[00:00:01] Hello. Welcome to Supply Chain Now in Spanish Broadcasting for Latin America and the entire world. Supply Chain Now presents the best in everything related to logistics. Best practices, technologies, organizations, challenges and opportunities. All this and more through the stories and experiences of the people who make logistics the main business activity with the greatest impact on our lives. And now with you, our host.

[00:00:32] Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Supply Chain Now. My name is Enrique Alvarez and today I have a very special guest. Very, very special. Luis. How are you doing? How are you doing? Good afternoon.

[00:00:44] How are you doing? Pleased to meet you, Enrique. Happy to participate and thank you very much for the introduction to your already large audience.

[00:00:52] Thousand. Thank you very much for your participation. The pleasure is all ours. Luis Sierra, Chief Executive Offices of more R and has some. You have extensive experience in logistics and it’s a pleasure to have you here and to share a little bit of this time we have together if you want to tell us a little bit more about yourself, tell us a little bit about your childhood, where you are from, where you grew up.

[00:01:17] Well, well look, I am Mexican, I am Mexican by birth, my parents, my parents, both of Spanish descent and that makes me also holder of Spanish nationality, which has been a pleasure to have for certain things and today thanks to that my children are also being able to have opportunities in other borders, right? But Mexican, Mexican I consider myself and in that sense I would also proudly tell you eh, Mexican, in what we have been able to contribute with a company today 100% Mexican, in which I have been involved in a long time, but. But born in Mexico, raised in Mexico City, in this small city. Yes, of course. Today’s population is estimated at more than 22 million inhabitants, but it offers great challenges and great opportunities. It is a city that does not rest, it is a city that always requires something more, but also offers you something, isn’t it? And in that you have to take both the good and the bad, because they can become very good opportunities, both business, personal and any development you want to do, even in altruistic situations. This city offers it all, right?

[00:02:55] Definitely. And well, I share your point of view because I am also a chilango, as we say to those born in Mexico City. And well, yes, it is an extremely dynamic city, with many opportunities, with many challenges and even more so now with all that we are experiencing in the geopolitical sphere. But hey, there is never, ever a dull moment in Mexico City, there is always something like a good big city. Going back a bit to the past and before we get into your professional career, Luis, any experience that you might have had and that you can share with us, that pushed you a little bit to dictate the line you took later on.

[00:03:39] I believe. I think it is only fair to mention. I was raised, I was, I was raised under the principles of Colegio Cumbres at that time, with a strong influence and direction from the Legionaries of Christ. And I say that in the sense that I, myself, did very well. I had a group of extraordinary friends that to date I have the honor of sharing friendship. I attended Colegio Básico and high school at Cumbres, after trying out and auditioning, so to speak, at other universities, I ended up at Universidad Anáhuac, that is to say, I even got my bachelor’s degree in accounting.

[00:04:30] Accounting.

[00:04:31] That yes accounting and that at that, at that time I had a, obviously a kind of double double major, which was the accounting part, but strongly focused on the financial part, it was directed to the career and in that sense, at least to me and my group of friends we did very well because we had an extraordinary generation in which it was always good. Advertised with themes such as leadership, social responsibility and family values. And these three things have accompanied me all my life and all my personal and professional life. And so I think that regardless of the good or bad reputation it had, at least in my personal case, I can speak positively about it, right? Later on, later on in my professional career, I did have some further specializations. In fact, immediately after graduating, I took an extended course at Harvard University to see if I could stay in the master’s program at the FBI, at Harvard, in Massachusetts, and for reasons of experience, a tutor at that time recommended that my professional experience, even though I had already combined a very good part of my career with work from, if I am not mistaken, the third semester onwards. 4th semester I was already working so properly and I had two jobs and interestingly, I had my steady job which was in the family business. My father associated with his brother, works in a company or worked in many years in a family business inherited by the grandfather that was dedicated to the pastry part in downtown Mexico City. And thanks to that, I believe I have a profile very close to the family business, to the static business of marketing and without a doubt to a business that has to be open on the 24th, that is to say, every day.

[00:06:55] And it is a school, a school on many levels. In other words, my boss, who worked for your grandfather and then your father and probably you since you were very young, has had a very demanding life. You don’t have to be there, you have to work hard.

[00:07:12] That’s right. And thanks to that I was able to buy my first car. I was able to buy my first trips, do my first things with, with a salary that was certainly not in that sense executive. It was a salary equivalent to the position I was performing at that point.

[00:07:30] Hey, do you remember? Going back to that time when you were still in the family business or the times you had? Do you remember anything that your dad might have said to you as a professional or professional recommendation, anything?

[00:07:44] My father. My father in that sense, he had a motto and he lived it I think deeply and lived it to its fullest extent, which was this in English. I think it’s easier to explain, isn’t it? Because it’s a very American phrase des party hard work hard. I don’t know if it goes in that order, no, but. But it was, it was. It was in that very strict sense in the sense of saying in the time you are doing it, dedicate yourself, enjoy it and live it to the fullest. And that for him was the philosophy of life. If you find yourself working, do it well, do it deep and do it and live it intensely. If you are no longer working and you are studying, study well, study hard and try to get the best out of it. If you are with your family, concentrate well and dedicate the time you have to dedicate to them at that moment. And I believe that this philosophy was instilled and to date I try to follow it to the letter in everything I do, right? In other words, there are moments for everything, but each and every moment focus on what that particular moment is.

[00:08:59] Which I imagine is a key foundation for an entrepreneur. I imagine that kind of mentality helped you later in your professional career.

[00:09:10] Without a doubt, and it is something that was 100% formative. Already in my stage in which I started to combine my personal life, my professional life and these first steps in the business sense, it was undoubtedly something that I treasure today and I value very much that my father has instilled in me.

[00:09:31] Hey, well, thanks for sharing the story, I guess this is how it is. You must have thousands of your family, your dad, grandparents, grandparents probably, but going back you were finishing or studying accounting, you graduate, you had two jobs and you were there when you get interrupted in the story of your life, in.

[00:09:51] What time do I work? Notice that my second job and it’s worth it because? Because it was a very interesting job, it was a job. Extremely formative it was. It was a job that did not pursue a unh unh unh unh, a salary. This company was a company formed by a group of friends who invited me. And I did not hesitate to enter. This was a company that was called Generación Empresarial and Generación Empresarial. It was a. A company basically formed by the children of business leaders from. From. From a very recognized professional and family level who were in their last semester of their career and who found that there was a space to bring in opinion leaders and look to the university youth. Also to be able to positively influence precisely that, in the formation of opinion and in the formation of entrepreneurship or entrepreneurship that at that time we believed could be formed. So I accepted and I was for a long time the manager and the operative director of that company and this company had to organize corporate events for businessmen that could be linked with young people. And we also had multitudinous events to be able, with the same intention, to reach out to many more people.

[00:11:41] And this, I imagine, was independent of the school, it was not something sponsored or sprinkled in any way by the school.

[00:11:48] No, no, no, no, no, no! Independent was well regarded by the by the Universidad Anáhuac was supported by the Universidad Anáhuac was supported by the Universidad Anáhuac, but economically was was, was independent.

[00:12:01] Some that you remember some, some event that several do not, but someone that.

[00:12:06] Talk about the characters. There were many businessmen in Mexico who embraced the Monterrey group very well or someone who actively participated in that sense. There were businessmen in Mexico who undoubtedly contributed. And of the two anecdotes if you will, which also impacted me because they were at some point as opposites to have brought these two characters. But notice that in the first place we were able to bring Ronald Reagan to Mexico, former president of the United States, and he participated, and in this case I am talking about 1,991,992. When this happened, Ronald Reagan was still, obviously already a former president, but he wasn’t that out of date. He was a figure in force, not only an American icon, but an icon of the openness he had achieved and the transformation he had undergone. Obviously, the United States and bringing it to Mexico was, was, was awesome. And the reaction to that I think validated that concept in an extraordinary way. And a short time later, if I am not mistaken, it was a year later that we brought Mikhail Gorbachev.

[00:13:30] I went, I went to that one at Anáhuac, I think.

[00:13:33] That’s right.

[00:13:33] I was at that one, at that event, actually a long, long time ago.

[00:13:37] That’s right. So imagine, then, bringing the two, bringing two people that in some way history brought them together, history had passages and had this background in common, but that in some way represented very different ideas, ideologies, concepts, very different economies in order to do so. And what we wanted was to bring an opinion leader, not to bring an opinion influence, but simply perspectives on why it happened, how it happened, etc. So for a person who was 20 or 21 years old, I think it was an extraordinary experience, wasn’t it?

[00:14:30] And two of the most important characters in history and I imagine that well, I’m pretty sure that thanks to both of them in different ways, we have the world we have now. It could have been of divided the world in different ways if it had not been for these two heads, not of.

[00:14:48] And between these two great people, three international congresses in Mexico City and Monterrey. So that. The truth of the matter is that I have already opened myself from a situation that did mark me professionally, that did mark me in a much more international world, in a world that went much further than the family business. And that had a great influence on my return after this mentor, as I told you at Harvard University, told me hey, I see that you have a lot of experience for the age you are, I see that you have a lot of restlessness, I think that if you manage to form it, formalize it even more with a part of a more institutional work, I will give you right now the letter of acceptance for the NBA. And so, with that idea, I came here and by chance I tried to do entrepreneurship with, with, with, partnering with my father and with my uncle at that time. And that, that company that we formed had an aspect of what I wanted to do, which was to take the best part of the family business with a prespective of a growth of sales units to more type of branches, to more type, a scheme that could even become a franchise. And that’s where I spent the next almost three years of my life, until one of the business units didn’t work and I think that was the first big set back, so to speak. It is a big confrontation in which not all ideas work for you due to different circumstances. I don’t think at the time I had personal professional tools to be able to do a proper postmortem of why it did work, why it didn’t work, what I could have done differently and such. But the idea and the relocation that causes you to fail in an unfulfilled venture, I think it focuses you for your next stage in an infinitely different way than if you don’t have that learning process, right?

[00:17:37] Yes, the more battles I imagine the more you learn, the more you grow and well, it makes you better for the next one.

[00:17:44] In fact, while keeping an eye on the international world and continuing to support other initiatives in which my father was involved, at the same time I was beginning to envision the closure of one of the business units. Do I also start and start or am I introduced, because that’s how I was given another chance to participate and actively invest in what would already be the airline with which I started at the end of 1994, which I’ve been transporting more cargo that was known Doing Business as a Master, right? And that is how I began to support as an advisor in 1994 and I was formally incorporated in January 1995, with a perfectly designed incorporation route to learn the business and go through the different areas, as a kind of trainee that was being formed in the operational areas, in the commercial areas, in the legal and financial areas and finally achieve a management in the commercial sales team, which later became the commercial management and if I am not mistaken, in 1998 and from 1998, to achieve the General Management of the company.

[00:19:34] Hey, and you didn’t have any plans to go into logistics? In other words, this is happening little by little. Your interest was more in the business of entrepreneurship, but I was told that up to this point so far so good. You were either very curious or not curious at all.

[00:19:49] Notice that there the left hand again of my father and the left hand of one of the partners who was a. Do I want to know that you met and you already had this air cargo business in South America and you had similar interests and you had similar concerns, right? I liked the international world. I had had this experience with the formative part of the congresses and this I told you about. And on the other hand, I saw that the airline brought me much closer to my natural concerns of growing in this international and global impact of the world of aviation, that the world of aviation has many pigeonholes and many edges in which one can develop in that sense. No.

[00:20:45] Not entirely. And well, it’s again a global industry and it’s obviously an industry that has changed enormously and is changing rapidly, like the rest of the supply chain and the rest of global logistics. So you started again with this trainee part and well, did you get to lead the company any particular challenges at that time? Maybe from the Mexican airline industry itself, something you started to see? Hey, well, here’s a great opportunity or here could be some trouble in the future.

[00:21:19] There were several, several, several obstacles that I had, that I had or that we had to overcome punctually. The first is that I came from a family business, I came from a university background that was not in transportation, that was not logistics, but it was a good combination because with a formative part in the finance part of, let’s say the back office, the hard core of any company as such, combining it with an infinitely more dynamic part, absolutely dynamic, that had to do with transportation. But the environment at that time offered a series of opportunities that in my case I believe I was able to correctly exploit. And I am referring in particular to two things. The first is that it was an environment where aviation was considered a strategic industry, with a limited foreign investment capacity, and that already confronted you with a technical legal world, competition authorities and all that in which your environment was not entirely friendly to be able to grow the business and that, that provides a number of features. But on the other hand, Mexico was in the midst of trade liberalization, Mexico had already gone through the first steps of GATT incorporation, the first steps that later evolved into the incorporation of the OMS in Mexico and Mexico.

[00:23:11] Just in this third opening process, a giant Single Free Trade Agreement was signed with the United States. With its largest partner, the United States, and at that time its second largest trading partner, Canada. So the environment of opportunity was absolute, then the motivation to overcome the obstacles that the competition, the legislation, the legal framework, all of that was highly attractive for a company that was entering the largest market at that time in the region. No, no, there was no other bigger market and that Mexico had a business environment where in the very good times that we are talking about Salinas de Gortari and all that, where exports were a neuralgic point, probably the strongest point of the Free Trade Agreement for Mexico was its export capacity, right? So it is in this environment that the company was born and fortunately it is my turn to collaborate in it, isn’t it?

[00:24:30] A very important moment in the country’s history. You talked a little about Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. In other words, all the world’s economies were beginning to open up, began to open up. And well, in that particular case of Mexico, well, they were involved in a company, an airline that could really, as you say, capture all this great opportunity that they had, but at the same time they were going to start facing competition. I know you had never felt running before, now you touched it from an extremely optimistic point of view, as a good entrepreneur. But it is not something easy because at the end of the day there are many companies that do not see it with that optimism if not with a bit of suspicion and even fear of saying well, we are going to start competing with all the companies in North America. It is not only Mexico that is like this.

[00:25:22] Indeed, you raise it, you raise it very well in this way.

[00:25:25] Hey, tell us about it. So you were already the CEO of the company after having spent not only several years, but for several positions and you had known in detail the company and the industry that follows in your professional career, because from there you still went on to two other things, right?

[00:25:43] Yes, notice that there is also a parallel story going on. These, these original partners have, have, have, have a very, very, very, very nice story to tell, because the partners of Chilean origin and they are making their own way also in their region, in the South American region and they evolve from this company that was originally called Faster in Chile and they evolve and end up being the controlling group or Management Inc. of what was then known as LAN Chile, which later evolved into LAN Airlines and years later evolved into the group we know today as LATAM Airlines Group. And already this story that begins in the cargo world begins to grow in parallel in the passenger world. The passenger world absorbs the main decisions, the main investments, but never ceases to have somehow the NDA and the NDA of the cargo part. And what they try to do and they do it in a very successful way is that the cargo side can provide revenue on the passenger side, which becomes in a way a very very very important revenue. And at that time something that as a group, because obviously more than belonging to belonged to and participated in the development of its region, in the development of a portfolio of customers and countries that we served, we participated and we were very proud to be part of this network, of this great distribution network that already covered from the United States to the southern point of Argentina or Chile, right? That was built over the course of these years. And yet, as far as I am concerned, it is my turn to develop. Then other difficulties begin when they join with the Brazilian group and form this Latam. And then the company has, it has other difficulties, it has another, it has another competition for working capital as soon as it becomes a giant group. And the unity of Mexico itself, in my opinion, begins to have a second plane, a third plane and 1/4 plane of development.

[00:28:38] Very was a huge transaction, as you say, they became the first airline in all of South America. Latin America seems to me to combine these two correct companies.

[00:28:50] I understand that during 2012, if I am not mistaken, 2013, the group is formed, the largest group is formed and with an alliance association also, if I am not mistaken, also of One World as something, something very important for the region and one happens. One of the points that I believe that determine my present life as more important in this and is and I put it in a form of a professional learning and I share it. When you develop in one of these groups are there direct responsibilities, are there dotted line responsibilities, do they exist in these organizations? Latam To give you an idea, it had 56,000 employees.

[00:29:49] If it is a monster, yes, it is an extremely large corporation.

[00:29:53] And there are responsibilities. They stayed in. From the passing world. There were responsibilities of the cargo world. There were tasks in which a company such as ours fulfilled functions for both the passenger and the cargo world. There were shared responsibilities. That is, it was. It was. Organizations become complex, they become complex. Las. Authorizations, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. In the year 2000. 2015, around the middle of 2015, a very complex administrative situation occurred in Mexico and there is this situation. There is a kind of breach of trust on the part of a group of employees where they are contaminated with this breach of trust. Several of the companies in which, in some way, directly or indirectly, Grupo Ejecutivo de México had in some way, let me call it, some responsibility for it. And this responsibility I am going to speak for what corresponds to me, nothing more than me. I remember that I had an aftermath of audits, forensic audits. All this when a corporation of this size is already active and I had a situation in which, together with my partners and with those responsible for the cargo unit and the passenger unit, and I said hey, I feel very uncomfortable because it might seem that I am judge and jury in this sense and I voluntarily offered to resign from my position. I don’t know if this situation is common or uncommon.

[00:32:10] In my experience, I think it’s not at all common, I think it’s the right decision, but I think few people rationalize it the way you’re looking at it. And at the end of the day I say I don’t know, now you are going to tell us the rest of how your experience went, but I think it is very valuable. I think it’s a type of leadership that you don’t see very often either.

[00:32:31] And not only did I offer that, but I made an offer still that maybe in the eyes of a 1/3 could say well, this, this guy is crazy, right? And I said Look, the best research is when it starts with the head. So why don’t they start by investigating me? And once they conclude what I think they’re going to conclude? Because in that sense, I am confident of my integrity in how I have developed professionally. We can then determine what the next steps are. Ok. But I was no longer associated with the General Management of the company and that particular year, I was totally immersed in how to help, how to investigate, how to correct, how to find out why it happened and how to learn the best lessons so that this multinational organization would not repeat the case administratively speaking. So it was difficult in the personal context, but in the professional context it ended up being very enriching. Enriching in terms of the experience of seeing it from a different angle, seeing it from a non-executive angle, but contributing to a post-mortem issue, to an issue of strengths and weaknesses of the organizations. And I think that in that year was my first real MVP that I had in many of the concepts of the company, of leadership, of people, of administrative, internal and external controls, of the relationship with customers, of the relationship with the different stakeholders and of the conscious part of doing business and with whom business is done, etc. No?

[00:34:58] He sounds like an NBA player. Enough with this and consolidated in a year that has been quite intense from the professional point of view.

[00:35:10] That’s right. And the second choice I took away after doing this. That’s when I left with a need for a process of decompression, of stress. From. From. From. From a refresh. Personal, professional and family. El. The stress this creates was gigantic. Lo. Lo, lo, lo. What you live in that. In this context. I made a very good decision and signed up for the. Al. To the program. Stanford University Update. And this one. This one, this one. This course, which is an intense course of just over three months, if I am not mistaken. How long it lasted in the in some situation. And today for me I recognize that I really needed that personal space, that space, I insist, professional and family space to be able to make a reset and a focus on my priorities, my needs and my next professional stage. At the end of this process I can tell you that one studies like crazy.

[00:36:45] Yes, of course, I imagine.

[00:36:47] It was something that I did not expect to be so intense in terms of hours, experience, and colleagues.

[00:36:56] And it was face-to-face.

[00:36:58] Luis Absolutely face-to-face.

[00:36:59] Being there on campus every day.

[00:37:01] Installed and installed in the executive dorms at Stanford University. A marvel in that sense of the course. Separating from your family at that moment, from your wife, from your children, after having gone through this very, very complex process that I had been going through for almost a year in that sense. And I tell you and find in that a very intense professional part and we began to see concepts that I did not have in my head, as this balance of professional life, personal life, this balance of nutrition, mental wellness, physical wellness and executive wellness. This is part of the social responsibility of companies, of social responsibility, of entrepreneurs and executives. And the fourth angle, which for me was an opener, was the whole subject of the world, of the capital that exists and that is floating around and that if you know how to use it, allows you to undertake from small ideas to small companies, to big ideas and big companies, and to know what angel investments or seed investments were and then Private Equity Funds and then, all that world that for me, in my business world up to that moment had not been required, had not been studied, had not been presented as an option. And I think that I finally came back with much more positive concerns, all of them with which I left and there was a decision that I think did mark a before and after and I wanted to return to what I believed in at that time. After almost 20 years of experience in the world of air transport. I mean, you know, yes I can continue to develop if there is a space for me at that point, but I would like to be a little bit the master of my destiny, rather than continuing to be the executive of that destiny, right? So there I decided to go back and form 111 a work plan, a business plan in which I could make this unit of Mexico that I had. I knew it could be purchased and that was my big one.

[00:40:02] To become independent, not only you but also the company, to make it independent.

[00:40:06] And say. You know if there is the likelihood of doing it, if there is the executive space to do it and I have to I have two little problems, one convince who sees me, who sells me.

[00:40:23] The other.

[00:40:25] And another was to raise the capital to do it, but there were only those two.

[00:40:28] Problems. It’s a good thing you only had two. Convince one multi-national group to let you buy it and the other to get the money.

[00:40:38] That’s right. And so it is that year.

[00:40:40] That because I think it is not only interesting, but I think it is key for you to make this new decision, it is not this part of Stanford that you talk about, it was very valuable, it was very important for you, both personally and professionally as well as for your family. Did you look for it because normally when you are working and with so many pressures, you normally don’t have the time to say hey, I would like to enroll here or was it someone, maybe a mentor, someone who said hey Luis, check out this program, maybe it would help you, do you remember what was your motivation to go for three months at a point in your career, when you were under so much pressure?

[00:41:17] Yes, I mean, I tell you that what I experienced in that year where I separated and where I asked to be audited, I asked to be investigated, not only my name, my family, my involvement in all this mess that was made locally. Someone, someone, a person close to me also commented to me Hey Luis, you are going through a complex moment, a moment in which a counseling, a coaching that can help you, can help you. And I went, I went to A1A1, a great friend who had already assisted me with coaching sessions within the company, with leadership courses, with training courses, effective work courses, with courses that we try to offer to the executives. And this person in some of the sessions said to me Hey, and why don’t you consider this an upgrade? You have the time today, you have this and from there I got the idea. Of course, I started to investigate, I started to do this research on what I could do in terms of my economic conditions to be able to do it, my time conditions to be able to do it, my capacity to be able to let go but at the same time be involved in the company. And in the end I found the program, this program that. That it matched time and form, cost and benefit in a magical way.

[00:43:04] We are not going to put the notes and links of maybe this course and others so that the people who are listening to us can see it. But well, I wanted to ask you the question because sometimes that’s important. You don’t get to a point where accepting help is difficult, you’re not as CEO of a company, you’re in your job, that kind of support from people, advisors, friends, family, that’s good. And I think you took it and it worked out quite well for you.

[00:43:31] Notice, notice that since then and it is something that I have widely said, they say that the loneliest position is the one that lives, the general director, the CEO and or the chairman of a company. You are not obliged to permanently read and interpret your team and see that everyone has the necessary resources, that everyone has the economic resources or the resources to develop a project or a prospect or an idea. But very few people, very few. They understand that if they also had this coaching part, this training part, this constructive brainstorming part with, with, with a mentor and with someone who is, who is doing something similar. And I open a parenthesis. I mean, you know that I am part of this movement called conscious capitalism and one of the things that appealed to me today about conscious capitalism, obviously, is to participate in the Mexico chapter, but when I saw that there was a Leadership Program site on it, I was very excited. Which is not. It’s not that you are looking for business per se with this group, but what you are looking for is experiences. What you are looking for is to exchange experiences. In this sense, I continue to recommend that nowadays CIOs must have this type of support and I wish the board would see them in this sense and almost force them to have these processes of continuous growth, because it is nothing more than continuous growth.

[00:45:34] No, no, definitely redeem this one. The investment obviously has a positive return in terms of time, in terms of health, the more we get in, the healthier it is. The person who is running your company, you would think that pus better decisions he can make, more creativity he can have better employees, he can get. But well, going back a little bit because I got a little bit off topic, but going back a little bit to what you were telling us, this one you come back with two minimal problems convincing them to sell it to you and getting money, but minimal I was sure that’s what you wanted. Was that your next goal in life?

[00:46:16] Yes, and after this course I come with. With new tools of something, with, with, with, with new knowledge of how to do it, how to approach it, how to formulate a good business plan, how to formulate a good story, how to formulate a venture that had this series of characteristics that was one that was saleable and one that was saleable from the aspect that you wanted to buy it and another saleable in the aspect that you needed to raise capital to be able to do it. Well, and so I start this first stage and months later I have the fortune to meet a local consultant who helps me and who had experience to give this initial and prospectus format to be able to present it to friends and strangers. To be able to test Walters Familia Friends with small funds or family funds that are starting to contribute and enrich the project, and at the same time to start having the first discussions with the seller. Hey, I think there is an opportunity here, there is an opportunity for both of us, there is an opportunity for a possible sale, but with hopefully, with a partnership. And that was the first, the first proposal. Partnership in the business sense, of course, to say hey, I can continue to provide. Exactly. There is no reason not to lose the synergies I create from my assessment. They work for you, but I think there are others that slow you down.

[00:48:15] Of course, and I think there are others that you can independently continue to pursue without the need to have this business unit that takes away your focus, that takes away your capital and that can be solved in a simple and easy way. And then comes a, a, a next stage when they open up the possibility of doing it and there comes a positive stream of energy, of saying ok, yes it can be done. Obviously not under these conditions, but under these conditions yes. And I want to tell you that it is not the same to be sold by a private company or a public company, of course. And the complexity that represented that this unit was coming or had something to say. A publicly traded company also taught me a lesson. He taught us a lesson because by this time I had also understood that he was not going to make it on his own. And I start searching not only for a partner. I’m looking for an operating partner that could complement that and I’m looking for equity partners that could, that could do that. And finally, already in 2018 this takes shape. How well this takes shape and takes seriousness to be able to conclude it. And then, like all negotiations that are made, they are not made, today you are about to make it, but you are not about to make it.

[00:49:54] And if I learned anything and this phrase is that it is not so. Nothing is finalized until you have signed it. And that takes a lot of effort. The el. There are people and I think I was one of them. Those of us who learned that you can’t really claim victory until you have it duly signed. But once signed. Once we achieved this partnership with this Mexican partner called Discover and Americas, which is a. Who is a partner that we finally found a common language, they had already been in the aviation world. They had an original venture with this now very successful low cost company in Mexico called Volaris. Then they also had another investment, with what today is the largest land transportation group in Mexico called Grupo Tracción. So what we found there was not only capital, because in a way capital does exist. If the opportunity is good and exists, if the return or promise of return is interesting and if it exists, if the conditions of the partnership are suitable for both parties. And that is another thing to learn, that this is a win-win business, that it depends not only on you, but it depends on the capitalist partner and it also depends on who is selling to you.

[00:51:33] There is no way in my experience with this, there is no way in which the three parties can be one big winner and two big losers does not exist. So win win win I would tell you win, win, win. There are three parties that have to be involved for this to become possible, right? And then once you’re doing that, I tell you the positive current of being able to achieve that is very interesting. Although it starts the machine of no fresh capital coming in until it is signed and all at the same time, which is another learning I had. It is therefore the whole pre-operative of what you think is needed and is going to be done that one has to assume. So, the hiring, the salaries, the systems that you hire, the working capital, well, everything is clear until the fresh capital comes in. And that is why this is another lesson that I share, and to say that you have to be careful about how much this stage measures, how much is your investment capacity, because I imagine that many good ideas can be shipwrecked at this stage.

[00:53:00] Yes, how many projects don’t fall a little short, don’t they? And they can be, as you say, good ideas, with good teams, with good groups. But well, if you don’t have the necessary capital to survive until new capital is injected, there is no way to retain employees or keep operating.

[00:53:18] But when there is already the letter of intent, when there is already.

[00:53:21] They open doors for you.

[00:53:22] They open up and something very interesting happens and in this case it does.

[00:53:28] Was it still in 2018 or was it already skipped.

[00:53:31] 2018.

[00:53:31] 2018, you already had the letter of intent, it was already opened, it was already one in 2018, for practical purposes it was already one more reality.

[00:53:40] In other words, it was a reality that we wanted to do it. We did not know both parties already the selling party and the buying party committed to do it. But these small legal details, small corporate details from a public company to a private company, competition issues, issues of before other issues of. Of all this that you didn’t see it or didn’t have it originally.

[00:54:07] In your country, you have never done it before in your life?

[00:54:09] No, no, it starts, it starts in that, in that context, no? Now la la la la, the good part is that the partner begins to contribute. No, no, no, no, I know.

[00:54:23] Aligns, aligns interests, doesn’t it? Now if everyone, everyone wants it to stop because everyone is already on the same channel, I imagine.

[00:54:31] Correct and. But the main contribution is that it already starts to make a constructive contribution on your business plan, a constructive contribution on the strategic plan that the company must have, a constructive contribution on the strengths and weaknesses of the original plan. And it’s already starting to build something together. And that is to build something together, then. It is an association as such. Of course.

[00:55:00] And that is why you are looking not only for the capital part, but you mentioned Discovery Americas, which obviously has the money and has many successful investments. But do you really want the expertise of the people on that team? Because at the end of the day that is what is adding value to you beyond the money that money could be commodity.

[00:55:22] Indeed, you say so, you make it perfectly clear. And so we succeeded.

[00:55:26] And when, when, when did they officially sign everything?

[00:55:32] No, we could not start in May, because of because of because of because of. Due to these circumstances, new setbacks were occurring. But finally, on the last day of November 31, November 31, 2018, we managed to make the.

[00:55:47] Just in time for the pandemic to hit you.

[00:55:49] Then she was already looking.

[00:55:53] The next challenge. Then, then, immediately after that.

[00:55:56] Well, so all on December 1, December 1, 2018 starts the new plus the new, the new, the new, the new Mauser and it starts, it starts, congratulations. And notice that it starts with one, with an AND condition after so many.

[00:56:18] Years to dimension a little, they had how many airplanes at that time starts with how many.

[00:56:23] We took over the company in December 2018 with the following business unit one there was only one Way Body freighter, 1767 300 freighter with 91 employees with six regular business routes and with a good brand, a recognized branding in the region, in the region of the western part of the United States, the eastern part, in the Latin American part of Miami, we also operate in Colombia, in Ecuador and basically something in Central America, right? And so it starts. In other words, it starts with a frankly small unit, with a budget for 2019 close to 37, 39 million dollars in sales, which is what was intended to be sold in 2019. And that’s what we started with. What do we not start with? And that is also another lesson to have in these processes, when companies depend on a company, a Mother SIP or a Parent Company that provides you with many other things that are not necessarily capital, but you share systems, you share infrastructure, backoffice, etc. The day they are no longer there, it is equivalent to a big umbrella or a big roof being taken away from you. And it must be done. And the truth, things is, you don’t know how naked you are in the world until you’re faced with that, that interesting situation.

[00:58:28] I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you and for all your team, not only exciting to achieve it, but well, to see the progression and we are closing the interview a little bit, but at some point I’m going to ask you and now how are you doing? Because it is impressive what you have been able to do working as a team with a culture like the one you have and with a leadership and support like the one you have, it has been a very good success story, hasn’t it?

[00:58:56] What we did want to do and what I think helped us a lot. And this is a that the setup of objectives that we had done through this we call it the the the the the the the, the five-year strategic plan. I mean, hey, what can we define clearly and in a very understandable way for the whole organization where we want to take the organization to 20, 20, 23 and once we want to already be those targets for growth, for expansion, for commercial footprint, what kind of business we wanted to do and what kind of business we didn’t want to continue doing? It was relatively important for the people we started with to be able to orient ourselves and for the people we were looking for in the market, to attract talent and to be able to invite them to join the project. Saying this is what we want you to do. This is what we want you to contribute.

[01:00:00] You have to know clearly where you are going. If not.

[01:00:02] That’s right. And in that context, it was indeed not difficult. It was not easy to achieve what we have achieved. But at least we knew where we wanted to go. Time pulls you back a little bit, pushes you forward. Difficulties, such as the pandemic issue, difficulties such as lack of systems or lack of funding for something you didn’t think you were going to have. Your whole environment pushes you and moves you to a part that you have to learn to navigate, but without a doubt, at least you have the focus on where you want to go and you have the KPIs in place so that people can get there and be able to do it. So, today we are already days away, we are a few days away from four years of that, from that delivery point and I would say that we are at 80, 82% of compliance with the compliance plan. In fact, this year we are already working on the next plan, which was obviously called 20, 22, 20, 27, and in which you say hey, this worked for me, this did not work for me, I want more of this, this, I want to continue developing this, and without a doubt today, almost surpassing the 450 employees, those who already have today plus us, we are already operators of eight freighter aircraft, not only eight freighter aircraft, but four of them.

[01:01:52] They are of a more modern generation than the ones we started with. We are the only operator in the world to operate the two versions of Airbus aircraft three 30 freighters, the Ray 200 and Ray 300 are aircraft in which we were allowed to operate and we are the only freighter company in Latin America that operates in three continents. We have simultaneous operations in Europe, Asia, the United States and Latin America. We are the only company that has an operation in China today, we fly five times a week from China to Mexico and Latin America and we are the only company with ASSA and FAR 129 certificates. I also tell you in China we are flying with the maximum of operational safety certifications to IOSA. In this context, be it the operational part, the safety part, we have never, never stopped putting it as a priority and as a non-negotiable value. To have it or not to have it is, is, is, is, is a must to do it. So it is.

[01:03:20] A Monex, in other words, by all accounts, is a success story and it is a source of pride to talk to someone like you and your team. Obviously we have to give it all the recognition it deserves because I was told that it is a team effort. A slightly simpler and more personal question, what do you like the most, Luis? Do you have all this machinery on a day-to-day basis? They are growing impressively. That what is what. What do you enjoy? What do you like? What is it that fills your day-to-day energy when you are working, when you stop to work, when you leave the office in the evening.

[01:03:56] I think what makes me, what makes me go to bed with a smile on my face and with the peace of mind that it is being done, is when it manages to break paradigms. There is no no, forget it. Not a Mexican company, how do they plan to operate an aircraft with these difficulties?

[01:04:19] If they can’t.

[01:04:20] They won’t be able to, no hey, sorry. A Latin American company going to China and simultaneously receiving aircraft and operating. These are paradigms that the industry itself has. You don’t hear the difficulty of breaking language barriers, you don’t hear the possibility of negotiating with a Chinese businessman or a European businessman, or a South American businessman. In the end, and in that sense it doesn’t seem commercial, but the logistics and. Transportation. They have a language, a neutral language. There is always someone who needs a means of transportation, who needs communication about it, who needs a delivery commitment, who needs a standard of service. And I think that today, our generation, today, that is an international value that can be offered by A, B or C, and you have to be on time, you have to be on price, you have to be on quality conditions, which are, let me call it universal. And in that sense, whoever is willing to offer them, whoever is willing to match the needs of being able to meet those needs of a customer. Nowadays, the international integrated world offers you these opportunities, offers you this situation. One of the things I also leave with is that when you start to break these paradigms, four years ago, SER was a product of a very successful company, with more than almost a year to go.

[01:06:12] I forgot to mention that Más SER has been in operation for 30 years since its inception in 1992, but in just four years of being able to receive calls from aircraft manufacturers, fuel suppliers, parts suppliers, supply suppliers, logistics people, people. In other words, to say hey, today they are on the international map. Welcome. It took them a long time, but they have plenty of opportunity to make up space. They go very well, they go fast. Take advantage of this, this, this, this fast forward you managed to make. Seize your moment and welcome. In other words, no one has closed the door on us. On the contrary, it has been an invitation to continue growing, to recognize that things are being done well and, undoubtedly, to learn from the mistakes we have made, because we have made many mistakes. We have also learned things along the way that have been costly, that have been difficult. Not everyone and not all teams are efficient work cells, nor has all leadership been positive. And that’s what we’ve been trying to learn, right?

[01:07:34] And between and and I think that’s what makes a company like yours successful, right? The fact that they do not have. Aren’t they afraid of making mistakes? No, obviously. At the end of the day, as long as you learn from them and continue to grow, I think it’s an integral part of what makes a company successful. But Luis, we are running out of time. But it’s my pleasure, if you don’t mind. Once, in another couple of months, in another year, we would love to talk to you again to see how you are doing with that 2022 to 2027 plan. And personally I tell you, I am proud to have Latin American Mexican companies like yours. Congratulations and you have our full support and I hope that the people who are listening to us today are also so excited about the achievements of a Latin American, of a Latin company in the world. Because, as you say, it can be done. No? We are often the only ones who limit our own, our real potential in the international arena.

[01:08:39] Yeah, I, I, I, I know and I feel, I feel in that sense a little bit bad because it seems like this, this, this is a story told by me. And as you started a very personalized interview about my background and what I have done. But the truth of the matter is that the number of people behind this story would be irresponsible, illogical and unfair to say that this is a personal achievement, nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, with great pleasure, with great pride to be at the forefront, but. But this is an enormous collective work and this is a work that without a doubt, without the heart and without the intelligence of the vast majority of those who have been part of this, the bar would not be possible. And that’s another, another topic that I also go away every day. The bar and the requirement to any company, not to the Latin, but, and I think you yourself are a witness to this. The logistics bar is very high, it is very demanding and in that sense there is room to compete. There is, but you have to do it very well and you have to be willing. You are going to make mistakes, but you have to correct them and the commitment not to make them again is absolute. Then I would love to. I accept the invitation at the time you feel it appropriate. I think there may be a curious version in the coming months and years for more to come. And what more pleasure than to share it with you. To you Enrique, I admire you very much and what you have done with your company Vector Logistics has been another story in which, without a doubt, I am proud to share this friendship with you and I hope to be here again very soon, with your channel and with you and your people.

[01:10:50] Luis thank you very much. Is it going to be a pleasure for us to have you here before we say goodbye to the program and the people who were a little bit stung by your interview, how can they connect with you? How can you connect with potential customers, potential agents around the world? Other people who want to know more about you, where can they contact you, where can they contact you?

[01:11:10] All right, well look, that is my email Luis Sierra at plus erp dot com and through my LinkedIn profile. Of course you can. You can address the concern and anything else to the department or to the person who is the appropriate person to resolve it.

[01:11:31] Well, thank you very much again to everyone who listens to us in Supply chain or in Spanish. Again Enrique Álvarez. If you like this kind of conversations, please don’t forget to subscribe and have a nice day. See you later.