[00:00:37] Good morning and welcome to another episode of Supply Chain Now. My name is Enrique Alvarez and today I have the pleasure of interviewing a person who not only has a very interesting professional career, but is in a very interesting industry. The conjunction between logistics and technology, visibility in supply chains. And well, without further ado, José Guillermo Suárez, Latin America business manager for TV, a world leader in supply chain visibility. José Guillermo, how are you? How are you doing?
[00:01:14] Good morning Enrique, what a pleasure to greet you. Thank you for having me, I really appreciate it. I hope to be able to offer you an interesting talk and try to solve all the doubts you may have. I’m very glad you invited me, I appreciate it and although my trajectory is not as elegant as you put it. I’ll be glad to help you and tell you about it.
[00:01:37] Apart from anything else, apart from all this humble is not it? José Guillermo, thank you very much for your participation. This is one more episode of Supply Chain en español and we have a lot of people listening to us, ready to learn a little more about your story, a little more about your company and a little more about your vision of international supply chains and logistics. However, before we begin, tell us a little about yourself. Who is it? Who is José Guillermo?
[00:02:06] Well look, I was born in Mexico City, I am 43 years old, I have lived more than half of my life outside of Mexico, but I have been all over the world. I had the opportunity to do university in Australia, at Griffith University in Brisbane, a degree in international relations, this one with a major in crime and enology which has nothing to do with what I do now. So far it was very interesting to me. I have been able to. I am married with three children. I have been in this logistics environment for the last 15 years since I was in Australia and I have been in the United States, Australia, Europe, Venezuela and the last 12 years here in Florida, working directly in logistics and Supply Chain. Until a year ago I took this opportunity to develop Latin America for Chile.
[00:03:01] A very very international vision. So because you have personally experienced different countries, but before we go back to your professional career and then to Tibet, the company you are currently working with, working on something that you can tell us about, an experience when you were still young in Mexico, something that started you on the path to the career you chose and where you are now.
[00:03:29] Well, quite a lot of experience, but in several years I worked for a fire extinguisher factory. It was called Industrial Sauro and this and well, I had the opportunity to call him there is opportunity. At that time I felt like a punishment to start from.
[00:03:47] Why? Tell us about it.
[00:03:48] Tell us more about the smelter factory and the only thing in that place is dust. Chemical powder, chemicals, fire extinguishers. And I started. I remember that I started in the part of. What is your name? Warehouse. And no, he wasn’t young, he was young, I didn’t understand him very much and they kind of made me. Well, I count it with pride. There was no downgrade and I was put to sweep, sweep the yard. Then they would tell me until you finish sweeping the yard you can’t go back to the warehouse. It never ended. By the time I got to the other side of the courtyard I would turn around and it was all blue from the fire extinguisher dust. Then I learned that you had to work hard, you had to dedicate a lot of time and effort, because when you are in a professional job and everything, if you don’t work hard, you don’t move forward. Then I learned. I spent about a month and a half sweeping the yard and I said I don’t need to get my act together, let’s go ahead. And I ended up being an industrialist. Saro, the route manager.
[00:04:49] Hey no! Excellent learning. As you say, in the moment we don’t see many things as being useful or relevant, but those kinds of experiences are the ones that mark who you are, right? And what did you learn after that? Well, before that it was this, before your career or before or this.
[00:05:10] I am talking about when I was in high school, when I was in high school and I was working at home, my father told me that here we work since we were kids.
[00:05:20] Is this something else you learned either from your parents or from a mentor you had at the time?
[00:05:26] For me. The most important thing is that, to be tenacious in what you are doing, to dedicate yourself 100%. Many people say with passion and love. There are many things you don’t have to do with love and passion, you simply have to do them well, complete and understand that you have to do the things you are doing well, as if you were doing them for yourself. How you want to be treated. It’s how you should treat others, your customers, everyone, and that’s how you will be successful. Can I explain why? Because you wait. I give the service that I expect to receive when I am in a restaurant or when I am in an office, or when I am selling what they are selling me or what they are doing, or the service or program they are offering me, that is, the one that I would totally enjoy.
[00:06:13] It’s not going to be like you put it, do things as if you were doing them for yourself, which is very important. And well, apart from sweeping the yard several or several times during a whole month and a half, tell us a little bit more afterwards, how you were growing, how it evolves?
[00:06:28] Believe it or not, I worked for a law firm in the immigration area. At one point in my life I said I wanted to be a lawyer and I worked for four years for a law firm, sending details and salon where if you asked me for a mentor, Carlos Mandala, an excellent lawyer, taught me a lot and taught me how to be tenacious and move forward. To go forward, to always seek to do things well, to strive for perfection. And I have a lot of stories about that because I dedicated myself to the migratory part. Then we worked for different companies doing the immigration procedures. I was in charge of immigration procedures for several companies.
[00:07:10] Anything in particular that you remember from that time? I imagine that you met many people wanting to enter the country to work, that is, many stories from Mexico that I don’t know today, but I was told that there are many incredible stories of people who want another opportunity in a country that is not theirs.
[00:07:26] Very, very many. And now you reminded me and it makes me laugh what we worked on. I don’t want to say the name of the company, it is very big, it is an Asian company that was bringing people from China and. They were the ones who had the most problems. In Mexico that was like a living hell, as it was to go hungry, they would call me at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. and they would tell me that the immigration agents had already caught them when they were leaving the office very late and they had to go to get them out.
[00:08:03] But hey, and well, from the part of the plant with chemicals, extinguishers to laws, what did you study? I was told you were testing various parts.
[00:08:14] Yes, I was testing. I was testing you. I wanted to know what my dad, lawyer, aunts, lawyers, everybody wanted to do. And I thought at one point that it was like it was for me lawyering. Then I found out I didn’t and that’s when I grabbed my stuff. I decided to apply to a university in Australia through Griffith University, in Australia, to study International Relations. I was accepted to the university.
[00:08:38] And why Australia? Why outside Mexico?
[00:08:42] I wanted an opportunity outside of Mexico. I was looking for an opportunity outside of Mexico, as far away as possible at the time. I don’t know, maybe rebellion. I wasn’t liking the things I was seeing happening in Mexico or something. I said well, I applied to Australia, I thought it was not going to be possible because you had to do a lot of things to apply and fulfill several requirements. I fulfilled them, they accepted me and in a month and a half I was already in Australia. I remembered. Yes, yes, yes. I remember I sold my bench.
[00:09:12] She had never been the first.
[00:09:14] I had been to Australia, I had never been to Australia, I went to the embassy in Polanco, in Mexico City. I asked what had to be done, they explained. And I said well, I can fill out the form right here. And I was told people usually think about it more, but if you want to action the form and then you’re going to have to do certain things. Yes, I said no at once, I filled it out and I tell you in a period of a month and a half they accepted me and when they accepted me I remember that. I went. I sold my car in Perico. Do you remember? The Tangiers. The one with the cars? I went, sold my car and left with the car money. And I told my mom. I said I’m leaving in two weeks. I am going to live in Australia.
[00:09:55] Through mom. I don’t know.
[00:09:58] He laughed a little at first, but when he saw my serious face, he said. Really? I said Yes, yes, I’m serious. And I left. I left without having anything prepared, that is, more than a week of hotel and where I arrived at the university and I had to look for everything else and that was it. Five years. I ended up in Australia.
[00:10:18] Five years in Australia, studying the same career, the same International Relations.
[00:10:23] International Relations It was four years of university and then I stayed one more year because my original plans were to stay and live in Australia, in Sydney. Not in Brisbane, which is the capital of Queensland, north on the Gold Coast. And my intention was to stay and live there. Me. The Australian migration system is based on points for the degree you had done. My qualifications and everything gave me for what’s it called? They used me to stay, they gave me enough points to stay. So I went to visit an immigration lawyer. There I was doing my internships with two companies, with a Mexican company and with an Australian government company. And they told me look, when you get your papers in, there’s going to be a period of 6 to 8 months where you’re not going to be able to leave Australia. If you are interested, you can ask for a two-month permit to go visit your family or something like that, put your papers in, leave them already inside and you can leave. Ok, let’s do that. I went to visit my mom in Mexico. Then I took a vacation where I ended up in Venezuela and in Venezuela I met my wife who is now my wife and I did not return to Australia, which I left there. Roommate, home, work, everything.
[00:11:49] But you stayed in Venezuela, didn’t you?
[00:11:51] I stayed in Venezuela for two years. Wow!
[00:11:54] Well, tell us what you were doing now in Venezuela.
[00:11:59] In Venezuela. I arrived and had the opportunity to find a niche that was missing in Venezuela, Venezuela at that time. I’m telling you, this was 15 years ago, okay? It wasn’t as bad as it is now, ok? And I found the opportunity selling equipment, computer equipment, computer equipment and printer parts and stuff. And I set up a company with a friend and we were dedicated to selling the company. Computers, printers, toners, mice, cameras, everything, all the computer stuff we brought from the United States or from some wholesalers in Mexico and this and we distribute in Venezuela. I spent two years living in Venezuela and the situation got worse and worse and personal cases and others ended up moving to Miami, we ended up moving to Miami.
[00:12:49] Still with your company.
[00:12:50] In Venezuela, the computer company was not closed and that was due to health issues of my wife’s family that we had to move to the United States and since I was already engaged to her, married and everything and well, I said well, let’s, let’s try, let’s try our luck. In the United States she is half Venezuelan and half American, because we come here to the United States and the day I arrived in the United States I met a friend. He told me that he was going to go to Miami to see how he could fix something in the office he had in Miami, which was having problems. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was moving to Miami. And right there he said Hey, don’t you want to work with me? Look, the day I arrived in Miami I didn’t have the legal papers yet, but I already had a job offer.
[00:13:44] Hey, and well, taking a little break here from this incredible life story, at the end of the day, I think you are the clear example of what you said at the beginning. It’s not the persistence of risk-taking, it’s the how. How can you compare this a little bit for the people who are listening to us, especially the younger people, maybe people who are graduating now. What prompted you to move from Mexico to Australia, Australia, Venezuela? What would you suggest to someone young who is still trying to decide what they want to do or who wants to maybe go into logistics? What suggestions or what lessons did you learn in those, in those three very different countries.
[00:14:27] So, so, so, so different. You know? Mexico will always be my home, the love of my life. And all of Australia is the country to which I owe my training, my teacher. So my work righteousness in many ways is the way I look at business, the way I understand people. It is a multicultural, huge country that offers many opportunities, many opportunities, to those who work hard. He is doing well. The Australian’s philosophy of life is If you work and do things right, you will do well. Then it is. Es. It is beautiful. And then in Venezuela I found those contrasts of wealth and poverty on one side of the scale, so great and so marked. But also the opportunity. The way of thinking, of seeing the business as. As. How to understand it? How to understand culture, philosophy. Venezuelans are very quick for business, they are also very hard-working people. So this one is very, very lively and very intelligent. And I had the opportunity with this partner, with Alejandro, to create the company, to be with him and this one.
[00:15:41] And so it was, so it was. So from Mexico, nothing, my culture, my family, everything from Australia, the work part, the growth I expected from life and in Venezuela the business opportunities that when they are given to you and presented to you, if it is something good, go ahead, take the risk. And from my travels I was always, as we say in Mexico, Pata de perro and whenever I had the opportunity to travel I traveled. So, of course, my recommendation is if you are young, if you don’t have any responsibilities that tie you down, take it. The opportunities you are given are few and when you are given them, make the best of them. If you get anywhere, it’s worth the best. To be an immigrant you need a lot of courage, a lot of courage, because? Because you are going to leave behind your roots, your everything, but you will always have that desire to push yourself, to grow, to look for the good things, to take your name forward and the name of your country. Yes, he explained to me, because I am José Guillermo Suárez, I am also Mexican and the idea and what I leave to the people of a Mexican is very important to me.
[00:16:46] Well, thank you very much for saying that, José Guillermo. I know you have had several key moments that have led you to move from one place to another, but before you tell us a little bit about your life in Miami, is there a key moment? East. Maybe in Australia. Or in Venezuela something you said? Well, little by little I am already forming. Obviously your personality was already formed and the trips taught you a lot, but your capabilities as an administrator, as a professional, as you are an entrepreneur as well. When something key.
[00:17:26] Well when I came to Australia it’s my English, it wasn’t perfect and American English or British English and Australian English are totally different. Do I make myself clear? My English was not very good then. At first I thought I was going to get there and said well, I’ll be able to do something with nothing. I started picking up at a place called Café San Marcos. This was what I found for work, because although I had money and not my family, I was not going to pay for my university in Australia and it was something that I had decided and it was a responsibility that I had put on myself and I had to either succeed or go back to Mexico with my tail between my legs. Of course, I said well, there is nothing. I started picking up garbage and kept changing. I worked as a waiter, as a bartender, from picking up glasses to being a manager in a nightclub and then with the Mexican embassy I got an opportunity that is where my first approach to the Supply Chain was. He worked with a company called Artes de México that imported Talavera from Puebla, Talavera Uriarte from the Port of Puebla with denomination of origin all the way to Australia. And I also learned that the value you place on things is how much someone is willing to pay for them. And the idea with which I had in things. Talavera plates, which are not cheap but which we can buy for $100. In Australia they were sold for 600 € and in Australia they were works of art. The store was in a place called James Street and it was a beautiful thing. It was like a beautiful museum, all glass and tables. And there were drums that were at $8,000, $9,000. And I am saying this 15 years ago. 17 years. Do I make myself clear? And people would come in and see and say Oh, I need to think that should be chip. Very cheap. No, not at all. Then. How did you sell to them? As they were told. Y. Well, he sold in the store, he sold and he also helped them with all the import and export contracts.
[00:19:30] That’s where you started getting into logistics, into the Chain. And now, going back to where your story was, you arrive in Miami the first day, you already have a job offer and tell us about it.
[00:19:44] I have a job offer. I say yes. It is a family with whom I am super, super grateful, who have been very good friends all my life. I have known them for a long time, we lived together, we lived very close in Mexico City, in the south of Mexico City, and we were friends. When I meet Alex again, he tells me, “Hey, did he invite you to join the Brasi Mex team in Miami? I think that right now with what you are going through, the way you are and everything, above all I need someone honest and trustworthy that I can rely on and support me in my operations. And I said yes, I said give me a month, everything is over, everything. Was I married to him? I was married in a civil ceremony, not in a church. My wife got together with the marriage wife and the church and everything and she said yes, of course she did. What about this one? And the week after I got married in the church I started working and I remember they sent me a file that told me look, here come these four containers to Miami, we need you to take them out, plan them and put them in the warehouse.
[00:20:52] And I say you have never seen me.
[00:20:54] With a container, nothing, neither the forms that had to be done with customs, nor the paperwork to make the brief, neither he nor the Rivera. Not with the shipping company. Nothing, nothing. Neither packing, nor limbo, nor anything, nothing, nothing, nothing. How was it done with a costume broker in the United States, nor how the hotels were paid, nor the taxes, whether or not all the requirements and regulations were made. And if I didn’t get in and they said well, you have a week to.
[00:21:25] Let it reach my zero.
[00:21:26] This has to be. And I succeeded. I grabbed the phone and started talking, talking, talking. I remember I was there. I still live in Weston. I was in Miami at the time. It wasn’t that far away. But Diary was going from Downtown Miami to the airport first. Then I met other people of yours that we worked with and they helped me a lot. My practice has excellent people and another attorney, Jennifer Jennifer Diaz, who is a great lawyer. If you ask me again about mentors, mentors in logistics in the United States, in the United States. The three of them. And they helped me as logic.
[00:22:04] And I know Gary. In fact, it’s all been in the industry his whole life.
[00:22:09] Basically everything, everything. And Gary is someone I keep in touch with a lot, really. He is someone I appreciate in an impressive way. He loves me very much and I love him very much. And his help was invaluable. I think he saw my desperate face.
[00:22:25] Good, but good to see it too. The attitude of wanting to resolve things, which I imagine is something that is reflected in the story of what you have told us since you left Mexico and well, since before.
[00:22:38] So I made it.
[00:22:40] What was this company doing, the one you were telling me about?
[00:22:43] So they take care of your product from placing the purchase order to the delivery in the country you need and all the basic service, including the reception in local currency, it is a total Fake Management Company, including financing. We offer financing to customers, so it is a very long spectrum and this particular customer was not a normal warehouse, it had to be a warehouse where at that time there were not yet the free trade zones that there are now.
[00:23:16] He looks, that’s where the connection to Gary is today.
[00:23:19] So that’s how it is. I needed to find a Bonded Warehouse. There was still no Treadstone and Gary and he helped me. He explained to me how everything was done, how to get into the handling permits. If you had to handle the load. No? How were we to receive these generators? Because these generators could not be this if it was not in the United States and Bone. And so it was. Like this, like this. So was my first. My first hard encounter here in the U.S. with logistics and nothing from there. From there I ended up opening the second Free Trade Zone for Cemex. The first one was helped by Jennifer Díaz, for the second one, When we opened the second winery they told me Do you think you are good enough to do it by yourself? I did it myself, I helped other, several other companies to create this year I helped several other companies to create the Free trade zone. I just went through the whole process of the legal paperwork.
[00:24:19] From.
[00:24:19] Operation, everything about how to set up the warehouse where the cameras have to go, where the signage has to go, what are the requirements that you have, what.
[00:24:28] They have when you have to do some certification or something like that or not, Not necessarily.
[00:24:32] No, I did not do it as a management, as a consultancy. And this one and that’s where it was, that’s really where I learned. I tell you, I learned. Al. Acting crazy. Doing so. If this.
[00:24:50] Hey. And now. And we got closer. And now yes, to Tibe. I imagine that again too. Well, maybe. And what happened after that?
[00:25:00] No? After that I became a master. A master’s degree with the Facebook in logistics in your play and.
[00:25:07] By then you already knew that. So, what captivated you about logistics? I was told you learned the challenges.
[00:25:13] I loved the challenges. It was not enough for me to be told it is almost impossible for me to tell Alex I want a project and I was in charge of working with Latin America. I was the U.S. base, the free zone for all of Latin America. Why Florida? Because Florida is the gateway to Latin America par excellence. So, although today we have more warehouses, they had more warehouses in Laredo and in California and so on. I was in charge of the Florida free trade zone and business, and then we did a lot of business with Costa Rica, with Guatemala, with Ecuador, Brazil too, even Venezuela, we had offices there, it was explained to me and that was what I was in charge of, the clients that had to move all that merchandise, All those American companies that did not have so much certainty of going to Latin America, that found in the free trade zones a refuge from tariffs, taxes and security that provided them to have the merchandise there to later dispatch it in a super time throughout Latin America and with effectiveness, whether it was maritime or to it.
[00:26:19] So, that difficulty, the complexity of the fact that you were dealing with many countries, that caught your attention? Well, yes, I’m going to do this, more like a master’s degree.
[00:26:28] To pursue a master’s degree. I did my master’s degree with Cornell FEUU. It was a master’s degree when COBIT was just starting. Originally it was going to be face-to-face, COBIT arrives and half of the mastery was online. So a very nice experience. The end of the master’s degree. Yes, this one was already attended and I finished the master’s degree very happy. In the meantime, a headhunter called me and told me that there was a company interested in talking to me. This is very funny because at first I thought it was a franchise they were offering me, something like that. I told him I was not interested. I stood Chief Hunter up once and he called me and looks at me. Do they really want to talk to you? If not, John would have contacted you again. I have already been authorized to tell you which company is the company. When I got in to find out about you, I said Wow, this is awesome. That is, what we had seen, what I knew about seismograph thermography, as we did in Mexico. Thermography. And it was nothing in real time. There was nothing that offered you a real-time location platform for your goods. And yes, the day I talked to Ryan Sullivan, who is now my boss, and then to Carnal, the founder, I told them both I’m the one who wants to work with you. So, what do I need to work with you? Because this is really what the chains, what the supply chains are looking for. Anyone moving goods from one point to another is what you need. What if I met him back then? What if it does everything you’re telling me? It is a marvel.
[00:28:07] And so visibility, as you say, is extremely important. But before we get a little bit into what you do in Tiff East, tell us roughly for the people listening to us what problem TIFF is trying to solve and what it is? Which company is it? Tell us a little more about TIFF so people can get to know it a little better.
[00:28:29] It is a relatively new company.
[00:28:31] American o.
[00:28:32] American, founded in Boston, Massachusetts, but not at all common. And he is the founder of. He is the founder of Type OK. In 2015, the. Develop what is there. Being. Why? Because his father-in-law had a transport company and he saw all the problems that his father-in-law had with the transport company, that if the fruit he was sending was out of temperature, that if the valuable merchandise was stolen, that if the box had been opened, that the estimated CPI was on Monday at five o’clock and it was Tuesday and the truck driver had not arrived yet and nobody knew where he was and maybe he was lost in a casino. If he didn’t explain all those problems he said look, I think I can help. He is someone super, super smart. It began to develop in the basement of his house, which today is made with different sensors. Yes, they were much larger. We used different technologies than we use today. This one, But it was starting. He saw it, he saw it, he found a way to make it more practical, more, more portable, more mobile and with more information. And today it has a patent that we use cellular triangulation. Wifi and GPS to offer you in real time. The location and condition of your merchandise. Tip’s philosophy. The mission and vision of you is that all the gossip arrives on time to ning fu. Because someone cares about that merchandise and it is important that they can know the location and knowledge of your merchandise at all times.
[00:30:12] Today with the pandemic, visibility in supply chains has become an extremely important, critical and high-dollar issue. Many companies, I imagine, are looking to solve the problem of visibility in their supply chains.
[00:30:29] Visibility is extremely important. The status of the merchandise as well, but especially all the data, all the analytics that our hackers generate for you is impressive. You can generate sport cards, you can know which product you are moving the most, how long the trip takes, how many kilometers exactly. The day is super accurate. Where is it? We are. We were pioneers in developing a tracker that did not use lithium batteries, but zinc batteries that were more friendly to be used in certain companies that do not use them, that do not like lithium or in airlines. It is impressive how it has been advancing and how we are advancing and it keeps changing. We are. We are a company that listens a lot to our customers. We already have a customer and are looking to find out how we can improve our product.
[00:31:21] Could you teach us again? That’s basically it. That is the tracker. Basically for people who don’t know, or so he grabs it. In other words, how does it work? You buy it and put it in a container, rent it.
[00:31:34] You buy it. Another impressive thing about this that I haven’t gotten to in depth is single-use. It is disposable because people who know logistics know.
[00:31:43] Otherwise you have to send them back by DHL or FedEx. It’s a relaxation.
[00:31:48] Because the certification in the documentation are single-use disposable. We have a green program called Green Tide to care about the environment. Ok, so they are single use. It’s very simple and once you hire our platform you take it off and you can paste it, either at the container level, at the local level or at the product level. Ok, and all these this tracker.
[00:32:15] And as soon as you paste it I start working. It has nothing new with the wheel.
[00:32:21] And the little button that starts there. Then you go to the platform. In our system, you create your origin, you create your destination, you ask for the alerts that always indicate connection, light, temperature, humidity, soc inclination, geo, routes, geo fences, location. I tell you, you can change the end translation from every two minutes of transmission and measurement to every 12 hours, depending on the stretch where you are or the interest of each product you have. Yes, he explained and it works for a huge range, from perishables, fruits, vegetables, meat to computer servers or works of art. We have a spectrum of all customers in entities. Why? Because depending on the country, depending on the product there are. Factors that serve you better than one another. For Latin America we have realized that the main factor is safety. Location. Then. Roads, fences. This little eye that you have here to detect the light if someone opens your container, what happened because they opened it for you when it stopped, where did it stop? If the temperature varied, if the humidity varied? How does this tracker transmit? They transmit 5G, 4G, 3G and LTE. If it loses 5G it sends three pings on 4G. If you lose 4G, send three pins on LTE or on or else.
[00:33:47] It is extremely interesting. Very, very, very, very complete. And it is used. It sounds quite easy to use.
[00:33:54] Also easy to use is a single use, no worries. And then with the Green program we have some incentives in which if your end customer or you come back, there is a program for each device that is received in one of our international recycling centers.
[00:34:10] Hey, and obviously if your cargo originates in another country, let’s say, you are importing a lot from Asia, as it happened in the United States, for example, or any other country in the world. These, the equipment are already in Asia, that is, the customer could buy them there and they are already there, they don’t have to ship them from here or anything.
[00:34:30] You tell me where you want me to deliver them.
[00:34:32] And to whom, and you send it to the person who.
[00:34:35] And I’ll give them to you.
[00:34:36] Shipping. The box arrives with your tracker. Well, we’re going to put all the contact and all that when the interview is over. I think it’s quite interesting what you do and how does the day to day life look like for you José Guillermo Which one? What are you doing now for Tibe?
[00:34:55] Well, look, I started to try one more time. I started as a salesman, I was hired to be a salesman one year ago in Tigre a month ago and now they gave me the opportunity to manage Latin America, to be sales manager for Latin America. I already have a sales team of five people in Mexico, Colombia and Latin America. I am in charge of the Caribbean and Latin America. So, what are we looking for right now? To make ourselves known, because although we are very well known in Europe, we are dominating the market in the United States and in Asia as well. Latin America is something that they had not turned to see full time and well, I showed them that Latin America is an impressive force of.
[00:35:39] Latin America is an impressive market, as you say, the future of much of what we are seeing in supply chains.
[00:35:48] That’s a lot then, and even more as it is now. Latin America is producing more than 60-70% from the United States all year round, if not only from the United States to Europe. We have a privileged climate, we have opportunities to produce a lot of things and to do things well. The Latin American. Or in relation to everyone I know, they are always very hard workers, even if we have some defects and other things, but really, when we want to do things well, we do things well, with a lot of enthusiasm, we help each other a lot among Latin Americans and that makes us, makes us grow. My day to day is to look for market penetration, supermarkets, look for verticals to give to my team to attack, attend talks, attend logistics expos, conferences, travel a lot now that the young school trip has been reactivated, of course. And nothing, keep on, keep on promoting. I am very very very very very very happy and very proud of what we have achieved in Chile, both in Latin America and in the rest of the world. We created a common area and created one called the Open Networking Network and it is the collaboration of the Open Visibility Network that came together.
[00:37:06] This is what we talked about before we started recording the program. This is quite interesting and in fact the next question the Open Network Ability is from Open Ability Network Open Ranking? What is it and what is the idea behind the Open Ability Network?
[00:37:26] Well, look, he is. The idea is that a single platform does not cover 100% of a client’s needs with nothing. And the challengers of these companies realized and learned that if you collaborate, the experience that the end customer has is the 100% experience and the 100% solution. So with Ever Stream Park, Pure Marine Traffic Project for Kids, Frank Vaillant and Blue Systems created the Open Network, which means collaborating with all of us to offer a better visibility solution to all customers. There are parts in which one can obtain certain data. Well, do we partner with Traffic or are there parts that you can’t offer some visibility at the merchandise level through tickets? It can be done without all these companies. We are working together to provide you with real-time visibility into your supply chain.
[00:38:29] Something. Something that. That people who are in this industry have been waiting for many, many years. It’s really something that shouldn’t be that difficult to achieve with the technology we have today, but it is something that is critical. Where is my container? Where is my pallet? The port has been there for two or three days and nobody knows where it is. Things we should not be suffering from at this time.
[00:38:56] Project and especially today, we talk about before and after COBIT. Why? Because as of today we are seeing the delays and now comes the war in Ukraine. And how? How has it been affecting supply chains? But it’s not just in the supply chain. Tell me, Enrique, how long has it been since you’ve been in a regular cab?
[00:39:16] Three years.
[00:39:17] It tripled. So what? But what is the security that gives you that you open the app and when you open the app it tells you exactly who is going to be your transportation, you or your driver, which vehicle is going to take you, how long, yes.
[00:39:30] You see, where it comes from, it’s not easy to.
[00:39:33] Route, are you taking a bus? Exactly. It’s the same this civil Open networking, to be able to know where you are from the moment you request it or from the moment it’s happening. Where? Port delays. What’s going on with all this? Where is your merchandise? At what point will it arrive and in what condition will it arrive? Something super important about TIFF is that, for example, the most used form of transportation in the world is by land. Trucks. Yes. Let me explain. In the land transportation part that gives you the opportunity, it gives you the benefit of being able to solve any problem that is happening in transit. Of course, of course. Your container because it is coming out of temperature. Why is it not where it should be? If it is losing temperature, you have the opportunity to call the carrier. And if you hear it, look. The guy who is sending me, who is coming out of temperature to my face. Stand up and check your thermos or turn off the alarm when the door is improperly closed. This is either deviating from the route or you know it’s a red zone, a danger zone and the carrier is going five or ten kilometers out, he’s slowed down and there’s an alert that the box is open. Well, something is happening.
[00:40:41] And all these alerts come to me automatically.
[00:40:45] In real time. At the moment they are going through my API.
[00:40:50] And the application of the.
[00:40:51] Cellular and real time application, it is receiving everything well.
[00:40:56] It is not, I think, José Guillermo I think it is very, very interesting the people who are listening to us. It seems to me that you are going to have many, many questions and above all many doubts as to how, how to contact you, how to contact. But back to you, who are ultimately the central person in this interview. East. And now we are closing and wrapping up a bit. At the end I will ask you how they can contact you, but. Dándole. If you had, went back in time and had some advice to yourself. Al. The José Guillermo of 18 or 20 years old. What advice would you give yourself?
[00:41:45] Improve your English. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
[00:41:46] Ha ha. This is good advice. It is very important.
[00:41:50] Now look, it’s not about improving your English, it’s about learning as many languages as you can, as many languages as you can. What good advice. It is an advantage that I have seen here, that maybe there have been people who are more qualified in the position, but they only speak English. I speak English, Spanish and try to chew Portuguese. If it cannot be understood, then that then takes risks. Life is too short. If there are times in life when you’re young, when you’re young, take all those risks before you’re married with kids and have responsibilities and burdens when you’re young. If you are given the opportunity to travel, travel as much as possible. Educate anywhere, even on the corner, but you already know a little more than the others. Traveling opens your mind. Traveling makes you understand other cultures. Traveling makes you understand people and understand that here, when you are alone, you find yourself with yourself and it is the hardest time to know who I am and what I am good at and what I am doing and what I can do to get out of the puddle, but everyone wants to get out of the puddle and you find yourself traveling. Give yourself a chance and believe in yourself. Because if you believe in yourself. People. Others believe in you. But if you don’t believe in yourself or not, no, you’re not going to do it. My advice is that Take risks and grow the fire.
[00:43:06] Excellent advice and very, very practical too. And well, it comes from a man who applied it in his professional and personal career. And well, we are extremely honored that you accepted the interview today, it was an extremely valuable, informative and very inspiring interview for many who are listening to us. Am I sure about people like you who have achieved significant success professionally, but at the end of the day haven’t they also forgotten their roots? Where did it come from? So? Thank you very much, Jose Guillermo, how can people who see us connect with you? How can they know a little more about you? How can they be a little more faith?
[00:43:49] Well, I’m going to send you all my contacts right now to upload them. Simple, it is triple double TV than this fall and Ignacio de Victor’s Ernesto dot com. There is the platform, there you have that is an omnichannel platform. Then you contact us depending on Region, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Caribbean, ok. It is channeled directly to me or someone from my team, or someone from the European, Asian or U.S. sales team, depending on where you are looking. Perfect. Ok, there are all the success stories we have had, there are all the applications it receives according to the industries and there are different blogs where you can subscribe, where we send you different newsletters of what is happening in the market and the visibility in real time.
[00:44:33] Well, you heard the man. José Guillermo, again thank you very much. Obviously in the episode we will put all the contacts, all the leagues, not only yours, but also yours. And well, we’ll also post some links that you can send us about the Open Ability Network and anything else so that people can learn a little more about technological advances in supply chains. Once again, thank you very much to all of you who listened to us and like and are interested in talks like the one we had today with José Guillermo. Be sure to subscribe again. My name is Enrique Alvarez and this was another episode of Supply Chain in Spanish. Greetings.
