Social action @ DBiM

So, as we were saying in one of our earlier posts,IPADE students also have community services (and it's not from deteniton or anything like that, it's 100% willingly) . Well, as a part of the international week, the guys and girls have been assembling and selling some earthenware jars, cups and pots with traditional mexican candy and are selling it to those of our visitors interested in having 100% authentic mexican pottery and helping a noble cause at the same time.

With the help of our kind purchasers, we will be able to continue our efforts to improve this community's life quality. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our cause!!

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DBiM Day 3

To sum it up, today was about contrast between three very different spheres: the goverment, the big multinational companies and the new, innovative entrepreneur-driven enterprises. The day began with the visit of Manuel Ángel Núñez, who is the current governor of the state of Hidalgo. It's not very common to have this kind of visitors, but the role of the politics is crucial to understand the whole social and economic picture of the country. Also, Manuel was one of the key negociators of the North American Free-trade agreement (NAFTA).

He talked about the overall environment that surrounded these negotiations, and the new challenges Mexico must face and the role of the political leaders in it.

After that,we had Jesus Sotomayor, who has worked and initiated a large number of successful business in the telecommunications business (such as the mexican branch of AT&T, just to mention one of them). He came to tal with us about the the entrepreneur spirit, and broke one of common places of this kind of discussions by stating that entrepreneurs are both born and formed.

Jesus has the knowledge and the skills, of course... but most importantly, he has so much PASSION that it's impossible not to feel thrilled and with a lot of enthusiasm after even the quickest chat with him. All of us felt renewed energies and huge inspiration for our future projects, whatever and wherever they may be.

It was evident form te very beginning what the key for his success was: his intense, open-minded personality, combined with a sharp mind, an extremely developed sense of humor and "buena onda, no mamila" way to get along with people. Here's some quotes so you get a feeling of it:

"Please forgive my english aztec accent"
"Feedback is the food of champions"
"Banks in mexico are curious,they have this tendency to always lend people to all those who don't need it and never lend money to those who need it"
"Entrepreneurs don't need money as much as they need ideas"
"My english sucks SO WHAT??? i'll still do business with english-speakers"
"The biggest mistake an entrepreneur can do is to try to sell his company, instead of selling himself"
"Never seek to sell something, seek for the other one tu buy it" (No lo vendas, que te la compren)
"Aways kind, never arrogant" (Buena onda, no mamilas!!)

After lunch, we went on to on of the most representative and important mexican companies in the world: Bimbo. We actually had to prepare carefully for thisvisit, watching our dressing to comply with the strict sanity measures needed to go in there. We were able to witness the production process and the overall ambient of the company, and also had a quick presentation of the financial performance of the group (which you can find here) Read More!

News flash from Kidzania!!!

Just in time for our visit later today, we recieved breaking news from our fellas at kidzania. Check it out!!

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Ready to Rumle... La Lucha Libre!!!

When someone asks you, "what are some mexicans traditions that a foreign person most know?"

My usual answer is "Lucha Libre", I have to be honest, Lucha Libre is not like going to a museum, or to the pyramids, it's a very interesting place where the mexican folklore arises.

It's not a fancy place where you can ask for some wine, it's a "plaza" (arena) where you can yell for some "chelas" and "chicharrones". It's a place where you can wear a wrestling mask and support good or evil.

The good ones in Mexico are the "Técnicos" or the technicicians also the scientists, they represent the wrestlers who follow the rules, they are the acrobatic ones. The other side is the "Rudos" or the rude people, they don´t follow rules, they cheat to win, and they are the funniest ones.

Mexico's Lucha Libre, it's a show in which some of our ancient traditions prevails, for instance the wearing of a mask has to do with the aztecs whose warriors wore masks in combat.

That's enough "rollo" (chit-chat), the first thing you notice when you enter the coliseum is that there is an important social mixture, you can find people who own a BMW or people who own a bike. Both of them can have a unique experience, the world of economical injustice evaporates.

Once we entered, the staff gave us some directions, for instance, we couldn't get up of our seats because we may disturb the people behind us.

The people of the organization of the show gave us a "chela" (beer), then the students had a beer in one hand and used the other to point at the wrestler they want to support.

Then all of us began to cheer on a wrestler, we yelled at him "el verde" or the green. In that match the Rudos won. When the show was progressing, the mexicans students were teaching the international students some popular phrases, so they could yell to the wrestlers in the ring.

There was very muscular wrestler who became the favorite for the girls and the most hated for the guys, it was very funny. During the match, a "vendedor" (sales person) sold mexican wrestlers masks. A lot of people bought them, and suddenly the show was in our place too, there was a narrow line that was blurring between the audience and the ring.

At the end of the show came the star of the evening, "Shocker el 1,000% guapo" (the 1,000% handsome), it was the funniest match I've ever seen.

When we were leaving, the students who were still wearing the masks improvised a wrestling match, it was so funny, because some of them were very skinny and also with no athletic abilities for gymnastics.

Finally my conclusion is, if you want to live a Mexican experience, you have to go to the "Lucha Libre"!

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DBiM Day 2

First, Gustavo moreno, one of the top executives of Grupo Modelo brewing company, talked to us about their strategic management process, based on Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard . We discussed the challenges, pros and cons of this process, and the particularities of the implementation. Check the presentation he used here

Then, Julián Sánchez, one of our best proffessors in terms of Managerial information and Control, discussed with us the Gas Metropolitano case, and explored the balance that control and empowerment maintain, the fragility of this balance and the particular aspects that must be taken into consideration in the mexican culture, focusing of the processes of pressure, opportunity and racionalization, which leads to temptation and, utimately, to cheating. We also explored the triggers for each kind of control system: beliefs, boundaries, diagnostics and interactive.

And then, we went on for grupo Modelo's headquarters, and got a taste of their processes (and the final products while we were at it). Take a look!

Oh!!! and let's not forget that little detail called LAS LUCHAS!!... we'll deal with that later tonight and have a full report Read More!

DBiM Day 1

The DBiM week has officially started!

The day started at 7:30AM with teamwork and breakfast. It was a chance for all of the students to interact and introduce themselves. Then, each team was assigned a restaurant, where they would have to evaluate the restaurant's business model. 

Restaurants included were Cafe Tacuba, La Cantina de los Remedios, etcetera.

Phd. Rafa Gómez Nava, Dean of IPADE's Master gave a welcome speech, in which he pointed out that Mexico is not a horse and hat country, not a Chavo del 8 country; Mexico is a strong value country adapting to the modern world... Mexico is a country for young and talented people... and this week is going to be a great life experience for all of us"

Antonio Casanueva set the goals for the week and suggested the main  questions students should ask themselves this week: Are there opportunities in others countries that can use a Mexican bussiness model? (see the official presentation that Antonio gave us )

In this DBiM we have 12 students from Darden, 6 from Endicott, 14 from Kenan-Flagger, 6 from IESE, 7 from Universidad Católica de Chile, 2 from IMT, 2 from Bitten, 1 from SMU and 73 IPADE's students.

Next was Edmundo Vallejo, former CEO of GE Latin  America, came over to discuss about the implications of the crisis, we discussed the main axis that need to be taken into consideration, covering the world economic forum and some interesting initiatives by ashoka.A discussion arose here, with good skeptical points made by Marcus and Rachelle that got us into thinking of the implementation barriers the sustainable projects have, and what kind of variables need to be taken into account, such as education, politics and social stability of the zone where the project would take place.

Then the group split in order to have some closer attention for each participant: both of them had sessions with Mario Zavala and Juan Pablo Nuñez, but some had Mario first and some others had Gustavo first. With Mario we discussed the Inverlat case and wiht Juan Pablo

With Mario we discussed the Inverlat case, which involved culture management and how sometimes even the best intentions are not enough to get a real synergy, because the actions that result are based on superficial judgements of the other's culture. We studied the culture as a multi-layer system where the basic assumptions are the core for everything else, but at the same time are hidden from the surface.

Mario has a fun yet pushy style, which makes up for an amazing, fun discussion that gets us to dig, layer by layer, until we reach the core of the problem.

Juan Pablo, from Grupo Pando one of the oldest companies in Mexico,  showed us a successful case of social responsibility in the southern state of Chiapas, where coffee productors passed from selling their product for peanuts and spending it on liquor to creating a valuable product and spending it on the improvement of their communities.

During a break Daniel Reilly, a student from IESE said, "we are having fun everyday", a lot of the students said that they are waiting eagerly the trip to Teotihuacan, alos the "Lucha Libre". One of the foreign students said that she was impressed of Mexico city when she saw it from the airplane, she said "I thought that i was on a sea of lights"

Later on, each team went on to explore their assigned restaurants and study their business models. We'll know more about their findings on friday, when they'll present us their work and a winner wiill be named

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Day 0 : Welcome to our city!

Some of our visitors who arrived on friday and saturday joined us for day-trip through the city.

First, we did a quick walk through reforma avenue, and saw a street show featuring a group of Papantla Flyers

Then we traveled to the city downtown via subway (a.k.a, el metro), which gave all of us a closer take of the everyday mexican culture

After that, we arrived to the city's central plaza, a.k.a, Constitution plaza or El Zócalo, visited the cathedral and the national palace, also had a look at the local shops and events that were going on (like a pre-hispanic witch-doctor who was performing  healing rituals to the people for a modest fee).

Then we went to the zocalo terraza restaurant, where we had a big time buffet meal featuring free beers for everyone for as long as we stayed... so it kind of was our duty to have a few

And of course some took the selfservice concept a little too literal...

Some our guys were a little tired and had some jetlag so they left to have some rest. The rest of us went to the city's tourbus and saw a loit of touristic sites such as the fine arts building and the revoluttion monument.

We landed in the Condesa neighborhood and went to Don Quintin for a meal and a drink. We also had some dinner and left our fellas back at their respectives hotels, letting them get ready for mondays classes

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Mexican Wrestling !!

Hello !

IPADE Students are organizing another social activity on Tuesday 9th. Mexican Wrestling!

We're really looking forward that you could join us in this cultural experience.

Tickets sales will be on monday morning.

Also, please remember that this is not an obligatory activity, it's just another social activity offered from IPADE students to all our visitors in this International Week,

Greetings and have a great trip !

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We're ready to receive our visitors at IPADE!

As you already been notified, there's going to be a welcome event offered to all foreign students this Sunday March 7th.

The schedule for the event is the following:

Tour Bus @ 11:00 AM . Cost: Aprox. $150 pesos

We'll meet all at Camino Real and take a short walk to the Tourbus stop. Te tour will be around 2 - 3 hour long and after that we will have a lunch at "La Terraza, Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico".

The cost for the lunch is $220 pesos (Aprox. $20 USD).

In case you don't arrive on time for the tour bus but would like to join us at lunch, the address is:

Avenida 16 de Septiembre 82. Centro Histórico. Mexico, DF.

We expect to see you all here...and have a great trip to Mexico City!

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