 | Issue: | Latin America IV 1999 |
| Article no.: | 12 | |
| Topic: | The Competitive Scenario in Latin American Telecommunications | |
| Author: | Salomao Wajnberg | |
| Title: | President | |
| Organisation: | Brazilian Telecommunication Association | |
| PDF size: | 16KB |
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Article abstract
National priorities do not spring from a country’s natural talents; they result from stimuli emerging from a process of internal competition. A nation’s competitiveness depends upon the capacity of its businesses to innovate and perfect themselves. Companies rise above their competition throughout the world due to pressures and challenges. They benefit from having strong rivals, aggressive suppliers and demanding clients.
Full Article
Around the World, the businesses that conquer international leadership do so because of competitive advantages resulting from their innovative attitude. To succeed, innovation needs pressure, necessity and even adversity. Fear of failure often proves to be more powerful than the hope of victory. Vigorous domestic competition has forced Latin American telecommunications service operators to look towards the global markets and to fortify themselves to win there. Local rivals push one another to cut costs, improve quality and create new products and processes. They fight not only for market share, but also for personnel, for technical excellence and, perhaps most important, the “right to be the best.” Among the Latin American Governments, today, there is a tendency to promote national competitiveness by influencing certain factors that determine this characteristic, such as the costs of production, exchange rates and economies of scale. These governments have tried, moreover, to neutralize deformations of the free market by taking advantage of their great power to buy or sell, by channelling the power of their large business groups and by perfecting their antitrust policies in order to guarantee competition and a robust free market. Conclusion Latin America’s ability to compete in the world’s markets, though, will ultimately depend not upon governments for nurturing structures and institutions, but upon the businesses that forsake the familiar comfort of protectionism and take on the world.