CEMEX Case Study Guide Questions:

1. How did CEMEX fundamentally change the way it conducted its business?
2. How does information systems contribute to CEMEX' competitive advantage?
3. What is social capital? How does CEMEX build social capital?
4. How are is the low-income savings characteristics of Mexican society characterized?
5. How are the enterpreneurial characteristics of the women in Mexican society tied to the CEMEX BOP strategy?
6. What did the CEMEX initial market research in Guadalajara discover?
7. What is the role of socios in the Patrimonio Hoy system? How important are they in the making the system successful/
8. Why do you think it was important fo CEMEX to position itself as a complete solutions provider vs. just another product provider?
9. How is the social capital of Patrimonio Hoy promoters related to economic capital?
10. What, in brief, is the value of Patrimonio Hoy to a) it's promoter b) its socios & partners c) its suppliers and d) its distributors?
11. What is patrimonio? Why is this important for the marketing efforts for the Patrimonio Hoy system?
12. How can Patrimonio Hoy offer a slightly higher price than its competitors and maintain a competitive edge?
13. How does the concept of freezing prices encourage socios to do more business for Patrimonio Hoy?
14. Intuitively, doing with business with a low income group would be riskier than traditional lending models but it is profitable for Patrimonio Hoy. Why?
15. What is the role of peer/community pressure in the Patrimonio Hoy lending model?
16. How has Patrimonio Hoy changed the consumer behavior in Mexico?
17. What are the challengs of the Patrimonio Hoy program?
18. What does Construmex take advantage of the existing remittance market between U.S.A and Mexico?
19. CEMEX Philippines is exploring the possibility of replicating the Patrimonio Hoy system in the Philippines. What are the parallels between the Mexican and the Philippine market?
20. As an IT practitioner looking at the Construmex business model, what IT-driven systems can you propose to make CEMEX more competitive? (name 10-15)