The Stanford Business Reporter

Mexico Study Trip group.

(Most of) the organizers for the Mexico study trip. Apparently Mauricio #2 was chased out of this picture by Roberto´s belt.

      The group assembled in Mexico City to kick off the trip at a hotel designed by Ricardo Legorreta, the architect of the Schwab Residential Center, which helped make us feel at home in the city.  Over the weekend, we toured the historic centers of the ancient city: Xochimilco, the last remaining section of the lake that once occupied the valley of Mexico City; the culturally rich Museum of Anthropology; the beautiful art nouveau Palace of Fine Arts; the European-influenced government center with the jail-cum-capital building and the beautiful cathedral that is under repair.  Perhaps the biggest takeaway from our weekend-long tour was that Mexico City is sinking.  Since its buildings were constructed on an ancient lakebed, the land cannot support the heavy marble and stone structures from colonial Mexico.

      The business meetings on Monday and Tuesday gave the group an inside view into current politics and business in Mexico, and also brought the arrival of Professor David Brady and his wife Joanne.  We met with government leaders Pedro Aspe, the former Finance Secretary, and Francisco Gil, the current Finance Minister, and business leaders  Fausto Miranda of Compartamos, a microlending bank, and Pedro Padilla of Grupo Salinas, a large conglomerate.  The theme of all these meetings was the newfound hope within political, cultural, and social circles in Mexico.  Vicente Fox’s election in July 2000 is viewed as a catalyst for Mexico to breakaway from the shadow of a single-party government system and emerge on to the world’s business scene with its close alliance to the United States through NAFTA.  Perhaps the most controversial meeting we had in Mexico City was with John McCarthy of Fonatur, the government-sponsored national tourist agency.  We learned of Mexico’s plans to promote tourism as a means to boost the economy.

      Every day we were up at the crack of dawn and in meetings until late in the night, but each meeting was incredibly valuable and interesting.  On top of all of this, we managed to spend a few hours in one of Mexico City’s hottest new discotecas; several mariachi bands serenaded us; and we enjoyed a posada, a traditional Mexican Christmas party, hosted by the GSB alumni association in Mexico City.

      Wednesday morning, we boarded a plane and were off to Monterrey, the technology and business center of northern Mexico.  In Monterrey, we kicked off our visit with a talk from the senior Rogelio Montemayor, a former governor of Coahuila and former head of Pemex.  From there we were off to tour a GSB favorite -- Cemex.  Our tours of both Cemex and Axa, a manufacturer of transformers, gave the group insight into the high tech manufacturing sector in Mexico.  The highlight of our time in Monterrey was a dinner at Mauricio Schwarz's house, where we met the Schwarz family and mingled with GSB alums, including the current Chairman and CEO of Cemex.  The following day we visited ITESM, better known as Monterrey Tech and the alma matter of several of our hosts, where we learned about ITESM’s renowned distance learning program.  Later that day, we were hosted by Jose Domene Zambrano, Vitro's COO and learned about how he plans to change the company to improve profitability, just as he did as Cemex's COO.  We ended the day with a panel of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs that spoke about the challenges of taking risks in developing countries and suggested possible new businesses for Mexican entrepreneurs -- they agreed that Monterrey needed Starbucks.

      Thursday morning we again awoke before the sun rose and left Monterrey for Oaxaca, an old colonial city southwest of Mexico City.  In Oaxaca we finally had time to catch our breath while we explored the beautiful city and shopped for crafts in the famous Oaxacan markets.  Saturday morning we took visited Monte Alban, an ancient Mesoamerican city founded in 500 BC as the seat of the Zapotec people.  After lunch at an artist's colony, we headed back to Oaxaca for the final dinner where we toasted our trip and our amazing trip leaders.

      As Roberto Palacios mentioned at the airport as we were heading home, we had a chance to see "Mexico naked."  The trip participants saw the very best that Mexico has to offer to both businesses and tourists alike and we also heard from many people how much work remains to be done and the challenges that face Mexico in the future.

 

Article Tools