Peak Performance Blog

 The complexity of any organization’s operating model is heavily influenced by the environment in which it conducts business.

Latin America presents a plethora of opportunities for Multinationals, from market development on a region with an aggregate GDP in excess of five trillion USD, to manufacturing, to supply chain management, to back office operations in a lower cost environment; but it is not free of challenges. It is one of the most complex regions in the world to do business in. Take taxes for example. According to a recent survey by Doing Business  from the World Bank, it takes on average 478 hours a year to prepare tax returns in Latin America versus 177 in the high income countries and 186 in the U.S.

Execution has enjoyed an impressive reputation in the last few years under the banner that any strategy is worthless if not executed.  While this assertion is tautologically undeniable, it is also true that executing a flawed strategy can have unappealing consequences. New Coke or the Betamax video format come to mind.

 Benchmarking is a good tool to understand what other organizations are doing, but it needs to be taken with a grain--or rather a pinch--of salt.