[00:00:01] Welcome to your Spanish Play Now 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.
[00:00:35] Welcome to a new episode of Supply Chain Now. Today Astrid and I are here to interview two very important people in the start up and sustainability industry. We have Prem Saltzman and Federico Gomez. How are you today?
[00:00:54] Good. Good. My pleasure. Thank you very much for the invitation.
[00:00:58] Perfect. Well, before we start with the most crucial and important part of content substance, we want to get to know you a little bit more. And we have prepared some quick questions to break the ice. So, well, I know there is a bit of controversy. And what is better? Uruguay or Argentina is the name.
[00:01:21] From the plant.
[00:01:23] That’s what I was going to say. I would say. There is a characteristic of Uruguay which is the people who are incredibly beautiful and Argentina also has a diversity that complements the Rio de la Plata, without a doubt.
[00:01:37] Okay, okay. By beautiful I mean inside and out, right? Argentina, let’s say Argentina and a hybrid between the two countries.
[00:01:47] Fede is in Uruguay at the moment and I am in Argentina. So it’s a representation.
[00:01:55] Family from both sides of the pond, so no, hard to choose.
[00:01:59] And your favorite food?
[00:02:01] I’ll definitely go with Zorro de Pata, with the heaviest sauce you can go to sleep well, the better.
[00:02:10] I’m a big fan of mushrooms, so anything mushrooms Provençal style with potatoes is not going to do it for me.
[00:02:18] Which do you prefer, Astrid? I think why not both? A pasta with mushrooms and it turned out well. I bought it with Federico Margarita. Both are good, good options. And well, I don’t know, any TV series they have seen recently that they would recommend to the audience.
[00:02:41] And now I’m finishing those in love. The truth is.
[00:02:45] La.
[00:02:45] I had been kicking it, I had been kicking it, I loved it, so now I devoured it in less than two weeks.
[00:02:51] Are you already on the latest one? I also saw it yesterday. It looks amazing.
[00:02:57] I devoured Zac Saiyan Succession and White Lotus as well. So there are good, good, two series a little bit lighter and another one a little bit deeper at a business level, but. But it’s as good as the story itself. A story can be told from different angles, it’s spectacular.
[00:03:16] They are both very good. And what was the last one you saw? Notice that I’m missing the last chapter, but today’s I missed the name Sofia to which we were talking about. The voice, the voice. Also very good. It also has to do with mushrooms, right? Yes, a little. And any Jovi they do they can all mention.
[00:03:38] And I am now back with the role that came back in fashion strong. So I play three or four times a week and I live next to the beach, in the sea, surfing every time there are waves, paddling.
[00:03:53] And on my side I like it very much, I enjoy it very much as a lifestyle. Travel and generate spaces to have good conversations and go deeper. It’s almost a hobby that I enjoy because these days we are so, so much in superficial spaces that giving ourselves the gift of good encounters between people for me is something that I attend to, dedicate time and focus to.
[00:04:19] Well, let’s hope today we fulfill your hobby as well and get to go deeper. And we had a great time. How about you? I enjoy watching a good movie, being with friends, also traveling is something I love and I try to do, I try to do this and nothing else. A little bit of everything. I am also more active, like Fede. I like to exercise a lot and dance. I used to dance a lot and but well, don’t become a member and pretend I’m not going on vacation for two weeks.
[00:04:57] But what really is the. Capoeira, the Brazilian dance.
[00:05:03] Ah, well, that’s like acrobatics.
[00:05:05] No, it is a kind of martial art. It is a kind of covert dance. It has been pending for a long time too.
[00:05:13] Yes.
[00:05:14] I would love to. I did a lot of time, very similar things. But I never finished capoeira. I can’t wait. At some point I’m going to spend time and I’m going to start practicing. Insurance.
[00:05:24] When this episode comes out we will put a video of Fede doing capoeira at the same time for you to follow along.
[00:05:33] I don’t know. I don’t know capoeira, Sophie. But if there is a video of our Dancing Together. We are two very funny people when we dance. Very expressive. I don’t know if we got a lot of protocol, from how to dance, but that we enjoyed it. Are you sure?
[00:05:47] It goes perfectly. That is step number one. Have the disposition for you to dance and enjoy it. Well, I know we are going to start talking a little bit more about your project today, but maybe as a little bit of context as to how you started, what was your academic and professional background, maybe how did you choose this path in life? Can you tell us a little bit about this context?
[00:06:18] I have a degree in Environmental Management, after some postgraduate studies in Energy Management, in Innovation Management, in Social Impact Assessment, etc. So the question that has always accompanied me is how do we generate positive impact? So, how do we transform models that are designed to do evil in quotation marks or to extract, use, throw away, etc. to think in more regenerative models or at least that allow us to move from doing evil to doing good.
[00:06:54] Super interesting and a bit atypical, especially in Latin America almost nobody goes for that kind of careers. I think that in the end we are still a little bit moved by what will generate more money, right? But I think there are opportunities in everything, nothing else. It’s like the ease or the adoption that the country you’re in, the culture you’re in, has towards that kind of career.
[00:07:23] And whatever curiosity you have. Because ultimately the career is always a great initial step, but ultimately the experience afterwards is a little bit what leads us. We have crossed paths working with people who are environmental criminologists, that is, people who have studied. Because the topics we address are so cross-cutting, there is usually no need for a specialty or there is always room for that specialty to be applied in any industry. So it’s more about curiosity and the desire to learn and try new things than what defines your career.
[00:08:00] Exactly. And the skills they give you don’t, because sometimes you’re not going to be 100% dedicated to law. For example, I know people in law who now do last mile distribution, right? So I think it is a step that opens your mind to learn new tools, new skills and ways to visualize how to solve problems and from that, where you want to perform. What do you think, Astrid? Yes, the same. Or does this also have a lot to do with the work career that you are forming and then you make a hybrid of what you are doing along with your career and maybe you end up in something that is completely different, but you always get to a root of your career from the beginning and I think it is very important, eh? The career they chose and very necessary in these times. So I hope to hear more about the project later on, but I think you guys are on the right track.
[00:09:00] And in my case I started with business training and quickly at the age of 23 I founded an NGO with two other friends let’s say, because a very romantic idea if you will or very hippie to save the planet. And in the middle we realized that we were engineers, that we were business trainers, architects, economists and little by little it was, it was changing and mutating. And in the middle of what I was telling you, I was not in France training in innovation, in business models, specifically for circular economy issues, energy courses, also specializations, but without a doubt the mentors and the people I was working with were the ones who taught me the most along the way, the projects themselves, the research that had to be done. I have worked for a long time with civil and industrial engineers and they are trained in a certain way and have a certain way of thinking and acting and executing. And when you spend so much time attached to an industrial engineer, inevitably by osmosis, that sticks with you, then a little bit, a little bit of everything, I would say engineer, business.
[00:10:09] Okay, I like it, I like that new definition, new title and how cool is that? I think that if we are good like that, we give them a little bit of how we structure others. And I liked that word osmosis engineering.
[00:10:25] Well, they say we are the combination of the nine people we spent the most time with, so. No, no, wouldn’t it also be crazy to be professionally influenced by the transformation?
[00:10:39] More perfect, I don’t know. On the part of how did you two meet and say hey, I like what you do or I would like to work with you or how did this story of De colibri start?
[00:10:55] Spectacular. First, in addition to the two of us, Fede and Prema, there are also Mateo and Gastón as partners, who are part of the table and of this dream together with an incredible team of talented people who today are 34 people. But I’m telling you the end. The principle is not us. Unlike what we may think with faith, it is not what we do, but who we are that has found us. And from that who we are we find ourselves in a space that at the time facilitated. Me, as the one who called for an invitation of what happened on Sundays after 18:00 in the evening, right? A lot of times Sunday after 18:00 in the evening, is where we already start to feel like the week starts and naturally a lot of times it’s dead time, etc. So, as opposed to that, the question was what happens if we reverse that? And there is a space to generate a space for meditation, dance, conversations, quality, eating, delicious food, etc. And well, through a friend who invited Fede, we found ourselves in that space. And the interesting thing when you find yourself to be a person before the role, before the what do we do but we connect who we are, is that suddenly there was a search for what success meant to each of us, that under what context we were visualizing that success that we started to find a lot of complementarities. But the most interesting thing was that between the time we met and the book started and six years went by, so for a long time our journey, our journey, let’s say, was of friends, of allies, of thinking together, of passing on this concept, that I am undertaking and generating positive impact and it’s a lot of burden that I have to have.
[00:12:51] In my case, I worked in the government at the time the national government. I have to have a successful program, generate impact with the NGO, an NGO has to be successful, etcetera and on top of that generate positive impact and on top of that pay salaries and on top of that generate alliances, etcetera So it is a lot and it makes a lot of difference when we go from thinking of ourselves alone to thinking of ourselves as a team and as part of a system where we also have a lot of people around us who want us to do well and vice versa. So it was a bit of a story that when, when the planets aligned, so to speak, and the guys were thinking Hummingbird, they invited me to join the table and bring a phrase that I always say that I really like, that brought flowers. I want you to join the table, not for a prize, because I don’t know what to tell you, what to do, but I do know that I want you to be in this space. So, all of a sudden it was an invitation where he was not only telling me again what to do, but he was inviting me, he was inviting me with all my being to be part of a project that when it started we didn’t know where it was going to go. And little by little we are seeing it day by day, its fruits.
[00:14:03] And also what happens to us there, that a large part of the vision of what we are taking forward talks about integrating the perspectives of the different actors in the chain. So it is very important not only to think about the vineyard or companies with companies, but also about the role of universities, the role of governments, the role of research centers, the role of entrepreneurship, the role of civil society. There is something very important in being able to genuinely integrate all these visions, needs, dependencies. What are the expectations? What are the incentive schemes behind it. And he came with all that baggage of ten, 12, 13 years of experience in the world of national government and local government, and the connection with other governments, or the connection with multilateral organizations at a global level. And in that mix with civil society and perhaps with the corporate world that we brought, it was like a natural attraction of well, together, having both sides of the counter, we can think of projects that are really more scalable, that do not end up in a drawer, that are designed perfectly and nobody implements them, that do not remain simply as a nice idea, but that genuinely move to action and move to implementation. So between those conversations about how we were seeing it from one side and the other and how to combine them, one thing led to another and here we are a few years later.
[00:15:25] Padrísimo. I think they say several things. Super important is the first one. It’s this thing where you know yourself as a person and you connect on a human level, on a level of first of all out of the context of I want something from you or you’re kind of looking for this. So yes, that reciprocity that happens a lot in business, but when you connect on a personal level I think it is super, super important and in the end more lasting, right? I think it’s more natural networking, so to speak. And the other thing they comment on is this multidimensional collaboration. Is that what you say and that’s what I would call it too, which is internally in your group of people that you know, how can we find something that we can support each other in, which is the skills that I’ve found that they found employment that they find in you as well? Fd And also externally with the different stakeholders involved, right? No, it’s not just you as an organism wanting to achieve an objective, but you live in an ecosystem where factors such as government, public policies and even other partners around you, including your competitors, come into play. So that’s something I’d like to highlight from this. Is there any comment that I cannot talk about very interesting, that is to say, it is a company that I would like you to tell us a little bit about Colibri, what is its objective, what do they do? I mean, I understand that you had to be together, you had to align yourselves to form this and that is why you have taken it to where, where you are today and congratulations for that. But I would like him to tell us, especially for the audience, to understand that he is a hummingbird.
[00:17:27] Colibrí is born in 2019. We define ourselves as a consulting firm that designs business strategies specialized in integrating environmental variables into the business models of organizations. What does this mean? That we seek to generate a very clear dialogue between how you manage to integrate the environmental aspect in your business. Do you have a differential in your value proposition today? So, to a question from anyone about linked, if this company is doing well, is it doing well for the world, is it doing well for your company, is it doing well for the people who work in the company, for society? The answer is yes. So, redefining the paradigm of a company doing, making money at the expense of generating many positive impacts in order to transform those negative impacts into positive impacts. From this vision, Colibrí was born. It was also born as a common, with a search to generate connections between people who were not connected. Many times we were contacted by a company from two different areas asking for the same thing and there were none. No dialogue between them and also the lack of hard data that could support these decisions. Then.
[00:18:45] To interrupt you. The first time was a surprise, not the first time I called. Two or three people within the same organization asking for the same thing. And they talked to us about surprise. The second one was like look this is happening on the 5th time, it was like a factor happening. So a little bit of what was happening to us not only within the companies, but also with suppliers or with solutions, or within the entire value chain. The supplier, the supplier, the customer, the customer, the government or the government. There was this idea of separation. I am not here as a company and the other organization is there. And we saw that this was sustained in all the organizations I worked with and how being able to connect the inefficiencies of one or the benefits of one with the cons of the other, ended up making situations more win-win, economically speaking, not only with the environmental benefit, but also generating increases in productivity, reductions in costs. There are a lot of opportunities, really with simple little things. When we start connecting these people, either within the organizations or along that value chain.
[00:19:49] It seems as if the problems are alien, but in the end they have an impact on all of us.
[00:19:55] Recontra. And there, not only, not only, many times they told us well, what do I do? And maybe still within the organization they weren’t getting the answer because they weren’t even getting to the question. I mean, did you ever think you could ask suppliers these questions and they would just stare at you like But why? I am going to ask my supplier if he has a good environmental practice. Well, all of a sudden, even if we broaden the line of the value chain, if your supplier of a good environmental practice is also making you more sustainable, being able to have a positive impact by broadening this view, then not only embracing those answers, but also being able to germinate those right questions throughout the organizations, was also a little bit what we were looking for. Today in Colibrí we are based in Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay. We are implementing projects in approximately 17 countries. We are a certified company since we were born, that is, 100% of our impact in our projects generate positive impact and how we do it. We are structured through three pillars one, the first one through, which is linked to the climate crisis and how we can develop carbon strategies that generate positive impact starting from the basis of measurement, to then think about how we reduce that impact and then how we can compensate.
[00:21:19] A second agenda relates to how we relate to materials. So, thinking about material circularity strategies is in some way how we rethink, not only looking at recycling, but also broadening our view and understanding that at the moment we are designing the product, at the moment we are thinking about where the material comes from, we are also going to determine how feasible it is to recycle or circularize throughout the whole process. And finally, a pillar linked to Change Management, linked to how we can generate living organizations and that these environmental aspects are not just another KPI that I have to add, but also how somehow, through these integrations of environmental issues to the business, we can be more protagonists in the generation of positive impact. And that is why we have an aspect of innovation, this engagement, which is where we work, linking through talks, workshops, experiences, impact, guidelines to the different people in the organizations and in relation to their ecosystem, so that just as Fer said, not only the win-win relationship is transformed, but also the win-lose-win-win-win-win-win relationship is re-signified. In other words, I win, you win, business wins, the environment wins, society wins. Therefore, it is essential to re-signify these links so that they are regenerative. Fede I don’t know if you want to complement something.
[00:22:44] And I don’t think so, it’s super swept.
[00:22:47] I have some if I want to go back a little bit, in the conversation they mentioned three things. One is to identify variables for measuring their performance and environmental impact. The other one was a little bit talking about the data and the accessibility to how to measure us and this part of well, we have similar problems and we can together have solutions for multiple people, not just for one company, right? But one. How do we identify these variables? How and how do we do it? To measure ourselves and to be able to have some accountability for what we are doing, the actions we are taking and also with our suppliers and the people who are in our area.
[00:23:54] Great, great question. I go for two parts. The first thing is that we can then share a link for you to share with people who are listening. Last year we worked with the United Nations in Uruguay to design impact business models, where much of the focus was on indicators specifically metrics. I believe it has 180 sheets of the document. The new 60 or 40 are indicators. I’m not really saying that by industry, by type of models and service, product that there’s really a lot out there to poke at. And maybe going back to your question of well, but which one do I choose? No? I mean, I have a lot, but which one do I take? Indeed, and there are several tools to do so. It is not clear that the textile industry should not have the same logistics indicators as the bank. So there are certain guidelines that we can use, either Savvy’s standards, or materiality standards by industry, to understand what an organization that is in a certain sector segment should be looking at, it is very important that it is in line. We usually do a complete measurement of the impacts of the entire value chain of the organization. We will not always go as far upstream as we can and as far downstream as we can. And automatically when you have all that profile, if you will, in terms of emissions and resource consumption along the value chain, you already have 80-20 to be able to make a decision.
[00:25:21] Probably all the information you have, or if it’s deep into your supplier’s supplier it’s harder to access information, but it doesn’t stop us from sizing, taking a volume of how much that involves. So, typically your three fundamental raw materials or fundamental inputs within your business model are going to be critical of 100% of your financial plan, of the purchasing and finance team where it looks good, where 80% of the money you’re spending is coming in, probably a lot of the environmental impacts are being made as well. So Gulfstream would be like main raw materials or full metrics and I where we are spending the most money as a business model. And if that goes in people or goes in equipment or goes in machinery, this will also give us a dimension of what kind of indicators we should build, so it would be like that double control, norms or standards that are set by the industry. The second would be a specific measurement of the organization in order to understand where to start. Let’s say, if every organization is a world, because even the bank that is tiny or the bank versus the fintech or the retail versus the giant’s pace, they probably have other challenges. Having the logistics transferred is not the same as having the logistics transferred. We are already starting to enter in different ways. That has to change in modifications, in contracts, schemes, incentives, commercial agreements, as that will probably be much more complex in each situation.
[00:26:52] Yes, there is, complementing Fede a bit. I agree 100% with what you say and in this of history and seeing patterns also over the course of having similar conversations with different companies that are a lot. We also see that there is a great challenge and it is always part of what we are going to invite instead of moving away from the environmental project to sustainability. It is that project that most thought to social response as most thought. Let’s see, I got it.
[00:27:24] Of course.
[00:27:25] For the photo. So the invitation to see how we think is starting from a work where you begin to measure yourself, you begin to understand your baseline and from that you can understand where you really have Pareto, where you can make an investment, generate positive impact and also generate economic returns for, so that, so that later this can be inserted in your business and not remain as something you are doing and investing, not in civil society organization, etc. Done or not, but how the different areas of your organization are including this variable at the time of making decisions.
[00:28:07] And could you tell us, for example, with all this context that you are giving us, about a very particular case with a company that has been a challenge and that you were really able to turn it around. Any examples so I can understand a little bit more in depth?
[00:28:23] A lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, some fun ones. Sometimes it happens that there are many needs or desires to eliminate, for example, plastics in food chains. And often the alternatives. Maybe those plastics are boxes, I don’t mean to move the product from one side to the other. And many times what happens is that when you look at it economically and environmentally, I mean the plastic for the box, what happens when we go through the box formats, we have an increase in the air transported, because the box always differs from the size of the product. So what ends up happening is that maybe we are more material. While that material comes from a perhaps responsible source, FCC or whatever, we often overlook that by having more air inside that box, we have less product inside the van that ends up being or the truck or whatever we are transporting, which ends up being that the total cost of that freight ends up being loaded by over less product, which increases the potential cost per product, but also the associated emissions, because the fuel for that journey is going to be the same distributed over fewer packages. It will not vary much, but when we look at it by intensity, by package, it ends up being more intense.
[00:29:42] And not only that, but when we start looking upstream and downstream, many times the boxes also bring a productivity issue because of the time it takes to enclose and pack, to open, to move to one side, to the other. So, when we start adding up the time, the material cost, the environmental impact and the lower capacity within the package vehicle, we end up seeing that the equation, both economic and environmental is not always so clear that we have to go from one side to the other. No, many times it is better to reduce and use plastic from other sources or replace materiality, but even when we go to the metrics and data we understand that maybe the reputation it has is not the best, but when we look at the hard data, it is not so clear that there is a forced migration in one direction. I don’t want to defend one or the other, but in these types of cases where we can find significant benefits, not only environmentally but economically, let’s imagine three, four, 6% cost efficiency points per package. It can be super, super interesting.
[00:30:45] Yes, well, that’s all. These are alternatives that present you with new challenges, aren’t they? In this case, how do I reduce the air I am conveying? And I mean at the end of the day those kinds of things are the ones that get me excited to be in that industry, to say well, how do we go about reducing this? From thinking of a way of how we consolidate orders from picking to packing, how we train our workforce to do it more efficiently. If we have some software that helps us for the accommodation and the logic inside the means of transport. But. But well, this is very interesting what you say, that well, looking at the hard data, looking at the scenarios that we see, in the end there are alternatives that are not convenient anyway, so what do we do? After OK we use this material that does not have a high impact on the environment, but what do we do with it? Why keep it out of landfills or out of places where we don’t want it? No? How do we increase its useful life? I don’t know.
[00:31:58] And another thing that I keep thinking about as I listen to something so simple there are many organizations that are looking for innovation, that goes the title of the paper somehow, and that allows us sometimes that doesn’t blind us to look for it, the fruits that are very available and very close at hand, right? A very concrete example is that we are working on tire inflation policies, for example for the logistics chain, and just by constantly and proactively maintaining tire inflation throughout the fleet on a regular basis, with effective rotations, we can generate fuel reductions of two or 3%. When the fleet is big enough, it is attractive enough. Fede But a tire inflation policy sounds boring. Well, that’s fine. Yes, it can be boring.
[00:32:46] No? I don’t know if I buy the newspaper. Right?
[00:32:49] But fair. But no, the bottom line chip generates a concrete impact at the environmental level and a concrete impact at the economic level. So, I mean, it’s something simple that we are working with different software to implement with partners and they are back that also in that it is gaining confidence. Suddenly, as I was saying before, what happens to us is that for the purchasing teams, if they see an investment or an expense, environmental issues are always expenses and at some point it is a good thing. How can we change the chip or the mindset of the person on the other side so that they understand how environmental variables can generate a benefit for my real business, not just a nice word, but to achieve it. In the case of logistics it is relatively simpler because the variables are always in the same direction. One kilometer less traveled is less fuel. Less expensive, with lower emissions. So we are fortunate, if you will, that there is a correlation or an alignment in those incentives. But we still run into a lot of roadblocks or find that suddenly something as simple as keeping the tires inflated doesn’t happen. Then, from there, build the cases or the funds. There will be initiatives that will generate savings and there will be others that will require an investment or wait for a period of time to repay, to recover. So, how do we balance the challenges in order to gain confidence and generate the savings that will allow us to move forward with investments in order to continue reducing the medium and long-term impacts. It is a bit of a technical, if you will, strategic challenge within the organization. Also because there is a culture, because there is a previous experience. Why should a consultant come and tell me what to do if I am the one who knows the most? No, I mean, there are a lot of things that need to be built in order to move in that direction.
[00:34:33] Yes, I totally agree. And I think if I go back a little bit to this thing I was mentioning about no, we kind of hear words of automation, artificial intelligence, digital machine learning, tweets and companies say hey, I want that. How do I apply that in my company to be a leader? And then you realize and to get to that, for example, you need to first start inflating your tires, right? And then we talk about. From. Not from there.
[00:35:04] But there, yes, we are supporting a project of the AIESEC in Mexico that is based on these two topics that you just mentioned, which is the whole world towards a digital world and the framework of the 4.0 revolution, how it can talk and how it can dialogue with the whole environmental world, the green world. So, based on that, a concept called Twin Transition is created, as these two transitions towards a digital and sustainable world. Because if we continue with the same concept we will dematerialize, but we will continue to generate the same impacts. So, as long as we do not manage to include the variables when making decisions, even if we say good, we will have less impact. Did we already see how it happened with cryptos, that all of a sudden there was a boom in energy consumption and it’s like well, why didn’t we foresee it before? Well, now we have a crisis, we have to go out to solve this, but above all in this, in this dialogue also to, so as not to remain alone, like, like those who inflate tires. There are also projects where we are and where we are not. The recommendation is much more closely linked to this one, the low Fruits. And on the other hand, we also play with other types of projects, we participate in other types of projects where we are invited to create frameworks or support the creation of frameworks. As Fede said, it could be like Francis or the United Nations in Uruguay, which was good. We can generate a framework to support impact entrepreneurs, so that when they go to talk to investors they are much better prepared about the variables that will also bring returns on the investment that the investor is making, and not just support my business because it is beautiful and because it will generate an impact and cannot show any kind of metrics.
[00:36:57] There is no other. I kept thinking about the challenge question and not being left alone as the IT guys. I liked that part. Reverse logistics issues, for example. We work a lot on these two worlds that come together between the world of carbon and climate change and the circular economy. And there is a very specific point where today all our products are designed to get to the point of consumption, but not necessarily to go back. So let’s imagine that it is very difficult to suddenly take charge of a reverse logistics collection being only one company in the whole Mexican territory. So, a little bit of the logics that we started with and a little bit of what I was saying at the beginning about the importance of not isolating ourselves and staying only in the search for that solution, but also being able to identify who are those other organizations that have the same problem as I do or are equally motivated by other reasons for this to be solved. So, when we started, for example in Paraguay, we are working on a project with the IDB and the Moisés Bertoni Foundation, which is a foundation with a long history and a great reputation in the country, working with four multinationals, with the IDB, with the United Nations and with local governments to work on differentiated collection schemes for these materials. So, it is not that everyone is looking for the one who puts the plastic, the plastic who puts the glass, the glass, the one who puts aluminum, but they are all collecting everything. The efficiencies and inefficiencies of each of our schemes are then shared, so that each one meets its collection goals at an aggregate and global level. Then, all of a sudden. Prices were very expensive, unsustainable. If you thought about it one way, when we go to four or five big ones that want to go in the same direction, all of a sudden they drop significantly. So, back to this type of concrete logic in terms of dollar value per ton recovered, it would not be the right one in this case. And how do we get it below a threshold that makes the project viable. In this case, we also apply this type of challenge and work crosswise in many industries.
[00:38:58] Yes, that’s right. And this is part of collaboration and achieving efficiencies with, well, relying on other partners. How do you do it? And I ask because I feel like sometimes there’s an issue of or I don’t want to say excuse, but a lot of is it that our cybersecurity policy prevents us from collaborating or is it that what about the privacy of our information, of each other’s information? And how do you cross this barrier that sometimes I feel really cages us in No, we can’t collaborate, I can’t share anything with you? Why? Is it confidential? How we do or how I feel is a challenge that is presented to them a lot and I want to know how they do it.
[00:39:51] Fundamental. The question is the heart of what we were telling you when, when, when are you going to demonstrate that you are going to reduce 50% between 40, 30, 20, eight? But of the cost of what you are doing or is there an economic efficiency behind it? There is a very clear incentive to access confidential information. So, in many would be the answer. Many confidentiality agreements would be the answer, always with a very specific carrot. So, the legal team or the purchasing team, or the sustainability person who has to internally push the project within the organization, is not fighting to make an investment that will not have a return, they are fighting to generate an economic benefit for the organization. So, the probability of opening the doors internally and getting traction is much higher. When the organization goes to talk to the baby to bring her into the project, it does the same thing as well, which not only made the way internally, but externally is inviting the sharing of those efficiencies. So let’s not only do this to take care of the planet, let’s do this because economically, apart from generating an environmental benefit, we will also have an economic benefit within this equation. And when it’s genuinely not an environmental thing or an economic project, but it’s a project that has an economic benefit, that’s when things genuinely start to work. That is also the reason for Colibri’s existence and the focus always placed on integrating it into the business and not simply for beautiful and romantic projects like our aspirational one. Be romantic but have a connection to the business.
[00:41:21] I totally agree, because we are running out of time, but before we have the closing, I would like to know a little bit of an average, for example, how long a project takes on average. I know that it depends on the company and the need, but how long would it take to develop a viable solution?
[00:41:46] Good question. We have diagnostic, design and implementation projects, and in that order we do not always enter with the three phases. But more or less like the flashing phase. Diagnoses are between 30 days and 90 days. The design phases are between 90 and 120 days. Implementation phase around 12 months, 36 to 48 months as a time scale. I mean Hello, I have a problem, I’m in another situation but I’m missing a lot of good information SWAT team taking a diagnostic picture where we are standing. Another is that I have this situation, I have this case, I have this reality, I would like to go in that direction. Well, let’s sit down and figure out how we’re going to get there. And then it’s I have this plan that I want to execute or like how it needs help. It often happens that large or not so large organizations also have one or two people to develop these projects, and they have a lot of priorities, or they have a lot of urgencies, a lot of pressures or ghouls involved. So we often act as an extended team of internal teams because we have people who are specialists in the issues you want to address. So for the organization to hire six experts in a subject area for a project that will last 12 months and then assemble the team is very costly. So all of a sudden outsourcing or hiring those experts, but having them just for that 12-month period ends up being much more effective, but 30 to 90 days, 120 days and a year to four years or so.
[00:43:23] Excellent, okay. And well, I would like to close with the subject of entrepreneurship in Latin America. Like someone listening to us who says hey, yo. Pure strippers. I can’t see the light. I don’t want to venture into this world of. To undertake. What would you say to motivate him? Let’s focus on the positive and say Well, I know there are going to be rocks, stones, walls along the way. But what would be your advice for that. Yes, they should.
[00:44:02] First, the process of this talk we had I realized that we are very positive, so thank you for the space. The reality is that the first thing I would tell you is that self. A few of us started to find peers who share your passion, who share the desire to make a positive impact. It is much more difficult to undertake on an individual basis than when you suddenly find that you have a weakness and suddenly it is the strength of someone next to you. So, suddenly I’m not so good at administrative issues and my ally, my partner, is strong in that. Maybe it gives me the place to be in a much more technical place. The second tip is to go out and validate your idea quickly. Don’t stay in the lab. Information and ideas are on the Internet, even more so now with chat. All information is available. So don’t think your idea is the only one and get out there and validate it fast. And on the other hand, embracing failure fast as somehow there is embracing error as something that is, that is part of the learning process. So probably the first time we implement it, it will not go so well and we will have to pilot it and we will have to incorporate that mistake as part of the learning process so that we can generate that solution.
[00:45:28] In Latin America there are a lot of problems, a lot of challenges, so all of us who have the ability to first look at that problem to be able to approach it, redefine it, work together and then be able to develop a business, will probably find many more allies than we think who want us to do well. Then, we also found in the impact ecosystem throughout Latin America a lot of allies that at the beginning we created by creating Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico and suddenly we have allies in Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, which also have these characteristics, these challenges. And so there is once again a great alliance at the Latin American level with the search that we have in Colibri, also for Latin America to be the leader, not the leader, but the leader in the generation of positive impact. And in some way this book is like this leap that allows us not only to follow the recipes of developed countries that have already made their mistakes, but also to have the possibility of inventing or recreating our new realities and our solutions so that more and more businesses generate a positive impact.
[00:46:46] Correct. Anything you would like to add?
[00:46:48] Pd Awesome, I kept thinking, I kept thinking that that the importance of understanding that whatever we’re going to offer or undertake, whether it’s a product or a service, it’s not only going to have an impact on the user or my customer, but also probably on my customer’s customer or user of the user and also upstream of where it comes from. And there is an exercise that we like to do a lot to bring those questions that I was saying at the beginning, to not only look for answers, but also for questions. And that’s who’s coming. Which three organizations come before me so that I can have a business and who comes after me so that I can have a business? Is it a question that we really like, because usually the answer sometimes is I don’t know who is behind me first don’t I? And just by browsing and understanding two backwards or three forwards, it brings nice information on how to think about them. The positive impacts on that chain I would undoubtedly attract to me. A practical exercise for thinking.
[00:47:54] I highlight a few things. The first is don’t do it, only that it may sound like you advance faster, they say out there you just advance faster, but together you advance farther. I also think that together you advance faster and further. In order not to get lost in today’s perfectionism of my creation, it has to be completely ready for the market to see it and accept it and not to show it, to get feedback from those who make it, but do not stay with it so long in the dark or in the privacy. I’m sorry for the part that. This culture of failure is fine. We learn from our mistakes. I think it’s super important because from before or I think from our moms it’s like you fail. It’s wrong, isn’t it? And how is this possible? But change this mindset in order to follow it. And what you were saying, this is a very good exercise, is to look around, do not think that your idea is only you who have thought of it, but there are others who may have already thought of it and have already advanced a piece of the road and who can help you to continue yours, right? So here a lot of collaboration, a lot of positive attitude, I like it very much and the prize is laughing, but as he does not take the microphone away, it will be heard.
[00:49:27] But I laugh. I laugh at Sofi because. Because at some point, and the interesting thing is that we are a company, we are looking for economic profit, to earn money with this impact. So before we were associated that when there was a good vibe and there was collaboration it was because we were, we lived in a hippie community and out of nowhere. And suddenly today I feel that it’s part of the evolution of organizations and the ecosystem. It is from a maturity to bring the economic to this environmental and social world and also to bring the environmental and social to this economic world so that in some way it is intertwined.
[00:50:05] Correct? Well, it has been a very good conversation and as we were saying before, in the process I think we could go on for hours and hours. Maybe later we will do a next episode to talk about other topics. I don’t know, but it was a pleasure to have them in this episode. Look for them please, caped hummingbird, and reach out to them if you are looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. On this sustainability journey. If it exists, it can. There are many success stories that PD can share with you. And nothing. Thank you all very much for listening to us. Astrid Two final words for our audience. Well, thank you guys for your time as well. Now they can also share their contacts directly with us so that we can locate them and invite all the companies to join these sustainable solutions that nowadays have to be part of any company. In other words, it is just as important and relevant that finance, marketing and human capital must have sustainable solutions in all of them. We invite you to connect with the experts.
[00:51:24] Final words yes, first of all thank you Astrid, Sofi and all the team that is there for us. Spaces like these are super important, we enjoy it a lot, so well, as you said, Sophie, anyone who wants to somehow work in this generation of positive impact and linking the environment to business, can contact us either on our website which is double finger, dot colibri, dot colibri or on LinkedIn and if you do not have all our emails, contacts, etc. Probably if you send us a message in less than an hour you will have a response.
[00:52:05] If they are workaholic, then they will answer because they are passionate about it again, it is not something that is in their DNA and beyond the fact that it is a business, it is also something very personal to them. So this is what we like about this company. Fede something you want to tell us now to say goodbye.
[00:52:26] At the time of thanks and trust, always look for business opportunities among these, always fun, so here at disposal for anyone who wishes.
[00:52:35] Okay, well, thank you all very much. And well, this is the end of our episode. See you next time.
