David E Bell and Cintra Scott, Los Grobo: Framing's Future? Nov 29, 2010.
www.losgrobo.com.ar/comunicados/ ... obo_HARVARD_Eng.pdf
Quote:
"Los Grobo bec[ame] the first farmingcompany in the world8 to be ISO 9001 certified—that is to say, with formalized, recorded, and audited processes that met ISO certification requirements.
"Gustavo was increasingly seen by his peers as a sort of philosopher farmer, spreading his vision of farming’s 'new paradigm.'
"Agricultural production accounted for 30% of the company’s revenues and 50% of EBITDA, while inputs (selling seeds, fertilizers, and other chemicals) accounted for 10% of revenues and 15% of EBITDA. Meanwhile, the commercialization of grains accounted for 60% of Los Grobo’s revenues and 35% of EBITDA.
Note:
(1) "Nearly a century ago, Abraham Grobocopatel arrived in Argentina from Imperial Russia with hiswife and five children—one of whom was a 10-year-old named Bernardo. They left from Bessarabia,later the Republic of Moldova, never to return."
Bessarabia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessarabia
(a historical region: Nowadays the bulk of the region is part of Moldova, while the northern and southern areas are part of Ukraine; [the name] derives from the Wallachian Basarab dynasty, who allegedly ruled over the southern part of the area in the 14th century)
(2) "the Grobocopatels (or, Los Grobo, as they are known [in Argentina])"
(a) Similar to "keeping up with the Joneses," "the Grobocopatels" is how we talk about a family in English, by adding "s" or "es" (but never "ies"--the Kennedys) to the end of a surname. The rule in Spanish is different. See
Angeles Fernández, Spanish Tip--Plural of Proper Names. BellaOnline, undated
www.bellaonline.com/articles/art69028.asp
("Second names (Family names) keep the same (singular) when they refer to the members belonging to the same family <Los García son una familia agradable> Note than in English we add a final -s: The Smiths")
(b) The translation for "Los García son una familia agradable" is "The Garcias are a nice family." The "son" is the third-person, plural form, present tense of "ser" ("to be" in English). (The other verb meaning "to be" in Spansh is "estar.")
Spanish conjugation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conjugation
(section 4 ser, 'to be (in essence)')
(3) Spanish English dictionary
(a) "gauchos judíos (Jewish gauchos)"
judío (from Latin iudaeus)
(adj masculine): "Jewish"/ (noun masculine): "Jew"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jud%C3%ADo
(b) "estancianero—a great land owner"
(i) -ero (suffix, masculine): "forms occupations from nouns <vaca (“cow”) → vaquero (“cowboy”)>"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ero
(ii) estancia (noun feminine): "large farmstead [or ranch]"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/estancia
(iii) estanciero (noun masculine): "farmer, rancher"
(4) "Los Grobo and their fellow gauchos judíos (Jewish gauchos) were part of an agricultural colony established in Buenos Aires province, in Carlos Casares [which is where the family business Los Grobo is based, but Gustavo's office is in Buenos Aires (it is unclear whether it is a corporate office or an office for his professorship with University of Buenos Aires. He wears several hats) ]."
(a) Carlos Casares, Buenos Aires
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Casares,_Buenos_Aires
(a town in Buenos Aires Province [whose capital is La Plata]; section 2 Economy)
(b) City of Buenos Aires is on the northeastern margin of, but administratively not part of, Province of Buenos Aires.
(5) University of Buenos Aires
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Buenos_Aires
(public; Established 1821; in City of Buenos Aires)
enrollment: more than 300,000! (making it the largest university in Argentina and the second largest university by enrollment in Latin America)
(6) "Born in Argentina, Los Grobo was very much shaped by its history. 'There’s a long tradition offarmers’ outsourcing in Argentina,' Gustavo said. According to Gustavo, many factors helped make Argentina ripe for subcontracting. One was strong property-rights protection, granted in the Civil Code written by Dalmacio Velez Sarsfield in the latter half of the nineteenth century."
Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalmacio_V%C3%A9lez_S%C3%A1rsfield
(1800 – 1875; His mother was Irish [that is how he get the surname Sarsfield (one of the two anyway, the other from the father], and pronounced English way]; earned a juris doctor in 1822; wrote the Argentine Civil Code of 1869, the vast majority of which remains in use to this day)
(7) "sharing information that could help competitors was seen as empowering overall. It fueled innovation. The idea was influenced by the writer/consultant Peter Drucker, who coined the term 'knowledge worker,' which is how Los Grobo saw the entrepreneurs in its SME network. Gustavo saw farming becoming a knowledge-basedindustry—a far cry from the traditional family farm run on hard work and old, established routines."
Peter Drucker
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker
(1909 – 2005; American)
(8) "Gustavo also became fascinated by the writings of the American economists Ronald Coase and Oliver Williamson. Coase and Williamson concentrated on a very basic question: Why do companies exist? * * * These questions led to an influential branch of economics called 'the theory of the firm.'"
(a) Ronald Coase
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Coase
(1910 – 2013; British; received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1991; section 2 The Nature of the Firm [1937])
(b) Oliver E Williamson
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_E._Williamson
(1932- ; American; recipient of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences)
(9) "Los Grobo entered a region (or micro-region) by renting or contracting land to grow soybean, wheat, corn, or a few other crops. Then, for every one hectare Los Grobo utilized for its own production, it strove to provide services on another two hectares in the area. Leveraging its market knowledge and interactions with local farmers were pillars of the Los Grobo model. In practice this meant that Los Grobo operated several mid-sized properties (totaling 5,000 to 6,000 hectares) near the center of an 'ecosystem,' which included its network’s “influence area” (totaling another 10,000 to12,000 hectares)."
I interpret this paragraph the following (which was my puzzle: Why do farmers want to lease the land to /Los Grobo? Why don't they hire it, or outsource to it in other words). Los Grobo leases land to grow food, but also provide neighboring lands with services --some or all, depending on contracts based on prices and need of neighboring farmers.
(10) "Gustavo also strove to make Los Grobo more geographically diversified by entering newcountries. Gustavo saw Argentina’s future growth opportunities as limited by fierce competition that drove up land lease prices, coupled with weather and political risks."
This answers one of my concerns about this business model: Can it happen that the increase of lease prices drive Los Grobo out of business? I forgot about competition (among landowners).
(11) You must read Exhibit 3 (which is page 10) excerpted from
Andrew McAfee and Alexandra de Royere, Los Grobo. HBS, Dec 13, 2005 (revised 2007, 21 pages, Product #: 606014-PDF-ENG)
hbr.org/product/los-grobo/an/606014-PDF-ENG
(At least in part with no-till farming, Argentina’s agricultural production tripled in 10 years)
(12) "Despite the language barrier, Brazil felt like a good fit for Los Grobo because agriculture there was attracting smart, accomplished professionals, as in Argentina."
So, Spanish and Portuguese are not close, at least not close enough for them to communicate with each other. |
发表于 1-19-2014 14:10:11
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