A globalized world

OK, I promise this is the last time I talk about Uruguay and the rest of South America. However, the discussion in our last class only reinforced my belief on what I said on my previous entry about Chile as compared with the rest of the countries in Latin America. Granted, Uruguay is an extremely small economy and will always be somehow dependent on what their big brothers do, especially Argentina. But, if we look at the different approach Argentina and Chile have taken towards globalization we can understand the importance of the three laws of global integration. Chile has chosen to compete based mainly on openness by stimulating competition and the free flow of goods and ideas. The have created alliances with the main powers and have stayed away from what most of Latin America was doing (with the exception of Brazil which has a completely different set of problems). In sharp contrast, Argentina has chosen to partially ally with Venezuela and run their country with an archaic model destined for economic stagnation, if not failure. They have chosen to almost deny globalization, become more government dependent and "defend" their borders as if the countries wanting to have a business exchange with them were enemies. Who is "winning" so far? As per the latest Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum, Chile is ranked number 28 in the world. You have to go down to 64 to find Brazil and all the way down to 88 to find Argentina and 105 to find Venezuela. Seems to me that, if approached correctly, globalization doesn't hurt at all.

Uruguay and Value 2.0

Coming from a developing country where bureaucracy rules and successfully doing business requires an extreme exercise in patience, I found the Value 2.0 article to be very interesting. More often than not, the people's and especially the federal government's inability to recognize and fully understand the importance of this new set of rules for business, culture and society, makes local companies miss great opportunities to capture market share away from larger regional companies who operate under more flexible conditions.

Additionally, I found a statement in Rule #8 to be the most significant one since it completely goes against what standard business practices are in Uruguay. The part reads: "...large enterprises need to shift their thinking and learn a great deal from multiple inexpensive, rapid failures, rather than learning a little from a single launch event". Even if a particular project or idea is already very good it will be analyzed and re-analyzed so many times to the point that when it finally comes to fruition it will most probably be already too late for it to become competitive in a globalized environment. If this mentality could be changed, I am sure Uruguay would be at least on par with Chile in terms of economic development within South America, if not better. Hopefully soon I will be able to help my country with this new paradigm.

What makes me interesting?

I come from a very small country of only 3 million but a very big family of 8 brothers and sisters of which I am the youngest. I was the first and only one to finish High School and I first became an uncle at the age of 8 :-)