Archive for June 28, 2008

What do SABF participants think?

Every day we are closer to the SABF and we want you to start knowing the 100 student participants that will be attending the SABF this year. We believe that a good way to do that is through their opinions and ideas. So, over these weeks, we will be publishing the essay’s abstract of some of them. These are the first we want to share with you:

João Miranda De Oliveira Rebouças Brandão - IBMEC São Paulo - Brazil

Institutions emerge to coordinate agents’ social expectations and as such pervade human affairs. In accordance with Institutional logical construction, economic and political institutions are crucial to the development of a society. In this essay, I intend to show how this can be verified in a concrete example: the United States case. The United States of America have a low set of initiative costs. The reputation of being “the land of opportunities” is much more a result of this fact, then of the mere wealth aggregate found within its borders. The strong individualist feeling, which includes self-determination and self-responsibility, associated with the ability to gather into broader groups in order to act more effectively, having the adherence to ideals as background, could introduce elements into the social system which seem to be crucial to the nation’s development. In Latin America, efforts should be done to foster socially desirable institutions – which means those that lower initiative and transaction costs. The structure is being imported through globalization. Free-trade, concurrence, entrepreneurship enforcement, leadership skills and strong dedication to work are common expressions in today’s business world. It is time to create the suitable institutional environment for these fast-coming changes. The ability of societies to fulfill this goal will determine not only the net benefits brought by the expansion of globalization, but also their sustainability in the long run.

Carlina María Rojas Almeida - Universidad Nacional de Asunción - Paraguay

“La Prensa: “Herramienta Poderosa”, capaz de desarrollar Agentes de Cambio”

Los medios de prensa o de comunicación social: televisión, radio, diarios, revistas, periodistas, empresas gestoras de la comunicación; comprenden una herramienta poderosa para el fortalecimiento y desarrollo de agentes de cambio, pues poseen un gran alcance, no solo a nivel de cobertura geográfica, sino más por el poder de influir en las personas.
La prensa produce efectos en la vida de las personas; es capaz de modificar su modo de pensar; (necesitamos actitud positiva), actuar sobre su grado de conocimiento; (precisamos educación, capacitación), es capaz de crear conciencia ética en la sociedad, (exigimos un juicio moral de nuestros actos), y motivar el pensamiento crítico, (debemos tomar decisiones que beneficie a todos), todo esto propicia el desarrollo de una cultura emprendedora sustentable. Los jóvenes, futuros profesionales; constituyen el eje fundamental para el desarrollo de una cultura emprendedora sustentable, pues estos son los futuros dueños de los nuevos emprendimientos que se están llevando a cabo ahora, y los que surgirán; por lo que deben ser el foco principal a atender. Se deben establecer alianzas estratégicas, con; universidades, centros educativos, colegios, institutos de capacitación profesional, etc. y desarrollar proyectos específicos con organismos gubernamentales, empresas privadas, organismos internacionales, vía convenios de cooperación, todos inter ligados por “medios de comunicación”.

Ahora que identificamos una herramienta poderosa, los medios de comunicación social y sabemos de lo que son capaces, entonces; concluyendo, además de desarrollar…

Son “AGENTES DE CAMBIO”, y deben ser llamados a cumplir su deber.

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El i+ Challenge: un hito en la vía del emprendimiento

Este artículo fue escrito por Víctor Sánchez. Víctor es miembro del Consejo Asesor de Ingenio Plus y Delegado del SABF en la Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela.

Queremos compartir con ustedes una gran alegría. Hemos realizado el sueño que desde hace más de una año venimos paladeando: el primer juego de negocios llevado por y para estudiantes universitarios, el i+ Challenge.

Durante los días 30 y 31 de mayo, ocho equipos conformados por cuatro estudiantes cada uno, fueron dueños de la cadena de practimercados Día Día. Hubo dos rondas de competición en la cuales se contó con la presencia de prestigiosos jurados del ámbito académico y empresarial. Entre ellos estuvo, José Vicente Aguerrevere, CEO de Día Día y Félix Gallo, CEO de IBM Venezuela; así como también Lucía Brower, Directora de Día Día; Ricardo Vera, Gerente Inteligencia de Mercado de Empresa Polar; Fernando Torres, profesor de la Universidad Simón Bolívar; Jean Marc Francois, profesor del IESA.

Día Día, ha sido pionera en Venezuela al desarrollar un esquema de negocio fundamentado en el patrón de compra de las personas de bajos ingresos. Aguerrevere, suele resumir el concepto de Día Día como “la dignificación de los abastos”. A tan sólo 2 años de su salida al mercado, Día Día cuenta con más de 15 tiendas en Gran Caracas y se encuentran en proceso de expansión hacia el resto del país.

Así, la pregunta más natural que se podía dirigir a los participantes era: “¿Cómo expandirías la cadena hacia el resto del país y que factores considerarías para hacerlo?”.

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La Unión Sudamericana, ¿diluye o complementa al Mercosur?

Este artículo fue escrito por Félix Peña para el Diario El Cronista el 11 de Junio de 2008. Félix Peña es Especialista en Relaciones Económicas Internacionales e Integración Económica y Director del Instituto de Comercio de la Fundación Standard Bank; estará disertando nuevamente este año en el SABF.

Se ha comenzado a concretar una decisión de los 12 países de América del Sur que reconoce el origen de la Unasur en la Cumbre de 2000. Al menos dos escenarios alternativos pueden plantearse.

Félix Peña en el SABF 2007La Unión de Naciones Sudamericanas (Unasur) tiene ya su partida de nacimiento. Su tratado constitutivo se firmó el 23 mayo en Brasilia. Debe ser ratificado por 9 países para entrar en vigencia. Se ha comenzado a concretar así, al menos en el plano formal, una decisión de los 12 países de América del Sur que reconoce su origen en la Cumbre del 2000 que también en Brasilia convocara el Presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

Es entonces una iniciativa de fuerte acento brasileño. Refleja la voluntad de impulsar la institucionalización de un espacio geográfico compuesto por naciones que en su mayoría limitan con Brasil. Es un acto de liderazgo que ha logrado el consenso de los demás países, algunos con más entusiasmo como parecería ser el caso de Chile. La Presidenta Bachelet ejercerá la Presidencia pro-témpore en el período en que se supone que el Tratado sería ratificado y en el que podría articularse un consenso en torno al Consejo de Defensa Sudamericano, iniciativa ésta también brasileña cuyo perfil y funciones no son aún muy precisas y que no fue aprobada en la reciente Cumbre de Brasilia.

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“We entrepreneurs are big challengers”

We have the honor to share with you an interview made by Fortuna Magazine to one of our speakers, Andrés Freire.

Axialent’s CEO was chosen by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, together with the Martín Lousteau, the Economy Minister, among 3,500 candidates. He talks about the challenges and vices corporations have and about new leadership. The “victim” attitude of many Argentinean executives.

Andrés Freire met Economy Minister Martín Lousteau at University while they were both studying Economy.
This year, they were both chosen by the World Economic Forum as Young Global Leaders. They are the only two Argentineans chosen among 3,500 candidates all around the world. In Freire’s case, his most important achievement is a vertiginous career as an entrepreneur, leader and businessman. His reputation kicks off in the dotcom era. In 1997, he founded Officenet, a company which sells office supplies for companies. They started with ten employees and an investment of U$S 7,000,000. Five years later, there were more than 700 employees all around Latin America. Then, in 2003, he co-founded Axialent, a company which “helps big corporations in the world to solve the unbalances resulting from what they say and what they do”. When having to analyze the weaknesses of big organizations he says that “the narrower the gap between what companies say and what they actually do, the more successful they will be in the long run.”

FORTUNA: Why do you think that there is a gap between what we say and what we do?

FREIRE
: Because executives think that there is a dilemma between the personal values and the organizational values. Sometimes we have the chance of being aligned with our own values or doing what the company needs. That is a lie. We show companies how these two things can be integrated. And they are realizing that the content of knowledge as regards technology is not a competitive advantage whereas generating a culture of work is.

FORTUNA
: How do you accomplish that?

FREIRE: Generally corporations pay little attention to their corporate culture. This means, for instance, how a leader company in technology can generate a task oriented culture. If they are consequent, then the people who work there should be impeccable with their commitments. If the meeting starts at one, it starts at one. To achieve that culture they want to generate, they must follow the values they want to promote.

FORTUNA: What are the big vices of corporations?

FREIRE: One is unconsciousness. People don’t know the impact it has when they do not live up to their word. For example, they preach that the best ones within the organization will be promoted but then those positions are covered with the director’s friends or those men he trusts. There is no problem in being a loyalty-built company but you don’t have to say a different thing and you have to be coherent with the messages you deliver. Our motto is “what leaders do speak so loudly that people don’t listen to what they say”. The actions of those running an organization have a multiplying effect.
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The SABF around the world

In this occasion we would like to introduce our group of delegates. They are SABF representatives throughout the five continents that works along with us, to manage to spread the event around the world. They are an essential component in the organization since they are the ones who transmit the spirit and concept of the Forum reaching personally where we cannot. We would like to thank all our delegates for the excellent work they have done during these months which made it possible to achieve such great results this year!

We have more than 60 delegates from 21 different countries. Just Awesome! If you would like to know who is the delegate in your country or university, please visit the Delegates section of our website.

Here you can see some pictures of them in their countries! This reflects their hard work, effort and commitment!

Agustín Taberner

Agustín Taberner is a SABF delegate at the Universidad Nacional de La Matanza in Argentina. On his trip to Rosario he took a photo in the National Monument to the flag.

She is Mary Laura Delgado Montes, our delegate at the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín in Perú. In this pic, she is in her city: Arequipa. Amazing sight!

William Castaño

This pic was taken by William Castaño, delegate at Universidad EAFIT in Colombia. This is the second aerial tramway that was inaugurated in Medellin showing an uncommon perspective of the city.

Gonzalo Basso

Gonzalo Basso is a SABF Delegate at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He’s in the Alcalá Gate in Madrid!

We hope you have enjoyed the pics and got to know the world a bit more through them!

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