[00:00:01] Welcome to Supply Chain Now in Spanish presented by Vector Global Logistics and Supply Chain Now. This is the program that gives a voice to Spanish-speaking people in the ever-changing logistics industry. Join us as we discover the inspiring stories of our guests and learn from their collective experience. Our goal is not only to entertain you, but to foster your passion for this exciting industry and support your professional development along the way. And now here is today’s episode of Supply Chain Now in Spanish.

[00:00:34] How are you doing? Good morning. My name is Enrique Alvarez. Welcome to another Supply Chain Spanish broadcast. Today we have a very interesting, very, very interesting guest. We have Marlín Bermúdez, General Manager of APM Terminals in Mexico. This Marlin. How are you doing? How are you doing? Good morning. It is a pleasure. Good morning. It is a pleasure to have you here. I know we have been trying to schedule this interview for a few months. I know you have been busy traveling and it has been difficult. So again I thank you, your team, Sandra, for making this possible. And well, I am very happy and excited to talk to you for a while. No, we are already.

[00:01:14] 2 million, Thank you.

[00:01:15] Why not? This one you start by telling us a little bit more about yourself, your childhood, where you are from, who, who is, who is Marlisse?

[00:01:22] Well, I am the youngest of three siblings, I am Panamanian, I studied Merchant Marine, that is, I was a cadet at a very, very early age.

[00:01:31] You have always loved the sea and boats. In other words, it has always been your passion. Where does it come from? Where does that come from, huh?

[00:01:38] I have an uncle who worked for the Panama Canal Authority and spent summers with him. So I think that’s where it started and the dream was to be a pilot in the Panama Canal. So it all started with a tour. To get to be that you had to be a cadet, second deck officer, huh? In short, to do the whole journey to be able to become a captain and then come back in this channel pilot program, huh? But along the way let’s say there was a.

[00:02:07] Good before. Before we get into that, this one a little bit more based on your childhood, this one some mentor. You talked a little about your uncle. I imagine he had a big influence on your life. This love for. It is the love for the sea or the ships or the Panama Canal. Maybe. Where does this come from? So, tell us a little bit more about your mentors, huh? That you remember, huh? Before you enter the best part of your professional career.

[00:02:32] I think mentors yes, I think Latinas. Ah, a very important one, but I think a lot just the same. I learned it at home from parents who were very much like to have their values tattooed on them, right? So they were two people who worked every day, but in a brilliant way, they made a balance between work and their children. Between them they combined because it was not that they had it all the time. They were available, of course, but there was always someone available. One of the two, huh? Two people who not only worked very, very hard, but they were two people who, uh, dedicated themselves to us and taught us that it is possible and that there is always a way to achieve something and that perseverance, discipline, focus and passion can take you very far. I think that was a constant in the house.

[00:03:20] Hey, and they had something to do with logistics supply chains? Not at all.

[00:03:27] I mean, uh, there was no correlation with the industry I’m in. Well, and.

[00:03:31] Then tell us a little more. You said. Well, you made it through all the stages, cadet. I even imagine you managed to pilot across the channel?

[00:03:40] No.

[00:03:41] Not yet.

[00:03:43] Along the way he became second deck officer. Huh? But along the way, at one point I said No, I’m still sailing and went. I did a master’s degree in Supply Chain Management at that time. I’m talking about 20 years ago. It’s not like this was a common topic, I mean, no, no, it wasn’t talked about, right? In fact, there were two or three universities that offered this master’s degree and my decision was that I am going to do this master’s degree and I am going to go to what we call Short. And that was the decision I made. I have no regrets. I did my master’s degree, uh, I worked at the same time, I did research as a researcher, I did it in England and while I was doing that I was offered to go to work on a project with the Chinese government in a terminal.

[00:04:31] How nice this is still in England. In other words, you went from Panama to Panama.

[00:04:35] I leave Panama very early, I leave at the age of 17 when I turn 18, I go to New York to a military academy in the merchant marine in the United States, in New York, uh, called Kings Point. Then I enter this military academy. It was a great life experience, huh? Now I look back on it and say It was the perfect life experience.

[00:04:56] Yes, it opens up the panorama a lot. Why do you think? Was it that important to you?

[00:05:01] Well, let’s just say I came from a very familiar background. Then. In itself very positive. I arrive in New York. It was another world. A military academy arrives. It gives you a lot of discipline, a lot of structure. And I made great friends, but more than anything they teach you a lot about the resilience factor. In other words, no, no.

[00:05:23] You never give up.

[00:05:24] But the only way to achieve it is perseverance and finding the how. Yes, but more than anything else it is teamwork. If you don’t team up, if you don’t be your teammates in a military academy, they become your family. So I think throughout my career it has been. Yes, it was a pivotal thing that I learned at the academy and it was not something you learn by reading a book, but through the experience that a military academy gives you. The experience it gives you, of course, to go sailing on merchant marine ships. Yes, I consider the Academy experience to be very positive. Hey, and.

[00:06:00] They are sailboats as well or are all motorboats.

[00:06:05] Watch. My experience was my first boat, it was a steamboat that you don’t see them anymore. How nice!

[00:06:11] How incredible.

[00:06:12] Yes, yes, yes. They were destinations. He was 30 years old. In that time of 20 years. The ship was 30 years old and was on a route. It was called El Yunque. And the route was Miami through Everglades to Puerto Rico, San Juan and back. I think it’s a super experience. I remember arriving in San Juan and we would take carts on the bottom of the car and on top were containers and we also had tanks that we took a lot of product to the Bacardi factory in San Juan.

[00:06:44] What an incredible, incredible experience.

[00:06:46] So you have that, you’re offshore, you have the equipment of people who have licenses, but you also have people who don’t have licenses. Of course they operate on a day-to-day basis, eh? And I remember that for me it was a great experience because you do everything from polishing the boat, removing the rust, painting a boat and it goes up little by little. They don’t give you a responsibility for the people at sea that you have to earn very well. So there has been everything. Let’s say we start with that type of vessel, but along the way you have container ships that is. It’s quite comical. As much as I carry terminals today I keep tracking certain types of vessels. So it became a hobby, huh? And at some point I was also with car carriers. The rolls.

[00:07:34] Yes, and all around the world. No, mainly America, no.

[00:07:39] To everyone. I had many routes to Asia, I had, that is, routes to the Mediterranean, to the Atlantic, or to the Atlantic.

[00:07:45] Whether it’s a favorite route this Mediterranean for you.

[00:07:50] Already at that age, that is, for all the.

[00:07:53] World. Of course.

[00:07:55] Exactly. It would have been a great route for anyone. No? What?

[00:07:58] Which port? Do you remember? So you say Hey, I love it. I will reach such a port.

[00:08:02] We had Algeciras. How nice. Then you would go down and. And it was spectacular. In other words, to do the whole Mediterranean route. Wasn’t there a bad port? No.

[00:08:13] But despite all that, following your story, you decide to leave and go to England to study. Keep us posted from there.

[00:08:21] Correct. Then I go to a master’s program, I finish my master’s degree. I am fortunate that by doing this research you tell me. You want to go to work in China and. And I say yes and and back I tell you what mentors I had. I had my parents because what they always told me was Just say yes, we are here. It was them, wasn’t it? Then. And I ended up going to China, huh? It was the development of what we call a Freeport, which is a free zone in the back and basically the operation of the port terminal. No? Uh, and it was very, very interesting development.

[00:08:54] Where in China were you?

[00:08:57] In Nimbo.

[00:08:57] Nimbus?

[00:08:58] Yes. And in the province of Ceylon it was at that time, let’s say, first, a very high number of port terminals. Of course, within the same port complex. But it gives you or allowed me. Sorry. It allowed me to see how the Chinese government was structuring its strategy to develop logistics and manufacturing hubs throughout its west coast. Wow! So, huh? Were you beginning to understand why I was seeing the electronics part or why, huh? The economic axis was in Shanghai and how you went down from port to port or port complex, which I think is the right thing to do, because sometimes we say a port and the first thing that comes to people’s minds is that there is a terminal, right? Of course, you have to look at it as a port complex.

[00:09:49] What others For the people who listen to us and well, maybe they are not so expert in the part of the ports that other parts compose a port. Obviously everyone, as you say, thinks of the terminal. Where does the ship arrive? Basically, but beyond. What else makes up a port in Enrique?

[00:10:06] I am going to give you a vision of what I consider to be one of the best planned ports that exist in all of Mexico. Perfect, perfect and thank God I have had the joy of working in this port since 2011, which is precisely the port of Lazaro Cardenas and I have been at some point I have moved from Mexico, but I always believe that I had Lazaro very close and if we see a port area like this and I think that is the magic of it, you have not only the container port terminals, you have the port terminals for different types of cargo, you have what is general cargo, liquid bulk, which you have to plan in it. You plan for today, but you plan for growth and your growth is not ten years, it is not 20. We are talking about exponential growth over the next 50 and 100 years. In other words, this is a port complex, a planned complex. In the case of Lazaro Cardenas, we see that they have the logistics services area, so they can plan the entire flow of trucks within the port complex to prevent any type of congestion. You have a customs area and back, just as you plan the terminals, you plan these areas because it is going to grow vis a vis these terminals and the demand for both import, export and up to a certain level of transshipment that goes through the port. Well, it has a key point in security, it has a key point in Integral Port Administration. So it’s all these players and you have a parallel industry that is giving you services in terms of tugboats, uh, that maybe I’ve vis a vis ships. Don’t you have customs brokers? Of course, you have suppliers to the ships and in short, it’s a multiplier effect.

[00:12:02] Yes, I imagine it is. Yes, it is. It is much more complex than we might all imagine, but it is. But well, it is something that if you do not plan it, as you rightly say in each of its parts, well, you start to cause bottlenecks that then make or hinder the operations of a port in general. But going back to your background, which is very interesting, so you are in nimbus in China you are this great opportunity and after traveling all over the world, I mean, with you have, I imagine the experience and the knowledge of most of the ports. How many ports or so have you visited in your life so far?

[00:12:38] Huh? Sailing, eh? They must make a couple of dozen ports by themselves, huh? And in the region I have focused a lot on the region in the last five years. Uh, about 12 14. Then. Yes, yes, I have seen several ports, eh? But well, I’m in Limbo and at that moment I meet a person who had graduated from the university I had gone to in New York and he tells me I’m moving to Panama and I said Hey, whatever you need, I’m here.

[00:13:07] If you are from Panama, even though you have not been in Panama for years.

[00:13:10] Exactly, but all tied up. And that is exactly what happened and arrived in Panama. He was coming as operations manager for the APM Terminals region and he says to me, “What do you think? I have a position.

[00:13:22] You come to him.

[00:13:26] Age? 18 years ago, huh? I come to Panama and start working with him and in less than a week.

[00:13:33] Already with APM.

[00:13:34] Already with APM.

[00:13:35] Tell us for people again as a reference before we get into APM. What is APM? What? What is your occupation? What is the company?

[00:13:43] When it started it is the terminals arm of the EPM Group, so we have around 64 or 65 port terminals worldwide. In Mexico we have an operation in the port of Lázaro Cárdenas and we have an operation in the port of Progreso in Yucatán, we also manage the country from Mexico City, so we have those three offices, I can put it this way and but.

[00:14:09] The one you started in was in Panama, that is, they send you back to Panama, Panama, Mexico, which your parents were delighted with at the time. At the end of the day as a parent you always push them to follow, but deep down you would like to have him around.

[00:14:24] I think we all have that experience and it is one of the hardest things for me, because I went out for almost 19 years, of course, and I go and say sure I will push them, they will go out the door, I will be praying and I know that tears will come, but I know it is the right thing to do, because they have to grow, they have to evolve, they have to make their lives. Sure, that’s easy to say. It is a very hard thing to do.

[00:14:48] Very, very, very difficult. I have two children, 15 and 13, and up to now I can tell you that I don’t understand how my parents let me do so many things. I mean, it’s so hard, they don’t understand that. Momento you say Ok, well. And you can go climbing and camping and. I mean, I don’t have that maturity or emotional intelligence yet and I hope to acquire it with him over time. But you are absolutely right. Ya aunt, did your parents let you travel all over the world?

[00:15:15] Yes, I wasn’t even of age and they said goodbye. So I think maybe it’s a combination. Enrique to be the third.

[00:15:21] Yes, the smallest ones and it is different. This is true.

[00:15:25] Some of that must have helped, eh? But yes, indeed, they are very happy. I’m going back to Panama, huh? A year later this project comes out in Punta Colonet and there I go.

[00:15:38] And that is Mexico.

[00:15:39] Mexico is already the first time.

[00:15:41] Tell us about it because you told me a little bit before we went on air or before I started recording. Tell us a little about this first project. And well, what was the impact, uh in particular or the trigger for your professional career?

[00:15:54] Look, for me it was a moment of learning and the company focuses a lot on training and developing people and this is just an example, because when I go to Mexico, my first, my first round or my first deployment was basically to support an investment manager that was in Mexico and it was just to learn. Enrique I mean, I didn’t have any position.

[00:16:17] Yes, of course.

[00:16:18] Huh? Aside from the fact that I wasn’t running the project, I didn’t have the experience to be able to get to a manager level either. So basically you come to Mexico and it’s OK, you’re going to learn, you’re going to learn, you’re going on the road and this director who eventually became a great friend, today, eh? And that was the first round, let’s put it this way.

[00:16:39] Something that I really like to talk about culture. And well, APM has an enviable culture, this world class, something at best of this person that you, the first director of that project in Mexico. Anything you remember in particular, any teaching, any suggestions, any advice?

[00:16:57] Look, I’m going to tell you something that was very funny, I mean, and I still see it and I say, let’s see, I haven’t forgotten, eh? My Achilles heel at that time was the financial part. Ok. This man confessed to me a couple of years ago, then he made up financial models, then sent them to me. Hey, we have to send these headquarters and. And I think you need to check.

[00:17:22] Totally invented invention.

[00:17:24] In other words, at the end there came a time, Enrique, when I saw the financial model. I was telling you to look for the cell, it is seven, please. Therein lies the point. So, you reached that level after 18 months, huh? He hallucinated the numbers and at one point told me I want you to know that half of those models were just apprentices.

[00:17:42] In other words, what a great time-consuming mentor!

[00:17:46] He is a great friend. And I answered I want you to know that many times I had to do them on Saturdays because I didn’t understand anything.

[00:17:52] Wow.

[00:17:53] Well, but. And it’s an excellent, it’s an excellent story at that time how much it was like frustration of having wasted so many hours and how much then you grabbed the Ah, well, look, thanks to him for today.

[00:18:07] Today I look back and a lot of what I can analyze when I look at certain businesses or make certain decisions is by understanding in detail the financial structure and it is.

[00:18:20] What he gave you. And those two examples and.

[00:18:23] I see it in my path. That was the legacy he left me, apart from the fact that he has an immense gift for people, that is, he is a great human being, eh, he has a unique charisma and many doors open for him. That’s why I think that combination. He had the financial side in a very strong way, he had the charismatic side to be able to tie things together and tie people together which is really what brings the result in the end.

[00:18:48] And how do you want to share his name. You can tell he is an excellent, an excellent mentor and a person who is amazing that he takes the time to do something like this.

[00:18:57] Yes, his name is Robert Boozman and And I’ll be honest, the beauty of APM is that like him, I’ve gotten several along the way. It’s fine and I haven’t had much luck. Yes, I think I have been very lucky and. And the company gives you that. Those mentors. And I think what I usually try to convey to the rest is, uh, Beat forward. Because that, that, every one of them has made me who I am. Sure, and each of them has impacted and shaped the type of leadership I have.

[00:19:28] Hey, and well, that’s a cadence challenge you had huh? Some I imagine in your professional career at APM and you have had many challenges in this industry. We were also talking about an industry still dominated by men, a difficult industry, to be honest. It needs to be said openly for women who are entering this industry. Any strong challenges for you? Anything you can share? Well, how did you solve it?

[00:19:53] Eh, I think one of the biggest challenges was 2011 2012, we won the bidding for the port of the. Cardenas was for us. It was a project that we wanted very much and we had been evaluating it for many years, and the time came and the project happened and at some point, hey, my boss came to me and said, hey, you are going to build a terminal. And I very eloquent, very happy, of course. I mean, we saw everything very positively, of course, but you are doing it wrong. And I But we haven’t even started. What are you talking about? He tells me Don’t see it as making a terminal of what you know. Analyze what the terminals should look like in 20-30 years and define what the terminal should look like. And at that moment, uh, with a group of specialists we decided to build the first semi-automated terminal in all of Latin America.

[00:20:44] Wow!

[00:20:46] I grew up in Lazaro Cardenas, of course. Enrique you arrive Okay, we are already going to do automated What does it mean? There were two or three in the world, we didn’t even know where to start, eh? But I think one part that was very clear to me is that you start by putting the team that’s going to carry that out and.

[00:21:04] It is not a popular decision. Obviously not, because at the end of the day people who do not misunderstand it may see it as this, you are taking away jobs that should not be like that, you cannot generate better jobs, but that is the first impression that everybody has when they hear about automation.

[00:21:23] Look, at that time there was this union leader and I remember he said I want to go see an automation. So we went to a terminal in Virginia, uh, that had the same concept, a very similar design and went to evaluate it when he went into There’s a control room that has these terminals, right? And he tells me Everything you handle here? I said Yes, this is where everyone is sitting. And he got to know each of the people who were also part of a union. And when you get to know them, what is the difference between what you experienced before and what you experience now? People told him It’s a level where I get to a place. First of all I’m trained, I have a technology vision, I have an understanding of strategy, I’m not just executing. I arrive at the site. I’m not afraid of having an accident out there. I sit in a place with a fairly comfortable chair or computer. I am watching from here, from an administrative building with an air-conditioned building with all the comforts, a coffee next door, the whole operation without taking a risk of not being able to get home at the end of the day, of course. We have to understand that Enrique terminals are places with a high level of insecurity and every day, we and the industry as a whole focus on how to raise the security standards of our personnel.

[00:22:54] Of course, I’m not complaining that for them it’s a huge difference and they feel it. Well, it makes a bigger impact and they feel much more recognized as people. I don’t imagine they are working and that’s what made the change. Enrique.

[00:23:08] In other words, at that time they approved.

[00:23:11] And in what? In what year was 2011 you said this was.

[00:23:15] That was 2011 was the bidding, we signed the contract wow and start of 2012 and this must have been sometime along the way.

[00:23:24] What an incredible truth this again a great honor, not only this for being Mexican and good to have someone like you Latina this making history really because it was the first automated terminal in all of Latin America, right?

[00:23:38] Yes, and I think Mexico and Mexicans should be very proud of this. It was a job done by Mexicans, eh? We look at history and today we say that we are the hotbed of talent. Wow! In other words, today we have, uh, our personnel who are running automation in other, in other ports and at a global level, that is, both in the United States and in Europe, uh, many of them. What we call “larenses” are everywhere. So, uh, yes, we’ve been able to cultivate talent, we’ve been able to develop people, we’ve seen how we’ve evolved as an industry and adjusted to the automation that we have in place, because there’s a higher and higher level of and and and and demand, not from our customers that we have to adjust to.

[00:24:24] Are we going to put some links to this for those of you who are listening and watching this interview, this one is awesome isn’t it? And well, we are going to put them up when the interview comes out so that you can get into the leagues, learn a little bit more about the project and learn a little bit more about the automated terminal. And as you say, it is something that perhaps is little talked about, both in Mexico and worldwide, but we should feel extremely proud because the talent of Mexico and other Latin Americans working on this particular terminal has been exported around the world and now many people around the world are learning from what was once a successful Latin project or one that was managed by Latinos. Hey, changing the subject a little bit, so that was your first stage, wasn’t it? Because you said you’ve had several stages in Mexico, the first one was this one for this project, huh? Tell us a little more.

[00:25:18] Well, then Lázaro came back for the second stage, which is when we won the bidding and built the terminal and started operations six years ago, and then in 2019 I decided to take on a regional role, taking care of all the commercial part in Latin America, eh?

[00:25:38] And before that, going back a little bit. So you were the first real general manager of a terminal in Mexico and the first woman.

[00:25:45] At that time what we had was an implementation team, that is, it was the team that built the OK terminal, and I was in charge of the implementation team.

[00:25:55] Hey, and what does it mean to you as a woman? No, because that’s something we talked about before we started the interview, right? We both agreed that there is a particular gender gap in this industry, I mean it’s not so much the pride that I was told that you’re going to be very proud of yourself and your children are going to be very proud of you as well. And your family. But what does it mean for the rest? Not of the country and of the industry itself but of showing that a woman is leading.

[00:26:23] In this what we were saying the third round, eh, Yes, yes, yes, it fills me with pride, but more than anything, eh. Pride is not about carrying the position, it is pride. That’s from what I’ve seen change in the last few from 2011 to date. Today, if we look at who is the president of the Association of Shipping Agents, it is a woman, a woman elected twice unanimously, and in history it has never been a woman. If we look at today, the director of Ports and Merchant Marine in Mexico is a woman for the first time. If we look at who is the Ports director for the country, again it is a woman, uh The operation for the whole region in the shipping lines and you start to see women participating. Of course, so it has been a turn that has not only been a turnaround as an industry in the country, very positive, where everyone pushes, supports, includes exposure to each other, where we all have that commitment as a team that the next generations on the road is made easier.

[00:27:37] Totally, totally good. And you tell us now that in 2019, just before the pandemic, maybe you also decided to take on a now larger position with a commercial aspect. Tell us a little more about the position and what it means for Latin America.

[00:27:54] At that time I come back to Panama, eh? And yes, it was to see the commercial part for the terminals we had in the region. Did we have several, eh, or do we have several in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, eh, Costa Rica, well, Mexico logical eh? And Guatemala was then to take care of the commercial part, eh? Was it a great position in the sense that stakeholder management has another vision, you don’t see anymore, eh? I didn’t see Mexico as just for the commercial part if I didn’t have the opportunity to see the dynamics, uh, that much. Our industry is like the dynamics of the network, of course, so it was a great experience even with the pandemic. I think the pandemic exposed us to a position, we had to take it in a very fast way, but more than anything else learning that flexibility, resilience and adjusting to was key.

[00:28:55] And this was from Panama. As you were saying, you went back to Panama and the position of the region. That is to say, up to now the direction of the region is still in Panama or in itself.

[00:29:05] APM Terminals’ Americas region, today in Panama. How good and it has been, as I tell you since I started with them 18 years ago.

[00:29:17] So you went back, you went back to Panama.

[00:29:20] Correct. And then 15 months ago, they mention to me, uh, that there was this opportunity, uh, to address me. And well, three changes. Three rounds in Mexico.

[00:29:33] You hesitated a little. Now changing your life already with family, probably. I mean, either you said No, Of course you did.

[00:29:40] Huh? Yes, of course. Do you always doubt it or do you always Maybe it’s not a doubt, it’s an evaluation, a reflection of saying is this really the step to take or is this really the time to take this step? Okay, and I think that evaluation is done, uh, in more detail when you have children. Would you have asked me before about my children and told me we are going to Timbuktu and I told you of course, tell me when we are leaving because it is urgent for me, eh? But it’s different when you have children. Of course, very good. But I was very clear that if there was a country I would have liked to take as a director, it was Mexico. I mean, no, I had no doubt that if I had this opportunity the place I wanted was Mexico. And so it was. So 15 months ago I came back to Lazaro, huh? Two or three months later I was in Yucatan and well, at that moment we began to centralize the different functions and to be able to have a country structure.

[00:30:39] How interesting! I imagine that everything you’ve seen around your entire trajectory, from ports in the United States and Puerto Rico around the world, you now have the advantage of being able to take best practices from everywhere.

[00:30:53] Help, eh? But what helps the most, Enrique, is that through experience you start to meet a lot of people and I think the greatest exposure is when you put people on a team and connect them with the best there is out there in the industry in each subject. Sure, and there goes the magic, right? Hey, it was great to be back in Mexico because I already knew the team very well. I had put the equipment in place several years before, but more than anything else you also knew the industry, I mean, you knew the shipping companies, you had friends, colleagues, We had all grown up the last ten, 15 years in that industry. Sure, huh? And you come back and they’re all there. I mean, for me it was very pleasant to return to Mexico.

[00:31:35] Hey, and from your current position and with the interesting projection you have with your new role, eh? What processes or what? What are the priorities for APM in Mexico this year? If you had to sum them up in two top three priorities for you as a director, which would be which? Where are you focusing on what you would like to change? What would you like to grow?

[00:32:01] We have a strategy called Safer Better and Safer Better.

[00:32:04] And what is the other one?

[00:32:06] I say.

[00:32:06] Bigger, safer, better bigger.

[00:32:08] So, uh. I think at the beginning of our interview I talked to you a lot. The people side of our business does not and the focus on the safety of our people in the work environment. Make sure that everyone who enters the terminal returns home at the end of the day.

[00:32:24] That’s Number. Number one. Priority. East.

[00:32:27] The number one priority is our people. And then we have this aspect. And we have been implementing the entire Lean Six Sigma methodology over the last few years. Throughout our entire operation. So we have constant improvements with this methodology, but we also have constant improvements reflected in the constant automation of processes. So we have continued to invest in this visa, visa, customer need. We talked about the pandemic. I’ll give you an example, the pandemic forced us to go 100% in the process of managing a port outbound cargo in a virtual, paperless way. Then all these processes were automated and we see the result. Today we see how we facilitate the outbound process of a container, but just as I tell you, in this process of interaction vis a vis the end customer, this is only one. Similarly we have continued to invest in whether crane automation or OCR systems or uh, we are. Today we have a set of ten transformation projects between the two terminals, EH? And some have to do with operations, others with commercial, others with human resources, in short, there is an eh focus in this transformation. And last, uh, but it came very, very close to me. It’s the growing part. So, if we have a focus on growing, eh?

[00:33:57] How can a company like APM grow in Mexico by opening new terminals or how?

[00:34:03] You have several options. I mean, no, today if we look at Mexico, we have the nearshoring factor, we have the factor of a terminal, a properly planned and structured port complex that will allow you to grow with the industry or with your customers. You have a market of 120 million people, Enrique, which no one else has. Well, we can go to Brazil in case it is a very important market and a market that we do see. Lazaro we also have the Citic connection, which was recently authorized to North America. Now if we go to the Gulf, we see a lot of Nearshoring, we see a lot of routes to Europe, routes to the United States, uh, all these growing and well lately a lot of focus also in Yucatan regarding cabotage, of course, then we have the business as it is, it has a lot of, uh, dynamism, the industry is moving. I believe that each time the focus should be where I find the opportunity and that is what is constant.

[00:35:14] And well into the future. Thinking a little bit more towards the future, the next ten years of our industry, not only in Mexico, but in general, any opportunity as you said, any risk that you see, something that worries you, this one that is coming. Well, we have a little bit of demand, it has dropped quite a bit, prices are before the pandemic, in other words, there are several things that could be important challenges at a macro level. There are some that you follow in particular, that is, you look at some indicators in particular.

[00:35:47] Enrique I believe that every challenge and it is something that Mexico taught me, that is, Mexico taught me a lot about the culture of how well and every time I have come to Mexico in the three rounds, there are always several things that tell us hey, be careful with this, check that, look at the weight, look at the level of security, look at how they are investing here or there, there is always something, I mean, and it is something that happened to me just in this, in this, in this round. And I believe that what Mexico has to do is to see how we can, how we are going to exponentiate, how we create the opportunity, how we evolve along the way, and how we can reach Mexico to the maximum. In other words, that has to be the vision. So I try to focus a little bit more on how we are going to grow, how we are going to evolve, how we are going to transform.

[00:36:37] Excellent and good, the how. Yes, like.

[00:36:40] You say, the risks are. Enrique it’s not that we don’t see them or it’s not that we don’t have it mapped and eh, The thing is to be able to navigate with them, mitigate them and keep walking.

[00:36:49] Excellent, isn’t it? Excellent advice and excellent perspective for further growth. And well, it is something that, as you say, maybe Mexico taught you, but it applies to any nationality in the world, that’s all there is to it. Now that I feel that the media is a little more focused on the negative and we hear about everything so quickly. I think it is important not to lose that balance, that optimism, that perspective and to understand that there is. You have to see yes and people who think like that end up achieving it. After all, isn’t it? So, thank you very much, it has been a pleasure to talk to you. This before before leaving you eh Any message you would like to make to all women in our industry? Any call to action? Something that. Only focused on women in our industry. And what would you recommend? Marlis? After a career as successful as the one you’ve had.

[00:37:48] Look, I’m going to tell you what I told my daughter this morning. Eh, I think as women, sometimes we hesitate a lot when we take a step or think about it a lot. And sometimes we have to evaluate it. If not, I’m going to say no. If you evaluate it, it. If you take the risk and if you take the challenge. And if on the way you realize that it is not, you turn and look for the angle to be able to continue forward because you will find it. Okay. But don’t you ever stay afterwards saying Why didn’t I take it?

[00:38:20] Excellent. Excellent advice for all those who are listening. This one in particular women, but I think it again applies to whoever this Marlin is. It is a pleasure. Again, thank you again for taking the time. It has been an extremely inspiring talk. How can they contact you? How can they learn a little more from you, from APM, about what is being done in Mexico and the rest of the world?

[00:38:45] We already have all the networks. Is Amp Terminals Mexico on LinkedIn, is it on Instagram, is it on Facebook, eh? And in the same way you can find me inside myself.

[00:38:54] Well, thank you very much again and for all of you who listen to us, if you are interested in calls and conversations like the one we had today with Marlis, please do not stop subscribing and see you in the next one. Greetings and have a nice day.