The carefully packaged information kit from Burger King Corp. contained a promising fact sheet on the fast-food chain's investment activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
"Burger King Corp. and its franchisees operate over 650 restaurants in 24 countries within Latin America and the Caribbean ... System-wide sales in Latin America and the Caribbean were approximately US$595 million in F '04, representing more than a 12 percent growth over the prior fiscal year."
But the facts tell only part of the story. As keynote speaker Beatrice Rangel told participants at the Wharton Latin American Conference, Burger King represents what can go right when a corporation invests in an area where nearly everything can go wrong.
Investing in Latin America and the Caribbean requires more than capital, patience and perseverance, she said. It requires investors to commit themselves to understanding the fragile business infrastructures within a part of the world that is fraught with volatile political, economic and social conditions.
"Representatives of Burger King have seen the peaks and valleys in Latin America," said Rangel, a native of Venezuela, former chief of staff to former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez and a corporate strategist who worked with the Miami-based entertainment conglomerate Cisneros Group before she was named managing director of AMLA Consulting, the Miami affiliate of Zemi Communications.
"When you talk about investing in Latin America and the Caribbean, investors have to be patient. They have to look at the structures or lack of structures in the countries where they want to do business. And they have to understand that a good business will go through peaks and …
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