Say “Peru” to a lot of people and what comes to mind? Copper, ceviche and Macchu Pichu. Yet bubbling beneath the surface—and already emerging—is an ecosystem of startups that will soon hold its own in South America with those in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. A recent trip to Lima, to moderate a session at […]
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” —Nils Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics A little more than a month into the new year, it is hard to predict if the lackluster global economy’s three-year long malaise will continue, worsen, or improve. However there are sufficient data available to gain a good glimpse, […]
There is a battle underway. My stomach is telling me to eat, my heart is saying play with my kids, my gut is exhorting me to write my dissertation and my calendar is pressuring me to write this blog. If you are human, you’ve surely felt these moments. Unfocused, unsure and frozen, you kill your […]
What do Skype (Internet/software application), Mavi (clothing), HTC (smartphones), and Cochlear (medical devices) have in common? These firms from Estonia, Turkey, Taiwan and Australia, respectively, are all “born global” companies—enterprises whose genesis stems from a major (and sometimes exclusive) focus on foreign markets rather than their own. The phenomenon of born global companies has been […]
While alternative energy holds great promise for Latin America, serious limitations and costs limit its potential at present. This past July, the world’s biggest iron ore producer, Vale, announced that the firm is turning to palm-tree oil and wind turbines to insulate earnings from the rising costs of energy. The Brazilian multinational plans to produce […]
Sunday night, crammed into an airplane seat, tired, with a headache banging through my forehead, I feel miles away from the topic I planned to write about this week: passion. But I’m going to give it a shot because I’m armed with reams of notes and if I can connect to my passion now, I […]
I got to this playbook using a process of narrative analysis. After lining up 30 financial service outthinkers—from Second Market to BancVue—looked at how they described their strategies, categorizing each element of their strategy into one of 36 generic strategic narratives. This produced a prioritized list of strategies that are most often cited by the […]
What I have discovered over the past few months is that while my big-bank friends sit back complaining about a lack of innovation in financial services—“everything is regulated,” “competitors copy too fast”—a new generation of outthinkers is busy dismantling nearly every dimension of the sector and introducing a new order of things. Position Position is […]
After a long journey from conception to gestation, the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will become a reality on May 15. The accord will render clear benefits for both sides. Colombia remains the third largest market in Latin America for U.S. exports and the second most important for small- and medium-sized firms. The two sides […]
The ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu once wrote that “power comes from formation.” Fundamentally the way one creates power is by coordinating the pieces in a strategic formation. This is a great chess player setting up the first few moves to position her pieces in an optimal pattern. Birds fly in flock, animals travel in […]
