factories, not necessarily because of the need to in-

crease production volumes, but also because the factories have to invest

more in order to keep pace with the number of product lines that are

needed.

A specifi c example is the surge in the number of compact cars over the

last fi ve years. Diversity means having to increase stocks, which in

turn means having to invest more money on diff erent tire models.

With a wider range of cars, and consequently a wider range of tires,

the market can no longer be a monolith. “Goodyear’s strategy is to be the

leader in target market segments. Th e company can’t make all the tires

people want. It has to choose”, says Szulc.

To make things in the business even more complicated, “the amount

of information to which people have access has grown exponentially”

and that aff ects the way that people buy the product. Customers are

much more demanding nowadays. Th e Internet allows them to compare

quality, characteristics, durability and price.

“Consumers have become more demanding, the market has become

more complex, there are more people who scrutinize the cost per kilo-

meter, and who will think not only about the tire itself but in its mainte-

nance”.

Szulc predicts that “performance labeling” is the next step in innova-

tion. Performance labeling, which reveals such key characteristics of

the tire as fuel saving, noise and braking ability, is already being tried in

Europe. As is the case with other new concepts, it won’t be long until it

arrives in Latin America.


BY ÉLIDA BUSTOS


Maintaining a grip on tough terrain and even tougher markets.

SZULCJAIME

PRESIDENT OF GOODYEAR LATIN AMERICA

EARN AND WINwith

BUDGET

Enjoy this offer from Budget for LifeMiles partners.

For more information, please visit: www.budget.com/lifemiles

* Offer valid until December 31, 2012* Valid at U.S. airports, Latin America, Caribbean and Mexico participating in the promotion.

When making your reservation add your frequent flyer number and win 500 LifeMiles.With the BCD# R450700 get 10% off on your car rental of choice.

©2012 Budget. LifeMiles is a registered trademark of LifeMiles Corp.


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

EM

ER

SO

N;

IST

OC

K

Think of them as your nervous system. Th e

bones, fl esh, inner organs, muscles and skin

would be of little use without a driving force to

organize, optimize, synchronize and monitor

each and every movement and function.

At Emerson, a $24 billion-revenue company

based in St. Louis, MO, they think in terms of

“solutions.” And every solution is innovative,

custom-made and one-of-a-kind.

Let’s say Mexico’s Pemex, Venezuela’s

PDVSA, Brazil’s Petrobras or Argentina’s

YPF want to boost output at a plant, beef up

safety standards, improve quality, or perhaps

come up with some new product, such as

high-viscosity lube oil. Or maybe they suspect

that the pressure drop in that gas duct means

there is a leak somewhere in the system. Lower

temperatures in storage-vats would also be

desirable, not to mention faster conveyor belts

or better ventilation and illumination and

communications systems, they say. Or, more

likely still, any combination of the above.

In comes Emerson and presto! Th ey’ll

design a “solution,” bring in the parts, the

software, the equipment (which can be either

custom-made by themselves or off -the-self ),

the technicians and engineers. And they will

install and run the operation.

Oh, you wanted it fully automated? Th ey

can do that too: they’ll put in place not just the

nervous system but the e-brains on top of it.

Hmm, sounds a bit Jetsons-ish. Is corporate

Latin America ready for this space-age ap-

proach to production?

“Is it?” says Leo Rodríguez, president of

Emerson Latin America. “I’ve been with

Emerson for 37 years and in the past 20 years a

lot of things have happened. What I’ve seen is

a huge transformation.”

Th e big oil companies are a good example,

Rodríguez told Latin Trade. “Th ese companies

used to be very regional. Now they’ve become

truly multinational and very powerful on a

global scale.”

Playing in the major leagues has led them

not only to expand their domestic operations

but also to become more demanding as well.

Yes, they still want their state-of-the-art solu-

tions. But they want them now, and they want

them here, in their own language, delivered

and run by locals, and with as much domestic

content as possible.

So gone are the days when “solutions” would

be brought in from outside. “You can’t export

these things from the United States or Canada

or Europe anymore,” Rodríguez stressed. “Our

customers, as a result of being global, now

expect us to have very strong operations on a

local scale.” And that includes all areas, from

design to engineering to manufacturing.

Emerson now has more than 30,000 em-

ployees throughout Latin America, with a local

presence in every single country in the region.

In Mexico alone they have 39 fully-owned

plants with 17,000 employees. Other opera-

tions with a strong headcount include Brazil,

Venezuela, Colombia, Chile and Costa Rica.

“As our customers become very global,

we become a global solution provider

from Latin America,” Rodríguez says.

Th is in turn has prompted the com-

pany to get in close touch with Latin

American universities. “To build up

these facilities and solutions at the local

level, you have to go out and fi nd the engineer-

ing power. You have to work with those who

develop the talent.”

Another complementary element Rodríguez

sees in the advent of major Latin corporations

is the rapid growth of the middle class.

Other business areas where Emerson has a

strong presence include mining – where it pro-

vides industrial solutions to Barrick Gold for

example, which has major operations in Chile,

Peru and Argentina— pharmaceuticals, car

making, and the food and beverages industry.

So next time you have a beer or a burrito or

fi ll up the gas tank, chances are Emerson has

been busy behind the scenes making the drink

colder, the fuel more effi cient, and the snack

tastier.

David Haskel reported from Buenos Aires

BY DAVID HASKEL


Custom-made and home-grown solutions for any problem.

RODRÍGUEZLEO

PRESIDENT OF EMERSON LATIN AMERICA


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

ST

AR

WO

OD

HO

TE

LS

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

IH

G

IHG Group, the parent of InterContinental

Hotels and other famous brands in Latin

America, is moving aggressively to meet bur-

geoning demand in the region, especially in

mid-scale hotels for underserved cities, said

industry is developing in Latin America.

Whereas hotels were often owned by high

net-worth individuals in the past, and were

located in a single country or market, today

institutional investors own properties dotted

across the map.

“Th ey are sophisticated investors who hire

professional managers,” Kinsell said.

Another shift has come with ownership

trends. Kinsell notes that just ten years ago, the

IHG group owned more than 600 hotels. To-

day, it owns nine or ten properties worldwide,

focusing instead on managing and franchising

hotels. Th e group’s business partners own the

properties.

Looking to the future, IHG will be intro-

ducing hotels catering to healthy lifestyles, with

de-stressing sleep environments and in-room

“brain spas” to stimulate the intellect.


Big international luxury hotels

were relatively scarce in Latin

America a decade ago. Th ere were

at best a few in the main cities,

and the service there wasn’t on a

par with that of grand hotels in

the great capitals of the world.

Today, thanks to the region’s huge

economic growth, which is at-

tracting business peo-

ple and investors from

all over the world, as

well as policies that

have generated greater

purchasing power at

home, Starwood, one

of the leading chains

in the luxury hotel

industry, is launching

an expansion.

“From the stand-

point of our industry,

we continue to lead

in the upper, upscale

segment, with in-

novations from the point of view

of (the growing presence in the

region of more of ) our brands,”

Osvaldo Librizzi, co-president for

the Americas of Starwood Hotels

& Resorts, told Latin Trade.

“Th is enables us to position

ourselves in various cities with

distinctive hotels that are very dif-

ferentiated, and each one responds

to a diff erent lifestyle.”

Starwood, owner of the brand

Sheraton, currently manages a

portfolio of several brands that it

refi nes to capture specifi c niches.

Th e company now has 71 proper-

ties in operation in Latin America

and 16 more planned or under

construction, under eight diff erent

brands.

St. Regis is the most exclusive

of the Starwood brands. Th e

company aspires to position it as a

hotel “for connoisseurs who want

to experience the best expressions

of luxury.” Next in line is Th e

Luxury Collection (“unique ho-

tels that off er exceptional service

for an elite clientele”), then W

(“hotels with an iconic design and

a vanguard style that open their

doors to exclusive and extraordi-

nary experiences”), and Westin

(“providing innovative programs

and distinctive services that trans-

form all aspects of the stay into a

revitalizing experience”).

Starwood sees a segment of

luxury travelers in Latin America

that’s wide enough to fi ll all these

slots.

“Th e Latin American econo-

mies are solid and have proved

that they were better prepared to

withstand a crisis. Th is is a com-

petitive advantage,” says Librizzi,

who has been with the company

for more than 30 years.

Starwood is preparing the

2013 launch of an app that will

allow guests to book hotels from

their smartphones in Spanish and

Portuguese— an option already

available in English.

“We think mobile technology

will transform the hotel busi-

ness.”

Alejandra Labanca reported from

Miami



OSVALDO LIBRIZZI

A NEW FRONTIER: TOURISM

Kirk Kinsell, president of

IHG for the Americas.

“Hotels in the past were

full-service, luxury proper-

ties located in a central

city,” said Kinsell, who has

worked for IHG for 16

years and took over the Americas presidency in

2011. “Today we are building more select– or

limited– service hotels located in big cities and

other parts of these countries.”

In other words, IHG continues to expand its

portfolio of large, full-service hotels and spas in

major cities. But it’s making a big push to add

service hotels like the Holiday Inn and Stay-

bridge Suites brands in provincial cities with

strong growth potential.

Kinsell attributed the uptick in demand

in part to a growing middle class that is ac-

quiring the means to travel more often. De-

mand is especially strong in Brazil, Colom-

bia, Chile and Peru. He also said the com-

pany was training new employees to off er

the best hospitality experience, and working

with new private sector investors under

management and franchise agreements. Th is

model speaks to a major shift in how the

The focus now for IHG is on managing and franchising. Business partners own the properties.

Kirk KINSELLPresident IHG

CO-PRESIDENT FOR THE AMERICAS OF STARWOOD HOTELS & RESORTS


Marriott, the American hotel chain, is betting that the greater social mobility of Latin Americans

will be a blessing for its sector. It’s preparing for the rush with a plan to build new hotels and to adopt new techno-logy that will enable guests to make hotel reservations from a simple mobile phone.

“When people leave poverty behind they do two things: fi rst they buy a mobile phone, and second they travel,” Rob Steigerwald, chief of operations for the southern region of the Americas for Marriott International, told Latin Trade.

To take advantage of this expected growth, Mar-PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

MA

RR

IOT

T


riott plans to open 71 new hotels in Latin America and the Caribbean over the next few years– part of a plan to double the number of properties the company has in the region. Last November the company also launched a Spanish-language app that enables people to make reservations at any of its hotels from a Smartphone.

“We chose to launch our second app in the world in Spanish because we found that it’s the second most popular language for making reservations, after English,” Steigerwald said.

The region’s current expansion strategy is con-sistent with the Marriott culture. According to the executive, Marriott has sought to grow continuously ever since it was founded. “When I started out (at the company) in 1981 we had 60 hotels throughout the world. Now we have 3,800,” he said. “Now, looking at the long term, we think Latin America offers us a world of opportunities.”

The Latin American country in which it’s expand-ing most aggressively is Mexico, where it now has

22 hotels, with plans to open 30 more in the next three years. Since the 1980s Marriott has followed an aggressive strategy to broaden its market by launching new brands (Courtyard Marriott, Resi-dence Inn, Autograph Collection) and by acquiring others (Ritz-Carlton).

The brand on which Marriott is placing its big-gest bet in Mexico is Fairfi eld Inn, a middle-class hotel chain designed to take advantage of Latin Americans’ new social mobility. To expand in Mexico and in Brazil, the company’s second larg-est growth market, it decided not to replicate the brands already operating in other parts of the world, but rather to adapt to local tastes.

“Our strategy is to go ’glocal’,” said Steigerwald. “For the Fairfi eld group we spent a lot of time studying local travelers in Mexico and Brazil and developed our models based on local needs. For ex-ample, our Fairfi elds in the United States don’t have restaurants, but they will have in Brazil,” he said.

Alejandra Labanca reported from Miami

A NEW FRONTIER:TOURISM

STEIGERWALDROB CHIEF OF OPERATIONS

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL


EDUARDO ERAÑA President of Visa International for Latin America and the Caribbean

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

VIS

A

“Remember those manual machines we used to use for processing

credit cards?” asked Miami-based Eduardo Eraña, president of

Visa International for Latin America and the Caribbean, when asked

about how things had changed for Visa in Latin America over the last

few decades. “Today, we swipe our cards electronically and it takes about

three seconds to obtain approval,” he said.

Eraña, who has more than 40 years of experience in Latin American

banking and credit cards and 28 years with Visa, has seen the payments

industry evolve from one where Visa and its client fi nancial institutions

had to send magnetic tapes with information on transactions back and

forth across the region, to one where credit and debit transactions are

transmitted at the speed of light. “Th e driving force behind this has

clearly been people and the level of globalization that we’ve reached,” he

noted. “But what really has allowed these changes to occur is technology.”

Today, the payments industry continues to evolve, driven by the Inter-

net and mobile technology, as well as the shift from paper money to elec-

tronic payments for many of our banking needs. Over the years Visa has

expanded its products to include credit, debit and prepaid cards as well as

mobile transactions for

individuals, companies

and governments.

Businesses and

governments use Visa

prepaid or debit cards

to pay bonuses and meal plans to employees and to make payments to

people who lack bank accounts. Visa also off ers express payments (no

signature for amounts less the $25) at gas stations, fast food outlets and

for taxis, and is rapidly expanding its reach in mobile payments.

Th is “technology explosion” has also created new expectations among

consumers, the Visa executive said. “Consumers now expect to use their

mobile devices to carry out fi nancial transactions anytime and anywhere

for almost everything,” Eraña said.

By constantly investing in new technology, an expanding network

and innovative products, Visa aims to satisfy this burgeoning demand

not only for traditional credit and debit transactions, but also for mobile

products that reach tens of millions of unbanked and underbanked indi-

viduals in Latin America.

In Mexico, for example, the government’s largest social program,

Oportunidades, uses Visa prepaid cards or debit cards to make payments

directly to poor families.

Th e government-owned bank Bansefi deposits funds for 4.5 million

families into Visa debit card or prepaid card accounts every two months.

Th ese transfers, to be used for purchasing food and other necessities,

mean that money is readily available to families. And it does away with

the need to stand in line at bank branches or government offi ces to ob-

tain payments.

More than 800,000 people in the Dominican Republic also receive

government subsidies through a Visa card, which can be used to pay for

food, fuel and medicine.

Visa is also moving ahead with its “electronic wallet” , which will allow

holders of Visa and other major cards to make electronic payments on

their mobile devices. Th e company is testing this service in the United

States, and eventually plans to extend it to Brazil and Mexico. To support

this service, Visa launched a new online site called V.me

Visa has been operating in Latin America for over 40 years. Th e

company today works with some 557 fi nancial institutions and has more

than 3.7 million merchant customers in Latin America and the Carib-

bean. Th ere are over 341 million Visa cards in Latin America, of a world-

wide total of more than 1.8 billion, and the region accounts for total

transactions– in payments and cash– of more than $682 billion.



THE AGE OF SERVICES

341 millionVisa cards in the region

“Consumers now expect to carry out fi nancial transactions anytime and anywhere”


CEO Global Consumer Banking and Executive Chairman of Latin America and Mexico, Citi

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

CIT

I

Carrying a Banamex-branded credit card

could be considered cool in the Mexican

capital. Here, Banamex card holders can cut

in line for concert tickets and are even off ered

the opportunity to purchase seats for shows by

performers like U2 and Madonna two days in

advance of anyone else.

“We try to lead the entertainment dimen-

sion,” Citi’s CEO of global consumer banking

and executive chairman of Latin America

and Mexico, Manuel Medina-Mora, tells

Latin Trade. “It is access– access to something

special, to privileges, and that is the way you

position your credit card business.”

Th is approach is an example of the innova-

tion in consumer banking that Medina-Mora

has overseen in his native Mexico for years.

Th is third-generation banker originally led

Banamex, which was purchased by Citi in

2001, growing the venerable Mexican bank

by concentrating on customer service and

relationships.

It’s also an approach he is attempting to

extend throughout Citi, which has operations

in more than 100 countries, and is coming

back to a core philosophy: “Banking is not

about transactions, it’s about relationships,”

he says. “In Banamex we have always had a

philosophy ... that banking has to be about

relationships with our clients, that banking is

client-centered.”

Many banks had abandoned this attitude

until the fi nancial crisis forced them to redis-

cover old ways of doing business.

Medina-Mora cites two other trends in

banking: digitalization and globalization,

which he says Citi is also embracing. Bana-

mex, for example, launched a digital transfer

platform with cellular giant Telcel and Inbursa

(both owned by Carlos Slim) to allow any-

one with a mobile phone to access banking

services. “It is probably much clearer in the

consumer dimension,” Medina-Mora says of

digitalization. “But even in the corporate elec-

tronic banking, online banking has changed

the way we do things… in trading, in capital

markets, in the way transactions are executed,

in cash management, trade fi nance and sup-

ply-chain fi nance.”

Globalization also has brought about

change in the banking sector– a trend

Medina-Mora anticipates will accelerate in

coming years. “More and more, globalization

is becoming part of the daily life of mid-size

companies because they are part of the supply

chain to global companies and Latin Ameri-

can champions,” he says.

Medina-Mora sees Citi as well-situated to

succeed in an increasingly globalized world,

in part because of its global reach. Th at reach

includes 23 Latin American and Caribbean

countries, a number unrivaled in the region.

“We are the only truly global bank present in

the region,” he says.

Citi executives recognize the region’s im-

portance for the company, he says. Citi reaped

7 percent of its profi ts from Latin America in

2002. Th at’s surged to 21 percent in 2011. In

consumer banking, the number of clients has

increased from 18 million in 2002 to nearly

30 million today, without “any signifi cant ac-

quisitions” , Medina-Mora says.

Naturally, Medina-Mora is bullish on

the region, and on specifi c countries within

it. His bank forecasts growth for the region

of between 4 percent and 5 percent over the

coming decade, “if nothing extreme happens.”

He expresses some short-term concerns

about the state of Brazil’s economy, “which

are natural given the very rapid growth over

a multi-year period,” but remains optimistic

over the medium term. Mexico, he says, “now

represents one of the few countries in the

world with the best combination of growth

and not a signifi cant economic risk in front

of it: low infl ation, not an over-expansion of

credit lending.”

“Our future lies more and more in the

emerging markets, especially the Asia-Pacifi c

region and Latin America,” Medina-Mora

says. “Th ose are our two priorities.”

David Agren reported from Mexico D.F.

BY DAVID AGREN

Even in the corporate electronic

banking, online banking has

changed the way we do things.

THE AGE OF SERVICES

MEDINA-MORAManuel

Fly South America’s Best Network with LAN and TAM

LAN Airlines and its affi liates, and TAM Airlines, all part of the

LATAM Airlines Group, South America’s largest airline group, invite

you to experience their award-winning service and unparalleled

network of destinations to, from and within South America.

LAN Airlines recently merged with Brazilian carrier TAM to form

the LATAM Airlines Group, offering passengers more fl ights to

more destinations than any other airline group in South America.

LAN Airlines and its affi liates and TAM Airlines offer nonstop and

connecting service from Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando

and San Francisco to 108 destinations in South America.

From the 180 degree full fl at seats and sommelier selected

wine list in LAN’s Premium Business cabin, to the exclusive

complimentary airport transfers and international menu

developed by Brazilian chef Belo Coelho offered in TAM’s

Business class cabin, your South America experience begins

before you even step onboard.

“The airlines that comprise the LATAM Airlines Group connect South

America to the world and offer the best choice for passengers

traveling to, from and within the region,” said Pablo Chiozza, Vice

President North America and the Caribbean, LATAM Airlines Group.


Introducing LATAM AIRLINES GROUP

For more information about LATAM Airlines Group please visit www.latamairlinesgroup.net.

LAN Boeing 787 Dreamliner

LAN Airlines Premium Business ClassLAN Airlines Premium Business Class

BENEFITS FOR OUR PASSENGERS

• More destinations: reduced connection times and

better itineraries and frequencies.

• Frequent Flier Programs: Passengers who are

members of LAN and TAM frequent fl ier programs may

earn and redeem points/miles on both airlines, among

other benefi ts.

• Elite Status: Members with elite status on both

airlines, Commodore / Black and Premium Silver / Red,

may add to their existing benefi ts preferential access to

services, along with a companion, such as access to VIP

lounges of each airline, and preferential check-in and

boarding and priority baggage.


LAN and TAM will continue to operate under their existing brands,

with the same excellent service and quality that characterizes

them today. Customers can continue to interact and travel with

LAN or TAM just as they always have done with more access to

more destinations and options than before.

Together, LAN and TAM, and their respective affi liates, have a

dream of working to make the fl ying experience safer, simpler

and more accessible by helping to connect people, integrating

trade in our region and expanding our culture beyond borders.

The mission of the more than 51,000 employees who comprise

this new alliance is to offer the best travel experience for the

thousands of passengers that we will transport daily.

For more information about LAN Airlines and TAM Airlines please visit www.lan.com and www.tam.com.br.

TAM Boeing 777-300 aircraft

TAM Business Class TAM Business Class


THE AGE OF SERVICES

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

AC

P

BY ÉLIDA BUSTOS

Alberto Alemán Zubieta is an engineer, a very feisty one. And very

political too, despite his claims to the contrary. Alemán twice headed

the Panama Canal Authority; his two terms lasted for a total of 17 years,

and in both of them he confronted major challenges.

Th e US withdrawal in 1999 from the administration of the Canal

meant that Panama recovered its sovereignty of the waterway. But the

country needed the Panama Canal Authority to generate earnings too.

Its non-profi t status had to be dead and buried.

Th e fi rst task was to transform the Authority’s management from a

statist mentality to one of a company without fear of competition. Th e

next was to solve the problem that two studies of the time had posed: by

2012, the Canal was going to reach full capacity.

“Th ey handed me over a company that had a death sentence hanging

over it,” Alemán told Latin Trade shortly before retiring as Administra-

tor of the Panama Canal.

“How was it going to compete? Th e world wasn’t prepared to wait for

me.” Th e post-Panamax ships were about to be built. Something had to

be done. Th at “something” was going to be costly and it had to be big, but

fi rst the Authority’s fi nances had to be put in order.

During the 85 years in which it administered the canal, the United

States never aimed to earn profi ts. Instead the objective was strategic

control of the waterway. Washington had no interest in making money;

all that was required was self-suffi ciency. “It was a break-even operation,”

said Alemán. Now it had to be transformed into “a company with profi ts

-- which amounts to a 180-degree turn.”

Th is meant transformation of the management objectives. “Th e

new mandate for the canal was to be effi cient. We had to bring

about a cultural change in the authority, both from within and out-

side the organization.”

Th e reorganization began with the management structure the Ameri-

cans had used. It provided “a very sound foundation in legal and structu-

ral terms, as well as procedures and regulations”.

As the fi rst step in the change, the Authority had to learn how to

manage its resources. It was accustomed to “redundancy –have two, three

or four, just in case someone or something was needed.” Th at could no

longer go on.

At the same time, Alemán was well aware that one of the battles he

faced was his staff ’s fear of change. Th e overwhelming mentality was

that “if things are doing fi ne, why change? Don’t rock the boat! What I

said was ‘Th e opposite is true. We really need to ‘rock the boat’ so as to

make things get better.”

Of course, the unions got wind of his plans, and they feared that the

drive for effi ciency would mean fi rings on a mass scale.

Alemán had no fear of the unions, and he never closed his offi ce door

to them. Instead, he made the unions take part in the changes, while he

personally got to know the situation fi rst hand in the various areas of the

operation. “I personally negotiated all the practices that were included

in the collective agreement,” he said. “Th e leader in the negotiations was

me, and that was something that the prevailing mentality didn’t unders-

tand. ‘How come the CEO is negotiating the collective agreement?’ It

ALEMÁN ZUBIETA Alberto

The Panama Canal’s construction was an epic that pitted the human spirit against nature. More recently, the problems haven’t been fl ies but internal resistance to change and the need to face competition.


THE AGE OF SERVICES

was a message to make sure that people knew that what was coming was

a change for real. I was involved. I knew what was going on and they

couldn’t spin me a yarn. I went to the manual workers, the ones who have

to operate the Canal, and with the guys in dredging so I could fi nd out

about that line of business –and it’s a very complicated one.”

While these very fundamental issues were handled, information te-

chnology had to be updated. Th e authority used a DOS-based system.

“Th at was awful. Th e systems weren’t integrated,” said Alemán.

At the same time, managers had to keep up-to-the-minute on what

was going on in the Canal. “How can it be that I’m supposed to be run-

ning the Canal when I don’t know which ship is just around the bend?”

Th at was how control by satellite was introduced.

Not that everything had to be bought. A lot of the ad hoc solutions

came from the experience of the staff .

And there was another thing. Alemán was working on several fronts:

management, legal, technological and fi nancial. Now he had to “unders-

tand the business”.

He got in touch with the Canal’s 40 leading clients to ask them what

they thought about the service. “Th at marked a fundamental change:

the CEO of one company was talking with another. Th at was a very big

deal,” said Alemán. Not once in the 85 years of administration by the US

did anyone speak with a client.

Th e underlying aim behind the eff orts to understand the business was

the need to tackle tariff s, as part of the authority’s mandate to make pro-

fi ts. Alemán reckoned that the key was not to increase the rates but to set

up a new scheme of diff erentiated tariff s.

“Th e previous way was to charge all the ships the same. Th ere was no

segmentation, no understanding of the needs of the business. First come,

fi rst served, and that was all.”

Alemán thought otherwise. “What’s our business about? Is it about

the passage of ships or the passage of the cargo that they carry?” Meeting

up with the clients was a tough experience, but it created more effi ciency

and it led to a range of prices based on the type of ship, the type of cargo,

containers in vessels with above-deck capacity, and so on.

Th e revolution in the Panama Canal Authority led Alemán to a se-

cond term as Administrator. He had previously served two years during

the change from US to Panamanian administration. During those years,

the bureaucratic mentality was buried. A year before the transition en-

ded, the authority had a surplus of $41 million. Last year, 11 years later,

the fi gure came to $1.2 billion.

Meanwhile, expansion is prolonging the Canal’s life expectancy. And

investment of $5.25 billion is mainly being provided from the authority’s

own resources.

Nobody yet knows which ship will be the fi rst to open the

expanded Canal within a couple of years, but Alberto Alemán

Zubieta, who dedicated 17 years of his life to the Canal Authority,

deserves to be on the deck..

Élida Bustos reported from Panama City


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

MIC

RO

SO

FT

“Th e market has exploded in Latin America,” said Hernán Rincón,

president Microsoft Latin America, describing the speed with

which sales are growing in the region. He told Latin Trade that of the

thirteen regions into which the company divides the world, his is the

one with the highest growth rate, expanding by rates of 3 percent to 6

percent over the past 10 years.

It hasn’t always been like this, says Rincón, who has seen the trans-

formation of the technology market from the special vantage point of

his Fort Lauderdale offi ce.

Adoption of computer technology over the last two decades has

come in waves (see box). Financial fi rms were the fi rst to invest in

systems and communications, with ATMs and with the installation

of new systems for processing and administering information. Gov-

ernments and state-run companies followed. At that time, most of

Latin America’s oil companies and public service operations were in

state hands.

Privately-owned Latin American companies started to compete on

the world stage after 2000. Th ey had to become more effi cient to be

successful against India and China, Rincón said. “It was (compara-

tively) easy to compete against the Europeans.” To do this they lowered

costs by boosting productivity, which they achieved through investing

in software, communications and manufacturing technologies.

Some sectors, such as mining, made fast progress. Chile’s Codelco

and some Peruvian mining companies have drilling and extraction

technologies, as well as IT systems, that are on a par with the best in

the world, he says.

Other areas, like agriculture, education and healthcare, have lagged

behind. With healthcare there is some investment in medical equip-

ment, “but in the administration of patients, hospitals and medicines it

has yet to be made,” he said. “Healthcare ranks back where banks were

20 years ago,” he says.

He expects the next big step for the region to involve wide use of

cloud computing. With the cloud, users can always be connected and

have access to as much information and computer capacity as they re-

quire. “Th e cloud breaks forever the barrier that capital investment used

to impose,” he said. “Now a family doesn’t need to spend much money,

nor does a company have to install a computer center. All that’s needed

is a communications device. Th e rest is in the cloud.”

Other future transformations in the region will involve applications

that help governments to provide better service to their citizens– in

education and health. “All governments understand that that is the

next frontier,” he says.

As a result, Latin America will continue to be one of the most in-

teresting target markets for those off ering such products. Today, for

example, 45 million personal computers are sold in the region per year,

a number that makes it the third biggest market in the world after

China and the United States. For Microsoft, software sales in Latin

America have grown between 2.5 and three times faster than the total

market during the last seven years, he says.

“We’re very optimistic about Latin America,” Rincón says. “In 20

years, Brazil and Mexico will be two of the fi ve biggest economies in

the world and they will be more sophisticated,” he says. “Th ey will ap-

ply technology in everything they do.”

Th e way it looks now, the trend seems unstoppable.

Santiago Gutiérrez reported from Miami


THE AGE OF SERVICES

The fi rst major Latin American investors in technology were big companies and governments. Over the past 10 years, there has been another wave of investment from medium-sized and small businesses– those with fewer than 250 employees. Today their demand is growing twice as fast as that of large companies. The third wave, which has come over the last fi ve years, is driven by consumers. They buy everything from smartphones to tablets and computers. In 2011 and 2012, their demand was double that of mid-size and small companies. This year, it is growing 34 percent faster than last year.

THE THREE WAVES

Latin America is the region with the world’s highest growth rate in demand for technology.

RINCÓNHernán

President of Microsoft Latin America


F ifty years ago the Panalpina Group, one of

the leading global providers of supply chain solutions and logistics services, started developing its Latin American network with its first operations in Colombia and Venezuela, said Ferdinand Kurt, the regional CEO of Panalpina for the Americas.

“We pro-vide end-to-end solutions to a variety of industries, including oil and gas, health-care and high-tech through-out Latin America,” said Swiss-born Kurt, who has over 30 years of experience in the international freight forwarding and logistics sec-tors.

Kurt, who previously was president and CEO of Kue-hne + Nagel for South and Central America, sees good growth opportunities in markets such as Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Mexico, and particularly in the upstream supply chain for oil and gas. “We have a long history in

Latin America and offer our customers specialized ex-pertise, know-how and solu-tions,” said Kurt.

Panalpina, for example, has state-of-the-art cold-chain services for the healthcare sector’s delicate

air cargo ship-ments that can be monitored for temperature con-trol. And recently began offering air

freight customers faster turn-around times with a twice weekly flight from Hong Kong to Brazil. To meet new demand for air freight, the Switzerland-based company this year added two new Boe-ing 747-8 cargo planes to its international network. These advanced aircraft will form part of Panalpina’s “own con-trolled network,” which has been designed to offer solu-tions for different industries that are not available from commercial carriers. Joseph A. Mann, Jr. reported

from Miami

PH

OT

OS

: C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F P

AN

AL

PIN

A;

IST

OC

K P

HO

TO

S

Social networks have transformed the way Burger King relates to its cus-

tomers, especially in Latin America. José Tomás, president of Burger King

for Latin America and the Caribbean, told Latin Trade the fast food chain’s promo-tional campaigns through social media are more successful in Latin America than in other regions. He attributes this to enormous growth in the number of people with smartphones, and the fact that the company’s franchisees are open to strategies that can be implemented using new technologies.

The company’s latest social network campaign tar-geted customers in Brazil using Facebook.

After hitting the one-million mark for people who registered as Burger King “fans” on the site, the chain gave away a Whopper (Burger King’s fl agship sandwich) to every person who had signed up. The fast food restau-rant’s page became the second most visited Facebook page in the country.

Technology has also changed the way the company, which was acquired by the investment fund 3G Capital in 2010, interacts with its franchisees in different countries throughout the region.

“In the last fi ve years, our region has adopted a new way of thinking about how we communicate,” Tomás said of Burger King operations in Latin America.

New communications technologies (webinars, vid-eoconferences, Skype) have enabled the good ideas to fl ow more freely, the executive said. “If there is a good campaign in Argentina, no doubt someone will go there, will see how it works, and will bring it back to another country.”

Interconnectivity has also contributed to lowering costs for the franchisees, said Tomás. He cited as an example a company initiative to make architectural plans for regional Burger King restaurants available on its internal web page, so that whoever wants to open a new restaurant doesn’t need to hire an architect to make a new design and a new fl oor plan.

Thanks in part to these advances, and to Latin Ameri-ca’s explosive economic growth, Burger King’s progress has been spectacular in the last two years. In 2011 the company opened more restaurants in the region than in any other year (more than 80), and this year it expects to open another 175.

“The economy has helped us a lot,” said Tomás.

Alejandra Labanca reported from Miami


AGE OF SERVICES

State-of-the-Art in the

COLD-CHAIN

KURTFerdinand

CEO of Panalpina for the Americas

WHOPPING RESULTSfrom social media


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

SA

P

“What has changed in our industry in recent decades? Every-

thing!” exclaimed Miami-based Rodolpho Cardenuto, an elec-

tronics engineer and president of business software giant SAP for Latin

America and the Caribbean.

“We were still programming with mainframes and using languages

like COBOL. Th e IT user then had to be an IT expert,” said Cardenuto,

a Brazilian whose region includes over 12,200 clients and 3,000 emplo-

yees in 12 countries.

As technology advanced, every aspect of the business changed, noted

Cardenuto, whose company has been working in Latin America for

18 years. Information –previously stored on magnetic tapes, and before

that punch cards-– had to be collected and processed overnight. Today,

companies can process large volumes of data, access huge data bases and

retrieve and analyze information in real time.

If a customer two decades ago had a problem, SAP had to dispatch a

technician to solve it. “Today, we can use new technology to manage cus-

tomers from a distance,” said Cardenuto, who took over as head of Latin

America and the Caribbean in 2008 following 25 years of experience in

technology sectors, including 17 years at HP.

At the outset, SAP did not work with business partners in Latin

America. Now, the company has over 450 partners in the region and

they represent an important share of total sales.

“Th e way we work today would not have been possible 20 years ago.

IT has developed from something used by a few, to something accessible

to many, thanks to the Internet and now to something available to every-

one via mobility.”

Changes at SAP Latin America in recent years have been equally

dramatic. Th e company, which is part of German-based SAP AG, an

international leader in enterprise software, today principally works in fi ve

market categories: cloud computing, mobility, business analytics, data

base and applications.

“When I arrived at SAP in July of 2008, 95 percent of revenues

came from classic ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and about

5 percent from analytics,” Cardenuto said. “Now about two-thirds

of our revenues are derived from innovation and new applications

while one-third comes from ERP. Everything has changed. Th e

market has changed, we’ve changed. We’ve acquired companies and

invested consistently in innovation.”

Th is year, SAP has logged double digit growth while Latin

America is outperforming the rest of the world in software sales. For

example, SAP Latin America reported 23 percent growth in rev-

enues for software and services in the second quarter of 2012, while

revenues from software sales to SMEs (small and medium-sized

enterprises) in the region increased by 44 percent.

SAP has grown and prospered in the IT world as a result of its

constant innovation, acquisitions and investments in R&D.

Th e technology, innovation and experience gained from these

acquisitions enhance SAP’s software and services in Latin America

and the rest of the world.

Cardenuto stressed that R&D is of prime importance for SAP in

Latin America, in order to provide localized solutions and support

customers throughout the Americas. In 2009, SAP invested about 15

million euros in a new R&D center in the Centro de Tecnología de

Unisinos in São Leopoldo, Brazil (SAP Labs Latin America) and this

year announced an additional investment to expand the facility. SAP is

adding a new, LEED-certifi ed building to the R&D center with a ca-

pacity for an additional 500 employees.

Innovation has been a driving force in SAP since it was founded in

Germany in 1972 by fi ve engineers who had worked for IBM. SAP–

which means Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing–

focused on business software and became the world’s largest supplier of

specialized enterprise software to both large and small companies.

In Latin America, SAP moved to advance its ability to serve the

expanding mobility market by teaming up with Colombia’s UNE-

EPM Telecommunications. Th e carrier can now off er its corporate

customers a cloud-based mobility platform to access business appli-

cations and systems. SAP previously partnered with Chile’s Entel to

provide mobile services.


BY JOSEPH A. MANN, JR.SAP has logged double-digit growth while Latin America is outperforming the rest ofthe world in software sales.

THE AGE OF SERVICES

CARDENUTORODOLPHO

President SAP Latin America and the Caribbean

On Demand

To subscribe: Phone: 1.800.765.0453 or 1.305.749.0888

Mail: [email protected]

Latin America

News, analysis and statistics available anytime, anywhere

Subscribe today Limited Time Offer

$299*

Latin Business Chronicle

One year subscription to Latin Trade * Available only through January 4th

And receive for FREE:


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

DH

L

DHL was started by innovators and grew by

using innovation to respond to customer

demand all over the world, said Stephen Fen-

wick, CEO of DHL Express Americas.

“Conceptually, DHL was a garage start-up.

We started out with a few people sitting on

planes fl ying documents from San Francisco

(California) to Hawaii,” said Fenwick, who has

worked with DHL for three decades and now

runs a division that includes the United States,

Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean,

employing about 15,000 people in 57 countries

and territories.

DHL began in 1969 when three men,

Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert

Lynn (whose last names provided the initials

for DHL), established an air express business

by personally delivering shipping documents by

air. Th e documents arrived at customs offi ces

before the freight, which allowed cargos to

pass through customs more quickly and helped

improve the fl ow of international trade.

“For years, our people carried documents

on planes,” said Fenwick, an Australian who

previously worked for DHL in Singapore as

senior vice president of network operations for

Asia Pacifi c, Eastern Europe, the Middle East

and Africa. “Sometimes our people would take

up a whole plane, and the airlines didn’t like us

at the beginning.

“Th at’s how we started-- through innova-

tion. Off ering a service that didn’t exist,” he

added. “And we’ve grown over the years by

using innovation to respond to customer de-

mand.” DHL today is the courier service with

the greatest international reach, serving more

than 220 countries and territories worldwide.

As its business expanded, DHL realized the

value of computer technology and word pro-

cessing. Th e company was a pioneer in using

word processors, Fenwick noted, a step that

sped up the handling of enormous volumes of

paperwork previously done either with type-

writers or manually.

As the company grew, it acquired its own

planes and added more routes. Today it ope-

rates its own worldwide fl eet of cargo jets and

partners with regional airlines in order to ex-

tend its reach.

In Latin America, DHL expanded its

network far beyond capital cities, following

international and domestic trade patterns and

setting up service in provincial centers. Th e

company built a regional hub in Panama and

has quality control centers in Brazil, Mexico

and Brazil.

“Ten years ago the trend in Latin America

was all North-South business,” Fenwick said.

Trade patterns have changed and today the

fl ow moves both directions along the North-

South axis as well as East and West. “As

smaller companies get into the import/export

business all over Latin America, this trend will

continue.”

Other important developments in the

region that will impact DHL are near-shoring

(moving manufacturing from China to Latin

America as costs rise in Asia); increased

online shopping among the growing middle

classes in Mexico, Brazil and other countries;

the growth of Latin multinationals and their

use of Panama as a distribution point; and a

continued expansion of trade.

To improve performance and customer ser-

vice in the Americas, all employees are required

to take a training program that explains each

aspect of the express business– customs, docu-

mentation, customer service, operations and

fi nance. Everyone, “from airport workers to the

CEO participates in this program,” Fenwick

said.

During Fenwick’s time at DHL, the com-

pany has used technology to shift from using

paper bills of lading to worldwide electronic

tracking.

Now, Fenwick pointed out, DHL is raising

the use of barcodes and tracking systems to a

new level. “Th e customer– using a computer

or mobile device– receives up-to-the-minute

reports on where his shipment is and when it

arrives.”

DHL Express is a division of Deutsche

Post DHL which is based in Bonn, Germany,

and has about 275,000 employees across the

globe. Other divisions are DHL Global For-

warding, Freight; Supply Chain and DHL

Global Mail.



THE AGE OF SERVICES

FENWICKStephen

CEO DHL Express Americas


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

AS

HO

KA

; I

ST

OC

K P

HO

TO

S

Social entrepreneurship has seen a surge

over the past decade with the rise of social

networking websites like Facebook that allow

people to reach wider audiences and fi nd more

funding sources.

Armando Laborde understands this well.

Th e 47-year-old has been running the Central

America and Mexico operations of Ashoka

since 2006 and is also co-director for Latin

America.

Founded in 1980 by American social entre-

preneur Bill Drayton, Ashoka identifi es and

invests in social entrepreneurs in 70 countries.

It has grown into a global nonprofi t organiza-

tion with 3,000 social entrepreneurs as fellows;

the third-largest concentration of fellows is in

Mexico, after India and Brazil.

Th e mission of the Arlington, Virginia-

based nonprofi t is to support entrepreneurs

working to tackle problems in a way that pro-

duces social benefi ts, either through fi nancial

support, professional backing, or access to a

global network of people and organizations

that can help.

Of the fellows, 200 are in Costa Rica, El

Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua.

Programs range from promoting volunteerism

and civic engagement, to training school chil-

dren to use computers, to reducing greenhouse

gas emissions.

Alito Alessi, for example, is using a dance

program in Mexico to help people on the

fringes of society gain self-confi dence and fi nd

jobs, or develop their own social projects.

Nicaragua’s Flavio Bianchini helps equip

communities and grassroots

organizations to measure the

harmful consequences of mining

and other resource extraction

eff orts— data that can be used

to bring lawsuits in cases of en-

vironmental degradation.

El Salvador’s Julio Cesar Canizales, who lost

his sight just before turning 24, helps the blind

to develop job skills while pressing for legal

changes to provide more social and economic

opportunities for them.

American-born artist and papermaker Mark

Callaghan is helping the Maya population of

Yucatán, Mexico, to develop a community-

based papermaking project as a micro enter-

prise.

“Th e fellows look at things diff erently,”

Laborde said. Asked if they can make a dent

in the wide array of social problems the world

faces, he says, they can help, but only so much.

“We need a lot more (of them),” Laborde

confi des.

Laborde was director of community fi nance

at Mexican micro-lender FinComún, followed

by a stint implementing sustainable, fair-trade

coff ee production in Mexico. He then ran Pro-

Mujer México, a nonprofi t helping women pull

themselves out of poverty through fi nancial

literacy, low-cost healthcare and microloans.

Looking back, Laborde said his experience

has taught him that there is “a continual need

for... innovation so that you can fi nd new ways

to make more (of an) impact.” As an example,

he cites bringing companies together to help

fi nance small coff ee cooperatives that otherwise

might go bankrupt.

After joining Ashoka, Laborde set out to

rustle up local partners to fi nance an expan-

sion drive. His division now gets 100 percent

of its fi nancing from within Latin America,

compared with 5 percent before he took the

job. Donors include Mexico City-based Com-

partamos Banco, the largest microfi nance bank

in Latin America, Brazilian cosmetics maker

Natura, Danone, UBS, Santander, Walmart

and Google.

Another task, he said, was to identify pro-

grams that can help Ashoka reach more people.

“We want to reach hundreds of thousands”

of people, who could potentially become social

entrepreneurs, he said. Ashoka also is pairing

executives with social entrepreneurs on social

causes. Th e aim, Laborde said, is to transform

business leaders into “people of change” so that

corporate responsibility becomes a core value of

their businesses.

Charles Newbery reported from Buenos Aires

BY CHARLES NEWBERY

HUMAN RESOURCES & DEMOGRAPHICS

LABORDEARMANDO

DIRECTOR OF ASHOKA CENTRAL AMERICA AND MEXICO

The fellows look at things differently


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

FU

ND

AC

IÓN

PA

NT

AL

EÓ

N

Students at the Wilfrido Campos Poveda

school, in Choluteca, Honduras, used to

have no option but to have their lessons out-

doors. It wasn’t until this year that they could

study in classrooms with roofs, thanks to the

work of the Pantaleón Foundation.

Th e Foundation is one of the best examples

of a corporate initiative aimed at changing social

action, both for their employees and the com-

munities near where their production is based.

Created in Guatemala in 1993, the Founda-

tion was created by Grupo

Pantaleón, one of Latin

America’s largest producers

of sugarcane, sugar and its

derivatives. Th e company

decided to make a contribution to the Founda-

tion’s programs based on the production of its

sugar mills, the president of the Foundation,

Lucía Herrera, told Latin Trade.

Th e organization has launched a three-

pronged course of action –in education, health

and environment. Th e results have made major

contributions in these areas to Guatemala, Ni-

caragua and Honduras over the last 20 years.

One of the most interesting projects is the

provision of literacy skills and primary educa-

tion for cane-cutters who have been with the

company for at least six months during the

sugarcane harvest. Th e cane-cutters attend

school within the sugar refi nery and are free

to continue their studies within their com-

munities. Several of those who have fi nished

the program have been promoted; others go

on to study further, said Lucía Herrera. Th e

Foundation has also established scholarship

and student credit programs for those who

fi nish primary education and wish to continue

their studies. Some who have taken part in the

primary education program are now studying

in universities, Herrera added. According to

experts in the fi eld, this is something of a miracle

in Latin America, where many people fi nd

education to be a major roadblock against their

hopes to achieve social and fi nancial stability.

Another interesting project is the vocational

studies program. In Nicaragua, the Pantaleón

Educational Center off ers vocational high

school courses to employees’ children and

people who live near the company’s production

plants. Th ey can take courses in car mechanics,

machine operation, welding, turning machines

or, in the case of women, become sugar spe-

cialists. Th is training is obviously good for the

company, although it has also proven benefi cial

for other sugar refi neries and industries in the

region. “We have raised the academic standard

of staff in this area”, said Lucía Herrera.

Th e Foundation is constantly developing its

programs. Having improved the basic educa-

tion of its employees, this year it launched a

series of programs aimed at children under six

years of age. Over the years, the importance of

education for this age group has been widely

recognized throughout the region. As a result,

educational programs for young children have

been launched. Th is year, a daycare center ser-

vice was opened for employees’ children who

are aged under six, and will then be given the

opportunity to study at the organization’s own

primary school.

Th e Foundation’s work has been interna-

tionally recognized, as has Grupo

Pantaleón’s initiative in launching

it. In 2007, the group was named

Best Corporate Citizen by the

Organization of American States

for its “Visionary Schools” education project,

which promotes values such as democracy and

tolerance.

In 2008, Guatemala’s Corporate Social

Responsibility Action Center conducted a

survey among 68 companies. Pantaleón was

consistently among the top fi ve in seven areas

of social responsibility: governability, staff , en-

vironment, providers, marketing, communities

and public policies.

Th e Foundation has worked extensively

across the three countries where it operates,

and has already begun to export its model to

others that have seen the results. Th e work of

Lucía Herrera is an example of how corporate

action can help shape a continent.



HUMAN RESOURCES AND DEMOGRAPHICS

Cane-cutters smash roadblocks to social mobility through education.

HERRERALUCÍA

PRESIDENT OF PANTALEÓN FOUNDATION


“ This is the only industry where supply is always in high demand because of talent.

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

NE

OR

IS

At Neoris, innovation means adopting an

uncommon approach to IT consulting:

working alongside clients in and outside their

companies. Neoris’ strategy, according to com-

pany CEO Claudio Muruzábal, is to combine

two elements – the practical and the visionary.

“Th is is not just a nice marketing state-

ment,” said Muruzábal, who has led Neoris

since 2004. “Th e visionary always focuses on

new ideas, technology and diff erent ways of

doing things. And we are practical. We’re a

lean company, easy to do business with. We

have a lot of visibility, we engage with our

clients, get close to them and make decisions

with them,” he said

Th e approach may have been the key to

success for this young company that in little

more than 10 years evolved from being the

IT branch of Mexican cement giant Cemex

to one of the fastest growing business and IT

consulting companies in the world.

In 2000, the company separated from

CEMEX, still its majority shareholder, and

began working on its own. Th e company did

consulting work in Mexico, then found clients

in other countries in Latin America, as well as

the United States, Europe, the Middle East,

Africa and India.

“We grew mostly by word of mouth,”

Muruzábal said of the Miami-based business,

which boasts more than 3,500 employees and

20 offi ces worldwide. “Industry notices com-

panies that can get the work done.”

Neoris is the largest IT consulting and sys-

tems integration company in Mexico and the

second largest in Latin America, according to

IDC (International Data Corp.), the world-

wide IT and telecommunications market

intelligence fi rm. According to Neoris’ global

report for 2012, practical visionaries develop

“the art of being functional, grounded, reliable

and realistic, yet possessing the foresight, drive

and innovation to constantly convert aspira-

tions into realities. At Neoris,” it continues,

“we partner with our clients.”

Another innovation was to embrace “near-

sourcing” as an alternative to help centers

based half-way around the globe. Muruzábal’s

strategy involved establishing centers for IT

services and software development in Argen-

tina, Mexico, Hungary and Spain. Th ese cen-

ters off ered alternative solutions to clients that

found disadvantages with outsourcing fi rms in

India and the Philippines.

Neoris also partners with a wide range of

technology companies to provide the best

options for its clients. In Brazil, Neoris

partnered with SAP, the German software

company, to assist Usiminas, a major Brazil-

ian steel producer, to develop and implement

a system of monitoring and controlling all

aspects of a steel mill. Neoris worked closely

with the steel producer to understand how its

complex plant worked and what the company

wanted to achieve, while SAP developed

software suited to the client.Looking ahead.

Muruzabal said that attracting talent is one of

the biggest challenges for his company. “Th is

is the only industry where supply is always

behind demand because of talent,” he said.

“It’s what keeps you awake at night.”

But, he added, Neoris is “blessed” with

access to engineers and people with business

and language skills throughout Latin America

and the Caribbean.



LATIN AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY TO THE WORLD

MURUZÁBALClaudio

CEO, Neoris


at the computers of that time. Today you have an iPad or a Smartphone.

All the potential you have in these little devices was unimaginable before.”

Not to mention online banking, a sector in which Softtek has played

an active role.

How does Blanca Treviño imagine technology in 20 years’ time? “I

just expect it will be something that I can’t even imagine today.” Touché.

What she can imagine is the future of the company she has directed

now for more than 25 years: “I expect that Softtek will continue to be an

important player in all of the industries it’s in, and will still be delivering

value to the companies in these industries no matter what the techno-

logy of the day might be.” She emphasizes that Softtek is a global player

hungry for challenges.

So speaks the Monterrey native who led Softtek as it became Latin

America’s leading IT company. In a telling detail, at each company anni-

versary, she invites its collaborators to celebrate the coming year and not

the one just ended.

What’s important is what comes next.

Today Treviño is one of Latin America’s most celebrated business-

women, but she never forgets the journey that positioned the company in

the North American marketplace.

“It was all an adventure, that a Latin American company could be-

come a player in this sector,” she recalls. “Th ere were companies that

asked: ‘Will you use technology?’ Th ey didn’t ask if you’d develop it, they

asked if you’d use it.”

Th en came her Near Shore success, a system that revolutionized

outsourcing services by off ering them from countries close to the target

market.

What challenges a company so successful and thriving, then? “Mak-

ing sure we have the best talent: attracting it, keeping it, and developing

it.” Th e Softtek CEO has bet on linking up with universities, working

with them to structure study plans that closely replicate the real world of

industry, while also opening the company’s doors to senior students with

the aim of “enamoring” them with the

sector and, of course, the company.

“Just as we have a value proposal for

the customer, we have a value proposal

for this human capital, so that they’ll

say: ‘I want to be in Softtek,’” she says.

Treviño says each night she notes

to herself: “Be aware of the risk. Your

whole team is going home, as if it were your machinery. What are you

going to do so they’ll want to be with you tomorrow morning?” Th e

company has 10 percent annual staff turnover, while at the same time it

must grow by 20 percent.

Even as she cultivates and attracts this human capital, Treviño could

also be thinking about the inorganic growth that comes with acquisi-

tions, as a means of expanding into new markets and industry sectors.

Finding the economic resources is not the problem, but rather fi nding

the right opportunity and choosing assertively, especially since she oper-

ates in an industry that changes so quickly.

Th ere’s no doubt that Blanca Treviño already has some acquisition

prospects in her sights.

Nancy Ibarra reported from Monterrey, Mexico PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

SO

FT

TE

K

The woman has crisscrossed borders throughout the world with a

technology company that boasts a worldwide staff of 7,000. But

at the same time she modestly states

that sharing the company was Softtek’s

highest-yielding innovation.

Th e algorithm is simple for CEO

Blanca Treviño, the much-admired na-

tive of Monterrey, Mexico: “When we

started the company we decided to share

it. We were never open to receiving

investment funds or selling it, only bringing in and nourishing talent. We

said: join us and the company is partly yours. You too are building your

dream.”

Th at’s how Softtek, an information technology (IT) service provider,

built a team of talented engineers who have helped the company to con-

quer markets that it hadn’t dreamed of when it was founded 30 years ago.

“I think if we were to talk about an innovation model that enables us

to be where we are as an organization, we undoubtedly would have to

talk about our culture, our organizational structure and stock participa-

tion,” Treviño says.

She doesn’t hide her enthusiasm for being part of an industry that she

sees as fascinating and challenging. Talking about how the sector and the

company she directs have evolved over the last 20 years, she says, “Just look

BY NANCY IBARRA

LATIN AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY TO THE WORLD

“There were companies that asked, ‘will you use

technology?’ they didn’t ask if you’d develop it.”

TREVIÑOBLANCA

CEOSOFTTEK

For further details on sponsorship opportunities or registration, please contact Mary Arda, Director of Special Projects at [email protected]

The first business focused conference and expo designed for North American

Small and Medium sized businesses positioned for growth.

Trade Americas

The Latin Trade Group presents

AN AFFILIATE OF

THE LATIN TRADE GROUP

COMING JUNIO 11-12, 2013

www.tradeamericas.com

IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO INCREASE TRADE REVENUES AND DEFINE NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO MISS THIS EVENT.

• Learn how to position your SME towards growth and success in Latin America.• Maximize your human and financial resources by meeting key sector and country specific government participants.• Gain comprehensive insight to one of the world’s fastest growing trade markets.

TRADE AMÉRICAS WILL INTEGRATE:

• Pre-conference overviews and tutorials

• Educational sessions

• Country-specific presentations

• One-on-one meetings

• Networking functions


As Peru’s economy began to open up, the banking sector was trans-

formed. State-run banks were privatized and foreign fi nancial institu-

tions set up shop. Competition heated up.

Banco de Crédito’s fi rst move was to bring in a new set of managers,

many of whom had international banking experience. “We began

transforming the bank to be more competitive,” said Bayly, one of the

new managers at the time. “What had made us successful in the past was

clearly not what was going to make us successful in the future.”

One of Bayly’s early positions at Banco de Crédito was to run the

bank’s offi ces outside of Lima, a challenging task in Peru, since commu-

nication between vastly diverse regions could be patchy.

To stay on top of local developments, Bayly formed relationships with

community leaders who provided on-the-ground insight. “I formed

important relationships with maybe 20 or 30 important business men in

their own cities or regions and that is something that has remained over

many years,” he said.

After years of focusing on wholesale banking, Banco de Crédito’s new

managers refocused the fi rm’s activities on retail banking, betting that

continued economic growth would increase demand for consumer credit.

Th at decision marked a major shift in Banco de Crédito. In the early

1990s, about 10 percent to 20 percent of the bank’s business came from

retail banking, while today it accounts for more than 50 percent.

Although the bank was initially focused on high-end retail business,

for the last several years it has worked to increase the number of clients

from low-income areas that have traditionally lacked access to banking

services. Th is is part of a broader eff ort in the sector over the last few

years to increase banking participation in Peru, which has one of the

lowest participation rates in Latin America.

Within this framework, one of Banco de Crédito’s most impor-

tant innovations during the past 20 years has been to introduce

‘agencies’ in Peru— stripped down banking stations at mom-and-

pop shops, pharmacies and other small stores. Th e agencies off er

fewer services than branches, but they are less expensive to operate.

“Th ey are used extensively and it is a relatively inexpensive way to

increase our coverage and to reach places where branches or even an

ATM is not profi table,” Bayly says.

Bayly says technology will play a key role in growing service in

remote and isolated Andean towns and jungle communities. “We

are extremely focused on how technology can help us widen our

reach,” he says. For example, mobile banking is expected to take off

in the next few years in Peru.

Ryan Dube reported from Lima PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

BC

P

Peru was in a tough spot 20 years ago. A violent insurgency by leftist

rebels was threatening to topple the government, while the economy

was coming out of a long stretch of hyperinfl ation that had wiped out

the savings of local residents. Today, much has changed in the Andean

country. It’s been one of Latin America’s fastest growing economies in

recent years, helping millions of people escape poverty.

Walter Bayly, the CEO of Banco de Crédito del Perú, the largest

bank in the country, credits the return of political stability and govern-

ment reforms in the 1990s for the turnaround. After living abroad for 13

years, Bayly returned to Peru in 1993, a year after the capture of Abimael

Guzmán, the leader of the Shining Path insurgency.

“One of the key elements that triggered my decision to return was the

fact that terrorism was starting to come under control,” Bayly says. “It

was a country after war. Th e country as a whole, I would say, had practi-

cally collapsed,” Bayly adds, remembering his fi rst impressions of Peru

after his return. “It was still a moment in time in which many of us Peru-

vians questioned whether Peru was viable.”

New retail focus features mom-and-pop shops.

BY RYAN DUBE

THE SECRET BEHIND THE MIRACLE

LLONAWALTER BAYLY

CEO Banco de Crédito del Perú


technology in lighting, energy, health, jet engines, trains, manu-

facturing, nanotechnology and other areas.

In Latin America, Vásquez said, GE is developing new

technologies for jet engines, the oil and natural gas industry,

environmental improvements, as well as energy production from

biomass and other sources, to name a few. The company today

has about 20,000 employees in the region.

“We have a technology center in Querétaro (Mexico) that is

working on new technology for jet engines,” Vásquez said. This

part of Mexico has become an important aerospace manufactur-

ing site, with companies such as Embraer, Bombardier, Hawker

Beechcraft, Gulfstream Aerospace, Textron and Honeywell also

operating there.

GE also is investing $100 million in a new research center

in Rio de Janeiro. The multi-disciplinary facility, which will

employ several hundred specialists when fully operational, is

developing new technologies in biofuels, systems integration,

process control and decision-making solutions for the oil and

gas, aviation, transportation and electric energy industries.

“A major goal will be to support Petrobras,” Vásquez said,

“but the new technologies developed will be used throughout

the region and worldwide.”

GE invests about 5 percent of its revenues in R&D globally,

Vásquez noted, with a focus on environmentally sound products

under the concept of “ecomagination.”

“Research is becoming very collaborative. By the time we

have a product that goes to market– for example a stethoscope

with a camera and a screen– it has been developed with col-

laboration from all over the world.” And emerging countries are

increasingly playing a role in this process.


GEhas been operating in Latin America for 115 years, hav-

ing disembarked in the region 19 years after opening its

doors in the United States, under the banner of Edison Electric

Light Co.

One sign of GE’s major innovative impact on the region is

visible even today at the Panama Canal, said Ricaurte (Catín)

Vásquez, vice president of government affairs and public policy

for GE Latin America.

GE designed and built the massive electro-mechanical control

system that has opened and closed the Panama Canal locks since

the canal was inaugurated in 1914.

Even though the control system has been upgraded over the

years, Vásquez noted, “You can still see the original GE logo in

the canal control room.”

GE, which has about 36,000 “technologists” in its global

workforce, has been a world leader in developing innovative

From Panama to Petrobras

PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

GE



VÁSQUEZRicaurte

VP of government affairs and public policy for GE Latin America

In Latin America, GE is developing new technologies for jet engines, the oil and natural gas industry, environmental improvements and energy production from biomass.


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

MIN

IST

RY

OF

DE

FE

NS

E,

BR

AZ

ILCelso Amorim, the current Brazilian

defense minister who served as foreign

minister during the eight years of the Luiz

Inácio Lula da Silva government, brought

innovative policies to each of the areas under

his management. Now, his challenge is to

bring in a national and regional security pol-

icy that’s consistent with the ideal of South

American integration. Amorim, who won the

Bravo Award in 2010 in the category of “In-

novative Leader of the Year,” spoke to Latin

Trade about the challenges that lie ahead.

Latin Trade was launched 20 years ago. How

do you see the regional political panorama of

that time when you look back today?

Twenty years ago the trend toward democ-

racy was just getting underway. Local econo-

mies were facing monetary instability, and the

rich were feeling vulnerable. Mercosur was

taking its fi rst steps and was being looked

upon with skepticism. It has faced its prob-

lems and freed itself from the threat of the

Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),

and now has just gained an important new

partner: Venezuela.

Why do you think the much-criticized incorpo-

ration of Venezuela into Mercosur is important?

In addition to providing opportunities for

trade, the arrival of this new partner reduces

asymmetries. Before, there were two large

economies, Brazil and Argentina, and two

small ones, Paraguay and Uruguay. Now there

is a middleweight in the balance, and this will

bring more equilibrium to the bloc, strength-

ening continental integration.

What were your work guidelines when you

were foreign minister?

Th e priority was to strengthen Mercosur,

and eff orts towards achieving integration;

south-south relations, including Africa; and

the search for new markets and partners in

the international arena, with a view toward a

more benign multi-polarity. Within the re-

gional plan, we achieved extraordinary results

that benefi tted all countries, culminating with

the creation of the Union of South American

Nations (Unasur). I think this success came

about mainly as a result of the maturing of

an idea: that integration must focus on South

America and not on Latin America.

Th is hasn’t aff ected the concept of Latin

American unity?

We limited the process to the geography

of what was possible, and this was imposed

by reality. Th is doesn’t mean relations with

Central America and the Caribbean no

longer were important. Th ey still are, but we

must recognize that the economies of the

Caribbean and Mexico are subject to a huge

infl uence from the North, which of course is

also natural, beyond barriers of a physical or

cultural nature.

Was breaking off the FTAA negotiations with

the United States a good decision?

Without a doubt. I was sharply criticized

at the time, but now the critics can see that it

was the right decision. If we had signed the

agreement, it would have inhibited economic

growth and we would not have obtained such

positive results in the integration process. (NB:

Over the last few years local economies have

taken off and intra-regional trade has grown

by 62 percent. Brazilian trade with its neigh-

bors has quadrupled. Trade between the region

and the rest of the world has doubled, with the

trade surplus growing from $73 billion to $110

billion between 2010 and 2011–an increase of

50.6 percent.)

Mercosur has spent 20 years putting itself

together and it still has problems. Doesn’t

continental integration require a much longer

time to mature?

Mercosur, with all its strengths and weak-

BY TEREZA CRUVINEL


AMORIMCELSO

Defense Minister of Brazil


“We’re following

the leader wher-

ever he may go.” This

seems to be the dictum

of Banco do Brasil’s

foreign operations.

Asked why the

largest bank in Latin

America and one of the

oldest in the world has

chosen to launch its

apparently haphazard

expansion in next-door

Argentina, managing

director of International

Business and Affairs

Admilson Monteiro

does not hesitate: “We

haven’t. Our customers

have. We were naturally

following them.”

Argentina is not only

South America’s second

largest economy after

Brazil, it is also Brazil’s

partner in the Merco-

sur trading bloc. In this

case, the leaders were

400 Brazilian companies

that have set up shop in

Argentina.

This same principle

also has led BB,

founded in 1808, to

target other regional

nations like Chile,

Colombia and Peru.

“Our international

strategy commitment is

based on three drivers:

the existence of Brazil-

ian communities living

abroad, the growing

presence of Brazilian

companies in other

countries, and Brazil’s

foreign trade fl ows,”

Monteiro explains. “We

aim to be recognized

as the worldwide,

fi rst-choice bank for

Brazilians and South

Americans.”

These guidelines have

led the state-run bank to

launch operations in 24

countries and counting.

An open-minded ap-

proach helps it target

the right niches in each

country:

• In Colombia, a

fl ourishing capital

market means BB

is now considering

establishing a new unit

or maybe acquiring a

local bank to tackle

this business arena.

• In South America’s

rising star Chile, the

focus is on a thriving

private pension

funds system that is

luring foreign asset

managers from

around the world.

• In fast-growing

Peru, opportunities

abound, from a strong

infl ow of investments

generating all sorts

of ventures, to a

robust export drive,

to remittances from

Peruvians working

in Japan. Seven BB

branches in the Land

of the Rising Sun mean

Peruvian workers

never have to go far

to send their money

home to their families.

Back to Argentina, in

2010 BB acquired Banco

Patagonia, Argentina’s

eighth largest bank,

with more than 180

branches, 500 ATMs,

and 800,000 retail and

wholesale clients, half

of them in the public

sector.

Market orientation,

open-mindedness,

fl exible and innovative

expansion strategies…

not a bad repertoire

for a public institu-

tion established in the

early 19th century by

Portuguese colonial

authorities.

David Haskel reported from Buenos Aires

FIRSTCHOICE BANK

The state-run bank has

launched operations in 24 countries

and counting.

nesses, is set up as a customs union. Unasur isn’t a

customs union. It’s based on free trade agreements.

Th us, the process of integration moves at two

diff erent speeds. We will have Mercosur in front,

with a more advanced integration, and we will

have Unasur going forward at a slower pace. But

in the medium term, I expect the two processes

will converge.

You are a diplomat, and now a leader in the military

sector. How do you reconcile a strong defense policy

with a push for regional integration?

We are strengthening our national defense

policy in close coordination with the integration

project. In reality, we are encouraging a regional

defense policy with the support of Unasur’s South

American Council.

How is this integration being built?

We are trying, initially, to encourage the

region-wide emergence of a strong industrial

base in this (military) sector, which would allow

purchases and exchanges among neighboring

countries. Today this industrial sector is very

fragile in the region, even in Brazil and Argen-

tina, where it is most advanced, though we are

starting to cooperate.

For example?

Brazil has sold Super Tucano military aircraft

to Ecuador and has bought some big military

boats from Colombia for patrolling the coast

and the large rivers. Argentina provides parts

for the new Embraer cargo aircraft. Peru is

interested in military aircraft and can provide

ships for the Brazilian Navy. Th is has barely

started, but it was in this way, building inte-

grated solutions, that we made other advances

in the region.

How do you think the international crisis will aff ect

the region?

I’m an optimist. It might seem everyone is

saying the same thing, but I see this crisis as

an opportunity for new advances, especially for

increasing regional trade, within the scope of

Mercosur and all of South America. I’m not

talking about returning to import substitution

or closing the economy… We must not, nor can

we, isolate ourselves in South America. But we

must protect each other. Th e sea is not for fi sh

that swim off on their own.”

Tereza Cruvinel reported from Brasilia

BY DAVID HASKEL


for Brazilians and South Americans around the world


PH

OT

O:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

TR

G M

AN

AG

EM

EN

T P

ER

U

Renowned Peruvian economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski likes to keep

things simple.

Th is approach, which is even applied to his name –he is known sim-

ply as PPK– and his generally laid back attitude, have helped carry him

through fi fty-plus working years wearing numerous hats.

A prominent international economist and pioneering emerging mar-

kets investor, his achievements also include presidential candidate, avid

fl autist and piano player, and philanthropist.

“I have always followed the same general principles: One, try to learn

something from whatever you’re doing. You’ve got to move on and move

up, you can’t stay stuck. Two, be very simple and practical. And three,

work with a small team. Don’t empire-build and do enormous schemes

that don’t work,” says PPK, 74, in his distinctive unhurried speech.

He brought his small-team philosophy to his 10-year stint at First

Boston Corporation (today Credit Suisse) in New York City, beginning

in 1982. “When I was on Wall Street, I had a little team of maybe 10

people, which was considered tiny by Wall Street standards, but I’d say

we produced some pretty important results,” says PPK. “I opened up

emerging markets (at the bank). I started out in South East Asia when

very few people were going there. We worked hard on China, Taiwan,

(Former Economy Minister of Peru)

Korea, and Spain, which hadn’t really been discovered until then.”

His lengthy CV also lists top jobs in private equity, mining and hedge

fund management. However, PPK’s involvement in Peru’s political scene

–where he is known as “El Gringo” because of his U.S. citizenship– is

what has garnered him most attention in recent years.

He ran for president in Peru’s 2011 elections, arriving late to the race

but quickly gaining ground. Despite an enthusiastic, well-strategized

campaign –his campaign mascot was “PPKuy” in reference to the “cuy,”

an Andean guinea pig native to Peru– he came in third place, losing to

current President Ollanta Humala. (During the fi rst electoral round

PPK captured 19 percent of the vote to Ollanta’s 32 percent and Keiko

Fujimori’s 24 percent. He did not advance to the run-off .)

It was by no means his fi rst run at public service. In 1967, PPK began

working for Peru’s Central Bank. He returned to Peru 13 years later

to serve as Minister of Energy and Mines under President Fernando

Belaunde, and then served as Minister of Economy and Finance and

as Prime Minister during President Alejando Toledo’s administration

(2001-2006).

“Because Peru is not such a big country, we were able to actually pro-

duce results, particularly from 2001 to 2006. We stabilized the economy,

reduced debt, privatized, opened up trade, reached an agreement with

U.S. on free trade, and so on. All of this resulted in the fastest growing

economy in Latin America, along with Panama, and probably also the

healthiest,” he notes.

Although PPK does not consider himself an innovator or even a poli-

tician, most business and political leaders in Peru concur that he has been

a driving force behind opening markets, bringing sound management

to his country’s budget and fi scal accounts, and developing Peru’s oil, gas

and electricity sectors.

And while PPK says, “I am not in the legacy business,” he’s clearly

proud of founding the Agua Limpia non-governmental organization

in 2007. Th e NGO has helped provide about 350,000 people with

clean water.

“Peru has 10 million people –and Lima 1.5 million people– without

water in their houses. In (the jungle town of) Iquitos, where I lived as a

kid, there are many, many people without water even though it’s on the

edge of the world’s biggest river. So access to clean water is an issue I feel

very strongly about,” says PPK, whose German-born father, a prominent

tropical disease specialist, arrived in Peru in 1936 to set up public health

services in the jungle region.

Lisa K. Wing reported from Lima

BY LISA K WING Enrique Garcia


We stabilized the economy, reduced debt, privatized and opened up trade. All of this resulted in Peru being the fastest growing economy in Latin America.

KUCZYNSKIPedro Pablo

Doing business in multiple countries is a challenging task. Understanding and meeting local regulations, maintaining company policies, and having control and

visibility over company spend are vital to effective business management. Corporate fi nance managers need to under-stand card usage and acceptance, travel patterns and vendor charges in order to identify potential issues and fi nd solutions.

At the same time, multinational companies need to provide their employees with a widely accepted corporate card that is both convenient and secure when traveling or conducting business. It’s a time-saving tool for employees, and a vital source of information for the company. After all, being able to capture that card data effi ciently is crucial to automating payment processes, maintaining spend visibility and enforcing company policies.

With the Visa Multinational Program, corporate fi nance managers can turn their corporate and purchasing card programs into powerful information management tools to reduce purchasing costs, monitor corporate expense compliance, provide consolidated data, and improve global spending analysis.

In addition to that invaluable global perspective, multinationals need to be able to localize their card programs for tax, compliance and reporting purposes. Visa’s Multinational Programoffers the best of both worlds – a globally accepted corporate card that consolidates data from different countries, different banks and currencies with the fl exibility to meet the require-ments of local subsidiaries and affi liates. The integration is done seamlessly thanks to our open-payment network business model that enables Visa and our multinational partner Banks to deliver measurable value through our commitment to service excellence, technological advancement, and payment innovation making our multinational program the right choice for multi-country commercial solutions.

Visa’s Leading-Edge Financial ToolsTo achieve these cost-reducing and productivity-enhancing global and local benefi ts, Visa’s Multinational Program incorporates state-of-the-art fi nancial tools:

l Visa IntelliLink Spend Management – a versatile informa-tion management tool that provides complete reporting and full-featured expense management integrated into a single, scalable platform.

l Perform Source – a suite of proprietary quantitative and qualitative analysis tools that includes sophisticated data an-alytics and benchmarking best practices diagnostics capable of identifying the strengths and opportunities in your commer-cial card program.

Meeting Multinationals’ Evolving NeedsWith its versatile multinational commercial card program, Visa has created the infrastructure, standards, and technology so-lutions that allow international companies to meet their evolv-ing global and local business needs. To take advantage of this value-added program, contact your Visa fi nancial partner.

But these benefi ts are only the beginning. After implementing Visa’s Multinational Program, additional tools are available to ensure that the program is performing at its peak. Through ongoing quantitative and qualitative analysis – and custom-ization of these key tools as necessary – Visa can deliver fi nancial benefi ts that continue to add value to multination-al card programs, enhance spending visibility and simplify payment processes.

Diego Rodríguez is Head of Commercial Solutions for Visa Inc. Latin America Caribbean


BY DIEGO RODRÍGUEZ

Visa’s Multinational Program:Providing Versatile and Powerful Global Payment and information Solutions.Your international business deserves a globally recognized and respected fi nancial partner that can help you conduct business anywhere in the world with greater ease, control and effi ciency.

a, and improve global spending analysis.

at invaluable global perspective, multination

A sample report from PerformSource

iPad version


Samoa, Be-

nin, the

Comoros, the

Maldives, the

Kiribati archi-

pelago, Tajikistan

… places that are

very distant to

Latin America.

But all of them

are covered by

the Assist-Card

travel care com-

pany, a multilatin of European origin that grew in Argentina’s

Pampas.

Th e company recently celebrated its 40th birthday and Alexia

Keglevich, chief executive and the founder’s daughter, explained

that in those days “there was no concept of travel care in Latin

America”. Nor were there Latin American travelers who ventured

into exotic destinations. Well-off Latin Americans traveled to

Europe and the United States; few even traveled to the rest of

Latin America.

Although founded in Geneva, the company moved within

months to Buenos Aires and grew within the region while gener-

ating 65 percent of its revenues in the Argentine market. Expan-

sion was steadily. Th en two crises in quick succession shook up

the company’s structure in 2001.

Th e September 11 attack on New York’s Twin Towers

paralyzed the international travel business. “All of a sudden,

everything was up in the air,” said Keglevich. “Th e company was

stopped in its tracks. Th e world was paralyzed.” It took three

months for business to stage the beginnings of a return.

Just when the company was getting back on track, Argentina’s

economy collapsed and Assist-Card had to open its mind and

get ready to look for more business in the region and the rest of

the world. “Th ere was a watershed. Assist-Card had to change its

mentality,” she added.

Just as these two crises hit, the Internet made its debut in the

world of business. And it turned out to be an extraordinary tool

to contribute for Assist-Card’s makeover.

Th e Internet changed all of the company’s operations. It also

turned the key to a door that opened up to exponential growth.

“Technology was what changed Assist-Card,” said Keglevich.

Now, the company has seven million clients of which 40 percent

are corporate. It provides assistance in more than 100 countries.


A NEW CONCEPT FOR LATIN AMERICA

Clients come to us.... for their contract

logistics and transportation

needs.

We deliver to them…

world class services and value added solutions…

with the people, processes and technology…

to make it all

happen.

PH

OT

OS

: C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F A

SS

IST

-CA

RDBY ÉLIDA BUSTOS

ALEXIA KEGLEVICH CEO of ASSIST-CARD


Meet some of the thousands

of contract logistics and

distribution professionals at

UTi who can integrate our

value-added warehousing and

distribution solutions to your

business. Our single-source

solutions enable you to deliver to

your customers while we deliver

savings to your bottom line.

To fi nd out more about which

UTi CL&D solution best suits your

needs and view our team videos,

visit go2uti.com/videos.

Not a weak link in the chain

Exceeding their expectations…

time and

time again. Because what’s important to them… Is important

to us.

A NEW CONCEPT FOR LATIN AMERICA P

HO

TO

S:

CO

UR

TE

SY

OF

FA

LA

BE

LL

A

The essence of retail business– supplying customers with a wide mix of products, good

prices and good service– has not changed, said Juan Benavides, Member of the Board of Banco Falabella, the fi nancial arm of large regional de-partment store Falabella.

“What is different is the rate of change,” added


BENAVIDESMember of the Board of Banco Falabella

Benavides, who oversaw the group’s rapid expan-sion over the last several years. “What used to happen in a year in retail now can happen in weeks or days. Fashion used to change on a seasonal basis, but today it changes every 15 days.”

Benavides, a Chilean former CEO of Falabella department store, noted that the ability of consumers to fi nd and compare products online, and see reviews of what they are planning to buy, represents “a gigantic change.”

Whereas stores purchase products and put them on display on their shelves, today’s customer can also buy directly online, whether they’re interested in national products or even imported items. At Falabella, only about 5 percent of customers buy online, but this is changing rapidly and could reach 10 to 15 percent in coming years. Falabella and Sodimac home improvement centers have operations in Chile, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. To keep up, company executives and store managers “have to be very aware of changes in consumer taste and demand,” Benavides said. Falabella buys from Latin America as well as from China and India,

where it has offi ces that identify and purchase new products. “By the time a product hits the stores, it’s already history,” he added. Productivity is still very low in our countries, Benavides noted, and to

compete effectively, the company must invest in training and in fi nding the right people.

Benavides is an excellent example of how an executive uses innovation to grow and strengthen his company and compete effectively in a demand-ing sector.

With extensive experience in banking and fi -nance, Benavides started his career at Falabella as head of its credit card, CMR Chile. Originally, the card could be used only in Falabella stores, but Benavides extended its reach so that cardholders could use it at other outlets, thus generating spec-tacular growth in the group’s credit business. He also was in charge of setting up the group’s retail bank, Banco Falabella, plus new businesses in travel and insurance. “Innovation is part of what we do every day,” the CEO said.

Joseph A. Mann, Jr. Reported from Miami

“Fashion used to change on a seasonal basis, but today it changes every 15 days”

Juan


As in previous years, Latin Trade Group hosted a private welcome reception for the BRAVO Business Award honorees, past winners

and special guests. Th e event was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami.

PH

OT

OG

RA

PH

S B

Y A

LE

X G

OR

T P

RO

DU

CT

ION

S

LATIN TRADE SYMPOSIUM & THE 18 TH ANNUAL BRAVO BUSINESS AWARDS

1. Alia Orane, daughter of Douglas Orane, Douglas Orane, Non-Executive Chairman, GraceKennedy Ltd., Zahra Orane, daughter of Douglas Orane; 2. Andrés Otero, Market Leader Latin America, Kroll Advisory Solutions,;Robert Brenner, Senior Managing Director and Practice Leader, Kroll Advisory Solutions; Recaredo Romero, Colombia Country Manager, Kroll Advisor Solutions; 3. Juan Benavides, CEO, Falabella, María Angélica Jaramillo, Guest of Juan Benavides; Julio Velarde, Governor, Central Bank of Peru; 4. Pamela Cordova, Copa Airlines, Sales Manager; Patricia Roquebert, Copa Airlines Marketing Regional manager; Daniel Verón, Managing Director, Advertising International; María Cristina Restrepo, Sales Representative Colombia and Panama, Latin Trade Group; 5. Mario Pinasco, Executive President, Crowne Plaza Lima; Margot Pinasco, Executive Director, Crowne Plaza Lima, Clay Sawyer, Director of Marketing Latin America & Caribbean, InterContinental Hotels Group; 6. Andrés Gluski, President and CEO, The AES Corporation, Scarlett Álvarez, Vice President Chief Stakeholder, The AES Corporation; Nelson Ortiz, President, Galisteo Investments; Guillermo Zuloaga, President, Globovisión.

Every year Latin Trade Group gathers the Latin American and Caribbean most influential business and government leaders during the Latin Trade Symposium, a one day forum of discussion focusing on Building the New Latin America preceding the annual BRAVO Business Awards. The signature event has recognized excellence and leadership in government, business and social contributions in the region during the past 18 years.

Welcome reception

and theTHE

1

3

2

4

5 6


Latin Trade Symposium

Th e annual Latin Trade Symposium begins with the private CEO

Roundtable that brings together the presidents of some of the most

important Latin American companies. Th e Symposium has become

the venue par excellence through which to view regional problems

and opportunities through the eyes of business and government

leaders. Th is year the Roundtable discussed the avenues that can lead

to the achievement of fully sustainable enterprises.

Th e 2012 Latin Trade Symposium posed challenging issues for

discussion on Building of the New Latin America. A fi rst plenary panel

addressed the question of how to become a winning multilatina in a new

commercial landscape and in a highly competitive environment.

A second panel identifi ed ways to leverage the impact of global power

shifts on Latin American growth. Th ey underlined the changes required

in leadership and the acquisition of corporate knowledge in order to profi t

from the new trends. In a mid-day keynote address Felipe Larraín, Chile’s

Finance Minister, described the road that his country has followed in

recent years to reach the goal of becoming Latin America’s fi rst developed

nation. Th e conference program was fi nalized with a lunch session that

explored the future of governance in the region. Th e speakers discussed

how the new political landscape and new political forces are changing the

ways of doing business.

1. Attendees at the Latin Trade Symposium. 2. Luanne Zurlo, President and Founder, Worldfund; Jordi Soley Climent, Director General, Expresso Bibliográfi co; 3. Jorge Becerra, Senior Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group; 4. Damian Chan, International Director for the Americas, Singapore Economic Development Board; 5. Poul Hestbaek, Senior Vice President Caribbean and Latin America, Hamburg Sud; Mariela García, Hamburg Sud; Carlos José Fabri, Country Manager Caribbean and Latin America West Coast, Hamburg Sud; 6. Susan Segal, President and CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas; 7. Andrew Vesey, COO, The AES Corporation; 8. Richard Burns, Chairman, Latin Trade Group; Felipe Larraín, Minister of Finance, Chile; Jorge Rosenblut, President, Endesa Chile; Juan Benavides, CEO, Falabella; Juan Luis Nilo, Consul General of Chile.

1

32

64 5

7 8


9. Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President, Ex-Im Bank; 10. Juan Pablo del Valle, Chairman of the Board, Mexichem SAB; 11. Enrique García, President and CEO, CAF - Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina; 12. Jerónimo Correa Braun, Senior Vice President, HSBC Private Bank; Jorge Escobar, Senior Vice President, HSBC Private Bank; 13. Felipe Larraín, Minister of Finance, Chile; 14. David Rothkopf, President and CEO, Garten Rothkopf; 15. Federico Restrepo Posada, EPM, Autopistas para la Prosperidad de Colombia; 16. Hans Hickler, CEO Asia Pacifi c, Agility; Lorena García-Durán, Director South Florida, Ashoka; 17. Rosemary Winters, Executive Director, Latin Trade Group; José Tomás, President LATAM & Caribbean, Burger King; 18. Rob Steigerwald, COO Americas Southern Region, Marriott International; 19. José Luis Sánchez Castro, President Latin America North, SAS Institute; 20. Andrés Gluski, President and CEO, The AES Corporation; Gilberto Rivera, Vice President, Area Sales - Latin America Freight Forwarding, UTI; Nilda M. De Boyrie, Vice President and Branch Manager Latin America Center, Charles Schwab; 21. John Price, Contributing Editor, Latin Trade magazine; 22. Ferdinand Kurt, Regional CEO Americas, Panalpina.

9


Latin Trade Symposium and 18TH Annual BRAVO Business Awards 1. Juan Benavides, CEO, Falabella; 2. Douglas Orane, Non-Executive Chairman, GraceKennedy Ltd.; 3. Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, CEO, Cinépolis; 4. Raúl Calfat, CEO, Votorantim; 5. Carlos Slim Domit, Chairman of the Board, Telmex, Grupo Carso, Grupo Sanborns, and CoChairman, América Móvil; 6. Andrés Gluski, President and CEO, The AES Corporation; 7. David Bojanini García, CEO, Grupo Sura; 8. Julio Velarde, Governor, Central Bank of Peru; 9. The winners of the 2012 BRAVO Awards.

The 18th annual BRAVO Business Awards ceremony Th e 2012 BRAVO Business Awards were received by an

outstanding group of corporate and government leaders. Th ose

recognized for excellence in business, government and social

activities were Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile; Julio Velarde,

President of the Central Bank of Peru; corporate presidents Juan

Benavides of Falabella, David Bojanini of Grupo Sura, Raul

Calfat of Votorantim, Andrés Gluski of AES, Alejandro Ramírez

of Cinépolis, Carlos Slim Domit of Grupo Carso and Sanborns,

and the social entrepreneur Douglas Orane. Al of the winners

have a single trait in common: they brought dynamism to the

growth of their countries, their companies and their projects.

Sebastián Piñera and Julio Velarde deserve much of the credit for

the economic success of their countries. Th is year’s distinguished

honorees were represented by an outstanding group of corporate

leaders that have set out on a path of internationalization that

calls for higher levels of entrepreneurial sophistication. All have

become true global players.

876

9

43

5

1 2


18TH Annual BRAVO Business Awards Gala 10. Herman Bern, President, Bern Panama, Miriam Bern, wife of Herman Bern; 11. Alex Russell, Vice President Finance Latin America, Emerson Latin America; Juan Donoso, Strategic Planner Latin America, Emerson Latin America; Adriana Aristizábal, Guest of Anuar Barake; Anuar Barake, Vice President Latin America, Emerson Industrial Automation; Karina Bernoti, Guest of Alex Russell ; Lauren Donoso, Guest of Juan Donoso; 12. Ricaurte Vásquez, Vice President Government Affairs and Public Policies, General Electric; Amanda O’Mealley, Guest of Ricaurte Vásquez; 13. Guillermo Cortina, Managing Director Latin America, Bank of America; Astrid Carati, Guest of Guillermo Cortina; Carlos Ibáñez, Managing Director, Bank of America; Gerardo Obregón, Director, Bank of America; 14. Pamela Córdova, Copa Airlines, Sales Manager; Marvin Santos, Sales Executive, Copa Airlines; 15. Claudio Fiorillo, Partner and Human Capital Lead for Argentina, Deloitte; Michel Chancy, Secretary of State for Animal Production in the Ministry of Agriculture, Haiti; 16. Soraya Ramírez, Marketing Manager, ARES Distributors; Juan David Ariza, Vice President Latin America, ARES Distributors; Reyna Mora, Trade Marketing Manager, ARES Distributors; 17. Dolores Figueras Iraola, wife of Fernando Iraola; Fernando Iraola, CEO Latin America and Mexico, Citi Group; Paloma Blanco, wife of José Antonio Blanco; José Antonio Blanco, CEO, Citi Peru.


18TH Annual BRAVO Business Awards Gala 1. Nelson Telemaco, Vice President Client Management Group, AIG; Mercedes Fernández, Business Development Manager, Latin Trade Group; Enrique García, President and CEO, CAF -Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina; Elzbieta Pruszynska, President, Ice Branded Content; Jaime Cohen Szulc, President, Goodyear Latin America; Emilio Fortou, Regional Business Leader Global Commercial Expansion Team, Visa; Luisa Fortou, wife of Emilio Fortou; 2. Clay Sawyer, Director of Marketing Latin America & Caribbean, InterContinental Hotels Group; Paula Casás, Manager Marketing Programs Latin America & Caribbean, InterContinental Hotels Group; 3. Jorge Becerra, Senior Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group; Sonia Dula, Managing Director Latin America Wealth Management, Merrill Lync; David Bojanini García, CEO, Grupo Sura; María Cristina Restrepo, Sales Representative Colombia and Panama, Latin Trade Group; 4. Juliana Miranda, guest of Paul Adan; Paul Adan, Vice President Development Caribbean and Latin America, Marriott International, Inc.; Cristina Vyaina, guest of Javier Marquina; Javier Marquina, Partner, SMM Property Advisors; 5. Enrique Ramírez Villalón, Cinépolis, Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, CEO, Cinépoli; Bernardo Martín del Campo, Cinépolis; 6. Fernando Sánchez, International Regional Manager Latin America, Charles Schwab; Diana Jaramillo, guest of Fernando Sánchez; Emile De Boyrie, guest of Nilda De Boyrie; Nilda De Boyrie, Vice President & Branch Manager Latin America, Charles Schwab.

21

4

65

3

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. © 2011 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. S71303US.0411

ANALYTICSBuild on your future.

Scan the QR code* with your mobile device to view a video or visit sas.com/build for a free Harvard Business Review report.

SAS®

*Requires reader app to be installed on your mobile device


18TH Annual BRAVO Business Awards Gala 1. Francisco Aristeguieta, CEO, Citi Group; Felipe Larraín, Minister of Finance, Chile; Enrique García, President and CEO, CAF -Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina; 2. Joseph Audi, Chairman and CEO, Interaudi Bank; Bishop Georges Abiyounes, Guest of Joseph Audi; Carlos Slim Domit, Chairman of the Board, Telmex, Grupo Carso, Grupo Sanborns, and CoChairman, América Móvil; 3. Silvia Clarke, Senior Account Manager, Latin Trade Group; Mary Anne Young, Senior Vice President, Hamburg Sud; Jeffrey Young, Guest of Mary Anne Young; 4. Scarlett Álvarez, Vice President Chief Stakeholder, The AES Corporation; Brian Miller, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, The AES Corporation; Andrew Vesey, COO, The AES Corporation; Adriana Gluski, wife of Andrés Gluski; 5. Barbara Haar, Guest of Jerry Haar;Jerry Haar, Director, Professor and Research Fellow, FIU, College of Business; Florencia Jiménez Marcos, Managing Partner, Biscayne Bay Group; Xavier González-Sanfeliu, Managing Partner, Alsis Funds; Carmen González-Sanfeliu, Regional Vice President of Sales Latin America, Intelsat; 6. María Lourdes Gallo, Publisher, Latin Trade; Raúl Calfat, CEO, Votorantim; Katia Bouazza, Managing Director, HSBC.

1 2

5

3 4

6

HELP BRAZIL REDUCE ITS OVERALL RELIANCE ON FOREIGN IMPORTS WITH THE LAUNCH OF THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST PETROCHEMICAL OPERATION.

Get the full story at Emerson.com/Petrobras

The Emerson logo is a trademark and a service mark of Emerson Electric Co. © 2012 Emerson Electric Co.

IT’S NEVER BEEN DONE

BEFORE

TM

latin trade (english edition) - nov/dec 2012

Documents

latin trade latin trade

energy professionalsagree

energy survey86

energy efcient

mandatory energy assessments

latin trade symposium

lower energy bills

optimizing energy use