Ricardo B. Salinas

Be Prepared!

2013-06-13T17:54:58-04:00

Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things. But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy -- stick to your Scout Promise always -- even after you have ceased to be a boy -- and God help you to do it."

Lord Baden-Powell

A few days ago I had the privilege of personally meeting and spending time with his Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. The King was in Mexico from April 24 to 27 to participate in the meeting of the World Scout Foundation, of which he is Honorary Chairman.

What I first noticed was his charisma, simplicity, and his tremendous social commitment. Carl XVI Gustaf has been King of Sweden since 1973 and ascended the throne following the death of his grandfather, Gustav VI Adolf. The King of Sweden is world renowned for hosting the Nobel Prize award ceremony, which is held annually.

While the King told me of his enthusiasm for Scouting, I had the opportunity to tell him about the more than 40 initiatives aimed at fulfilling our social commitment, especially Esperanza Azteca, which shares values with the scouting movement that he promotes.

In fact, Carl XVI Gustaf is a great promoter of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, to which he actively belonged in his youth, as was the case with his grandfather. Carl XVI Gustaf was later appointed honorary head of the Scouts in Sweden. His enthusiasm for this organization is contagious.

The King shared with me the Scout Foundation program, Messengers of Peace, which in his words, "aims to support specific projects related to peace, education in promoting dialogue and supporting young people living in conflict-ridden situations, throughout the world." I am also extremely pleased to confirm that, thanks to the efforts of the King, this year the Scouts were very active in the Let's Clean Up Our Mexico campaign.

Why we need more Scouts?

"Be Prepared" is the motto of the Scouts, an organization founded by Lord Robert Stephenson Smith Baden-Powell of Gilwell, an extremely talented man and institution builder. BP, as the Scouts refer to him, was an actor, musician, painter, writer and military official. was founded in 1926, although it has a history dating back to 1912.

Since 1907, more than 500 million young people have been part of Scouting worldwide. Today the movement has over 30 million members, but there should be many more.

The values promoted by the Scouts have the ability to transform young people, regardless of nationality. Generosity, happiness, commitment, leadership, dedication, responsibility, competitiveness, excellence, teamwork, and friendship are just some of the values that change lives, and it is worth reiterating that the Esperanza Azteca Orchestra project agrees with this code. In his tombstone, Baden-Powell left this message to all Scouts: "Leave this world a little better than you found it." The Scouts have more than fulfilled this mandate.

We need this movement to grow because the values promoted by the Scouts are just what we need to achieve real cultural change in Latin America. Finally, let's consider the Scout prayer: "Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous, Teach me to love and serve as you deserve; To give and not to count the cost; To fight and not to heed the wounds; To toil and not to seek for rest; To labor and to look for no reward save that of knowing that I do your Holy Will". What other values can we ask for our youth in order to transform our countries?

A Case for Cultural Change

2013-05-23T12:47:12-04:00

A few days ago we celebrated in Mexico the Teachers' Day and it's a good time to share a series of ideas that a friend and adviser, David Konzevik, presented during a conference on Mexico's future, where he highlighted education of our youth as the cornerstone.

Beyond structural reforms, in Konzevik's opinion, what Mexico really needs is a true cultural revolution. In a similar line of thinking, I recently read an interesting book by another old friend, Jacques Rogozinski, currently Director of the Nacional Financiera (NAFINSA) development bank that offers similar arguments.

This revolution refers to the culture of lawfulness, effort and wealth, education, family, and the urgent need to strengthen an entrepreneurial culture to increase venture capital. Let's take a look.

Culture of lawfulness

Mexicans hold a world view that does not allow us to progress. First, the law is flexible and is made to protect the powerful. This conception makes it impossible for the culture of lawfulness to take root. Without the rule of law, it is very difficult for businesses and the rest of the economy to function.

According to the late economist Rüdiger Dornbusch, the problem with Latin America is that "developed countries have strictly applied flexible laws, while Latin American countries have flexibly applied stringent laws." This formulation hits the mark with Mexico's institutional framework. To make matters worse, a lack of expeditious justice in Mexico opens the door for corruption and dishonesty.

Effort and Wealth

Another type of problem has to do with "defeatist" attitudes. Many Mexicans believe that "contacts" are the key to advancing and that effort and dedication matter little in moving forward in a system based on cronyism.

Mexicans' concept of wealth is not as a product of one's effort, but of exploitation, and as a result of this colonial outlook, they are addicted to titles of nobility and academic and social status.

In addition, because of this view of wealth, Mexicans are prone to take what does not belong to them. Hence, our number one problem is precisely a lack of security, despite the expense of huge amounts of resources to resolve the issue.

Education

The topic of education is very important. The reason is simple: human capital is the most important form of wealth, and strengthening it, enhancing the talents and capabilities of each individual, is the only way to develop our country from the bottom up.

The educational panorama in Mexico is one of the most serious problems we face. The performance of Mexican middle and high school students on a global level is mediocre. For example, in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Mexican youth perform below average in math, reading, and the sciences.

It is no coincidence that states with the poorest performance in education, such as Guerrero, Michoacán, and Oaxaca, are precisely those with the lowest quality teachers. And they not only violently refuse to be tested or replaced by more capable teachers, but they also seek to be able bequeath their jobs to relatives.

Meanwhile, universities are conceived merely as degree mills, instead of places to explore the universe and promote innovation. In the classroom, students learn to obey and memorize; the university is not a place that stimulates the imagination, creativity, and teamwork. School is a place that many youth abhor.

We could go on listing evidence of educational failure, but the results are plain to see: the lengthy sit-in of the dean's office at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) by hooded, pseudo-student vandals, the closing of the roads leading into the city of Morelia by highway robbers, misnamed educators or "normalistas": supposedly the future "teachers" of our children; the vandalism by unionized professors and the "self-defense" units in Guerrero, etc., etc.

Given so much frustration, sadly, some youth decide to forcibly take over their schools and demand an academic degree, not a quality education; and some teachers demand a life-long and hereditary post, not the tools to guide youth to success in the 21st century. Some go to the absurdity of protesting because English is taught in schools, when this is the language of business and science throughout the world; each language that we learn opens our mind to other worlds and possibilities.

The problem is very serious and it is easy to complain, but it's time to take action. We created the Plantel Azteca School 15 years ago, an educational model of academic excellence in an area with limited resources. More than a school, Plantel Azteca is a community of Mexicans working painstakingly for a better country.

More recently we founded Humanitree, where our mission is to provide the best resources the 21st century has to offer to children and their families to unleash their enormous potential and educate them with core values. Plantel Azteca and Humanitree are just two examples of how things can be done better, but many more initiatives are needed to change our educational model.

It's time to rethink human capabilities. Numerous studies have shown how creativity erodes with each year spent in a traditional school. Today's world requires autonomous individuals capable of seeking creative solutions to problems and finding more than one answer to a single question. We must also help young people discover their element.

Family

It has been said a thousand times that the family is the nucleus of society, but sometimes the relevance of this is not understood. The family is the venue where the concepts, values, and outlook that shapes and guides us for the rest of our lives are forged. The Mexican family is a very solid nucleus, and this is good... up to a certain point.

The problem with the Mexican family is that it is so close-knit that people feel unsafe or uncomfortable when they move beyond it. Many young people live with their parents until they are 30 and even 40 years old, and this comfort and lack of independence prevents them from forging their own destiny, pursuing their dreams, and taking risks.

I am not, in any way, talking about undermining the essential family nucleus and support network but rather to make parents aware that supporting children should have a limit. At some point it is good to let them sink and swim on their own; it is important that they learn to take risks and pursue goals. The family should be there for support but should not be a chain; the family should nurture and develop the highest values and encourage responsibility, not coddle diametrically opposed behaviors.

At the same time, we find an increasing number of cases of young men who have never had a father figure, because the mother is left solely in charge. Several studies suggest that these young people will be at a disadvantage in becoming productive members of society.
We should support the family so that it becomes a strong platform to launch dreams instead of a gilded cage that limits aspirations.

Entrepreneurial culture

Traditionally, we Mexicans have little tolerance for risk. Without a willingness to face uncertainty, it is difficult to create well-capitalized companies. This apparently contradicts the view that we are a country of entrepreneurs. We are a creative people, but we are not willing to risk what we have in order to achieve goals.

In fact, this is a serious problem because, in Konzevik's opinion, a country without businesspeople is doomed to economic failure. He points to Cuba, the former Soviet Union, North Korea and more recently, Venezuela, as examples of countries that did away with their businesspeople and their economies. In fact, the exodus of businesspeople from Argentina, Ecuador, and Bolivia also puts these countries at serious risk. According to Konzevik, the entrepreneur is an extremely scarce resource that we must protect and promote. Personally, I believe that venture capital is essential for the development of any country.

Unfortunately in Mexico, the entrepreneur not only lacks the most minimum support but also has to overcome obstacles created by our "public servants." These are the same people who enthusiastically bleed companies for the good of the "State," this abstract entity that, they assure us, will resolve the deficiencies in education and health care in our country!

But what is a businessperson and why is he or she so important? According to Konzevik's definition, the businessperson is the economic agent willing to take uninsurable risks. By definition, we are speaking of those who take risks, visionaries ready to face uncertainty. In a rapidly changing world, the businessperson becomes increasingly indispensable, but not everyone can become one: there is a very specific DNA that defines this economic agent.

Therefore, if we want to have more companies and expand our economy, it is very important to foment Mexicans who are highly educated, willing to take risks, become independent, and innovate. With this in mind, we need a cultural revolution that would free our minds of the colonial concepts that explain our lack of economic dynamism.

Let's seek change

Many of the failed cultural concepts and institutions that lead to failure are like a cancer that emerged from before the Spanish conquest and during the colonial period. They were first imposed by the Aztec conquerors and later by the Spanish as part of their medieval view of the universe. Unfortunately, these ideas have polluted the minds of the people of Mexico and the rest of Latin America for centuries, which is why they are so difficult to eradicate.

Cultural change is not something that can be achieved overnight. Even though this transformation usually occurs over very long periods of time, South Korea, Singapore, and closer to home, Chile, demonstrate that the cultural change necessary for companies to multiply can be achieved in a generation. But this involves a significant effort nationwide.

In Mexico we have no time to lose. Millions of youth need productive jobs that can only be created by businesspeople and their companies. We must instill in our youth a culture of respect for the law, of effort, dedication, and innovation and the willingness to take risks. But the latter also implies being more tolerant of error and failure. At the same time, we should teach young people to be more responsible and to face the consequences of their actions. We must eradicate the idea that there can be life-long and inheritable job positions, because this will only lead us to failure.

Wealth is not created by decree

In a world connected to the Internet, obtaining data on time is increasingly less important while the capacity to reason, imagine, and create is increasingly more important. Education is becoming increasingly less relevant and learning is becoming key. For Konzevik, education is what the professor provides and learning is what the student undertakes for him or herself. "You can transmit knowledge, but not wisdom. You can see Michelangelo sculpt David a thousand times, but you cannot reproduce it," Konzevik reminds us.

The old economy was labor intensive; the new economy is intensive in intellectual capital. The world is changing rapidly, and we have little time left to spark a cultural revolution in our youth. Collective wealth requires an environment conducive to the growth and expansion of companies and the development of businesspeople who provide the market with solutions that increase society's well-being.

Dead Aid: A Look Into Africa's Poverty

2013-04-23T14:40:12-04:00

One of my favorite talks from Ciudad de las Ideas was presented by Dambisa Moyo, a brilliant economist from Zambia whose focus on poverty, development, and economic cooperation has been recognized, although not always accepted, throughout the world.

The idea of economic cooperation between rich and poor has its antecedents in the postwar period. It's a romantic idea that has created illusions but offered poor results. In short, cooperation is a form of charity of the rich economies aimed at the poor economies -- and, as you, the readers of this blog know, at Grupo Salinas, we do not believe in charity as a long-term solution to social problems, although in special circumstances it is necessary.

Moyo believes that the resources provided to Africa over the past 50 years have only intensified its poverty. From her point of view, development aid promotes insurmountable distortions in the functioning of the markets.

For Dambisa Moyo, who authored Dead Aid, the trillion dollars that have been transferred in the last five decades, have only exacerbated poverty in Africa.

According to Moyo, these resources have only led to corruption, lack of accountability, and ensured the continuation of undemocratic and repressive governments.

These trillion dollars have also resulted in the lack of viable mechanisms for development, such as a market economy and the emergence of entrepreneurs. All this comes together to explain a complete lack of investment and infrastructure, the perpetuation of poverty, in a nutshell.

In a past entry, I discussed work of Paul Collier, who corroborates these observations, in speaking of the "useful idiots" who are against trade between rich and poor countries, but instead urge greater transfers of resources.

I have said on numerous occasions that the five billion people at the Base of the Pyramid require tools of progress and access to markets, not charity.

Dambisa Moyo argues that charity is a slap in the face that reminds you that you cannot create wealth by yourself. She suggests to the advanced countries that if they really wish to help the African continent, they need to think in terms of more efficient policies, because what Africa needs is not charity but the opportunity to market its products and productive investments.

This message is not welcome among international aid agencies, whose bureaucracies live precisely to get a fraction of these resources, but as Einstein reminds us, the definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.

I hope that my readers will agree that the base of the pyramid needs tools such as good quality education and health care, accessible credit and savings, insurance, means of transportation, and connectivity, among other powerful instruments that multiply their productivity and enhance their enormous energy.

I invite you to rethink the problem of poverty and to reflect on how we can tackle the underlying causes with effective tools. It is incumbent upon us to imagine a better future, and then find a way to achieve it. Let's think about it.

The Collapse of Complex Societies: Review

2013-04-01T15:27:29-04:00

"The Roman Empire is paradoxically one of history's greatest successes and one of its greatest failures," said Joseph A. Tainter.

The author seeks to find out what happened to Rome and many civilizations that declined after long periods of splendor in his book, The Collapse of Complex Societies.

There is discussion of natural disasters, the depletion of natural resources, invasions, or government mismanagement as the causes of the decline of many outstanding civilizations. Theories on the collapse of the Mayan civilization come to mind, for example, in which a simple Google search provides us with multiple results.

But it is hard to imagine a complex society with skills to resolve big problems, not being able to reverse challenges.

Tainter explores how humanity has gone from living in simple societies, with little division of labor and ephemeral political leaders, to complex societies with a population that has many and quite varied occupations, a defined territory and a government that exercises a monopoly in the use of force to avoid internal conflicts.

In this evolution toward complexity, which in principle aims to solve the problems that are posed to humanity and improve the population's standard of living, a serious situation has emerged. It is increasingly necessary to invest more in activities that generate lower yields, and it is possible that this is where societies may collapse -- that is, they become simpler again.

A complex society involves:

The processing of increasing amounts of information, which implies difficulties in handling data and a considerable quantity of interrelated and, at times, redundant information.

The consumption of a large amount of scarce natural resources, which are obtained with increasingly greater effort.

Having a greater number of bureaucrats to organize and regulate the varied amount of human activities, which, in turn, requires proportionately more taxes.

Thus, the economy has to divert increasing amounts of resources directly related to its very complexity. This translates into increasingly lower growth in the production of goods.

We have a clear example of this in the United States, with huge expenditures on national security -- fighting even in countries that are literally on the other side of the world -- or strategies and programs to contain the financial crisis, without this enabling the population to improve its standard of living.

Today, Europe also provides us with a variety of clear examples of public finances totally out of control, from Greece to Italy, to Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Some analysts believe that this situation will again lead the global economy into a recession.

Another example is Mexico, where we have created large bureaucratic structures that ultimately slow economic activity and then require more taxes to sustain them.

At the same time, today we see that the so-called welfare state has failed and if we do not prevent its collapse we will generate social costs of incalculable dimensions.

The book helps to understand our history and extrapolate lessons to the delicate global situation of public finances, especially since governments that claim to be the solution to the global crisis often represent the problem.

Our quick and simple value refers precisely to the need to avoid needless complexity. It means doing without redundant functions and processes and bureaucracies.

Simple things are taught and learned quickly and can be handled more efficiently. These are essential ingredients of the competitiveness and growth of any company that does not want to collapse under the weight of its own complexity. I hope that those in power understand these principles to avoid the collapse of our societies.

Abundance

2013-03-20T11:33:14-04:00

Is it possible that advancing technology will permit us to end poverty, sickness, and other serious problems? According to the book Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, written by my friend Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, humanity should prepare itself for an abundant future.

Beyond promises of populist politicians or the visions of prolific science-fiction writers, the answer lies in technological advancement in different areas of human knowledge. Thanks to these advances, it is both technologically and economically possible to end poverty within the next two decades.

The authors share the Rational Optimism of Matt Ridley, who believes that absolute poverty will end by 2035. Ridley reminds us that the Chinese today are ten times richer than in 1960 and live 25 years longer. According to the United Nations, poverty has been reduced more in the last fifty years than in the previous five hundred years. For Ridley, the key to progress is specialization in production and diversification in consumption, which can be achieved through commerce. At Grupo Salinas, we have created a solid middle class vision of our own, which is partly why I was drawn to this book. I think it's a great way to live the year with optimism.

According to some experts in evolutionary psychology, we are programmed to be "local optimists and global pessimists." This is to say, we have the tendency to overestimate our capacities, attractiveness and intelligence, while we undervalue humanity's possibilities in general. According to this line of thinking, we are optimists about what we can control but pessimists about everything else. This constitutes a powerful defense mechanism that can be a very serious problem in the fulfillment of our dream of abundance.

These theories are not coming from improvised authors. Peter is the CEO of Singularity University -- an institution in which Grupo Salinas participates. He is also a doctor and an engineer, internationally renowned for his work. He has directed mainstream technology projects related to the conquest of outer space. Steven Kotler is a well-known journalist.

What concept of abundance is referred to in the book? Evidently it is not about giving a Mercedes-Benz to everyone in the world. The book tells us that it is about giving all people opportunities to live lives filled with possibilities.

For this, certain basic necessities must be satisfied, and then some. To begin with, we must universally provide clean water, notably reduce pollution and end malaria, among many other conditions. But, the key phrase here is to open a world of possibilities to every person on the planet.

To be more specific, the authors refer to Maslow's Pyramid, a concept that hierarchizes human needs. According to Maslow, no individual can aspire to levels of superiority if he has not first satisfied his basic needs.

But under the alternative pyramid defined by Diamandis, there are three levels:

On the lowest level are water, food, and home;

On the second level are access to energy, education, telecommunications and information;

On the top level of the pyramid we find freedom.

Through each of several social initiatives, Grupo Salinas has worked on all three levels of this pyramid.

At the base of this pyramid there is a demand from seven billion people for: five liters of potable drinking water daily, 25 liters more for bathing, cooking, and for cleaning; 2,000 calories of balanced food, vitamins and minerals. We also need to provide simple homes with electric light, ventilation and sanitary services.

Now, the question begs, how do the authors seriously consider a future where all of these necessities are covered? The key is taking advantage of what they call exponential technology, which is everything that allows us to attack problems, which benefits millions of people.

Let's consider Moore's Law, which says that every two years the numbers of transistors in an integrated circuit are duplicated. For example, the iPhone is, in terms of computing power per gram and monetary cost, 150,000 times better than the technology available 20 years ago. An Osborne Executive computer weighed 13 kilograms and whose price was US $2,500, whereas an iPhone weighs 112 grams with about one tenth of the costs. However, it has 150 times the processing capacity and 100,000 times the memory of the legendary Osborne.

This notable increase in computing power, speed, memory per net weight and dollar spent, is owed to exponential technology. But there are many more such technologies in biology, medicine, telecommunications and materials science. Ray Kurzweil, an expert in exponential technology, has found dozens of examples in a great number of applications. As a matter of fact, based on Moore's Law, he calculates that a US $1,000 laptop will be able to compute at the speed of a human brain within 15 years.

A future of abundance is especially based on the technological advancement in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biology, medicine, genetics, digital networks, computing and sensors. In the future, our energy will be harvested in oceans, through genetically-modified algae: We will see an Internet of Things, where appliances will be interconnected. Car theft will disappear forever and factories will no longer need to maintain inventories. Through the use of artificial intelligence, public transport will be able to be operated without drivers.

I think that if ending poverty is within our possibilities, the task requires obligation. If we achieve this, our future will be beyond what we can currently imagine. Let the future fill us with abundance.

Curiosity

2013-02-14T16:27:17-05:00

A few days ago I participated in the 43rd World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It's always encouraging to participate in this type of forum, even in the conferences that might seem alien to us.

For example, during a talk about current NASA exploration in Mars and the benefits of basic open research (internationally known as Blue skies research), I heard very interesting ideas that I would like to share. These are lessons that invite us to challenge common thought.

In fact, while I was at Davos, I published on my Twitter account a thrilling video we were shown during a conference about "Roving on Mars with Curiosity", narrating all the technical challenges that NASA engineers had to solve to send an exploration vehicle to the surface of Mars.

The Curiosity Rover is a fantastic example of research and development, a solar powered machine, designed to collect information from Martian soil, to establish whether or not there ever were or ever will be suitable conditions to harbor life in that planet.

Results of this research will probably not be useful in the short term (thus the term "blue skies research"), but will most likely serve as a basis to send the first manned mission to Mars in the future.

Reaching Mars would hypothetically broaden the scope of humanity, but what does this depend on? The answer is knowledge.

A completely foreign environment, regardless of the number of scientific interpretations, will always be a challenge. To this, we must add the limited control over the mission in real time -- a signal with instructions from Earth to Mars takes at least 14 minutes to come and go -- and on top of this is the risk of failure no matter how narrow the margin may be.

The same thing happens in business, but also in public policy. Many times we face scenarios of great uncertainty and little control.

Knowledge in society plays a strategic role: its basis, education, is crucial to promote development and prosperity. Investment in basic science research provides benefits that will elevate our quality of life in the future.

Some examples of the fruits of research are the laser, invented in 1960; fiber optics, developed in the 1970s; not to mention transistors and integrated circuits -- the microchip.

Without these three discoveries we wouldn't have the global network we have today, which for example, enables us to read this blog from any corner of the planet, or to use gadgets that are authentic pocket computers with a processing capacity that can go beyond what the Pentagon had only thirty years ago.

We live in a time that demands specific solutions for persistent problems. We can't live and expect anything from the future if we don't work out the present. What will we do to expand knowledge and our expectations for prosperity?

Learn From Your Mistakes

2013-01-25T18:09:13-05:00

He who suspects that he is always wrong is right on track

Francisco de Quevedo

Almost a year ago I was in Long Beach to attend the TED conference. Most of you are familiar with TED. It's an organization dedicated to spreading revolutionary ideas to improve our world.

Meanwhile, reviewing my notes I'd also like to reflect on some of my past favorites. I often speak about leadership in this space and have commented that the most important role of a leader in any organization is to make good, well-grounded judgments that lead to informed decisions and good results.

But what happens if you make bad decisions? Does this mean that you're a bad leader? Not necessarily.

What's important is first to recognize that we're all are prone to error. And when mistakes happen, we have to be able to take steps to reverse their consequences. I myself have committed a considerable number of errors, some of them with million dollar price tags, but I also try to be quick to recognize them, reverse them and, most importantly, learn from them.

At the TED forum in 2011, I met a writer who has devoted her life to the study of human error, Kathryn Schulz, who believes that we must embrace and even celebrate our mistakes.

I would not go that far, but the truth is that mistakes are the most valuable learning opportunity we have. What is important is to accept them, understand them, and take advantage of the opportunity that they provide us to improve, without evading our responsibility.

It's hard to say I was wrong, but if we recognize that we have made a mistake and we let go of our fears, we can fully analyze the process that led us to make the wrong decision.

According to Schulz, we are often caught up in an unhealthy need to feel that we are right and we are blinded by this. In analyzing our errors we should avoid mixing in our feelings and recognize that, often, mistakes just happen.

Paradoxically, it is a mistake to think that success is synonymous with never being wrong. To think that we are always right can be quite dangerous.

Nobody is perfect. Anyone who thinks this way suffers from what Schulz calls "hubris nemesis," which translated from Greek roughly means that your arrogance can be your worst enemy.

Schulz also reminds us that the word "error" comes from Latin and means "to wander." But this same ability to wander with our thinking is the source of creativity, so we should not punish the mistake at all cost.

I do not celebrate mistakes, but I respect and appreciate those who are able to recognize them, take responsibility for them, and engender a learning process based on them.

Prosperity Within Our Reach

2013-01-07T11:30:36-05:00

The English politician and writer Benjamin Disraeli said more than a century ago:

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

His words describe very well how to be outstanding at what we do, and explain one of the main sources of an individual's prosperity and well-being.

Volumes have been written about success and economic prosperity. Unfortunately, many of those books aren't worth the paper they're written on. In many of them, the word "effort" doesn't even appear as a printer's mistake.

Malcolm Gladwell, currently one of the most widely read authors in the United States, devotes an entire book (Outliers: The Story of Success) to this topic. I don't completely agree with everything he writes there, but it is interesting how he shows us that you don't have to be a genius or have extraordinary abilities to be outstanding in any activity. Effort, on the other hand, is decisive.

Most successful people have middling levels of intelligence, but it's well balanced intelligence. It's curious to note that extreme rationality is sometimes a liability for becoming prosperous. Intelligence is an important value for Grupo Salinas, and we have to cultivate it. But this has little to do with any inherent quality.

In addition to intelligence, at our group, we're convinced that progress is a direct result of effort, excellence and other values like honesty, execution, learning, and teamwork.

From my point of view, one precondition for economic success is something that happens at home in childhood if we're lucky enough to grow up in a family with values and a tradition of effort, a family that transmits the belief that everything is possible if we try hard enough to get it. A good education is also important, to give us the tools and skills needed to add value to our day-to-day activities.

In addition, we have to develop our abilities tenaciously, and constantly strive for excellence in everything we do.

For example, Gladwell says that about 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in any important human endeavor, no matter how complex, turns us into experts. This is true for pianists, tennis players, pilots or mathematicians.

Finally, I think we have to have the vision needed to see opportunities as they present themselves and to work passionately to take advantage of them. This is a fundamental capability for any entrepreneur.

When we extend this way of thinking and acting, we can understand why some communities stand out. Many Eastern cultures, for example, emphasize personal effort. And in those countries people study and work many more hours a year than in the average Western society. Chinese peasants have a saying: "Nobody who works 360 days a year doesn't have a prosperous family."

History is full of examples of people who have contributed their effort to a better world, from Mozart to Warren Buffett, Henry Ford and many others.

We all want prosperity for our families and we know the steps for achieving it. It is in our hands to make it a reality.

Murdering Hope at Sandy Hook

2012-12-17T14:03:14-05:00

It seems that we, the society, have become accustomed to the ever increasing uncontrollable violence all over the continent, but on this occasion it hurts me just to read the news. How long can we continue to tolerate so much destruction of life? How many more children have to die before we act?

As a father of six children, three of whom are still very young, I can only feel for the families of the 20 children so cold-bloodedly murdered in Newtown, Connecticut.

At this time, the most important thing that we can do is to keep these devastated families in our prayers. However, many of us believe that we have seen enough: the time has come for a wide debate about the uncontrollable, widespread sale of firearms. If cars have strict regulations, why not guns? This doesn't make any sense.

When a child's life is extinguished, an important part of our hope in the future also dies. I wish to offer my most heartfelt condolences to the families of those 20 children and their six brave teachers.

Presentation Tips From Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology

2012-12-13T12:21:00-05:00

No, it's not a mistake. The title of this entry is taken from a book written by Nancy Duarte: Slide:ology, The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.

In a previous entry, I talked about how humans have evolved to survive in groups. This means that communicating ideas effectively is essential for our existence. This is even more valid in the sphere of business. On the other hand, teamwork is one of Grupo Salinas's fundamental values. Without effective communication, this value is impossible to realize.

That's why I continue to expand on this topic, emphasizing the tools that allow us to develop our communication capacities. One is the ability to present ideas effectively in public. Often an effective presentation makes the difference between closing a million-dollar deal or leaving the meeting empty-handed.

In her book, Nancy Duarte writes that a presentation is often the last impression a client gets before closing a deal. How is it possible that businesses spend millions of dollars on an ad campaign and at the same time are totally indifferent to creating a good presentation? This is what her book is all about: advice and practical tools to develop good visual presentations.

Avoid bullets as much as possible -- we are so used to them that they may be counter-intuitive. This is perhaps the most valuable piece of advice in the book. An effective visual presentation should have very little text and lots of images.
Distinguish between a presentation and a document. If a slide has more than 75 words, it has turned into a document and is inappropriate for showing to an audience. People can't read and listen to you at the same time.
Take into account the time you will need to put together a good presentation. Nancy Duarte estimates that the process can take between 36 and 90 hours total. Don't prepare your presentation the night before.
Take into account your audience's needs. To do this, you have to ask yourself the following questions: What are they like? Why are they there? What keeps them awake at night? How can you help them? What do you want them to do when they leave the room? How might they resist your ideas? How can you convince them?
Structure your ideas: create mental maps and diagrams. Use your notes so that your ideas flow smoothly.
Create diagrams, graphs and images so that your ideas are appropriately illustrated and your audience can remember them easily. Good graphics are often the precursors of new ideas. In a diagram, individual concepts acquire context, sequence and association -- they come alive.
Display your numerical data appropriately. Use the following five rules: (1) display the truth, (2) go straight to the point, (3) pick the right kind of graphic, (4) underline what's important and (5) use simple graphics. This means avoiding redundancy, 3-D graphics, heavy screens or grids, overly busy illustrations, pie graphs with lots of "slices," heavy shading, etc.
Optimize three elements: (a) Arrangement, which consists of contrast, hierarchy, unity, space, proximity and the flow of content; (b) Visual elements like background, color, texts and images; and (c) Movement, which consists of time, space, distance, direction and visual flow. Use a consistent layout, but whatever you do, avoid overloading your slides and use a lot of blank space to avoid visual fatigue.
Favor images over text, because they are easier to remember. Take your time choosing a consistent family of images and diagrams that you can use instead of text.
Rehearse and prune your presentation. Practice these three Rs: (1) Reduce -- or eliminate -- text, leaving only images; (2) Record and remember your presentation; and (3) Repeat. Tell your story, refining it through repetition.

According to Duarte, when you restrict the size of your presentation, you force yourself to be concise and to cut out anything superfluous in your messages. You can find a wide sampling of concise, direct and well-prepared, as well as interesting, presentations at www.ted.com.

I conclude with a quote from another expert in the field:

People have a hard time coping with excessive cognitive strain. There is simply a limit to a person's ability to process new information efficiently and effectively. Understanding can be hard enough without the excessive and nonessential bombardment by our visuals that are supposed to be playing a supportive role.

- Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen

Making Ideas Stick

2012-11-26T10:03:54-05:00

Evolution has designed human beings to survive in a group. Communicating our ideas effectively is essential for our existence.

As I mentioned in my comments on the book The Tipping Point, one of the fundamental factors for guaranteeing that our ideas spread like an epidemic is precisely what the brothers Chip and Dan Heath describe in their book about the "stickiness factor," Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Simply put, the stickiness factor is a quality that makes some concepts stay alive in the collective memory of society and even self-propagate.

Based on research of different forms of communication, from teaching to urban legends, the Heath brothers identified six characteristics that guarantee a "sticky" way of selling ideas:

Simple

Unexpected

Concrete

Credible

Emotional

Stories

Simple: Simplicity means expressing the core of an idea in a few words. The best of example of "simple" in an idea is any proverb: for example "a bird in hand" is a phrase we can find in dozens of cultures. One of our values is precisely "quick and simple".

Unexpected: This makes it possible to solve the initial problem of communication: getting the attention of the person you're communicating with, breaking down preconceived ideas so they pay attention to you.

Concrete: Language is abstract, but life is not. The Heath brothers don't recommend you dumb down your ideas so anybody can understand you: that is a lack of respect for your audience and yourself. Rather, what you should do is give examples, make models, concretize. Often we explain our ideas in a totally abstract way when people are dying for a good example. The Greek fabulist Aesop was a magician in concretizing ideas; that is why his teachings have lasted more than 2,500 years.

Credible: There are several ways to achieve credibility for what we want to say: giving details or statistics, using public figures or celebrities (or anti-celebrities). Make your clients test your ideas and products; that's the best way to gain their trust.

Emotional: Mother Teresa of Calcutta taught us that when we bring a human being in trouble close to us -- not when we speak about an abstract need -- we are more likely to help. People will seek to identify with a group and its values; very often appealing to their emotions is more effective than appealing to reason.

Stories: Everyone remembers a spectacular urban legend or a message behind a human interest story. Few people memorize informational bulletins or mailings.

In all human activity, it is vital that our ideas move people: a simple idea makes people set priorities; an unexpected idea attracts their attention; a concrete idea is easier to understand; a truthful idea makes people believe; an emotional idea makes people desire; and a good story invites the audience to act.

La globalización y el capital humano

2012-10-10T11:21:09-04:00

En un mundo globalizado, es natural y deseable que fluyan libremente todos los recursos: capital, mercancías, tecnología y gente. Las mentes genuinamente liberales no cuestionan este principio, no obstante, en Estados Unidos abundan voces que buscan culpar de la crisis económica actual a los inmigrantes, especialmente los hispanos.

Los argumentos anti-inmigrantes no podrían ser más falsos -incluso hipócritas. De hecho, ocurre justamente lo contrario a lo que postulan: gracias al constante flujo de mano de obra externa es que la economía de los EE.UU. ha mantenido su dinamismo por mucho tiempo, al menos hasta el año pasado.

El recurso más valioso, la gente, aún no encuentra las condiciones de libertad de la que gozan los capitales, las mercancías y la tecnología. Los latinoamericanos nos seguimos exportando a nosotros mismos a pesar de todas las restricciones no-arancelarias: la migra, el muro, la línea, etc. Es perfectamente normal que las personas busquen emplearse en donde sea más redituable su trabajo. Éste es el espíritu del libre mercado. Falla la política migratoria de nuestro vecino al norte, pero esto es algo que no nos corresponde a nosotros, ni a nuestros políticos, arreglar.

Estados Unidos ha gozado de abundancia de capital físico, primero gracias a la generación de ahorro interno, ahora debido a la entrada de recursos financieros externos, pero hasta un economista sabe que el capital físico carece de valor si no es complementado por el recurso humano.

Gracias a que no ha faltado el recurso humano, con todo tipo y nivel de habilidades, es que el capital financiero sigue fluyendo desde el exterior, aunque a tasas decrecientes. Hoy las fábricas y los 'call centers' están saliendo de EE.UU. en busca del capital humano que abunda en otras latitudes. Es falso que un inmigrante latino le quite el trabajo a otros, es totalmente al revés. La mano de obra latina es complementaria a las demás, el mercado laboral no es un juego de suma cero.

Es muy probable que la neurosis anti-inmigrante tenga un impacto serio en el futuro sobre la capacidad de la economía de los EE.UU. para recuperarse de la crisis actual. En California y otros estados innumerables cosechas han quedado sin levantarse por falta de mano de obra, en estados del centro, plantas avícolas y de productos cárnicos han cerrado por la misma razón. Llama la atención que importantes agricultores han decidido cerrar sus operaciones en EE.UU. para traerlas a México donde abunda la mano de obra calificada para este tipo de tareas. No los culpo: me queda claro que el principal reto como empresario es encontrar y preparar mano de obra abundante, calificada y comprometida con su trabajo -ésta es la tarea más importante que hemos asignado a los ejecutivos en nuestro grupo de empresas.

Las economías de México y Estados Unidos son complementarias por la abundancia de mano de obra y capital, respectivamente, es absurdo cerrar los ojos ante esta realidad. La comunidad hispana crea un enorme valor para la sociedad estadounidense, y pronto tendrán que tomar medidas para cuidar a esta gente: lejos de excluirlos y maltratarlos deberán reconocerlos, abrirles las puertas y tratarlos con justicia. Esto debe suceder, ojalá que sea pronto.

¿Te gusta este artículo?, sigue leyendo pero antes...
Mira qué opinan otros y deja tu comentario aquí

Globalization and Human Capital

2012-10-03T20:17:35-04:00

In a globalized world, it is natural and desirable for all resources to flow freely: capital, goods, technology and people. Truly liberal minds do not question this principle. However, in the United States, there is a disturbing trend to try to blame the current economic crisis on immigrants, particularly Hispanics.

The anti-immigrant arguments could not be more wrong -- and even hypocritical. In fact, the truth is just the opposite: the U.S. economy has long maintained its dynamism thanks to the constant flow of labor from abroad, at least until last year.

People, the most valuable resource, still don't not have the freedom that capital, goods and technology enjoy. We Latin Americans continue to export ourselves despite all the non-tariff barriers such as the Migra and the border wall. It is perfectly normal for people to look for jobs where their work is the most profitable. That is the spirit of the free market. Our neighbor to the north has a flawed immigration policy, but that is something that neither we nor our politicians can fix.

The United States has enjoyed an abundance of capital, first thanks to internal savings and now due to the entry of external financial resources. But even an economist knows that capital lacks value if it is not complemented by human resources.

Thanks to abundant human resources of all kinds and skill levels, financial capital continues flowing in from abroad, even if more slowly. Today factories and call centers are leaving the United States in search of the human capital present in other latitudes. It is false that Latino immigrants take jobs away from others; it is exactly the opposite. Latino labor complements that of others; the labor market is not a zero-sum game.

It is very probable that the anti-immigrant neurosis will have a serious future impact on the ability of the U.S. economy to recover from the current crisis. In California and other states, innumerable crops have gone unharvested because of the lack of workers; in central states, meat and poultry plants have closed for the same reason. It is noteworthy that important growers have decided to close their U.S. operations and move them to Mexico, where skilled labor for this kind of work is plentiful. I don't blame them: it is clear to me that the main challenge as a businessman is finding and training skilled workers who are committed to their jobs. This is the most important task we have given the executives at Grupo Salinas.

The economies of Mexico and the United States complement each other because of their respective abundant labor and capital. It is absurd to close our eyes to this reality. The Hispanic community creates enormous value for U.S. society, and soon they will have to take measures to take care of these people: far from excluding and mistreating them, they should acknowledge them, open their doors to them and treat them fairly. This must happen; hopefully it will be soon.

Migración: necesitamos puentes no muros

2012-09-14T08:26:32-04:00

Hace ya algún tiempo tuve la oportunidad de participar en un foro sobre migración en la Universidad de Georgetown, ante estudiantes que probablemente serán los miembros del cuerpo diplomático de EE.UU. Quiero compartir en este espacio algunas de las ideas que en gran medida proceden de mi participación.

La relación bilateral entre México y los Estados Unidos es una de las más especiales en el mundo: México no es sólo la puerta de entrada a América Latina, es también un socio estratégico de los EE.UU., y millones de personas de origen mexicano viven al norte del Río Bravo -de hecho, bajo esta premisa lanzamos Azteca America en 2001.

Entre todos los grandes temas en la relación bilateral, la inmigración es fundamental porque toca la vida de millones de personas: 12 millones de indocumentados del lado norte, y más de 20 millones de familiares de estos inmigrantes del lado sur.

Ya lo he comentado en distintas ocasiones: en un mundo globalizado es natural y hasta deseable que fluyan libremente todos los recursos: capital, mercancías, tecnología y personas. La migración es un tema controversial, pero creo que nadie podría argumentar con seriedad que debemos prohibirla, al contrario, muchas veces es un motor de desarrollo para el país receptor, y en este sentido México también debe reflexionar acerca de su política migratoria.

La historia de la migración de mexicanos a los Estados Unidos empieza en 1847 cuando, lejos de cruzar la frontera, miles de mexicanos vieron cómo la frontera los cruzaba a ellos: en principio, la experiencia no fue grata porque nuestros compatriotas sufrieron una terrible discriminación, a pesar de que ellos no eligieron cambiarse de país.

Hoy, la comunidad latina en los Estados Unidos es joven, productiva, y emprendedora, con lo que imprime una gran vitalidad a esa nación. Los argumentos antiinmigrantes no podrían ser más falsos e hipócritas: de hecho, es gracias al flujo constante de mano de obra extremadamente competitiva que la economía de los Estados Unidos ha mantenido su dinamismo por tantos años; su ganancia es nuestra pérdida.

¿Te interesaría debatir este artículo sobre inmigración con otros?
Mira qué opinan nuestros usuarios y deja tu comentario aquí

Es momento de erradicar los mitos.

La gran mayoría de los hispanos son ajenos a los problemas que, muchas veces con malicia y racismo, se les atribuye. Los hispanos no le roban el trabajo a nadie, no explotan los servicios públicos por encima de su contribución impositiva, ni son la causa del crimen. Por el contrario: los hispanos trabajan jornadas extenuantes, pagan más en impuestos de lo que consumen en servicios públicos (incluso en Arizona) y su contribución a la sociedad norteamericana es invaluable.

Por cada inmigrante indocumentado existe siempre alguien dispuesto a contratarlo y pagar por su trabajo, su habilidad y su talento; la economía nos enseña que siempre que se realiza una transacción en libertad, ambas partes ganan; en este caso, empleador y empleado se benefician.

Por esto y por muchas otras razones, debemos apoyar a los hispanos en sus esfuerzos por alcanzar una reforma migratoria. Pero los políticos típicamente nos dirán que no es el momento, especialmente hoy, en plena crisis global; y es precisamente hoy que los EE.UU. requieren urgentemente elevar su competitividad frente al resto del mundo.

Como consecuencia de la peor crisis financiera en ocho décadas, hoy una gran cantidad de estadounidenses en el desempleo; pero esto no es un pretexto para estar en contra de una reforma migratoria, porque el desempleo terminará. En lugar de pelear por las migajas, nuestra obligación es hacer el pastel más grande.

Se necesita un sistema justo que valore la contribución de los migrantes, tal vez un proceso de solicitud y de registro que abra la oportunidad que la gente requiere para contribuir económicamente, y después regresar a su país de origen, porque la mayor parte de los emigrantes mexicanos sólo piensan en volver a su patria.

Del lado mexicano también tenemos una enorme responsabilidad en brindar oportunidades de desarrollo y prosperidad, sobre todo en la Base de la Pirámide, para que la gente no se vea forzada a emigrar -de la misma forma tenemos una obligación moral en tratar con justicia a los migrantes de otras naciones que han elegido a nuestro país como su patria adoptiva.

México necesita más inversiones productivas y generadoras de empleo. Pero aún si creamos millones de empleos, la migración seguirá existiendo porque, desde siempre, migrar es natural para el ser humano.

Durante décadas, los Estados Unidos pugnaron por derrumbar el Muro de Berlín, desafortunadamente hoy algunos políticos de ese país, que no entienden el significado de la lucha por la libertad, impulsan leyes discriminatorias, como la SB1070, y apoyan la construcción de un muro infranqueable en la frontera con México: lo que hoy necesita el mundo son puentes, no muros.

La promesa de libertad y progreso atrajo a los Estados Unidos a millones de personas talentosas de todas partes del mundo. Esperemos que los políticos de ese país no olviden nunca que, en algún lugar de su árbol genealógico, seguramente existe uno o varios inmigrantes atraídos por esta libertad, y no la destruyan.

También en HuffPost Voces:

'The Rational Optimist': Review

2012-09-12T18:26:44-04:00

"In other classes of animals, the individual advances from infancy to age of maturity; and he attains, in the compass of a single life, to all the perfection his nature can reach: but in the human kind, the species has a progress as well as the individual; they build in every subsequent age on foundations formerly laid." Adam Ferguson - An Essay on the History of Civil Society

Blessed by an interesting and diverse professional career, Matt Ridley, whose claim to fame is as a zoologist, banker, journalist, and expert on evolution, is an author worth getting to know. In his latest book, The Rational Optimist, he invites us to adopt a positive view of the world, human capacity, and global trade.

According to Ridley, mankind has developed an unmatched capacity to resolve its most pressing challenges. Nevertheless, it is curious that in the last 200 years, the pessimists have dominated the discussion of the most important global issues. But, since Thomas Malthus, they have all failed in their forecasts.

In contrast to more pessimistic predictions, humanity has not collapsed, and, on the contrary, in the last 1,000 years, life expectancy has increased significantly, violence indicators have decreased, and average income has grown exponentially. In fact, humans are the only living beings that have been able to continuously increase their quality of life. No other species with a prominent brain such as dolphins, chimpanzees, octopuses, or parakeets have achieved this and clearly it is not a matter of brain size.

So even though the human brain has not grown in hundreds of thousands of years, how we have achieved all of this?

Ridley believes that what explains the unparalleled success of Homo sapiens is not just the size of their brain, nor their technology or language -- all of which are necessary but not sufficient. The evolutionary cause of this steady progress is the invention of trade, something that Neanderthals, with a larger brain, failed to replicate.

Thanks to trade between unrelated parties, humanity has developed what Ridley calls a collective intelligence, which benefits all its members. Thanks to this unique invention, individual brains are wired, with the result being that homo sapiens have been able to create a growing shared mind and gradually but endlessly multiplying knowledge and the quality of life.

How is this accomplished? Trade allows everyone's ideas, despite distances, to recombine, to have sex.

Ridley tells the story of how about 100,000 years ago through trade between remote communities, ideas started to behave like genes, reproducing, mutating, competing, undergoing a selection, and accumulating, speeding up evolution, not on a biological plane, but in the collective mind. In this process, natural selection occurs among ideas.

At some point in history, humans began to exchange goods and in doing so, knowledge became cumulative, and thus was born the idea of progress. "Exchange is to cultural evolution, what sex is to biological evolution," says Ridley.

Thanks to trade, the division of labor was born, which allowed for specialization in a task, for it to be efficiently developed, and for the production surplus to be exchanged for other goods. This is what Adam Smith based humankind's economic advancement in the Wealth of Nations.

Human experience has changed significantly in the past 100,000 years. Today we enjoy devices that were absolutely unimaginable just a century ago. But no individual (or company) could individually create any of the advanced instruments in which our specie's progress is based.

I only have to look around at what's in my office to realize this, noting the presence of a smartphone, an iPad, a flat-screen TV, DVD player, a Totalplay device, and a computer where I write and I surf the Internet. No single human being could individually recreate any of the above-mentioned instruments or the software that gives them life -- and this is just what exists in an office.

Specialization in production drove innovation, and this, in turn, led to the diversification of consumption, and the more people who joined this process, the greater was the average well-being that was achieved.

The great news is that, despite the attacks on globalization, this process is unstoppable. The author finds the arguments attacking progress and free trade on the grounds that "the past was better" to be baseless. This myth falls under its own weight. By any measure, the average human being has a better quality of life than a hundred thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred years ago.

By the same token, as I noted earlier, it is fallacious to assume that self-sufficiency and economic independence are desirable. On the contrary, the nations that are most open to global trade are those that have achieved greater economic well-being. The clearest sign of prosperity is specialization among individuals, regions, and countries, and specialization cannot be achieved without exchange.

In contrast, the civilizations that have collapsed did so because their rulers bureaucratized, nationalized, and monopolized the production processes and hindered trade. The historical lesson is pretty obvious: free trade promotes prosperity, while protectionism and self-sufficiency only lead to poverty. In the history of mankind there are precious few examples of a country or region that has become impoverished for having opened its borders, nor is there a single nation that has made progress by closing itself off to trade.

Even in modern times, every country or region that opposed trade has failed. Latin America, under the intellectual influence of Raul Prebisch, closed its borders in the 1960s, and we are still paying the consequences of this absurd policy. The same thing happened in Mao's China, and North Korea under Kim Il Sung. All these are clear examples of a policy that only resulted in economic stagnation and desolation. In contrast, when these policies were reversed, all these countries and regions saw a spurt in their development.

Ridley believes that trade and human ingenuity will be able to resolve the most serious problems that threaten us: drought, famine, AIDS, diabetes, cancer, and even global warming and to achieve this we must put the best of our creativity to work. In this sense, I also declare myself to be a rational optimist.