This is the second in
a series of four blog posts from my recent study trip to Mexico, with the
Stanford GSB. Here’re some facts and tid-bits on the trip which provide a bit
of an overall flavor:
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The people: 35 Stanford GSBers and their partners, hailing from 14 different
countries –backgrounds as diverse and unique as Air Force Officers, Social
Entrepreneurs, Finance Ministerial Analysts, Film Makers, Start-up Starters,
Seismologists, Sports Analysts, Chemistry Teachers, Family Businessmen … and of
course … bankers & consultants
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The places: 3 different cities over 10 days, including Oaxaca, Monterrey and Mexico
City – each with a very different and unique character
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The experiences: Discussing Mexico’s challenges in meetings with business and public
sector leaders; watching Mexican soap operas being filmed, including meeting
the most charismatic man in the world (not to be confused with the most
interesting man in the world, whom we also met); exploring ancient monuments;
eating good food and drinking giant margaritas; and of course, shouting and
cheering like mariachis.
Pedro Aspe is very “Professor-like” – clearly a technocrat.
On the first slide of his presentation, he took great pains to explain and
elaborate to us the two axes on his chart, which were otherwise clearly labeled
and fairly self-explanatory. It seems that his typical audience might not be as
used to this sort of material. But our group of 35 Stanford GSBers was both
“getting-it” and mesmerized through-out his talk, as he went on to share very
detailed and personal stories from his personal life and professional career –
stories which explain some of his life’s work, and his passions, motivations,
beliefs and values.
Trained as an Economist at MIT, Pedro Aspe went on to become
Mexico’s Secretary of Finance. He has a long list of impressive accomplishments
in public service, including “crisis-proofing” Mexico (all the good stuff,
including renegotiating foreign debt, restructuring the Central Bank to make
monetary policy independent, and pushing a controversial privatization plan) and
architecting NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). At 62, he is now
in the private sector, leading a firm which I understand to be doing everything
from managing its own principal investments, to providing financial and even
non-financial advisory services.
Here's Pedro Aspe, with all his joy and intensity
Even though he has been associated with the PRI (The
Institutional Revolutionary Party), the Left leaning party which has governed
Mexico for much of Mexico’s modern history, his political views are clearly
very centrist. Not only did he state this explicitly, but he also described how
political dynamics in the United States have traditionally been very centrist,
despite the presence of two different parties, and how the US is in a bit of
trouble currently, having moved away from this in recent years, with the advent
of movements like the Tea Party. I would say that this position is “the
hallmark” of a successful technocrat – willing to associate for pragmatic
political reasons, but ultimately understanding that all things will be
rational and real, and certainly over and above petty ideologies. It’s easy to
get political and feel like you might be “selling out” – Imran Khan from
Pakistan, for example, wouldn’t associate with Musharraf, even though there is
strong centrist and even populist potential there. Egos come in; personalities
clash – ideologies kill the potential for pragmatism. There is so much humility
and tangible benefit in being a centrist technocrat.
Pedro Aspe demonstrates this humility in more than one way.
When asked about his role models or leaders that he admires, Pedro Aspe cited
the Finance Ministers of Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, as he went on to
“sell-us” on the TPP (The Trans-Pacific Partnership), a next generation
free-trade agreement which aims to address such complex and thorny issues as
how to deal with intellectual property or duplicated regulatory approvals in
free-trade regimes. Perhaps this was a very elegant way to sell the TPP to us,
and answer the question – and we were all clearly sold and wowed. But what’s
amazing about this answer is that he picked his peers – he did not cite any
larger than life figures like Gandhi or Mandela. He picked individuals with whom
he’s interacted on a personal basis. That’s very special, and goes on to show
just how pragmatic and authentic an individual he truly is.
Finally, it was very clear that he took a stand on tough
issues and spoke it like he saw it. Catapulting a highly protected economy into
a free-trade era is not an easy task. At the time that he made this happen, the
vast majority of Mexico opposed him. But today, 70% of Mexicans believe that
NAFTA is beneficial for Mexico. It takes not only a man of strong intelligence
and vision, but also of courage and character to push through on unpopular
policies like NAFTA. When asked how he dealt with self-doubt, it was clear that
he constantly questioned his own beliefs. And it was perhaps in the process of
questioning his own beliefs that he gained the courage to go ahead and push
them. As a “contrarian”, I find this to be particularly inspirational – the
need to keep questioning is just so important.
We met many inspiring leaders on our Mexico trip, but for
me, and also for most of my fellow participants, Pedro Aspe was far and ahead
the most inspirational of them all. Life as a technocrat can be very hard – you
have many potential good answers, but very few of the levers to create the
political space to put those answers in place. It’s almost sort of a thankless
job – if you do well, you only did what was obvious and right, and if you screw
up you’re political toast. But leaders like Pedro Aspe reassure me that
technocrats and public servants can find immense purpose and meaning while
changing the world.
My next post in this
series will deal with public perceptions of a country like Mexico … get ready
for some criticism of the media, and us gullible consumers of the media.
