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Staff post about: Carlos Slim Helu Become an Author

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When there is a crisis, that’s when some are interested in getting out and that’s when we are interested in getting in.

When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.

I’m a paper man, not electronic. My children gave me a lap top for Christmas, but all I know how to do so far is push the on button.

Technology is going to transform people’s lives and society everywhere in the world. I spend most of my time studying new technologies. My main task is to understand what’s going on and try to see where we can fit in.

It’s not going to exist in a few years. It’s going to disappear, and it will be the same thing to make a local call as a long-distance call. So we have to move into other areas.

I think one of the big errors people are making right now is thinking that old-style businesses will be obsolete, when actually they will be an important part of this new civilization.

We think that there will be an ‘entrepreneurial reconversion’ of many companies that have lived in the industrial era and now are becoming part of this new [digital] civilization.

It’s not a question of arriving [at a new company] and putting in a whole new administration but instead, arriving and ‘compacting’ things as much as possible, reducing management layers.

We want as few management layers as possible, so that executives are very close to the operations. We also don’t believe in having big corporate infrastructures.

When we decide to do something, we do it quickly.

We have to do is seek the best for our shareholders.

Those who say that I am taking over the city centre that I have already bought up everything, are not going to stop me from continuing my project.

The buying power of Americans is so much higher than Mexicans.

Our concept is more to accomplish and solve things, rather than giving, that is, not going around like Santa Claus. Poverty isn't solved with donations.

I've always said that the better off you are, the more responsibility you have for helping others. Just as I think it's important to run companies well, with a close eye to the bottom line, I think you have to use your entrepreneurial experience to make corporate philanthropy effective.

How can we develop if we’re always stuck in crises?

I believe that if a businessman knows how to efficiently manage his business, he should be able to manage a foundation efficiently. It’s not a question of giving money away, it’s a question of going somewhere and doing something and making sure the basic costs are paid…I’m channeling resources to try to solve problems as quickly as possible.

The American government, which is looking for something useful to do with its surplus, should consider it: There's no better investment than promoting [Latin America's] development. They shouldn't do it to be Good Samaritans, but for good business reasons… If the U.S. promotes education, it will be able to sell more products coming out of the new digital civilization.

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