1. How did CEMEX fundamentally change the way it conducted its business?

 

-       The company’s strategy emphasized improving profitability through efficient operations. The company also shifted from selling products to selling complete solutions.

 

 

2. How does information systems contribute to CEMEX' competitive advantage?

 

-       Information systems contributes to CEMEX through continued innovation, high level of commitment to customer service and satisfaction, proven post-merger integration expertise, digital evolution (efficient production, distribution and delivery processes through sophisticated information systems), and the ability to identify high growth market opportunities in developing economics

 

 

3. What is social capital? How does CEMEX build social capital?

 

-       Social Capital refers to the connections within and between social networks as well as connections among individual people.

-       CEMEX built a social capital through launching an innovative experiment called Patrimonio Hoy. This experiment enables less fortunate people purchase building materials, improve their home, and pay for services.

 

 

4. How is the low-income savings characteristics of Mexican society characterized?

 

-       Low-income families in Mexico adopted a different kind of saving method. They form together and start ‘Tandas’ or ‘Pools’ that of which helps them receive paychecks and if they have money left to save. Once a week they implement a lottery or determines who really needs it the most to know who will get the pool.

 

 

5. How are the enterpreneurial characteristics of the women in Mexican society tied to the CEMEX BOP strategy?

 

-       Women are the key drivers of savings in families. In Mexican society, women are very entrepreneurial in nature, and they very actively participate in the tanda system. As the researcher Patrimonio Hoy, he showed or revealed that 70% of those women who were saving were saving money in the tanda system to create homes for their families.

 

 

 

 

6. What did the CEMEX initial market research in Guadalajara discover?

 

-       The social/economic profile of low-income communities was very representative of most the populated areas in Mexico.

-       CEMEX was gradually losing its stronghold in second-largest city in Mexico.

-       The construction methods in Guadalajara were different from that of other places.

 

 

7. What is the role of socios in the Patrimonio Hoy system? How important are they in the making the system successful?

 

-       The socios get together and form groups, restricted to three (3) people. It enforces CEMEX to implement payment discipline in small groups.

 

 

8. Why do you think it was important fo CEMEX to position itself as a complete solutions provider vs. just another product provider?

 

-       It is important because offering complete and comprehensive solution for housing has made it difficult for consumers to let go of the opportunity. It has also fundamentally changed the consumer behavior even at a small scale.

 

 

9. How is the social capital of Patrimonio Hoy promoters related to economic capital?

 

-       They do it for a social cause to build social capital which is very important for people with little economic capital and it also earns money. Patrimonio Hoy rewards their efforts on a commission basis.

 

 

10. What, in brief, is the value of Patrimonio Hoy to a) it's promoter b) its socios & partners c) its suppliers and d) its distributors?

 

-       a) Promoters do it for a social cause to build social capital and it also earns money

-       b) Socios/Partners are offered a lot of propositions that will render their house making problems disappear.

-       c) Suppliers generate a steady demand for materials. Creating a consistent revenue stream and ensuring zero-risk collection of money.

-       d) Distributor effectively obtained a ‘push-pull’ strategy for cement sales compared to only drops to 12%.

 

 

11. What is patrimonio? Why is this important for the marketing efforts for the Patrimonio Hoy system?

 

-       Patrimonio is Savings/Property Today. It enables less fortunate people to pay for services and building materials and upgrade their home which increases customers by being on the bottom of the pyramid.

 

 

12. How can Patrimonio Hoy offer a slightly higher price than its competitors and maintain a competitive edge?

 

-       They can offer higher prices than competitors with the help of social capital. Social capital gives CEMEX the trust and strong relationships with their customers. Having this trust and belief, people have the idea that CEMEX is trustworthy.

 

 

13. How does the concept of freezing prices encourage socios to do more business for Patrimonio Hoy?

 

-       It ensures a consistent and steady source of revenue in the pipeline for Patrimonio Hoy and the distributors. The predictability of revenue has huge implications across the value chain from the suppliers to the end-customers.

 

 

14. Intuitively, doing with business with a low income group would be riskier than traditional lending models but it is profitable for Patrimonio Hoy. Why?

 

-       Patrimonio Hoy made use of social capital which helped them work with low income group properly. The trust that exist between the two are strong because both of which have something in need from the other.

 

 

15. What is the role of peer/community pressure in the Patrimonio Hoy lending model?

 

-       Socios as a whole will pay a late fee of an additional 50% per late socio for some cases on the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16. How has Patrimonio Hoy changed the consumer behavior in Mexico?

 

-       It has changed the consumer behavior because of the savings and properties that people can achieve from CEMEX.

 

 

17. What are the challengs of the Patrimonio Hoy program?

 

-       Customer retention is a huge problem because of virtue of the nature of the business.

-       Retaining those customers for a longer period of time and motivate them to return for additional rooms or other expansions.

 

 

18. What does Construmex take advantage of the existing remittance market between U.S.A and Mexico?

 

-       Construmex channels a large share of the remittance flows to CEMEX. It is not a profit center and has little revenues.

 

 

19. CEMEX Philippines is exploring the possibility of replicating the Patrimonio Hoy system in the Philippines. What are the parallels between the Mexican and the Philippine market?

 

-       Philippine Society is also a developing country which also possesses certain characteristics specific to that society.

-       Philippine Society also has majority of its community to have low-income families.

 

 

20. As an IT practitioner looking at the Construmex business model, what IT-driven systems can you propose to make CEMEX more competitive? (name 10-15)

 

-       1) SMS Retailing

-       2) SMS Support

-       3) eCommerce

-       4) Money Remittance

-       5) Inventory System

-       6) Procurement System

-       7) Payment System

-       8) Online support

-       9) Mobile Transaction

-       10) Accounting System

11) Payment System