In October 2020, the automobile buying-selling platform became the first unicorn in Mexico; today, it has quadrupled its value thanks to a strategy based on user experience.

By VALENTINA FLORES CÁCERES | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

To have more unicorn companies in Mexico, the country needs entrepreneurs who are more passionate about the problem they want to solve than the products or services they want to sell, assured Loreanne García, Chief People Officer at Kavak.

In October 2020, the automobile buying-selling platform became the first technological “unicorn” in Mexico after reaching a value of just over one billion USD. Six months later, this milestone quadrupled in value.

How can Mexico have more unicorn companies like Kavak?

“More success stories are needed, and this requires talent, people who are passionate about solving a problem, who find a way to do so and dare to take the plunge,” said the entrepreneur of Venezuelan origin.

The co-founder of Kavak participated in the webinar “Unicorn startups in Mexico and Latin America” in the EGADE Future Forum series, where she talked with José Ernesto Amorós, National Director of Doctoral Programs at EGADE Business School, and Cristian Granados, EGADE Business School professor.

Latin America is a land of entrepreneurs, García claimed, and needs to use this very spirit to generate more companies that will provide a solution for the region’s major issues, improving quality of life and generating jobs, development, and social wellbeing.

“In this way, there will be more success, more community, more capital, forming a virtuous circle,” she said.

García commented that, since its foundation in 2016, Kavak has had two ambitions, to achieve business success and to be one of the startups that contribute to building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America, and this is the path it plans to pursue, transforming business and the automotive sector.

Watch the complete webinar here.

Today, in particular, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to all EGADE Business School’s professors.

Thank you for the special accompaniment you have afforded our students over the past year, teaching them to imagine and create opportunities in response to the challenging times we are facing.

Thank you for your extraordinary work, commitment and dedication that ennoble and give meaning to our institution.

Thank you for your example that fills us with pride and inspires us to continue to reinvent ourselves and reaffirm our commitment to the development of Mexico, through education.

Thank you so much and Happy Teachers’ Day!

We would like to thank the students Adriana Meave Rodríguez, Alex Suárez Regalado, Esdras Ambriz Barragán, Michelle Martin Lara, Paola García Razo and Gonzalo García Contreras for their collaboration in making this video.

Guests from the startup Kavak, the consulting firm Potential Project, Banco BASE, and the World Economic Forum chatted with professors and experts from EGADE Business School and the Tec School of Business.

By VALENTINA FLORES CÁCERES | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Unicorn companies, conscious leadership, investments, and energy transition were the themes addressed on Territorio Negocios (Business Territory), the podcast of EGADE Business School and Tecnológico de Monterrey’s School of Business, in April.

Here are four episodes, in case you missed them.

Episode 31: Unicorns in Mexico are no longer a legend

Loreanne García, co-founder and Chief People Officer at Kavak, the first Mexican startup to achieve a valuation over one billion dollars, and Félix Cárdenas, Director of the EGADE Business School Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, discuss Mexico’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and what is needed to generate more unicorn companies in the country.

Episode 32: It all starts with the mind

Jacqueline Carter, International Partner and Director for North America at Potential Project, and keynote speaker at EGADE U Week 2021, and EGADE alumnus Diego Lainez, CEO and founder of Dare to Learn, talk about the mental qualities (mindfulness, selflessness and compassion) that leaders need to acquire and that will benefit both the individual and the organization.

Episode 33: Investment dilemmas in Mexico

Gabriela Siller, Economic Analysis Director at Banco BASE, and Jorge Martínez, Director of the Financial Think Tank and professor at EGADE Business School, analyze the diverse scenarios for reactivating investment in Mexico.

Episode 34: Goodbye to hydrocarbons?

Pedro G. Gómez, Head of Oil and Gas at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and Rolando Fuentes, research professor at EGADE Business School, debate the decarbonization and electrification of the economy, business and investment opportunities, and the possibility of abandoning nonrenewable energy resources.

Territorio Negocios forms part of the Tec Sounds podcasts, and is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Tune in to Territorio Negocios! There’s a new episode every week.

Anabella Dávila contributes a chapter in the book Innovation from Emerging Markets, published by Cambridge University Press.

By JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

In a study based on a multinational Information Technologies firm, Anabella Dávila, professor at EGADE Business School - Tecnológico de Monterrey, identified an innovation model based on value co-creation through employees.

Her findings are presented in the collective book Innovation from Emerging Markets, recently published by Cambridge University Press.

In her chapter of the book, Dávila presents an analysis of the management philosophy “Employees first, customers second” (EFCS) at HCL Technologies, a global Indian IT consulting and services company.

According to the professor, EFCS proposes that it is the employees who create real value for the customers and HCL Technologies transformed the entire organization to empower them and assure their wellbeing.

“As a result, the ‘value zone’ was identified in the interface between HCL Technologies employees and customers for value co-creation,” she said.

The case study consisted of an in-depth longitudinal analysis of annual or sustainability reports from 2011 to 2019 and included public speeches, news reports, and research papers by the previous HCL Technologies CEO, Vineet Nayar, in relation to EFCS.

“The case displays an innovation model based on value co-creation through employees,” Dávila stated.

She went on to explain that the model has three pillars: employees’ wellbeing, employees’ empowerment, and innovation through value co-creation.

“Each pillar contains supporting management and human resource practices,” she added.

Dávila’s chapter, called “Innovation based on value co-creation through employees at HCL Technologies” forms part of a book that, in an overall view, examines innovation and leadership in multinational companies from emerging countries.

The book, a joint effort of the Emerging Multinational Research Network (EMRN) and diverse institutions across the world, is available on the Cambridge University Press and Amazon websites.

In a virtual conference, Professor Miguel Ángel Castro addresses the challenges and opportunities of emerging assets driven by technology.

By VALENTINA FLORES CÁCERES | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Blockchain technology and cryptoassets, despite the challenges they still face, have already assured a spot in the future of finance, observed Miguel Ángel Castro, professor at EGADE Business School.

In the virtual conference “Blockchain and the future of cryptoassets”, organized by Executive Education and EGADE Business School, Guadalajara, the expert stressed that the traceability of cryptocurrencies is unequivocal, which he views as an advantage regarding security issues.

"You can have traceability from one-hundred-millionth of bitcoin and know everywhere it has been and all its records,” he said.

Therefore, even though the owners might remain anonymous, all bitcoin transactions are public, traceable and permanently stored in the network, thanks to blockchain technology.

If bitcoins are used in fraudulent or illicit transactions, such situations can be reported and these cryptoassets will be “tainted”, Castro confirmed.

Efforts to regularize cryptoassets, he mentioned, include linking them to their owners by means of the latter’s CURP (Unique Population Registry Code), RFC (Federal Taxpayer Registry Code) or ID.

View the complete conference here.

Raúl Montalvo, Director of EGADE Business School, Guadalajara, participated in the international conference of the Latin American Alliance of Business Schools.

By FABRICIO MORENO REYES | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Experts from EGADE Business School and other business schools participated in the international conference  “Latin American Economic Outlook”, sharing their forecasts for 2021.

In the virtual event, organized by the Latin American Alliance for Business Schools (ALADEN), Raúl Montalvo, Director of EGADE Business School, Guadalajara, addressed Mexico’s macroeconomic framework during the pandemic.

“The country has genuinely suffered a decline in its economic activity; last year alone, it fell 8.6%, a figure that has not been seen since 1932,” he stated.

Mexico, he observed, has signed free-trade agreements with over 40 countries, but approximately 75% of its income relies on trade with the United States.

Therefore, Montalvo pointed out the need to diversify Mexico’s exports and reduce its dependence on the US market.

Margarida Gutiérrez, adjunct professor in the area of Finance and Management Control at COPPEAD, presented the economic policies adopted in Brazil and the current fiscal challenge resulting from the health crisis.

She indicated that, even though economic support policies achieved a V-shaped recovery in the Brazilian economy, the deficit and public debt have grown significantly.

Kurt Burneo, professor at CENTRUM PUCP, described the post-COVID-19 economic challenges in Peru, a country with the severest contraction in Latin America.

He estimated that the country will recover 100% of its production by the end of 2021, partly owing to the investment of 20% of its GDP in economic incentives.

Richard Obuchi, professor at the Center for Public Policy and the International Center for Energy and the Environment at IESA School of Management, explained that Venezuela’s economic activity has plummeted 86% in 7 years.

In 2020, he stated, the country’s GDP contraction was estimated at over 30%, which can be attributed to the drop in oil production and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch the complete conference here.

The researcher is the only Latin American member on the team of the scientific journal specialized in Subjective Well-Being topics.

By JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Yarid Ayala, research professor attached to the Leadership Strategic Focus Research Group (GIEE) of the School of Business and EGADE Business School - Tecnológico de Monterrey, has joined the Journal of Happiness Studies (JOHS) editorial board.

This interdisciplinary scientific journal, which is peer-reviewed internationally, focuses on theoretical and applied advancements within the study of happiness and well-being, in relation to family, education, health, and work.

“JOHS is one of the top journals in the world on Subjective Well-Being,” Ayala commented.

The scholar is the only member affiliated to an educational institution in Latin America on the journal’s editorial team.

“As a member of the editorial board, my responsibilities include finding new research topics that are of interest to the journal; inviting new authors to submit their work; reviewing papers; and identifying potential new reviewers,” he explained.

Ayala is also a research professor in the Department of Management and Leadership of the Tec School of Business, and candidate-level member of the Mexican National System of Researchers (SNI).

Work on a Colombian cement company, in whose writing Ezequiel Reficco collaborated, is distinguished in the category of business cases in Latin America.

By JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

The pedagogical case study “The internationalization of Cementos Argos”, the result of a collaboration between Ezequiel Reficco, EGADE Business School - Tecnológico de Monterrey professor, and Esteban R. Brenes and Luciano Ciravegna, INCAE Business School professors, was awarded a prize in the 2020 Case Writing Competition of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).

EFMD is an organization recognized globally as an accreditation body for business schools. Its EQUIS accreditation, which EGADE possesses, forms part of the “triple crown”, the highest recognition a business school can obtain internationally.

The EFMD Case Writing Competition is an annual recognition of the most innovative pedagogical cases, with 16 prize categories in the latest edition. The Argos case was the  winner in the category “Business Cases in Latin America”, sponsored by Universidad Externado de Colombia.

"In my opinion, the EFMD case writing competition is a golden opportunity to showcase the excellent work executed by Latin American companies, allowing them to gain visibility among educators from other regions. I would like to thank the organizers for generating this platform, which creates incentives for teachers from every corner of the globe to engage in case research," Ezequiel Reficco commented.

This is the second time that Reficco has been recognized in this competition. In the 2018 edition, his pedagogical case “For&From: Inditex Group’s Social Franchise” was the winner in the category “Inclusive Business Models”.

🥳 We are very happy to announce the winners of the 2020 #EFMDcase Writing Competition @TheCaseCentre
With over 550 submissions in 16 management-related categories, this year was exceptional, congratulations! 🥳

🏆 The #EFMDCase Writing Awards go to…https://t.co/APL8dyhtIq

— EFMD News (@EFMDNews) April 19, 2021

This pedagogical case emerged in October 2014, when the Cementos Argos Board of Directors and Management Team were looking for a way to capitalize on the announcement of the merger between Holcim and Lafarge for the company’s expansion. The company resulting from the Holcim-Lafarge merger would have to disinvest in several countries, including Brazil and Canada, and the Management Team wanted to know whether Argos should take advantage of this opportunity to acquire assets in those markets.

The company’s Board of Directors believed that Argos had the potential to increase shareholder value significantly, and driving its international expansion seemed to be the most attractive option to achieve this. However, determining where the company should expand to required careful analysis.

“The internationalization of Cementos Argos” forms part of the CLADEA-BALAS Case Consortium (CBCC) collection, created in partnership with Harvard Business Publishing, and to which EGADE belongs.

Ezequiel Reficco has an extensive background in case methods. During the eight years he was connected to Harvard Business School, from 2000 to 2008, a large part of his work centered around case development and his participation on the HBS Review Committee, a forum that evaluated the quality of external cases seeking publication through Harvard Business Publishing (HBP). He was the editor in charge of the two sole collections of Latin American cases published through HBP: CBCC, from 2013 to 2018, and the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN), between 2015 and 2018.

In addition, he has founded case production centers at Universidad de San Andrés (Buenos Aires) and Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá). In the last decade, he has trained colleagues in case methods at diverse business schools in America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

He is currently leading the EGADE Business School Case Hub. This center supports the development of attitudes, knowledge and teaching skills regarding the case method, through the training and accompaniment of faculty who are interested in this methodology; the development of practical skills for case teaching, with workshops for testing the cases produced by the school’s professors; and the publication of cases in internationally visible collections, facilitating material, human and intellectual resources to all the faculty members committed to this methodology.