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Coca Cola Director: Ecuador ranks among the most entrepreneurial countries
Posted On 04 Sep 2017
Ecuadornews:
Guillermo Aponte, a 50-year-old Colombian, has been CEO of Arca Continental (Coca Cola) Latin America for three years. He arrived in Guayaquil last week to meet the managers of the 23 leading companies of the Alliance for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (AEI) in Ecuador. There, he shared his experience in inclusive innovation projects that bring benefits to the communities, as well as support to the entrepreneurship.
Q: How do you innovate with a view to sustainability?
A: For example, our company has focused on water sustainability. 100% of the water we use in the productive processes returns to nature entirely. Also, part of our sustainability is empowering the small shopkeepers in neighborhoods, women, families, whom we train to be better entrepreneurs and help our business.
Q: What about recycling?
A: Our business uses plastic bottles, and we have an innovative scheme of recycling, to the point that we recycle about 800 million bottles per year in Ecuador, about 18 thousand tons.
Q: What do you do with those bottles?
A: 25% of them return to the bottle production process. That is very important because we ensure a constructive cycle and we ensure a viable economy for the recyclers who make a living from picking up bottles.
Q: Arca is part of the AEI, how have they supported entrepreneurship in Ecuador?
A: What has been done most is to help them build a vision, to have access to information and technology, and indeed financing, which is important for any entrepreneur.
Q: How do you catalog Ecuador regarding entrepreneurship?
A: We have a goal of empowering 5 million small businesses, and each country is advancing at different speeds … I would say that Ecuador is starting and is ranked among those that do things best. (I)
