1 Cemex change the way they conduct business by shifting from selling raw materials/individual products to complete solutions. From there, they earn more profit.

 

2 The information System that they acquired in their company really makes a big advantage from their competitors. They set up an excellent distribution infrastructure and centralized Computerized delivery network where every movement of the truck is monitored real time. It really helps their operations to be faster, convenient, and good quality service. 

 

3 Social capital describes the pattern and intensity of networks among people and the shared values which arise from those networks. While definitions of social capital vary, the main aspects are citizenship, neighborliness, trust and shared values, community involvement, volunteering, social networks and civic participation. (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/socialcapital/)

They build social capital by helping and supporting the poor people of Mexico.

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

Low-income families in Mexico follow a different savings method from that of middle- and upper-income families. Because low-income families don’t receive regular pay checks and don’t receive any government subsidies or grants, they don’t have access to banks and credit. Within a community, neighbors, families, and friends get together and form tandas or pools. The members of the tanda pool in money as and when they receive paychecks and if they have any money left to save.

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?

CEMEX discovered that financial problem is the most difficult to overcome, methods of Guadalajara were different from that of other places. Unless the poor obtain access to credit, it would be difficult to sell the idea of constructing a complete house in the near future.

 

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

Socios are the actual customers who enroll in Patrimonio Hoy. Socios are the one who will build the trust with the people. The Socios get together and form a group, restricted to three people. The reason for such a small group size is that it is easier to enforce payment discipline in a smaller group, and the group tends to form stronger relationships to help each other out during emergency.

 

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

It is important for CEMEX to position itself as a complete solutions provider vs. just another product provider because this package of product of CEMEX can give them higher revenue and customers also CEMEX can satisfy more their customers by giving the complete solutions. Customers will also prefer their products more than other competitors.

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

The prices of CEMEX like the raw materials are frozen throughout the payment period regardless of whatever happens to the economy.

 

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 to earn money by making a living out of it.

b) Patrimonio Hoy helps the poor build homes that might have been a distant dream otherwise. By offering such value-added services, Patrimonio Hoy has been successful in earning the trust of the socios.

c. When the program originally started only one-tenth of the distributors qualified under the rigorous selection process.

d. Distributors operated on 15% average margin from the sale of building materials.

 

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

The word Patrimonio is a Spanish word that means “an inheritance or legacy”.  Patrimonio Hoy program tries to convey the message by motivating the public to “save today”.

 

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

The Patrimonio offers higher price because it gives the same value like other same products. To ensure that the materials, including cement, are reasonably priced, Patrimonio Hoy conducts a market study that publishes prices of competitors and calculates an average price for each calendar month.

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

  It became helpful and can attract more socios. They have concerns that they might encounter in the future and the money they might use wasn’t enough to do such project.

 

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? *

This low income group as market is a risk, but the number of this low income group is high. It’s more profitable because their number can produce a lot of profit. It’s like the BOP.

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

When a group of 3 socios walks into a cell and completes an application, the only commitment they are expected to make is the regular payment of 360 pesos per week per group on time. The group as a whole will pay a late fee of an additional 50% per late socio for some cases.

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

By having this solution the people in Mexico will change their thoughts as they can be a huge part of the company and the can increase the company’s profit.

17. What are the challenges of the Patrimonio Hoy program? *

There are two challenges in Patrimonio Hoy program. First, the customer retention is a huge problem because of after a room is done, the probability of customers returning to build another is not 100%. Second, the socios cannot afford weekly payments for raw materials and mason fee for construction at the same time.

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

Patrimonio Hoy has helped CEMEX gain a good understanding of the low income population. It has helped CEMEX clear the misconception it originally had about the poor, and realize they could indeed form a good and profitable segment.

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? *

That here in the Philippines the government or other officials will disagree with Hoy’s system, because in a certain wants of individuals, their similarities is the people which low – income people is greater that the high income people.

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.     e-commerce

2.     mobile retail

3.     Automated manufacturing system

4.     fleet management system

5.     customer service system

6.     human resource system

7.     requisition and procurement system

8.     inventory system

9.     Payroll system

10.  Supply Chain system