The Business Year Special Report
Ricardo Márquez Flores President, Sociedad Nacional de Industrias (SNI)
A champion of industry, SNI has helped the sector through challenging times and the shutdown of the economy. Now, it is focusing on providing alternatives and maintaining a level playing field.
How did you reorganize yourself internally in order to maintain your operations, workflow, and effectiveness over 2020 and early 2021?
Our relationship with our partners has become more fluid because we implemented new ways to communicate with them every day in terms of their problems. For example, the brewery in the beer business could not stop for more than 15 days because otherwise the beer would have to be thrown away. I had to talk to the ministries and others to make them understand there were some processes that could not be stopped. We have been trying to solve specific problems of different types of industries such as the brewery, chemicals, and ceramic industries.
What have been the key lessons learned this year?
We had to respond in terms of a mechanism to deal with day-to-day pressures. We no longer have those problems because those were only because of the closure of the economy. Our partners need a great deal of communication in terms of how politics affects companies. Everyone is now more prepared and thinks about the effects of politics on industry. Before, we did not have much concern on this matter and used to get together twice a month; however, today we get together four times a month and also have crisis meetings.
In what ways will your organization grow and develop in the coming years?
We have 3 million small businesses in this country, but no one represented them because they were all divided; now, they are all under a common platform. In the last two years, we have worked with them, and if they want a meeting with the president, prime minister, or minister of economy, we can arrange that. Our institution has the representation of thousands of small businesses, and politically we have got the people. We tried to develop a sector to create jobs because if we help a sector grow, it means that many jobs will be taken. This is what is happening in Peru, and this is our dream and is what I am working toward.
What strategies do you have in place to improve the situation in the short to medium term?
First, we have to control the pandemic because everyone is afraid, and the priority is mitigation. We have to control the country in terms of the uprisings taking place all over Latin America. We have to negotiate with sectors of our society to control this. We have a good president who has been a scholar all his life, and he takes decisions that I agree with.
How has your organization grown in recent years?
Right now, at our institution, we specialize in energy, transportation, education, and productivity. Over the last two years, we have had people who specialized in labor but are also businessmen. For the last two years, we can talk about the exportation of agribusiness, though we are not the institution that is dedicated to this. What we have learned is that we can give an alternative; we are now known as the institution that gives alternatives, and this is extremely important. We also work with companies that are specialized, such as IBM, which is our partner, as well as other huge B2B and B2C businesses in Peru. This is something that we are extremely proud of. Before, Peru did not have an institution to control smuggling, contraband, the undervaluation of imported products, or the low prices of imports from China and other Asian countries.
Are you satisfied with the overall direction and trajectory of SNI?
Yes; personally, I have been able to provide alternatives in terms of the products that we need to protect our society here. Peruvian society as a whole has faced the challenge of the pandemic and wants to resolve it.