Business leaders participate in an updating and networking meeting promoted by the School of Business and EGADE Business School of Tecnológico de Monterrey.
By INSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATION | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL
In its first edition, TEC Business Summit 2023 brought together more than 600 business leaders in four cities in Mexico to present the trends that will determine future business scenarios and provide proposals to drive their organizations’ competitiveness.
This updating and networking meeting for Mexico’s business community, promoted by the School of Business and EGADE Business School of Tecnológico de Monterrey, took simultaneously at the academic institution’s sites in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Querétaro.
Over 20 world-class speakers, including business leaders, guest experts, and academic leaders from Tecnológico de Monterrey, presented a multi-site hybrid program of conferences and panels centered on “The humanization of hyperconnected organizations.”
In his welcome message, Juan Pablo Murra Lascurain, rector of Higher Education of Tecnológico de Monterrey, pointed out the importance of reflecting on the new role leaders must now take to achieve greater flexibility, productivity, innovation, and agility in organizations to respond to the new challenges and form part of a new social contract that generates shared prosperity.
“The use of technologies and data for decision-making, and flexibility, are key aspects for responding as more agile organizations,” he stated.
For her part, María Elena Vázquez Lira, dean of the School of Business of Tecnológico de Monterrey, explained that this summit for business leaders was inspired by the desire to offer them a knowledge and networking platform as a means of bringing them up-to-date on the most relevant and impactful topics in each of their regions.
“Through our guest experts, we aim to contribute a forward vision, offering new ideas you can apply in your organizations to implement strategies and actions towards transformation,” she commented.
At the head of the list of speakers was Gerd Leonhard, from Germany, renowned as one of the most influential futurists in the world and author of Technology versus Humanity, among other books.
In his keynote videoconference “The Future of Organizations: Revolutions and Transformations,” Leonhard revealed the three revolutions that will impact business the digital revolution, which is ongoing; the sustainability revolution, connected to green economies; and the purpose revolution, where companies must align their strategies towards actions that will generate a positive impact on people and the societies in which they live and work.
The international speaker also underscored the growing importance of artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, information technologies, and energy technologies in generating new jobs in the future economy.
“This is not the end of human work, but rather a transformation towards more meaningful work. We must be prepared and teach our children how to do it, be more entrepreneurial, find solutions, and have different types of training. In the near future, humans will not be replaced by AI, but a person with an intelligent machine or AI will replace another person without it,” Leonhard stated.
The TEC Business Summit program was held in Mexico City in the Congress Hall at Campus Santa Fe of Tecnológico de Monterrey.
The agenda included the panel “The Future of Work: the Power of People Analytics, Reinventing Talent Strategy,” which was moderated by María Andrea Trujillo León, director of the Regional Department of Marketing and Analysis of Tecnológico de Monterrey’s School of Business. The participants were Karlo Mondragón, general director of Human Capital at Grupo Salinas; Jorge Mauricio Reynoso Nassar, CEO of AMEDIRH; and Federico Barcos, founder, and CEO of PeopleOPTI.
Barcos mentioned that “for companies to make excellent use of analytics, they must deliver compensation, employee-focused products, and services through the data we receive from people. Analytics needs to change the mindset of organizations where the collaborator comes first and takes priority over the company’s interests.”
Another panel was “New Data for New Businesses: Doing Business in the Data Era,” with input from Karen Olivo Santana, director of Mobility Data Intelligence at Grupo Elektra; Jonathan Davidoff, professor of Machine Learning at the School of Business at Tecnológico de Monterrey; Carlos Sánchez, Chief Digital Officer at Farmacias San Pablo; Ricardo Lastra, Machine Learning Sr. Engineer at Grupo Rotoplas; and moderated by Catherine Rodríguez, director of the Business Division, School of Business of Tecnológico de Monterrey.
In Monterrey, the event was held in EGADE Business School’s Conference Room.
At this site, the agenda included the conference “Building Moonshots: How to Turn Radical Innovation into Reality,” delivered by Tamara Carleton, CEO and founder of Innovation Leadership Group, who shared methods for building moonshots and proven ways to develop this thinking, betting on the unimaginable.
Additionally, Ricardo Úbeda, associate academic dean of EGADE Business School, offered the conference “Exponential Organizations,” summing up that these organizations are the ones that managed to move on “from a culture of results and numbers to purpose; from hierarchy to networks; from control to empowerment; from planning to experimentation or at least to allowing it; and from privacy to transparency".
In Guadalajara, the event took place in the Conference Center at Campus Guadalajara of Tecnológico de Monterrey.
In this venue, the agenda included the panel “Conscious Business, the Challenges for Digital Transformation,” with the participation of Kelly Kroger, CEO of C&A México; Saúl Olivera, Head of Go to Market & Sales Acceleration SMB at Cisco LATAM; Armando Lima Ojeda, Project Engineer at Heat and Control; and René Freudenberg, CEO of InterlubGroup.
Olivera commented, “This digital technological revolution has not only a technological component, but also that of the new business models we have to discover and the cultural facet of innovation. So these are the three major pillars of digital transformation, in any organization and from any vertical.”
Moreover, María Fonseca, director of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Families for Mexico and LATAM at Tecnológico de Monterrey, delivered the conference “From Family Business to Business Family: How Far Do You Want to Go,” on the unique challenges family businesses face in the country’s current context.
In Querétaro, the event was held in the Residence Halls at Campus Querétaro of Tecnológico de Monterrey.
At this site, the agenda included the panel “Nearshoring, Strengths and Opportunities for Querétaro” with the participation of Eric Porras, national director of MBA programs at EGADE Business School; Norberto Rodríguez, global director of Trade Operations and Customs Compliance for Latin America at Cargill; and, as the moderator, Alejandra Noriega, director of the Bachelor in Global Business program at Campus Querétaro.
“Nearshoring is presented as a huge opportunity for Mexico and as a long-term reconfiguration phenomenon because reconfiguring a supply chain is not a decision that companies make and then suddenly change again in one or two years. I don’t see this process as the end of the globalization era, but simply as a new facet of globalization, in which global inputs will feed regional chains,” Porras commented.
The panel “Sustainability in Resource Efficiency” enjoyed the participation of Carlos Vargas, Finance professor at EGADE Business School; Pascual Alcocer, vice-president of the Central and Sothern Regions in Mexico at Tecnológico de Monterrey and director of the Campus Querétaro; and Mariana Alfaro, director of the Department of Marketing and Analysis, Tec Central Region, who served as moderator.
TEC Business Summit closed with the keynote conference “The New Buyer, Beyond Inflation,” delivered by Francisco Luna, Country Manager of the Worldpanel Division of Kantar México, which was transmitted simultaneously at all four sites.
The second edition of TEC Business Summit will take place in April 2024.
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