Axel P

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Profitably lending to lower income households in Mexico
Axel P
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 12:19 am
Mexico´s largest microfinance lender, Banco Compartamos has more than 2.5 million customers with an average loans of US$360. Through an effective alignment of its business model and operating model, this lender has profitably served millions of lower income households by [...]

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On December 14, 2015, Axel P commented on Wikipedia: Here for now :

Thanks for this awesome post!

It’s interest to analyze Wikipedia as ripe for disruption when the speed of disruption in this space has shortened so dramatically: Britannica dominated for centuries, Encarta dominated for decades, will Wikipedia only dominate for a matter of years?

Being a free, easily accessible source for information with +24 million articles, it feels like they have a strong moat to have a sustainable advantage, although I can definitely understand that the quality of content would be the weakest point in Wikipedia’s model. For this, my question is how will the perception of “good enough” information evolve in Wikipedia user’s minds?

I was also considering the parallels between Wikipedia and Threadless in terms of sourcing material for their page and how different compensation mechanisms for contributors could alter the community feeling for these contributors. Could some contributors possibly feel less inclined to write articles if they were paid for their articles (sensing like their hobby now feels like a job)? Would a monetary “prize” for excellent articles maybe work better than a low rate per article scheme?

On December 14, 2015, Axel P commented on Toronto Transit Commission: Clearly not the “Best Deal On Wheels” :

Super interesting post! As a fan of mass public transport systems, I was disappointed to hear that Toronto’s system is not properly addressing the needs of the city. In Mexico, many of the new investments for infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, are being done through Public-Private Partnerships, with mixed results (some successful, some massive failures). Do you think that these types of partnerships might help to solve some of the issues faced by Toronto?

On December 14, 2015, Axel P commented on Pemex: Mexico’s state oil company operational inefficiencies :

Great post! As you mention, the recent Energy Reform in Mexico sets a new sets of challenges ahead for Pemex, although it will be interesting how the State Owned Enterpise also takes advantage of its new liberties to try to optimize its bottom line. Some of the actions that are already being taken by Pemex are likely to be effective, and its well-thought new strategy appears to shift resources away from low profit activities (downstream) to higher margin ventures (E&P). For many of the downstream investments that Pemex had programmed (CHP plants, revamping, major maintenance), it’s either cutting back or trying to bring private capital through Public-Private Partnerships, so hopefully this smarter model of working together with the private sector will also help Pemex to improve.