Living in Peru : your everyday companion

In a constant flow of what appears to be near accidents, vehicles in Lima jostle for position, sneak across boulevards and dart in and out of roundabouts. To cross a street on foot, pedestrians often run.

Often named as culprits for the chaos are the buses, vans and drivers that comprise Lima's privately-owned public transportation system. In a 2008 poll, "the problem of pubic transportation" was cited as Lima's second biggest problem. Bus drivers have been called "barbarians" by the established press.   

"We all know there's a problem and we blame the [bus] drivers," sociologist Claudia Bielich told LivingInPeru over the phone. "My idea was to find out why they drive like they do."

TechnoServe has been operating in Peru since 1982 and has successfully executed various types of business projects on a national level. TechnoServe’s team possesses the technical and managerial expertise to support entrepreneurial endeavors that generate employment, increase incomes, and promote economic growth.

The primary strategy of TechnoServe is to identify and capitalize on good business ideas in high-potential markets that help to transform the lives of the rural poor. The organization continually searches for opportunities to strengthen regional growth in both national and international markets.

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, began his work in a garage. Erasmo Wong started his empire with 50 square meters. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Peru has more entrepreneurial spirit than any other country.

All companies begin modestly. It is only when they begin to think big that they become global players.  To do this, the founder often has to overcome what I call the “51% syndrome.”

In many cases, a company’s retained earnings and its capacity to take on debt restrict its ability to finance expansion into new markets.

This is why it is often necessary to open the company to other investors/venture capital funds and/or float the company on the stock market to find the resources needed to grow on a global scale.

She went off to Paris in love where her husband supported her in everything that she did. A decade later, they have returned to Peru. She, at the wheel of her company, is supporting him while he adapts.

She decided to come back for the sake of her children. Gretel Castro had everything in Paris: happily married, she was the right arm of Antoine Fauger, a successful entrepreneur dedicated to the import of fresh fruit and vegetables. He directed A.M.S. European when Gretel decided that her children were missing the family warmth in the midst of which she had grown up. Fauger was not willing to let her go so he proposed that they open A.M.S. Latina here in Peru and he put her in charge of the operation. She will close her second year with over a million dollars in sales.

Family businesses are very prominent around the world. They range from small convenient stores to large conglomerate multinational companies like Walmart, or they are centuries old like Zildjian, which was founded in 1623. Peru is not absent of such a plethora. Most of the corner stores, or rather ‘bodegas’ in our neighborhoods around Lima are family run businesses. However, at the other extreme, the largest bank and largest insurance company in Peru are family owned businesses. In either case, family businesses provide well needed services to all levels of society and for all sectors of the economy. Family-owned businesses are vital for the health of an economy, especially here in Peru.

Declaration and payment of taxes is a monthly obligation in Peru. Nowadays, citizens are more aware of the importance of taxes for the country’s development. The idea that money collected from taxes is wasted on counterproductive state expenditures, such as supporting an inefficient bureaucracy, has gradually faded. The general belief that tax payment is a sanction and a disbursement of a hard earned salary has been abandoned by the vast majority of the population.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, on September 15th, 2008, marked the end of the USA’s economic supremacy, according to the Nobel Prize winner of economics, Joseph Stiglitz. He believes that the crisis is not over, and that Latin America has to avoid certain types of fundamentalism. He says that the economy of the United States is in the shape of a “U,” but that certain precautions need to be taken in order to prevent the shape from transforming into a “W.” Read his recommendations in the following interview.

Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychoanalyst, authored a study which concluded that the American collective subconscious, despite its predominantly white demographics, was actually highly influenced by the “red-skin” component. For example, North American representations of heroes, who possess a keen competitive spirit, are Indian and not European in origin. If we study the legends and rites of different American Indian cultures, we find impressive similarities with Superman, Capitan America and the competitive edge of US businesses and athletes. 

If this is the case in Anglo-Saxon America, just imagine the influence that Andean culture has had, both overtly and latently, in the Peruvian subconscious. Spanish chroniclers of the conquest have provided eloquent testimony to the greatness of the Inca Empire, particularly in terms of its work ethic, emphasis on mutual help and organizational capacity.