By José Ángel de la Paz
Christiane Molina, research professor in the Department of Strategy and Leadership at EGADE Business School - Tecnológico de Monterrey, coauthored the book México 10 emprendedores sociales (Mexico 10 Social Entrepreneurs) recently published by LID Editorial, in collaboration with CEMEX, the CEMEX-Tec Prize and Disruptivo.tv.
The work documents the success stories of Mexican social enterprises that are remarkable not only for their business models, but also for the impact they have had on the communities in which they operate.
Molina’s contribution presents the story, challenges and achievements of Iluméxico, a Mexican social enterprise founded in 2009 to distribute isolated solar systems in the country’s rural communities, where more than 500,000 families have no access to electricity and rely on candles, diesel and other lighting sources that are inefficient, expensive, harmful to health and hazardous to the environment.
“The essence of its business model could be said to lie in the critical step of service delivery. Going where neither other companies nor public services go, and knowing how to do so, has been key to the consolidation of Iluméxico. Very often, customers can only be reached by using pack animals, barges and other means of transportation. Of the communities the company serves, 25% can only be reached on foot. The platform for accessing the communities together with market knowledge allow Iluméxico, which today takes solar energy to homes, to aspire to reaching even further in the future. In short, the last mile is their specialty,” Molina said.
At present, Iluméxico is led by the entrepreneur Manuel Wiechers Banuet and its impact translates into more than 23,000 installed systems, which represent a total installed capacity of 3.7 MW and in excess of 17,000 accumulated tons of displaced CO2, as well as over 103,000 users distributed among almost 2,000 communities.
En 2010 instalamos el primer equipo solar autónomo de 10[W] en Los Tuxtlas,Veracruz. Hoy contamos con 23,100 instalaciones en 27 estados de la República Mexicana, 9,210 de ellas son equipos de 325[W]. Gracias por ser parte de la historia y por tu confianza en iluméxico. pic.twitter.com/I5Qc4lTPZv
— iluméxico (@ilumexico) April 29, 2020
Other Tec de Monterrey professors participated on México 10 emprendedores sociales, addressing the cases Blooders, Échale a tu casa, Grupo Murlota, Hipocampus Centros de Aprendizaje, Isla Urbana, Pixza, Promesa, Someone Somewhere and Tierra de Monte, whose stories seek to inspire more people to implement a project that will generate positive change in the country and worldwide.
The documented social companies were selected by the book’s coordinators, Juan Del Cerro, founder and CEO of Disruptivo.tv, and Joshua Hammerschlag, professor at Tec de Monterrey, with the support of representatives from the social entrepreneur ecosystem in Mexico and Latin America (Ande, Ashoka, Impact Hub, Make Sense, New Ventures, Possible, Promotora Social México, Sistema B, SVX, Unreasonable Institute México e yCo.).
Professors Christian Salazar, Jairo Ruiz, Yoshiko Sakai, Romain Pouzou, Christiane Molina, Hilda Ortiz, Luis Alonso Castellanos, Isaac Lucatero, Joshua Hammerschlag and Verónica Tena researched and wrote the 10 cases.
The new book was launched on June 24 in a virtual presentation given by the coordinators, some of the authors, and guests, including Martha Herrera, global director of Responsible Business and Shared Value at CEMEX, and director of the CEMEX-Tec Center.