Three Things I Learned in Mexico

As I fly back from a few days visiting manufacturing facilities in Mexico, I wanted to share three things I learned on the trip:

Déjà vu – Parallel Between IT/India and Manufacturing/Mexico

Companies are investing heavily in manufacturing in Mexico. Driving north of Mexico City reminded me of a trip to Electronic City in Bangalore 10 years ago – the same feeling, just a different industry and different logos.

Driving to E-City from Bangalore was a who-is-who of technology leaders. Every major technology company had their logos visible as new corporate campuses were popping up: Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Accenture… That is the same sense I got driving north of Mexico City as there are major manufacturing companies lining the highway: Ford, Colgate, Pirelli, Cummins, Daimler…

Better Together – Tightly Integrated Supply Chains

There is a tight interdependency in the supply chain of our two countries. The more we invest to strengthen those naturally interdependent connections, the better we are. After visiting the plants it was clear that the flow of products was required to create finished goods – i.e. perfumes manufactured in the US shipped to Mexico would be made into soaps, put in boxes with timber shipped from US, and built in plant across the street.

The attached report from ASU’s Center for Transborder Studies does an excellent job of laying out the facts on the value of the partnership.  “U.S. sales to Mexico are larger than all U.S. exports to Brazil, Russia, India and China combined, as well as all combined sales to Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.”

Nobody Makes Better Guacamole – Just saying…

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