Success leaves clues. Hugo de la O, the founder of hugodelao.com, shares his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the company, as well as the insight he gained from running the business. Q: Who are you and what’s your background? I am Hugo de la O, the Finance and Management Director of the company TECLO. I support SME business people. My web page, hugodelao.com, is designed to provide business knowledge to this sector. I am focused on Mexican companies. I help them to improve their processes, controls, and finances. Afterward, we focus on marketing and sales. Q: Who has been your biggest influence, and why did they have such a significant effect on you? At the very beginning, Mr. Lee Johnson (General Manager of former SOLA International, that ends being part of Karl Zeiss Vision Care) helped me to start my career in the corporate world when he allowed me to be part of the company. The next influence was Mr. Dietz Kamiski and Joao Marco Cazula, former CEO and CFO in Mexico of Oxiteno, a Brazilian chemical company related to surfactants. Q: Knowing what you know now, what would you have told yourself when you were in your twenties? Be deliberate in all the actions that you do. You have to learn a lot from the theoretical and academic world and try to implement that knowledge in the field. With these two simple activities, your professional life will improve exponentially. This improvement will bring you new vision and opportunities. Q: What is hugodelao.com? Hugo de la O and hugodelao.com are my brands. In early 2008, I discovered the concept of what a person was and how one ‘should be built." But let's be honest, in that time the mainstream relied on other media, the mass media (TV, newspaper, magazines, etc.) So, I made the mistake of not building myself. Q: What makes your company different from its competitors? In the time I was a business coach, I was very clear about the results I could deliver with the collaboration of the business owner: All the objectives were achieved clearly, not always in the time frame defined in the first stage of the process (because there were some things to build previous to the final objective). Q: What led you to start Hugo de la O? There are a lot of errors committed by the SME business owners that end with good initiatives. I try to do something to help them to avoid those mistakes. The regular practitioner in the B2B business world tends to over-feed a business to maximize his/her benefits and not his/her customers. I do it upside down. This way, I can help a lot of people that might be out of the reach of the regular service provider. Q: What has the experience of building the business taught you? Awareness of business owners worldwide in need of affordable services to improve their business. Besides, the need for services beyond the big consultancy companies. A lot of great companies from all over the world who deserve to be in the international market (at least the Mexican market) aren't there because there are no opportunities for them to meet an executive who can help them to build a business worldwide. Q: Where do you see things headed for you in the next 5 years? Assisting SMEs from all over the world to start operations in Mexico. This is why I am looking for companies who want to start their internationalization processes. To be in touch with commercial offices from countries with small commercial exchanges with Mexico such as Belgium, Ukraine, Austria, etc., to find SMEs willing to start with an office in Mexico using a shared Country Manager like me. For more information, see hugodelao.com.
Introduction
Who is Hugo de la O?
Business
True Tamplin is a published author, public speaker, CEO of UpDigital, and founder of Finance Strategists.
True is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance (CEPF®), author of The Handy Financial Ratios Guide, a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, contributes to his financial education site, Finance Strategists, and has spoken to various financial communities such as the CFA Institute, as well as university students like his Alma mater, Biola University, where he received a bachelor of science in business and data analytics.
To learn more about True, visit his personal website or view his author profiles on Amazon, Nasdaq and Forbes.
