Fernando Antezana
"We are committed to a Bolivia with more industry, more transformation, and greater added value to compete in the world."
Curtiembre Tauro has consolidated itself as a benchmark in the leather industry and a pride of Bolivian exports. How do you manage to position high-quality manufacturing in international markets while overcoming the region's logistical challenges?
In life, there are universal principles that open opportunities and allow for the building of solid and sustainable relationships over time, whether in business, education, family, or human relations. At Curtiembre Tauro, those principles have always been ethics, responsibility, commitment, and doing things the right way.
These values have translated into a business culture based on the quality of our products, the fulfillment of our commitments, and the building of long-term relationships with our clients. For a Bolivian industry, competing internationally implies overcoming significant logistical, distance, and cost challenges; therefore, our main tool has been to generate trust and demonstrate that from Bolivia we can produce with quality and meet the standards and commitments demanded by international markets.
That corporate identity allowed us for decades to build a respected space in the international leather market and demonstrate that the Bolivian industry can compete and generate value beyond our borders.
From leather for footwear and leather goods to specialized lines, diversification has been key. What has been the engine of innovation within the company to respond to the demands of global clients?
Throughout our almost 50 years of doing business, we have gone through different crises and economic cycles. These experiences, coupled with technological, generational, and consumer habit changes, taught us that a company cannot remain static and that the capacity to adapt is one of the main engines of innovation.
These situations led us to develop an increasingly diversified industry, taking advantage of the opportunities of vertical integration, not only to add value to leather but also to exploit its by-products and identify complementary industries that could be developed from our own processes, raw materials, and installed capacities. In this way, we transformed challenges and available resources into new business lines (Tallow, Soaps, Detergents, and Livestock).
Another fundamental factor has been our presence in Asia since 2010, which allows us to be close to new technologies, market trends, and changes in the international economy.
In summary, our engine of innovation has been to adapt, add value, and constantly find new opportunities around what we know how to do.
Your career combines plant management with business representation in key institutions such as CAINCO and CNC. From that trench, what do you consider to be the urgent strategic decisions that the export sector in Bolivia needs?
Bolivia needs to recover a fundamental condition for development: "Institutionality." When rules are not clear or change constantly, trust is lost, investment is retracted, and the country misses opportunities.
We need a structural reform and an economic plan with a long-term vision that modernizes our labor and tax legislation, reduces state bureaucracy, guarantees legal certainty, and generates competitive conditions for investment and production.
In foreign trade, we must take a clear stance: Bolivia has to become a truly exporting country, eliminating current and unnecessary restrictions, expanding markets, and strengthening our logistical infrastructure, international corridors, and alternatives like the Paraguay–Paraná Waterway and private ports such as Puerto Jennefer, Puerto Gravetal.
Bolivia has an enormous productive potential and a great entrepreneurial capacity. The challenge lies in transforming that potential into investment, production, exports, and employment. To achieve this, we need a vision of a country that boosts our capacity to undertake, innovate, and compete in the world, generating development and greater prosperity for everyone.
Institutionalizing a family business and managing the generational succession is a complex challenge. How do you manage this challenge among siblings?
Our father was a great mentor in life, and he passed on to us the importance of respecting the essence and rules of a family business, teaching us that the things that endure are built with ethics, effort, sacrifice, and respect.
Those foundations created a very solid bond between us, the siblings, and as in every family business there are differences, we have learned to find bridges of dialogue, avoiding impositions and leveraging each other's experience and strengths to build consensus.
From my position as CEO, I assumed the challenge of driving the institutionalization process of our family business, seeking to adequately separate the roles of family, ownership, and management, establish clear rules, and build a shared long-term vision.
I believe our great challenge now is to responsibly prepare the new generations, because true generational succession does not consist only of inheriting a company or an estate, but of transmitting values, responsibility, and a vision that allows what has been built to transcend from generation to generation.
The strategic expansion into the Industrial Park of Santa Cruz decentralized production without losing its roots in Cochabamba. What impact does Tauro seek to generate in the national economy and in the professionalization of the manufacturing industry?
Our current industrial plant in the city of Santa Cruz began construction in 1992 in the "Ramon Darío Gutiérrez" industrial park, and starting from 2010, we concentrated our capacity expansions, new production units, and new ventures on that property. Currently, we have approximately 15,000 m² under roof, where our productive operations, administration, and management are located.
Our purpose has always been to build a strong industry, generate added value in our operations, transform raw materials, incorporate technology, automate our processes, and generate formal and specialized employment.
I am convinced that the main impact we seek to generate as Curtiembre Tauro is to contribute to social development through economic development. We believe that private investment, industrialization, and the generation of formal employment create opportunities and sustainably improve people's quality of life. For this reason, we are committed to a Bolivia with more industry, more transformation, and greater added value, contributing from our company to the strengthening of an innovative, professional, and competitive Bolivian industry in national and international markets.
Leading the corporate transformation of a large industry requires a solid technical and analytical foundation. In what way did your education at the UPB contribute to the development of the management and leadership skills that you apply daily?
The education I received at the UPB was fundamental because it confirmed my business vocation and strengthened a vision of a company with purpose and a vision of country, understanding that investment, production, and job creation are essential to create growth, opportunities, and better living conditions for Bolivians.
My background as a Production Engineer also taught me to interpret and manage problems in a systemic and structured way, advancing step-by-step in their resolution, managing projects, and making decisions backed by information and analysis.
Regarding my leadership style, I would define it as a leadership based on principles, purpose, and participation. I deeply believe in listening, generating spaces for dialogue, and leveraging the experience and strengths of the people around me to build consensus, and I am willing to adapt my position when I find better arguments; however, I understand that leading also means taking responsibility and making the final decision when appropriate. I do not believe in imposition, but I do believe in executing the role I have with responsibility.
For the new generations of the UPB who aspire to manage industries, undertake, or compete in international markets, what is the most valuable learning you would share with them or what messages would you give them?
One of the phrases that has always been an impulse in my life is Nelson Mandela's: "It always seems impossible... until it's done."
I believe that every venture begins with the decision to do it. Along the way, there will always be difficulties, uncertainty, and moments when it will be easier to quit than to continue. However, when there is a clear conviction, preparation, resilience, and solid principles, we are capable of overcoming obstacles that initially seemed impossible.
To the new generations, I would tell them to dare to think and dream big, but, above all, to prepare intensely to work and turn those dreams into reality. In life, as in every venture, there will be difficulties, mistakes, and disappointments; but the most important thing is how you get back up after a failure and how you decide to move forward. That ability to rise, learn, and continue is what makes us stronger and brings us closer to our goals.
Finally, it is important to understand that true success lies not only in personal achievements but also in what one is capable of building, in the contribution to others, and in the legacy one can leave to contribute to building a better country.
INSIGHTS
A book or movie that left a mark on you: “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse.
A person you deeply admire: My father, Fernando Antezana Argote. He was one of the people who marked my life in a deep way, and one of my greatest sources of inspiration.
A phrase or principle that guides your life: “Life is like a mirror: it smiles at you if you look at it smiling.” The attitude I take towards life is the same that life will take towards me.
Your most precious possession: My family.
A fear you have learned to transform or that has left you a lesson: The fear of loneliness. I learned that in the silence of loneliness, we can also find spaces to reflect, get to know ourselves better, and reinvent ourselves.
A favorite flavor or gastronomic experience: “Astrid & Gastón” by Gastón Acurio, in Lima, Peru.”
