Bodega Aurrera, serving the base of the pyramid and Walmart’s main Mexican format, is considering launching a full eCommerce channel as Covid-19 has erupted in the country. In 2019, Bodega Aurrera accounted for 45% of revenues and 2,748 of Walmex’s 3,416 stores. Having introduced eCommerce with the high-income segments served by its Walmart and Superama formats, Walmart Mexico (Walmex) had slated an online channel for Bodega Aurrera in the next three or four years, considering that its core clients belonged to the C and D socioeconomic segments. However, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, retail store sales plummeted and analysts around the world began to note that sales on digital channels were surging. In late April 2020, Lilia Jaime, the CEO of Bodega Aurrera, wondered if this was an opportunity she had to seize. If so, she had to act right away, ahead of her competition. Yet, normally, the established procedure to introduce a full online channel involved the Walmart Bentonville, AR headquarters at both business and Information Technology (IT) levels, and it would take several months. The only way to launch quickly, the experienced Walmex eCommerce team told her, was by bringing in an outside firm with an eCommerce framework already in place and mounting Bodega Aurrera on top of it. To their knowledge, this had never been done at Walmart before. Also, she would have to carve the initiative out of her own approved budgets, at the expense of projects she already considered a priority. But were the families at the base of the pyramid ready to place grocery orders online and trust paying through digital channels? And if Lilia went ahead and it didn’t work, she would risk inflicting serious damage to one of Mexico’s most beloved brands.
In 2020, the Chilean government wants to promote green hydrogen, a technology with high potential to help mitigate climate change. President Sebastián Piñera, aware of the country's advantages to produce green hydrogen competitively, asks Energy Minister Juan Carlos Jobet to elaborate a mission-oriented strategy to promote the technology. The strategy was to match the government’s center-right orientation and the country’s political and economic trajectory. Chile was often praised for its strong macroeconomic fundamentals and a sound policy framework. However, the country was facing social and economic disruptions given the Covid-19 pandemic, which added pressure to an already difficult political backdrop. Chile still struggled with unprecedented political uncertainty after social unrest in 2019 led to a wave of protests that forced the government to agree to a constitutional reform and greater social spending.
MAYA Capital co-founders Lara Lemann and Monica Saggioro raised $41.5 million through a series of closings for their early-stage Latin American venture capital fund. The two women had met for the first time in mid-2016 when Lemann was contemplating scaling her angel investing experience by structuring a fund, and Saggioro was about to start her MBA program at Harvard Business School. After founding MAYA in 2018, the pair built an investment portfolio in sector-agnostic investments across the region, providing startup founders with an on-demand, hands-on management support approach. MAYA also initiated a series of creative efforts to help develop its venture ecosystem and to source opportunities. By 2021, Lemann and Saggioro had invested approximately $21 million in 28 companies, with several completing subsequent follow-on rounds of financing to support their growth. By then, Latin America´s VC market size had more than doubled since MAYA´s inception, with escalating competition among local players. Lemann and Saggioro faced several important decisions: When should they raise another fund? How large should the next fund be? Should they alter their investment strategy? And as MAYA expanded its portfolio, would they be able to sustain their hands-on management support strategy?
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Maria Fernanda Miguel is the Christopher P. Torto Executive Director for the Latin America Research Center (LARC). Her responsibilities include leading research activities for the LATAM region, and providing programmatic support to different areas of HBS including admissions, executive education, and immersion programs. Fernanda is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Prior to joining Harvard Business School, Fernanda was a Senior Director and Leader for LATAM Business Development at Merck and senior consultant at McKinsey & Co., serving as global Practice Manager for the Business Technology Office Health Care Practice.
She holds a degree in economics from the Argentine Catholic University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Master of Research from University of Bath.
Fernanda has been very active in non-profit activities, including fund rising at the Fundación Acción Hemato-oncologica – Argentine National Academy of Medicine, and acting as advisor to the Board of Directors of the Hospital Garrahan.