By: Brenda Ruíz López - Storyteller @ T-HUB
Photos provided by: Ricardo Gutierrez - Anarama contenidos
The new cohort of The Bridge Accelerator, binational supplier development program, successfully inaugurated their Fall 2021 program today August 31st at their kickoff ceremony.
Ricardo Mora, Technology HUB’s co-founder and CEO, addressed the invitees with the opening remarks welcoming all the companies that have decided to professionalize and optimize their operations by joining The Bridge.
Alan Russel, TECMA co-founder, chairman, and regional community leader, joined us as keynote speaker. He shared with us invaluable advice and insight on why supplier companies of the Paso del Norte region are in the perfect position and timing to solve the current struggles of industrial and manufacturing demands of North America with his conference “Seize the moment: Opportunity created in a crisis”
Ricardo Gutierrez - Anarama contenidos
Alan started off speaking about a few of the crises that have created opportunity within the Paso del Norte region. He mentioned logistics are crucial for companies and a single factor is capable of changing the entire panorama. He explained how the rise in the price of oil made it more expensive for ships and trucks to move supplies. Afterwards, the increase in wages in China made it difficult for US companies to obtain a great benefit from manufacturing their supplies overseas. To make matters more difficult, tariffs were imposed on imports from China making it even less desirable to have suppliers overseas. Rising wages and labor shortages in the US also have American companies reluctant to place their manufacturing operations inside their US. However, what Alan says really forced executive directors to start looking for alternative suppliers within North America was the pandemic. All major manufacturing countries brought their operations to a halt, ports closed, trucking companies and commercial and trading operations slowed down. The uncertainty brought on by globalization made execs step back and look for the “regionalization” of their supply.
The Paso del Norte region is in the perfect geographical location for manufacturing companies to be able to distribute supplies to any part of North America. Alan says it’s time for entrepreneurs to step forward and seize the opportunities created by the crisis.
Ricardo Gutierrez - Anarama contenidos
Alan gave advice to companies participating in The Bridge to focus, aside from producing quality goods since it should be a given, on giving a great image inside and out since it’s important to obtain clients attention and trust. Mr. Russel also recommends either learning English or hiring an english-speaking workforce to appeal to the American clients and the rest of the business world.
The Bridge Accelerator is a highly specialized program in generating business connections and preparing companies so that they can expand their participation as suppliers to large industrial corporations and become a larger part of the multi-billion dollar supply chain of our region.
“Chaos creates opportunity, there is a lot of opportunity,” said Alan “we just have to seize it”.
Ricardo Gutierrez - Anarama contenidos
To finalize, Laura Butler, director of Pioneers 21, presented the companies that will participate in the Fall 2021 program and have the opportunity to step up and reach higher levels.
Click here to see the full kick-off ceremony on Facebook
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