Doing Business in Mexico I recently spent ten days in California working with one of my clients to develop marketing strategies that would reach the increasingly important Mexican (and overall Hispanic) market of this important state. Current demographics show that Hispanics constitute the largest ethnic/minority group of the state, accounting for over 30 percent of […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico As many of you know, there are a number of ways to approach risk analysis, but the dominant model in most MBA programs falls under the category of “rational” models. In these models, risk analysis and decision-making relies as much as possible on objective and quantifiable data. There are other models […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico You must have all heard or read about it by now: The Coca-Cola company has announced it will “reduce” its payroll by 7,000 employees. Profits were not as good as expected, and it is time to tighten the belt. This makes investors happy: Fear that a company is losing profits are […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico More and more people are holding jobs that do not require commuting. Various positions in the publishing industry, such as writers, for example, do their work at home (or wherever they wish) and simply send their production over the internet – in a word, they “telecommute.” This makes a great deal […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico The experience of going through a job interview is, for most people, exhausting and stressful. You seek advice from others, read books about it, and prepare yourself to talk and behave in ways that feel unnatural to you. The main reason why the interview process is so stressful is because the […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico In the early part of the 20th Century, American industrial engineer Fredrick Taylor revolutionized management practices through his famous concept of Scientific Management. His basic premise was that for each task there is one best way of doing things, and workers must be taught to do it that way. At the […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico There is no doubt that being a manager today is a different and more demanding challenge than it has been in the past. The much-talked-about globalization of business operations has forced managers to expand their mental horizons beyond the old borders. This is not an easy task, since most managers still […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico Perhaps the single largest cultural gap between Latin Americans and North Americans in the realm of business practices is the “personal” dimension. As I have explained in earlier articles, Latin Americans tend to view the personal and professional aspects of a person as two parts of a whole, whereas most North […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico When I ask managers what they hate most about their jobs, writing and reading reports is usually on the top of their lists. Managers who have to write reports are often inadequately prepared: They were hired for expertise in specific business areas, such as marketing or finance, and have received little, […]
Continue ReadingDoing Business in Mexico Over the last two years, working with different companies in both the United States and Mexico, I have heard time and again about a relatively new nagging problem for managers: handling their email. According to a poll conducted by USA Today, roughly 25 percent of Americans feel overwhelmed by their email, […]
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