The President of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE for its initials in Spanish) offers a keynote speech at the EGADE Business Summit Guadalajara 2021, where academic and business leaders also analyze digital transformation, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  

By JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Leveraged by a broad community commitment, quality education is the way for our societies to overcome the significant challenges we face, ranging from growing economic gaps to immense pressure on the environment.

These were the words of Carlos Salazar Lomelín, President of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE for its initials in Spanish), yesterday at a keynote speech within the EGADE Business Summit Guadalajara 2021.

At the virtual event by EGADE Business School, Guadalajara site, academic and business leaders shared their vision of the business environment in Jalisco and the Western region, around the challenges and opportunities of Mexico's business sector, digital transformation, innovation, and entrepreneurship. 

"We need to be more aware, but, above all, more accountable for our civic duty to take care of not only our interests but also those of society as a whole, to take charge of solving the problems that trouble us, based on social entrepreneurship and education, which is the key transformational element of public life in our country," urged Salazar, who is also President of the Tecnológico de Monterrey School of Business and one of the 25 Most Influential Leaders of 2021 according to AACSB.

COMPANIES MUST ADAPT THEIR BUSINESS MODELS TO DISRUPTION AND CONSTANT INNOVATION: OSMAR ZAVALETA

In his inaugural address, Osmar Zavaleta, Interim Dean of EGADE Business School, commented that 2020 began with a poor outlook for Mexico, given that 2019 went down in history as a year without growth, largely due to the climate of uncertainty generated in the country, coupled with a significant decrease in national and foreign investment.

"On top of this, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, in March 2020 we implemented lockdowns and the closure of non-essential businesses in the country, which, in addition to the obvious health problems, caused an 8.5% drop in the GDP 2020, according to INEGI," he said. 

He also remarked that even though there seem to be signs of recovery in 2021, the challenges are still significant.

"Given everything we have experienced over the past 19 months, I am convinced that the capacity to adapt is one of the most important lessons we have learned, since as organizations and individuals we have to adapt to increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous events by redefining our vision and strategy to face challenges and capitalize on the opportunities this situation has brought us. If this crisis has taught us anything, it is that companies need to adapt their business models to disruption and constant innovation, and new forms of work and consumption, with their technological, logistical, and productivity implications," Zavaleta concluded.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, INNOVATION, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

To explore the positive impact that companies in Jalisco and the Western region have on the country's transformation, growth, and development, the event included two discussion panels with academic and business leaders, who shared their perspectives on the business environment.

One panel was called "Digital transformation and the information era ," with the participation of Silvia Ariza, Data Science Manager, and David Ruiz, Analytics, Big Data & Artificial Intelligence Lead at Google Cloud, and moderated by Raúl Montalvo, Director of EGADE Business School, Guadalajara site.

Meanwhile, in the second panel, "Innovation and entrepreneurship," Luis Armando Gómez, Founder Vid Mexicana, and Francisco Hernández, Founder and CEO of SOFIPA, were the guest's panelists, and Fernando Moya, Director of the EGADE Business School Department of Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation, the moderator. 

Relive the EGADE Business Summit Guadalajara 2021 in full here.