EconomyFinancialThe CCE: will it be the key body to...

The CCE: will it be the key body to trigger the country's growth by 2024?

This March 2, the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) will have a new president. The course that the body that represents the country’s private sector will take depends on who is the winner of the contest, in which Francisco Cervantes from Mexico and Bosco de la Vega from Sinaloa participate.

Since its foundation, in 1976, and to date, 21 faces have presided over this council that emerged to regulate the actions of business organizations in different industries, in order to promote economic growth in Mexico and the level of competition of companies. Mexican.

The first of them was Juan Sánchez Navarro, who was only in office for one year. As of 1977, the presidency of the council lasted, in most of the administrations, two years and only the name of Claudio X González Laporte is repeated, who directed the CCE from 1985 to 1987 and from 2000 to 2002.

In the list of presidents of the organization, few have been the businessmen who took the helm of the ship for three years: José Luis Barraza, Armando Paredes, Gerardo Gutiérrez Candiani and the current leader Carlos Salazar Lomelín. Only Juan Pablo Castañón was from 2015 to 2019, by decision of the members.

The CCE was born as a counterweight to political power. In response to the growing intervention of President Luis Echeverría Álvarez in the economy. What the council criticized was the expansion of state companies within the industrial structure and that private initiative was cataloged as a negative entity in the development of the nation.

In this context, the private initiative, through the council, began to coordinate the interests of the business leadership, so that the private company was seen and understood as an engine of the national economy, therefore its actions and opinion were not lacking. every time the government modified a law or created a public policy or an international trade agreement was on the table. Over the years and the passage of governments, private initiative became synonymous with investment and economic growth.

The evolution of the council

The CCE emerged thanks to the initiative of ‘los 30’, as the businessmen who made up the Council of Businessmen (CHN) were known. Today, it brings together 14 business organizations: AMIS (insurance companies), ABM (banks), Concamin, Concanaco, Coparmex, CNA (agribusiness), Mexican Business Council (CMN), Caintra, Canacintra, Antad, Canaco Mexico City, Amafore, COMCE and AMIB. And together, they bring together more than 2,000 associations and represent around 80% of the National Gross Domestic Product.

For 45 years, the CCE protected the imaginary of the formal businessman, so far from the image of the “common” Mexican. According to Gabriela de la Riva, president of the market research firm De la Riva Group, in the country entrepreneurs are associated with success, planning, business, money, contacts, solemnity and long term. In contrast, the ‘normal’ Mexican is perceived as impulsive, without planning, with less moral discipline, who does not save and is short-sighted. In fact, “we are the second most lenient country in the world,” said De la Riva at the Vision of the Future: Mexico 2042 forum, organized by the CCE.

Francisco Abundis, director of the Parametria research firm, added at the same event that, culturally speaking, Mexico is considered a country of workers and not of businessmen. However, the panorama of what defines a businessman is opening up more and more, since he can not only be the negotiator of the large company, but also the small merchant, the entrepreneur, etc.

“This crisis forced us to rethink our economic models and even the way we interact with each other. The sector must evolve to the changing needs and demands that society demands. With this fresher and more current image, we want the CCE to represent a modern business community with a social dimension,” said Salazar Lomelín, during the virtual press conference he organized in March last year to show the new identity of the organization.

The CCE wants to reflect this renewed vision. He decided to leave behind the green color and the square typography of his logo to switch to curved letters in red. It also opted for internal restructuring and strengthening its marketing efforts to empathize with the new generations, embrace diversity and inclusion, and support the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which was driven by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The role of the CCE in the last three years of the current government

For José Medina Mora, president of Coparmex, that the business leadership is a counterweight is essential to guarantee democracy in the country, freedom of enterprise, free competition and market.

This does not imply that the organization acts as a fire-thrower against political power, but rather as a representative body that promotes the common good and maintains the unity of the entire business ecosystem, regardless of whether it is a micro-SME, an SME or a transnational

However, according to a source close to the council who requested anonymity, presiding over the CCE is no longer the object of desire or the instrument of transformation as it was a few years ago, because the current presidential narrative is not necessarily favoring the private sector. .

Salazar, the source points out, is a conciliatory leader. But it is difficult to maintain the boat when you have mixed winds, waves that come and go and your own crew tells you to go one way and then the other. “Directing the council is not the responsibility of a single man and that makes it difficult for the ship to stay in the same direction,” he says.

“With the degree of fatigue and desperation, there are businessmen who consider that for the remainder of this six-year term, because of the way this government sees the company, there will be no changes, but rather a radicalization. This means that for many businessmen, the business representation bodies do not make sense and they choose to wait for better times for the IP”, he explains.

In the opinion of Bosco de la Vega, the CCE must not lose its essence and reason for being. In the last three years of the government administration, he sees a council capable of coordinating businessmen to fight for free enterprise, a market economy and the rule of law.

“I see a council that ensures the improvement of security, national and foreign investment, the generation of better paid jobs, more tax distribution, growth of internal consumption, of the economy, with a drop in the prices of inputs, food , goods and services. A council that sees how to turn this country around, without looking at the past, but looking for a good future”, he commented in an interview.

Javier Treviño, executive general director of the CCE, warns that the success of the council will depend on who knows how to understand and reconcile the dilemmas and contradictions of public policies. Whoever manages to build bridges with the government, maintain dialogue and secure a place at the negotiating table.

“It is not just about opening doors for business organizations, but about creating a new corporate strategy because the political risk is greater. In this scenario, it is necessary to anticipate and think outside the box, make new proposals to create public value and acquire the legitimacy that companies need”, he warned at the forum.

In his opinion, it is necessary to understand what is happening in Congress and in society and strengthen the analytical and proposal capacity of companies, since this is essential to create better public policy initiatives and to be able to face the ‘social judgment towards companies’, through new laws, regulations, protests, strikes, etc.

In the remainder of this six-year term, “we have to learn to ask ourselves three things: What is the public value that we should create from business organizations? What are the sources of legitimacy of support for organizations in the business sector? What is the internal capacity that we have at the CCE?”, he concluded.

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