Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 109
I left Bolivia in January 1974 to return to Texas. My brother Chris ran the company with
even greater success until he returned to Texas in January 1979. During the 10 years of
my management, and obviously even more so afterwards, CGL participated in various
stages of planning engineering projects, from conceptual definitions through feasibility
studies and final designs to construction inspection. We were involved in highway work,
electric power development, urban utilities, structural designs for buildings, bridges,
dams and other structures, investment analysis, industrial plants, potable water supply,
sewage treatment plants, irrigation systems, airport design, hotels, hospitals, stadiums
and in many other fields. We had specialists in many areas and for most projects we
were able to assemble multidisciplinary teams.
When needed, we entered joint ventures with foreign-based companies. This practice
was usually necessary when financing for the project originated with a foreign
government or a multinational agency. As common practice, these organizations pretty
much require the involvement of a country-of-source vendor as part of the program.
With this requirement they provide export opportunities for their domestic companies
and reinforce their comfort level with local providers. Mostly we worked with American,
Italian, French and German companies. These relationships demanded a lot of
international travel, acquainting me with countries and organizations who financed Third
World development projects, and with their staffs. Unfortunately, in many cases the
expatriates they sent to Bolivia could not carry their own weight and became a burden
rather than a help to us.
CGL’s scope acquired wide breath and deep reach. In time its story, of importance to
Bolivia, should be told in a separate book. To me now, it is a subject of pride. Although
at the end I only kept a token piece of ownership, the fact that the company still carries
my name and continues to play an important role evokes whispers of a virtue not
common in Bolivia – permanence. Permanence and stability are virtues needed for the
creation of a healthy business climate. CGL’s example provides a sample of these
virtues and causes its customers to have a sense of confidence in its work.
Unfortunately, although I am now far removed by time, my perception is that
government agencies needing those services are still heavily moved by factors other
than capacity and track record.
In Chapter 2 I discussed in some detail the rigors to business imposed by anti-free
enterprise governments and by the uncertainty that political instability creates. An
environment where existing laws that ruled human interactions yesterday are no longer
valid today but may come back tomorrow, modified to suit the tastes of the passing
authority, is very detrimental to value creation. The impossibility to predict the duration
of the new rules every time they are changed, even under generally market oriented
governments is detrimental to investment. The large human involvement by rotating
authorities in the application of the rules works against value creation. Under these
conditions it is very difficult to have the confidence necessary to undertake long-term
projects of any kind.
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