Mexico Business :: essays research papers

For simplicity, we have broken down the country of Mexico into five major regions: Northwest (Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Baja California Sur), Northeast (Coahuila, Zacatecas, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas), West Coast (Sinaloa, Jalisco, Nayarit, Guerrerro, Oaxaca, Colima, Michoacan), Central (Morelos, Aguascalientes, Michoacan, Guanajuata, Hidalgo, Estado de Mexico, Puebla, Queretaro, Tlaxcala, The Federal District), and South (Chiapas, Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatan). Each region is diverse in industry; some are more heavily involved in agriculture while others are most involved in high-tech manufacturing. Generally speaking the most important economic activities of all the regions include tourism, fishing, mining, agriculture/livestock, petroleum distilleries, and low/high-tech manufacturing (many maquiladoras exist along the California border). Central Mexico is the most industrialized region and accounts for almost 60% of the country ¡Ã‚ ¦s GNP. It is in this region that large multi-nationals such as Ford Motor Company, Nissan, and Texas Instruments, have chosen to establish major production plants. The implication of a country diverse in industry and culture is that there is a need for a workforce as diverse and skilled as each region ¡Ã‚ ¦s relative industries. This is one of the most challenging issues that confronts the Mexican HR manager today, especially in the turbulence of a new political party and international deregulation. As the rampant modernization continues to spread and business becomes more privatized through new political agendas, major industries such as telecommunications, energy, and manufacturing, will become a major focus of Mexican business. Although still resembling an oligopoly ruled by major players such as Telemex and Iusacell, the market scope of the Mexican telecommunications industry is expanding rapidly with the advent of cellular, satellite, and broadband, technologies. This emerging technology is the portal through which competition is entering. Globalstar de Mexico (a joint venture between Prinicipia of Mexico, S. de R.L., Loral Space & Communications, and Vodafone Airtouch) has already launched an affordable global satellite telephone service that can provide fixed service to remote locations without a fiber or cable network (1). In cellular, American Tower has entered into an agreement with Nuevo Grupo Lusacell to build 200 build-to-suit towers, and assume 400 existing towers (2). In the related networking sector, Nortel has been awarded a contract from Telefonica Data to implement a nationwide ATM network in Mexico that will offer customers basic connectivity, internet access, and hosting services (3). The major players are responding aggressively and taking actions such as those of Carlos Slim Helu (chairman of Telmex) who announced the planned investment of $4.