The EGADE Business School students, Saraí Núñez Gutiérrez, Cecilia Medina Gutiérrez, Alejandra Halún Cavazos and Alejandro Cueva Palazuelos, won the 2018 Flourish Prize for Global Goal #14 – Life Below Water, thanks to the positive business innovation story they wrote about the app Amor a Mar.

This recognition is one of the 17 prizes awarded this year by the AIM2Flourish program and platform, to celebrate progress in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals, and to highlight the role played by companies in their accomplishment.

Under the direction of Professor Consuelo García de la Torre, the students investigated and published the story called New Mindset for Seafood Consumption, which discusses the application (available on App Store and Google Play) created by Daniel Valles, the owner of the restaurant Black Market, located in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, Mexico.

“Amor a Mar is a new application in Mexico that allows consumers to buy the best seafood products directly from local producers and fishermen on the coasts of Baja California, Mexico. Each kilogram of fish extracted from the ocean is treated responsibly and is caught specifically for the consumer. The main objective of the project Amor a Mar is to change customer’s consumption habits by asking them, ‘What do you need for tomorrow’ and ‘How much fish will you eat this week?’. The aim is to reduce overfishing and improve the work conditions of the local fishermen, while providing the best quality fish and seafood,” the students explained.

The 17 winning stories in 2018 come from 16 schools in nine countries and represent positive, profitable business innovations across the world. A distinguished jury selected the 17 winners of the Flourish Prize, one for each Global Goal, out of the 504 positive business innovation stories published on AIM2Flourish.com in 2017.

Students Saraí Núñez Gutiérrez, Cecilia Medina Gutiérrez, Alejandra Halún Cavazos and Alejandro Cueva Palazuelos, their professor, Consuelo García de la Torre, and the entrepreneur Daniel Valles, received their diploma as winners of the 2018 Flourish Prize, from the hands of Ignacio de la Vega, Dean of EGADE Business School, on May 15, in Monterrey.

Amor a Mar, Comproagro and Estructuras Metálicas Solana were the only three business innovations from Latin America among the 17 global prize winners. These three innovations will enjoy a special participation during the First Latin American AIM2Flourish Forum, which will take place on June 7, in Puebla, Mexico.

The AIM2Flourish Program and the Flourish Prize are an initiative of the Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management - Case Western Reserve University.

The director of AIM2Flourish, Claire Sommer, congratulated the winners on joining in the global movement to discover inspiring business innovations that promote the UN Global Goals.

"The students who discover positive, profitable business innovations are the heart of the AIM2Flourish initiative, which helps prepare each student to become a Global Goal leader in their lives and careers,” Sommer said.

CENTRUM Católica Graduate Business School, of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and EGADE Business School of Tecnológico de Monterrey, two of the most prestigious Latin American business schools in the world, officially launched, on May 9, a simultaneous double-degree MBA program. The EGADE-CENTRUM MBA, to be offered in Lima (Peru), has been designed to prepare transforming leaders with a global vision, capable of projecting the values of Latin America into a demanding, constantly changing international context, offering disruptive solutions in organizations and starting up high-impact businesses.

Dr. Percy Marquina, General Director of CENTRUM Católica, commented that: “Today, one of Peru’s greatest challenges is to develop a global vision, in order to continue to promote investments, create more jobs, deliver the basic services required by its people, and provide security and confidence to the 32 million Peruvians, forging alliances with emerging countries and creating new cutting-edge educational and technological tools that will position Peru among the most solid economies in the region, naturally through strategic alliances grounded in quality education and training for our educators, business leaders, managers and students.”

• Mexico’s EGADE Business School and CENTRUM PUCP launch a simultaneous double-degree MBA program in Perú.

• Both schools are recognized worldwide for having earned the Triple Crown in international accreditations and are positioned among the Top 20 in theQS Ranking 2018.

• EGADE-CENTRUM MBA will start in September 2018 with its first generation, comprised of a group of talented business leaders.

Moreover, Percy Marquina emphasized that: “To achieve nations’ sustainable development, the human factor and competitiveness are of utmost importance, bearing in mind that the synergies of a country are based on individuals, leaders and educational institutions, such as the two leading business schools in Latin America, recognized by the three most prestigious international accrediting agencies at the global level (AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS), and who, reflecting their commitment to the educational development of their countries, are launching the Double-Degree MBA program in Peru.”

The event enjoyed the presence of Ignacio de la Vega, Dean of EGADE Business School and renowned global entrepreneurship expert. In this regard, the dean of EGADE Business School explained that: “This alliance strengthens the presence of our school in South America, while consolidating our global influence within the context of new business challenges. The new program makes it possible to create closer ties at the regional level and to empower the

transforming Latin American leadership, capable of addressing the constant crises with innovation, know-how and skill, and extending it day by day to other latitudes that demand disruptive strategies for offering value in complex scenarios.”

Dean de la Vega also highlighted that: “Tecnológico de Monterrey possesses an established track record in the Peruvian market, with more than 600 graduates from the prestigious EGADE Business School MBA program. With our new strategic allies, we seek to drive the development of organizations’ talent, focusing on innovation and a strategic business vision. Another of our contributions to this program is our position as a global business school, through international alliances such as the Global Network for Advanced Management, which brings together 32 business schools from across the globe and that will give EGADE-CENTRUM MBA students access to a powerful network of business contacts and partnerships.”

The agreement between the two business schools, positioned among the Top 20 in the QS Ranking2018, was signed by Dr. Percy Marquina, General Director of CENTRUM Católica and the Dean of EGADE Business School of Monterrey – Mexico, Ignacio de la Vega. Dr. Marcial Rubio Correa, Rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the Mexican Ambassador to Peru, Ernesto Campos Tenorio, also attended the event.

Erique Beltranena, CEO of Volaris, offered a talk named Flying Different at EGADE Business School, where he explained how the low-cost airline planned to build a disruptive business model, which contributed to the growth of Mexican aviation.
 

From 2006 to 2017, 46% of the growth of the domestic market is attributable to Volaris, Beltranena said.
 

In his presentation on April 26 at the Auditorium of the Monterrey site, Beltranena said that in 2005 there were 42 million air passengers in Mexico, against 1,850 million who traveled by bus, which spoke of an underpenetrated air market.

"The high rates of flights limited the growth of the market; an ultra-low-cost and resilient model was needed to fly differently than traditional airlines," he said.

Faced with the convention of "flying is a luxury", Beltranena said that Volaris came up with the disruptive idea of "being the airline of all" and the vision of making more people travel by plane.

Beltranena indicated that Volaris took into account what customers really value and need (direct point-to-point flights, just one class, easy way to buy tickets, lower fares up to 40%, discount club for clients and the most modern fleet), and build its business model around the concepts of cost reduction, "clean" and low base rates, more price-sensitive customers, more "you decide" complements and diversified capacity growth.

Thanks to this, from the year 2006 when the airline made its inaugural flight to 2017, 46% of the growth of the domestic market is attributable to Volaris, Beltranena said.

"Doing the same thing as others is easy, however, innovate, change, do things in a different way, take courage," he said.

The event took place during the Welcome Week of the April-July 2018 period of EGADE Business School.

The prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) recognized EGADE Business School in its Innovations That Inspire 2018, in the category “Strengthening the Understanding of Effective Leadership Development”, for the implementation of the talent development program Wave.

“Students take the Wave test to identify their leadership skills. Afterward, they participate in workshops that enable them to improve these competencies as well as those pursued at EGADE Business School. The aim of this initiative is to increase students’ and their businesses’ competitiveness while addressing current market demands,” AACSB commented.

AACSB highlighted that since Wave was first implemented by EGADE Business School’s Talent Development Program in 2015, 1,405 students have taken the test and received group and individual feedback.

“We are extremely grateful for this honor, which reflects our ongoing progress in our mission to develop leaders with an entrepreneurial and humanistic mindset, who are internationally competitive and contribute value to their companies and to society,” said the dean of EGADE Business School, Ignacio de la Vega.

Since 1916, AACSB has certified the highest standards of excellence, quality, and intelligence in business education and professional development services.

EGADE Business School forms part of a select group of multi-site business schools who have earned the prestigious “triple crown” of international accreditations –AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS– recognized as the top standard in the business education sector. 

The final phase of the economic cycle and geopolitical risks represent the main challenges for investors this year, experts Luis García Peña and Jorge Martínez agreed during their presentation entitled "Global Investment Outlook 2018".

García Peña, managing partner of Legacy Wealth Corporation, reviewed the three great problems that humanity has overcome throughout history -plague, hunger and wars- and detailed the four forces that are currently transforming and conditioning the global panorama, which are the change in the dynamics of global growth, the speed of disruption, the aging population and a new social agreement.

"In 2030, 60% of the world population will live in urban areas. Which implies that the world needs to invest annually in infrastructure 3.7 trillion dollars between 2017 and 2035,” he warned about one of the global trends.

Luis García Peña and Jorge Martínez offered the presentation "Global Investment Outlook 2018" at EGADE Business School Monterrey.

Martínez, CFA and director of the Master of Finance at EGADE Business School Monterrey, recommended structuring the portfolios to protect them from tax increases, opting for investment in emerging market countries, correctly choosing the style of the shares, be they growth or value, and analyze what to do with the bonds.

"If the rates are going to go up, then some bonds that are too expensive, could be in danger at a fixed rate," he said.

The presentation took place on March 1 at the Auditorium of EGADE Business School Monterrey.

On Wednesday 24th January, the US researcher Bryan Husted won the Insignia Prize for achievements in scientific research, during the presentation of the 2017 Rómulo Garza Research and Innovation Prize, which recognizes the best researchers at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Husted, a professor at the EGADE Business School of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, is the first researcher from the area of Social Sciences to win this distinction since the prize was introduced 43 years ago.

He has published numerous articles in international journals and his main research focuses have been corruption, business ethics, and social responsibility – for example, on the topic of environmental certifications-.

“I have some relatively significant articles that discuss the impact of soft institutions and rules of the game, such as culture,” he explained.

One of his most influential papers is called “Wealth, culture and corruption”, published in the Journal of International Business Studies, which addresses the topic of social and cultural institutions and rules of the game as corruption factors.

“It has had an important impact and, two years ago, we published another very interesting article, with a map that displayed the companies that have made the best efforts in Social Responsibility.  

“We discovered that, as in any area, for example, the software industry, which has technology clusters, like Silicon Valley, there are also Social Responsibility clusters. For example, Boston, Minneapolis and the American Northeast all do very well,” he explained.

A life dedicated to research

Bryan Husted is 60 years old and has spent the last 28 years (since he graduated with a doctoral degree from the University of California, Berkeley) teaching and conducting research at Tec de Monterrey.

Husted is jovial, kind, plays the piano, does half an hour of exercise every day and is learning  Nahuatl as part of his community service for the Christian church he attends in Monterrey: San Pedro Church.

He studied a bachelor’s degree in Economics in Utah; a postgraduate in Law, in New York State; and a master’s and doctorate in  Business Administration, with a focus on business and public policy.  

“Mexico wasn’t really on my radar,” he confessed. “(However), while studying for her Ph.D., my sister spent a summer in Tijuana as part of her community service and she invited me to go along with her”.

“When I was about to start work, I thought, why not Latin America?” he added.

He wrote to several universities and of the three Mexican institutions that showed an interest, he chose Tecnológico de Monterrey, considering that it would enable him to keep in touch with the international network of researchers.

Corruption does have a solution

Like another of the prize winners in this year’s Rómulo Garza Prize, Dr. Bonnie J. Palifka –in the Published Books category, for the title Corruption and Government -, studying corruption has been a lifelong pursuit for Husted.

Of course, Mexico’s situation in this area has been relevant for his research. “It is a privileged place. This topic was somewhat theoretical in my mind, but it was more than that here,” he said jokingly.

“Does corruption have a solution?” we asked him.

“Yes,” Husted affirmed. “In terms of the causes, there are weak elements in institutions that don’t work. And it’s something everybody needs to commit to. It’s a cultural change. People are gradually becoming convinced of the importance of transparent processes, Rule of Law, etc.”

However, Husted can see major progress in Mexico.

“Nowadays, we find out about acts of corruption while the government is still in power. It used to be after it had left. And that’s a major change. I think the press is playing an important role in identifying many issues.

“It’s a bit more difficult now for corrupt politicians or businesspeople to do certain things because everything is gradually coming to light,” he concluded.

READ THE ORIGINAL STORY AT TECREVIEW

For his 28-year career in research at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Dr. Bryan Husted received the “Insignia Prize” today in the presentation of the 2017 Rómulo Garza Research and Innovation Prize.

The EGADE Business School professor and director of the Strategic Focus Research Group (GIEES) in Social Innovation is the first researcher from the area of Social Sciences to win this distinction since the prize was introduced 43 years ago.

“I would like to thank the many students I have had, especially the doctoral students, who have accepted my guidance on topics that have at times been unusual, but nevertheless they trusted me,” said Dr. Husted in his moving acceptance speech.

On behalf of her fellow students, Itzel Palomares, a Ph.D. in Administrative Sciences student at EGADE Business School, offered a message about the prize winner.

“The doctor (Bryan Husted) has an enormous sense of humanity, he cares about his students and always seeks to help that little idea become a great research project that will have an impact beyond the classroom,” the student said. 

The Rómulo Garza Prize, awarded by Tecnológico de Monterrey and Xignux, consists of the “Insignia Prize” and another three awards, “Most Cited Papers, “Published Books” and “Student Projects”, given this time to Dr. Arturo Santos, Dr. Bonnie Palifka and a group of six students from Campus Monterrey, respectively.

In his message, the chairman of the Xignux Board of Directors and grandson of Rómulo Garza, Eugenio Garza Herrera, told the winners: “Your dedication breaks paradigms and allows us to live in a fairer, more competitive and more inclusive society."

In addition, the rector of Tecnológico de Monterrey, David Garza, assured that the institution seeks to continue to drive research and innovation, while increasing their impact.

The presentation of the 2017 Rómulo Garza Prize ended with the unveiling of a plaque in honor of Dr. Bryan Husted.