South america

Companies should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

The country’s economic climate has changed.

In Chile last June, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Felipe Kast, the new government’s minister of planning, and a few of his compadres. (We also went dancing, but that is another story.) One of the topics we talked about was the Chilean retirement saving plan. By law, 11% of every employee’s […]

Internet entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky is applying what he does best—building high-tech companies—to improving education in Argentina.

It opens up a whole new world of digital marketing.

Although they account for 20% of the world's population and a major share of its natural resources, Latin America and Africa have been left out of the...

Photography: Michael Donald/Redux Pelé was a soccer star at age 16 and became a sports legend over the next four World Cup tournaments, scoring 12 goals and leading Brazil (this year’s host country) to three victories. Now 73, he says he still has three loves: family, futebol, and the public. His latest book is called […]

New research identifies 3 strategies organizations can take to engage employees.

Our annual survey of emerging ideas considers the single most important trait of future leaders, the marketing potential of digitally split personalities, a challenge tougher than managing risk, and the best hope for oil-importing countries.

Managers of business ventures that work with the world’s poor need more than financials and feel-good stories to measure success. They need to know exactly who’s benefiting and how.

Alegre, a leading hotel group in Central and South America, is suffering under the troubled economy, and its newest property, the flagship Palma Cay in...

New research shows that senior managers analyze and act on problems far differently than their more junior colleagues do. Those whose thinking does not evolve may not advance.

Having a rotating host city is a 19th-century idea.

Alegre, a leading hotel group in Central and South America, is suffering under the troubled economy, and its newest property, the flagship Palma Cay in...

Companies often resort to lobbyists and lawyers to fight unfair trade policies. But sometimes there are easier alternatives. Consider the case of Chiquita and Dole, organizations that faced restrictive new trade policies in the early 1990s that limited banana exports into Europe. Following World War II, Chiquita became Europe’s main banana provider, exporting to Germany […]

Chief diversity officers (CDOs) proliferated in the 1990s, as business responded to litigation and public pressure to show a more heterogeneous face. But in a few forward-thinking companies today, the diversity officer has assumed a new role: overseeing innovation efforts and generating revenues. Business leaders know that heterogeneous workforces are rich seedbeds for ideas. Yet […]

As emerging markets generate greater shares of global supply and demand, companies need better methods to weigh political risk against financial reward.

The Idea: After Greenpeace pressured Timberland to pull out of Brazil, CEO Jeff Swartz chose instead to engage with the activist group and Timberland’s Brazilian supplier in hopes of making a positive difference.

Editor's note: This post is part of a three-week series examining innovation in health care, published in partnership with the Advanced Leadership Initiative...

New research shows how to attract and retain the best employees in developing economies.