The Definitive Business Travel Guide - Leon Guanajuato

Every business traveler knows the amount of time and energy dedicated to learning about basic infrastructure and logistics for an international trip. Time and energy that is devoted to non-business activities instead of focusing on the business issues and results you need.

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Wouldn’t it be great to have a guide that gives you the important information you need to get to Leon and start working as soon as you get off the plane?

I have seen and worked with hundreds of first time business visitors to Leon, and this E-book is based upon their questions, comments and advice on how to make a business trip to Leon, Guanajuato easier and more efficient.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY

I wrote ‘The Definitive Business Travel Guide – Leon Guanajuato 2011 Edition”, an insider’s business guide to Leon, with answers to your important questions about; where to stay, how to travel, logistics, food, what business customs make a difference in starting a business relationship, what is the best way to get started working in Leon, Guanajuato.

Special 2010 pre-launch price, USD $ 23.95 until December 31, 2010.

Buy it here

Popular posts from the old site Lee Iwan Accumulated Experience will be updated and migrated, and new material added to the new site at breakneck speed.

By visiting and participating you will get insight and learn about the attitudes, actions and strategies that will increase results and reduce errors with international and Mexican business projects.

Examples:

• How to effectively start a business relationship in Mexico
• How to develop a strategic plan for the Mexican market
• How to develop a realistic business plan – objectives and chronologies
• How to creating trust and confidence from your first meeting
• The “right way” to approach Mexican business people
• How to find the right people in Mexico
• How to integrate the secrets of doing business in Mexico into your activities and communications
• How to avoid the most common mistakes that can sabotage you
• How to construct a solid base of reliable  knowledge and contacts
• How to focus and get results in each stage of business development:  investigation, cultivation, harvest
• How to create a positive image based on actions and deeds
• How to maximize your customer visits, trade fairs and commercial missions
• How to avoid cultural mistakes in Mexico
• How to use the power of patience to guarantee success
• How to use communications to avoid misunderstandings and increase commitment to the business
• How to avoid the stereotypes that will kill the deal
• How to find the decision-makers in Mexico
• How to find the resources and reliable information to make informed decisions
• How to understand the Mexican business environment, how business people think, what they consider important, how they make decisions and why
• How to surround yourself with support service experts to avoid costly start-up errors

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment, idea or your observations on how I might improve the site and information.

Lee

Website – Lee Iwan.com

Bet it wasn’t easy.

Did you think about all the different scenarios that might happen in 2010, and incorporate those variables into several budgets, or was your final product one single annual budget?

I am not a fan of annual budgets unless they are tied into Scenario Planning.

I believe that they are a necessary exercise that helps in anticipating what revenue and resources a company might require in the coming year.  But I truly dislike those who compare real results with a static budget created 6 months or a year prior.

Businesses cannot perform  “as planned” in rapidly changing environments.  Budgets can serve as guides for spending and investment if properly assembled, taking into account internal and external factors of influence.

I am almost sure your budget made in October or November needs to be redone (if you want it to reflect real results) in order to reflect the massive changes that have already occurred in the economy and business environment.

In chaotic times, when uncertainty is the only sure thing, the traditional budget process can be a waste of time for the people making them, and for those “using” them if scenario planning is not taking place.

When the environment is subject to so many significant changes that will affect our suppliers, costs, customers consumption, international competition, etc., it is wiser to make several budget scenarios.

These scenarios will contemplate and plan for possible (or impossible) significant changes in the business environment, and help the organization to quickly take advantage of the situation when and if they occur.

What if oil prices plummet, or skyrocket?

What if inflation takes off, or recession gets worse?

What if there is a massive terrorist attack?

What if there is an economic collapse in Asia?

What if our number one supplier closes their doors?

What if the automobile and construction industries fall deeper into a slump?

What if the USA puts huge import duties on imported products?

It’s not about guessing what will happen (traditional budget).

It’s all about preparing to what MIGHT happen (budget scenarios).

How many scenarios should a company create?   As many as possible in order to analyze the strategic impact on the entire supply chain, cost structure and customers buying patterns.  It’s having a battle plan A, B, C, and D.

This budget scenario exercise is an ongoing process that involves risk assessment, prediction of economic consequences to potential or real events, and should involve the entire management team.  Depending on the actual environment and conditions this assessment might take place several times a year.

The identification of risk areas that will have significant effect on revenue or costs,  and the  acceptance that things will continue to change, will enable your organization to thrive and survive during turbulent times.

Links

How to do Scenario Planning

Scenario Planning

The Secret of Successful Scenario Planning

Experience has also taught me that anyone actively promoting how “free” something is has a very special and usually monetary goal…to get me to buy something later.

If it is free, if you are giving it away with “no strings attached”, why are you promoting it and telling me?

If you are such a wonderful samaritan and altruistic person or organization, then why insist that I understand it is free?

Giving something away?  Just put it out there, let me pick it up, use it, read it, learn from it, watch it, or whatever…and then let me walk away without chasing after me trying to sign me up or charge me for something else, or looking for me to pat you on the back.

Part of the delight of finding something “free” is that it not overly promoted as being free, it’s a surprise, a delight.

If you are going to give something away, just do it, don’t make a spectacle out of your “good will” and “good intentions”….let others do that for you.

If you answered “no”, think about what message and attitude you are sending to your clients, co-workers and business network.

If you answered “yes”, think about how this makes you different and unique to your customers, clients, contacts and relationships.

Don’t blame the boss.

Don’t blame your co workers.

Don’t blame the customer.

It’s all about our ability or inability to convince them.

It’s all about sales.

Our ability to “sell” the proposal, to “sell” our achievements, to “sell” our value,  to “sell our enthusiasm”, to “sell” our ideas.

If we find ourselves blaming others, it is time to change your plan, change your arguments, attitudes or presentation.

It’s our responsibility, not theirs.

Find a way to convince your audience, co workers, boss or clients, to make them enthusiastic or to understand.

If the customer wants red, and you want to sell blue, find the way to convince them that blue really IS better.

Or find those customers who want and need blue.

Or change what you are doing and sell red.

It’s not about the others inability to understand.

Stop making it their fault.

It’s all about our ability to provide the information, arguments and ideas that allow them to understand.

Stop pointing fingers and assigning blame.

It’s all about us.

“It won’t work”.

“Completely wrong”.

“They don’t understand the problem, this is crazy”.

Ï’m not going to waste my time on this, it’s stupid”.

They might be right.  It might be stupid, crazy, it won’t work…but it is never a waste of time.

Change, applying new and disruptive methods to operations and problem solving, is always a gamble, and always generates resistance, and many times will not solve the problem.

People say they want change, but only change that has no cost or discomfort associated with it.

Changes will always..always.. always…stimulate new ideas, and get people talking, and more importantly thinking about the problem, the solutions or the process.

This new dialogue, about what is the real problem, about what is a better solution, is what we are after.

Creating and implementing new ideas, creating chaos in some cases, forces people to move out of a “comfort” zone.

Don’t be afraid to hear “it won’t work”, that may be exactly what the team needs to respond.

Your reply should be “OK, what is a better solution?”  Do not focus on defending the idea, get the conversation going how best to solve the problem, or define the problem.

Give yourself permission to forget the past

Give yourself the chance to start over

Throw out the grudges and anger held inside

Forgiveness is not for others, it is for you

It is an internal process of acceptance and renewal, you need to forgive in order to grow

Give yourself the chance to start over this new year, wipe the slate clean

Living for the future is much more interesting than being chained to the past

My very best

wishes for a new year

filled with health,

prosperity and

happiness

Great success with your challenges and new projects

How can I help?

September 25 – 28, 2008

Poliforum Convention Center

Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico

promotion.sapica@cofoce.gob.mx

COFOCE, the World Trade Commission of Guanajuato, would like to invite you to attend the SAPICA Spring/Summer shoe fair in Leon, Guanajuato Mexico on September 25-28, 2008.

COFOCE is offering free individualized introduction and agenda services to qualified foreign buyers and visitors attending SAPICA 2008 in order to increase their chances of doing business during the fair.

COFOCE’S international trade experts will assist you in: making an agenda and appointments during the fair, translation (if required), pre-screening contacts and will provide detailed information about doing business with the Mexican footwear industry.

COFOCE will save your business time and money by allowing you to focus and negotiate with pre-screened Mexican footware manufacturers during SAPICA 2008 that can meet your needs and requirements.

If you are selling, investigating and sourcing men’s, women’s, children’s, or western footwear, or seeking manufacturers or contract manufacturing for your brand or designs, SAPICA 2008 is one event that should not be missed.

Take advantage of this special offer from COFOCE and SAPICA to find suppliers and partners in Mexico in order to maximize profits in 2009.

Contact Lee Iwan at promotion.sapica@cofoce.gob.mx for more detailed information.

What is SAPICA? SAPICA is the most important shoe fair in Latin America, drawing international buyers from the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, and throughout Central and South America. The September edition will be featuring the Spring-Summer fashion for 2009.

How big is SAPICA? Last year’s fair drew over 850 exhibitors, +12,000 buyers and +35,000 visitors under one roof at the 484,000 sq. ft. modern Poliforum exhibition center in Leon.

Who should attend SAPICA? Footwear buyers and executives, purchasing agents, distributors, brand managers, agents, representatives, designers and anyone involved in the international footwear industry.

Why attend SAPICA? Mexico offers excellent competitive advantages including: Excellent logistics to the North American markets, quality components, current technology, know how, strong legal system and trademark protection, Free Trade agreements with 42 countries including USA, Canada, the European Union, Japan, and Israel among others.

How to get to SAPICA? Leon is located in the geographic center of Mexico and is served by American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Mexicana, Aeromexico, Click, and Aviacsa. There are numerous direct daily flights to Leon (BJX) from Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Tijuana and Mexico City.

Where to stay during SAPICA? Leon offers numerous hotels with close proximity to the Poliforum Convention center including: Fiesta Americana, Holiday Inns, Real de Minas, La Estancia, Fiesta Inn, Mexico Inns, NE Hotel, Howard Johnson, Radisson, Enterprise Inn and many more.

When is SAPICA? SAPICA 2008 will be held September 25, 26, 27 and 28, 2008. Show is open to visitors and buyers on Thursday to Saturday from 9:00 AM until 8:00 PM, and Sunday from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM.

How can I register for SAPICA? Contact Lee Iwan at promotion.sapica@cofoce.gob.mx for more detailed information on how COFOCE can organize your visit.

Links of Interest

Mexican Footwear – How to Find Competitive Footwear Suppliers in Mexico

COFOCE – http://www.cofoce.gob.mx

SAPICA – http://www.sapica.com

Hotels in Leon, Guanajuato – http://www.squidoo.com/leonhotels

How to do business in Mexico – http://businesssob.blogspot.com

Promexico, Buy in Mexico – http://www.buyinmexico.com.mx

Promexico, Invest in Mexico – http://www.investinmexico.com.mx

Are individual companies dedicating resources for the education of their work force in order to insure future success?

There are a multitude of options available to the employer and employee in order to increase knowledge;  graduate degree programs, continuing education courses, specific industry training, seminars, conferences, short courses, books, magazines, blogs, the Internet, mentoring and travel.

How many formal or informal programs are in place at your workplace for employees to increase their knowledge?

Formal programs might include subsidies, grants, loans or co-participation in the employees education costs.  They might be specific courses run by consultants or experts, focused on improving specific skills.

Formal programs also include the participation in seminars, workshops, short-courses and other short term events.  They provide opportunities for networking, information, motivation and even a “breath of fresh air” from day to day operations.

How much money and time are set aside in your business for these education events yearly?   Why?

Who determines which events are important, and is there an evaluation as to which events provided valuable material and concrete results to the company?

Mentoring programs also provide opportunities to pass on knowledge, explore and share ideas in a “non hostile environment” and create valuable internal networks.
Informal programs for learning would include providing books or magazine subscriptions to industry press,  monitoring of industry blogs and the Internet for news and trends, attendance at trade shows and business travel.  These provide opportunities to receive new information, create dialogue, learn about trends and tendencies that are or will influence the business.

After any “educational” event, is there a formal feedback program that asks the employee “how can we implement this in our company” Link?   There is room for improvement here.

Will the continuing education of their workforce result in a more competitive future for the company, or will business always be able to “purchase” top talent in the marketplace without having to invest in education?

Related LinksSerendipity as part of business development

Maximize the impact of business conferences, seminars and special events in your organization

The future of our entry level workforce, gloomy

Our future depends on education

Massive investment in education as a tool to increase their advantage in the world economy.

The trend is on supporting education, and countries are lining up and investing in education to insure they are poised to take advantage of the future.

Read this excerpt from Value Driven by Geoff Colvin in FORTUNE.

“We’ve known for a long time that this day was coming, and now it’s here: Countries are finally realizing that their future prosperity depends not on natural resources or even on financial capital, but on human capital. Companies have been battling for years to attract and keep the best people. Now countries are engaging in the same fight”

Read the entire article here: The battle for brainpower.

For years the USA, Europe and Japan had the money, universities and jobs that attracted talent, and paid for it.

These countries are filled with national and imported global talent, and the benefits can be measured in dollars and cents, Gross National Product, number of patents, and technological leadership.

Things are changing.

What happens when this imported talent stays home?

The ability to attract or retain top talent in a country will result in more patents, more and better processes and products.

The overall increase in education in a country plus the import of talented people, will provide huge economic benefits to a country.

Future economic growth, it’s not about cheap labor anymore.

It’s difficult, time consuming, requires more resources than selling in the national market, it’s complicated, frustrating, complex and incomprehensible at times.

It opens my eyes to new cultures, new ways of doing things, new languages and amazing people.

It has made me realize that there are many paths to a solution, and all of them are valid.

It is a highly competitive arena.

There are no second chances.

The people in the business of selling or buying products or services across borders live with this on a daily basis.

We like it.

It drives us crazy too.

It’s the same mentality that drives people to do crossword puzzles, go rock climbing, or take on huge tasks.

It’s about the challenge, the complexity, the rush of adrenaline when it all goes well and we succeed.

I realized how different I am from others, in my desire to be involved in global trade, during a conversation between three friends.  Two of us are involved in international commerce and the third lives in the local national market.

We stumbled on an idea that involves the consolidation of various local products (overstock and outdated inventory) and selling it via an auction process to international buyers.  It was a response to a very costly and real problem  that our friend lives with daily.  As we discussed it, our blood pressure rose, our hearts quickened, we got excited.

“Sounds like a lot a work, forget it, exporting is too much trouble” was the reply of our third friend.

I’ve heard the same comment many times before.

I watched the potential solution wither and die before us.

My friend is ready to live with a problem and loss of  income because he didn’t want to work harder.

He didn’t even consider hiring others, using specialized outsourcing, to work for him.

“It’s a lot of hard work.”

Of course it is.

Planning on exporting, importing or working internationally?

Find people who are genuinely interested,excited and turned on by the challenge.

The ability to embrace adversity, problems, and constant change as part of the daily working environment is key to working across borders and cultures.

Related Links

Looking for New?  It’s in another country

16 essential questions, the international business traveler’s quiz 

7 tips for doing business internationally   

One should always keep in mind the impact of the “Big Important Things” (BITs) on the supply chain, customers, the competition and your industry.

Those involved in strategy and planning must understand how BITs create enormous risks and opportunities.

One can only react to BITs, they cannot be created or eliminated by an organization.

BITs would include, but not be limited to:

• Natural and man made disasters – hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, explosions, flooding.
• Massive economic changes – depression, recession, inflation, currency devaluation, massive layoffs
• War and Terrorism – security measures, logistics, international trade limitations
• Government policies – trade barriers, laws and regulations, economic sanctions, embargoes
• New technologies, – trends and tendencies inside and outside of the industry
• Environmental or health issues – contamination, unsafe products, epidemics
• Legal issues – pending or current lawsuits, documentation and reporting, legal precedents
• Significant global changes in demand or supply – shortages, increased demand
• Energy costs – trends and tendencies

Contingency plans should be created, worst-case and best-case scenarios developed, and efforts made to lower the risk profile or strategically position the company to take advantage of possible changes in the business environment.

How to use BITs to identify areas of risk and opportunity 

1. Analyze each of the following elements independently;  strategic raw materials, suppliers, logistics, major customers, the competition, your company, and finally your industry (local, national and internationally).
2. What is the probability that a BIT would affect each element (impossible, low, medium, high, inevitable) and when (short-medium-long term)?  “My supplier is the only manufacturer in North America of the widgets we need, they are located on the western Florida coast and annually are affected to some degree my hurricanes and flooding.  There is a high probability that a major hurricane will hit them in the short to medium term.”
3. Use a “what if” line of questioning for those high risk or high impact areas.  “What if a major hurricane hit my supplier and disrupted their production?
4. What are possible scenarios to reduce your risk, or take advantage of the opportunity.  “Do I have alternative suppliers in place, extra inventory, insurance, how can I protect my customers, who else will this affect and how?
5. Review this process at least twice a year to take into account changes in the probability of the BITs and modify the contingency plans or strategies accordingly.

Related Links

Analyze and Plan Using 7 Simple Questions

How to Systematically Analyze Any Situation for Better Decision Making

9 Steps to Better Decisions

From this comment by Mr. Burke I believe the apparel and footwear industries are in the midst of an important struggle, to move away from their current status of a commodity business.

The winners will be those with strong design, distinct brand, and smart developed distribution systems. The same can be said for almost any current industry.

Too many retailers and points of sale? I doubt it. What I interpret from this comment is that there is intense competition between retailers, and instead of seeking exclusivity or innovation to attract and maintain customers, they are using the oldest,simplest trick known….lowering product prices and with it, the quality of the shopping experience.

It is a classic example of commoditization.

Manufacturers are also to blame. The rush to sell their product to high volume buyers insures loss of control of the marketing and retail channels.

The rush to sell everywhere, to everyone, at the same time allows and promotes price competition and price wars between the various manufacturers and retailers.

Too few customers? The real problem is overproduction. Current manufacturing focuses on high volume production and this encourages the standardization of product. The desire to reduce fixed costs drives manufacturers to seek out cheap world labor, increase productivity through mechanization (which encourages product standardization) and the outcome is a mountain of finished products, created all over the world, that are indistinguishable from one another.

Commodities. Most apparel and footwear companies focus on low cost, high volume manufacturing, they sell to wholesalers or retailers that also focus on volume. So suddenly branded products can be found in department stores, boutiques, grocery stores, flea markets and the Internet. The product is everywhere, consumers have learned that one should just look for it where the price is lowest.

This also makes it easier to pirate and sell a product to a growing network of sales outlets focused on offering a brand name for less.

No brand or retail loyalty?
If there is no customer loyalty (read as no perceived advantage to shopping with you versus the competition), and loyalty is important for continued growth, profit and success, then it’s time for a serious reevaluation of how one is doing business.

How can one stand out from the crowd, do something different and unique, and create a sense of exclusivity and prestige for the consumer?

This is the future.

Related Links

The easy way

10 top reasons for poor customer service and their solutions

Give this away

Are you listening to what the customer needs?