Leading in challenging times

LEADING IN CHALLENGING TIMES

BUSINESS SCHOOL - UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE

E L B A T

D E A N ´ S

PATH

TO

FIRMS

O P E N I N G

CONVERGENCE:

AND

D U

S D G ´ S

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KEY

ONLINE

S T U D E N T S

T E M P S

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T H E T I M E S

FACTORS

TO

SALES

D I G I T A L

MULTINATIONAL

SMES

D I S T I N G U I S H E D

L ’ A I R

M E S S A G E

B U S I N E S S

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C O V I D - 1 9

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CONTENTS

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Dean´s Welcome Octavio Ibarra Dean Business School at Universidad del Norte.

Holds a Post-graduate degree from Said Business School, University of Oxford (U.K), a PhD. in Management and Master´s in Philosophy from University of Hull (U.K), as well as an MBA and a BA from Universidad del Norte. Researcher and Lecturer in marketing, branding, retail and management.

The recent global pandemic situation generated by COVID-19, has significantly impacted on the Global Economic System.

Furthermore, it has brought to light challenges regarding health and social policies around the world.

In the specific context of Latin America, the high level of poverty, inequality and informality, in almost all the countries of this region, contributes to higher negative impacts.

In that sense, a large group of its population does not have a formal job and therefore, they need to work in the streets, increasing the risk of coronavirus.

Access to high quality education, small business development, strong health systems, affordable

energy,

clean

water

sanitation, climate change actions,

and decent

work, economic growth, and gender equality; should not be a privilege for few, but a right for everyone.

In that sense, Business leaders play an important role, not only for contributing to a more competitive environment and a more robust economic system; but also to a wider perspective of Business actions, in which human beings and society are undoubtedly priorities. It is time for actions. It is time to

This current situation indicates the need of

bring together the existing large business

implementing

leadership

community in the world and to seek for

approach, not only to figth Covid 19, but also

achieving better life standars for everyone in

to

our society. Beginning with a new sense of

settle

developing standards.

a

solid

collective bases

for

building

and

communities with better life

humanity would help the world.

Path to Convergence: Multinational Firms and SMES

BY JERRY HART

Jerry Haar, professor of international business at Florida International University and a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He is co-author with Ricardo Ernst of Georgetown University of Innovation in Emerging Markets and Globalization, Competitiveness and Governability.

Surveying the landscape of the global economy it should become readily apparent that multinational corporations (MNCs) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play distinct roles.

globalized world, smallness can be a virtue. To begin with, smallness along with technology are the great It

is

increasingly

accessible

and

affordable to firms of all sizes and across a spectrum of industries.

within the reach of firms for market intelligence, production, management information systems, control, financial management and customer service, thereby helping to level the playing field for SMEs as they compete with MNCs. Customer engagement and talent development are the two critically important areas in which MNCs and SMEs can work individually and in partnership to strengthen

company

performance

and

competitiveness. In the first instance, multinationals can engage SME clients and potential partners by helping them to help themselves. Bundling, be it software or logistical or financial solutions, is an excellent starting point.

In the case of SMEs competing in the 21st century’s

“equalizers”.

Technology-based systems and sources are now

With respect to talent development, both MNCs and SMEs in technology place a high premium on developing and retaining a cadre of technically proficient professionals. CISCO’s promotion of talent development linkages through DEVNET, a network of developers is a prime example. SAP and Microsoft work on their own and with SME counterparts to support talent development, including nurturing startups by providing mentoring, coaching, and even investing in high potential tech start-ups.

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source: www.joc.com

In general, MNCs can do much to support

Sharing these “open source” formats and

SME development by partnering with them

tools can produce significant goodwill and

to

and

provide concrete benefits for SMEs who

competitiveness, achieving mutual benefits

ordinarily would not be able to pay for such

from their efforts. In the financial realm,

facilitating mechanisms.

improve

their

capabilities

SMEs are often constrained by a lack of access to both investment capital and

There are many different forms of linkages

working capital to sustain and grow their

between MNCs and SMEs, all which can be

businesses. MNCs can help by providing

leveraged for innovation, growth, and

their SME customers and partners with

competitiveness. It behooves both MNCs

short-term financing as well as investment

and SMEs to explore ways of enhancing

capital

also

their existing linkages and exploring the

encouraging host country governments to

possibility of establishing new ones. In the

develop

institute

end, such a strategic choice will enable

financing mechanisms and other support for

them to thrive in a globally interdependent

local SMEs.

economy.

(an

equity

public

position)

policies

which

and

Finally, MNCs can strengthen MNC-SME linkages by providing technology platforms for SMEs and supporting networks of aggregators

to

help

increase

SME

capabilities.

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DISTINGUISHED STUDENTS

SABER PRO RESULTS 2019 1. Yendris Esther Bustamante Ruiz - Int. Business 2. Daniel Felipe Bello Barriga - Int. Business 3. Marlys Isabel Ospino Cahuana - Int. Business 4. María Alejandra Guerrero Duarte - Accounting 5. Amy Ulloque Mena - Business Administration 6. Andrea Chajin Badillo - Business Administration 7. Yinés Yesenia Cancio Amador - Accounting 8. Diego Fernando Rangel Cohen - Accounting 9. Cristina Pichon Zambrano -Business Administration

AWARDS Paula Andrea Povea Romero - Silver Medal Award Yendris Esther Bustamante Ruiz - Silver Medal Award Adriana Del Pilar Arrieta Rojas - Silver Medal Award Lina Marcela Rocha Lemus - Sports Medal Isabella Alejandra Perez Ruiz - University Merit Medal Valerie Bula Del Valle - University Merit Medal

DIPLOMA OF EXCELLENCE Maria Teresa Agudelo Cantillo Marlys Isabel Ospino Cahuana Mauricio Andres Osorio Cepeda Melissa Botero Valencia Ana Maria Vargas Cordoba Anibal Guillermo Caballero Hernandez Isabella Alejandra Perez Ruiz Jeniffer Alexandra Carreño Sarmiento Cristina Pichon Zambrano Valerie Bula Del Valle Juan Sebastian Perdomo Barrios Julian Elinso Gil Escobar Paula Andrea Mazo Barreto

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DRONE TO TRANSPORT MEDICINE DURING COVID-19 MAXDRONE COLOMBIA

JOSE ALEJANDRO OTERO is 22 years old. He

The styrofoam drone will reduce the exposure

studies International Business at the Business

of health professionals and assist people in

School -Universidad del Norte.

preventive isolation. The prototype supports a maximum of 2 kg and can cover a distance of

Jose created a styrofoam drone to transport

750 meters. It was designed to delivery

medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic.This

refrigerated

initiative

laboratory tests and other medical supplies.

was

multidisciplinary

possible

to

a

loads:

medicines,

of

electronic,

and

architectural

"We did it at home, with the materials that we

engineers from different regions of Colombia

had, at low cost to ensure the replicability of

who work together with José Alejandro in his

the prototype. We assembled this drone using

company MaxDrone Colombia. Jose and his

styrofoam, sandpaper, light PVC pipes and

family, migrated from Caracas Venezuela to

drone parts that we had in our workshop,"

Barranquilla four years ago.

mentioned Jose.

aeronautical,

team

thanks

medical

mechatronic

NOMADIC

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L’Air Du Temps ARTICLE BY MSC. GUILLERMO MÁRQUEZ FERRO

MSC. Guillermo Márquez F. Professor of Logistics and Ports at Universidad del Norte Buiness School. More than 33 years of working experience in logistic sector.

I wanted to place a very classic title on this short writing element, to soften very much the notorious whereabouts that the international shipping and logistics world is undergoing these rocky moments in History and Society. To begin, for the Container Shipping Market in the favorite and high traffic routes, Far East-Europe, Far East-America and the return back to China, with lesser intensity but still representative, many of the vessels had been cancelled, lots of food containers had been left almost abandoned in very high figures in countries like China, Singapore, Philippines and so on. The bulk cargo vessel market in Brazil was doing well in terms of volume, but there have been lately a high level of reluctance from the port workers to attend port operations, because vessels of any type have been historically sources of plague and contagious diseases all over history. For instance, Aids entered into Colombia late 80s, thru the Port of Cartagena, when a sailor from one the vessels arriving there, infected a woman.

Many food supply chains of ethnic products consumed in countries like the US and Canada, always favoring very much these delicious prepared foods, like the Naan bread from India, are running low in inventory because of scarce wheat production in the supply countries, then, the final producer has been running desperate to find alternative sources to maintain an ongoing processed food chain arriving to these destinations, Blomberg News.

In less developed countries in African ports, public transportation disappeared because of local quarantine procedures enforcing social distance measures.

In countries like Colombia, where in a week the first coffee grain collection is starting, a floating labor work force of 20.000 coffee collectors to the growing areas is very much unlikely to be met, however, the Coffee industry and the Government are doing tremendous efforts to check into what is being named a “Smart quarantine” procedure and apply that to some other construction, textile and manufacturing sectors, to minimize the social and economic impacts, local TV news sources.

You could go on and on, collecting this sort of SWOT analysis from the different ports in the world, concurring with similar elements unfortunately. For all these sector worldwide the general recommendation for the logistics service suppliers and the cargo and commodity users is to maintain a permanent ongoing analysis of news in contagion data and transportation elements to see how the supply and logistic chain can start to improve. Thus, a full Strategic Planning function, with skilled professionals to be able to flexible mount different operation scenarios. Criteria is based on the need to keep the supply food chain fully working permanently to avoid further economic and social unrest.

Finally, less but not least, is the Oil market prices, generating what has been named the biggest oil glut in history of mankind, Reuters. There is an actual, April 17th, inventory on 60 VLCC (Very large crude carriers), with an average capacity of 250.000 metric tons (MT) each, amounting a total floating inventory of 15.000.000 MT, at anchorage in the US Gulf and Singapore.

Needless to say, that expectations for the coming months are calling for an increase to 100 to 200 VLCC, either one of the figures been very high, and completely unseen before in the oil market history, Reuters.

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SDG´S IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19

By PhD. Camilo Mejía Reátiga

Camilo Mejía- ProfessorResearcher at Universidad del Norte Business School.

Board Member of the Latin American Association of Cases –ALAC- (president 2011-2012) and World Association for the Study and Application of the Case Method –WACRA. Member of the Steering Committee of Global Compact (United Nations) Colombia.

Undoubtedly, mandatory social isolation has placed a tremendous burden on the global economy and on the lifestyle and production processes of nations worldwide.

Sustainability, seen from the implementation and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, is no exception. It is important to emphasize that sustainability seeks general social wellbeing. This is why in most nations there is a need to make contributions to the SDGs. One of them is the SDG Tracker initiative (mapping of the SDGs) from which the United Nations began to take a tour of the business contribution to sustainability (based on the goals included in each objective), trying to map the global aggregate picture. Limiting it to the national and specifically, to the Department of the Atlantic, according to Fundesarrollo and Probarranquilla (entities implementing the mapping for our region) in the measurement pilot conducted and presented in March 2020 , the companies of the region present, among others, the following results:

46% of these companies have an inclusion policy, 62% have social investment programs (for 3.7 trillion pesos) In this scenario, preventing isolation from generating impacts, such as the following, is an urgent need: Unemployment.

Lower income.

Hunger in vulnerable population.

Shortage of supplies.

Difficulties in the education of public schools.

Impact on the health system.

Therefore, it is essential to bet on increasing certain types of actions such as increasing the number of companies that carry out activities related to the SDGs, generate subsidies from compensation funds and the State for the vulnerable population, inject the financial system with resources for soft loans, strengthen the health system, implement and strengthen digital technology and bandwidth of internet channels, encourage volunteerism, adapt processes, services and products for new market trends (for example, do it yourself) and boost innovation in all the sectors from virtuality.

They contributed 4.9 trillion pesos of economic value distributed among their stakeholders, They generate around 2347 direct jobs,

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12 KEY FACTORS TO INCREASE ONLINE SALES ARTICLE BY MSC. JAIME COTES ESCOLAR

JAIME COTES Consultant, speaker and professor at Universidad del Norte Business School, with a wide experience in DigitalTransformation and Innovation.

03. Individualize The Sale.

As a result of the analysis of big data and the use of artificial intelligence, online sales must respond to Digital Transformations.

04. Marketplace, A Necessary Link.

For every second that a website increases its loading time, the conversion rate (CR) improves by 27%. This is a google requirement for search engine positioning, which includes optimizing page load as one of the priority objectives for eCommerce in the upcoming year.

Large online sales platforms will continue to be the greatest ally of small operators. And not only in the initial phases of business development - gaining brand awareness and attracting web traffic -but also as a helping sales tool that is stable and complementary to the their own sales platform.

This requires individualized strategy and investments, aiming at giving visibility to their products, in these gigantic department stores

02. Optimization For Mobile Devices.

05. The Use Of Smart Data As A Trend Detector.

01. Improve Web Loading Speed.

IThe second recommendation of Google is essential for online stores that seek to consolidate: without an optimal navigation on Smartphones or Tablet there is little to do.

According to the Colombian eCommerce observatory in 2019, 58% of users used their mobile and 25% their laptop in their purchases, although these devices had a much more important role in the information process and purchase decision. Another importante aspect is the influence of responsive websites on eCommerce Search Engine Optimization (SEO), undoubtedly one of the criteria that search engines appreciate the most.

Small data gains advantage against big data statistics. It is about detecting those data that anticipate user trends in order to give a quick response, a concept put in fashion by Martin Lindstrom in his book "Small data" (Deusto, 2016). As long as you act quickly, eCommerce will be able to give more excitement to your purchase.

06. Live Stream Video.

The platforms for video streaming in real Hundreds of sports exist, time - YouTube, Instagram tv orfrom Facebook those between single live, for example - have been one of the contestants through greatest winners, and their influence must consolidate and grow over the next years.

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07. Enriched information.

08. Virtual Stores.

09. Augmented Reality To Experiment With Products.

Consumers want to know more. Product information should be enriched by adding videos and links that provide practical information about the product or service, always paying attention to generate a navigation loop that returns the customer to the sales platform.

Around 100 million consumers will buy on websites with virtual reality (VR) environments in 2020, according to the Gartner technology consultancy. Since 2019, it marked the starting point for a change that promises to be as exciting as it is still uncertain, we will have to be attentive to the actions of large operators.

10. Offer Security.

11. Offer Multi-Payment Gateways.

12. Omnichannel Customer Service Systems.

Your eCommerce must be shown as a safe environment for browsing and purchasing.

Allow buyer, the possibility to use different payment methods, such as PSE, Credit card, cash on delivery, among others. Fortunately, we can find platforms, such as ePayCo, that offer this solution.

And we cannot forget, the use of omnichannel customer service systems, where users can contact you from multiple channels, such as, web chat, Chatbot, WhatsApp, forms, social networks, among others, without losing the traceability of the request.

Up to now, The experience brought by the use of augmented reality is, trying to to bring customers a real sample of the benefits or characteristics of the product,

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Digital Business An initiative developed by Uninorte Business School to support small companies in Colombia during COVID-19 times

According to Octavio Ibarra, Dean at the Business School “the program aimed at giving free training and support to micro, small and medium-sized companies in Colombian, in order to mitigate the impact of the current crisis.”

Moreover, the distribution of companies by economic sector was the following: 28% Services, 22% Manufacturing, 22% Commercial, 7% Consultancy, 7% Industrial, 6% Construction, 4% Technology and 4% Education.

The program was developed from march 26 to april 26, 2020 and was led by Dean Octavio Ibarra and faculty members from the Business School: Jaime Cotes, Dorian Martínez, Alberto Muñoz and David Juliao. In this phase, 280 companies joined the program, of which 84% are micro-companies (10 employees or less), 13% are small-companies (between 11 and 50 employees), and 3% are mediumcompanies (between 51 and 200 employees). Regarding the geographic coverage, companies are located in the different departments of Colombia. See figure 1.

The program developed in 4 phases, Phase 1. Evaluation and Diagnosis of the Digital Profile of the Company, Phase 2.

Training in Digital Transformation, Phase 3. Support in Digital Business Models and Technologies 4.0 and Phase 4. Digital Strategies. During the development of the program, 44% of the companies received training and support in the Digital Business area, 32% in Marketing area, 15% in Finance area, and 9% in Entrepreneurship and Management area.

Figure 1.

Results and Impact of the Program Positive results were achieved through this initiative. The following indicators, show the impact on sales, training, distribution channel, business model and mindset.

Impact on Distribution Channel 50%

10%

40%

of companies developed new distribution channels. (non digital)

of companies developed new distribution channels. (digital)

of companies maintained thier distribution channels.

Impact on Business Model

Impact on Sales of the companies

40% increased sales in 100%

50% of the companies implemented strategies

Marketing Strategies sales

60%

Supply Chain

of the companies increased sales between 10% and 20% Supplier Relationship Management

Organizational Culture

Impact on Training Training on Digital Transformation

Cash Generation

Impact on Mindset Training on Functional Areas

20%

70%

20%

70%

before

after

before

after

80%

90%

100%

Strengthen and shift strategic planning

Strengthen functional areas

Strengthen strtategy

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