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Much More than Just Certifications

Ángel Carrillo - Bureau Veritas
Country Chief Executive

STORY INLINE POST

Daniel González By Daniel González | Senior Writer - Wed, 07/15/2020 - 17:08

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Q: What opportunities has Bureau Veritas observed in Mexico during the current socioeconomic situation

A: The most worrying issue regarding the current situation in Mexico and the rest of the world is the uncertainty that has been generated. Bureau Veritas offers certainty. We operate in more than 140 countries and are in contact with practically all sectors of a country’s productive chain, from grains to electronic devices, hospitals, food, infrastructure and oil and gas.

Different strategies were proposed by our French headquarters to help during this pandemic. That is how the Restart Your Business With BV program was born. The idea is that, through this program, we are able to offer a certification seal to provide tranquility and confidence to customers and employees, in addition to standardizing new practices for the so-called “new normality.” I believe that practice standardization can become the basis of the economy of the future.

Before the pandemic, we were a company that was always in touch with the client in a personal way. Today, we do all this remotely, which meant new risks and new practices for Bureau Veritas. However, we have achieved success despite the intrinsic complexity of a country like Mexico, where certifications are very different from other countries. However, the Restart Your Business With BV program has been well-received, especially in the tourism sector, which is a business where certainty and trust must be offered to clients.

Q: What role does Mexico play in the company’s global strategy and how is Bureau Veritas adapting to the different speeds the pandemic has taken in Mexico’s different regions?

A: The company’s global strategy focuses on consolidating and reaffirming the image of Bureau Veritas as a synonym of trust and social commitment, which, after this crisis, shall help to reactivate economies.

The Restart Your Business With BV program is highly flexible, not only in its applicability to different industrial sectors and organization sizes, but also in its adaptability to the different temporalities and speeds of the COVID-19 pandemic for each region of the country. Unlike other more standardized certifications, the product we offer at Bureau Veritas is much more adaptable to the needs of each client. The idea is not to impose a new way of certifying. Bureau Veritas took the best practices that have been carried out worldwide to make an internal manual that allows a hotel, a hospital, a restaurant or a gas station to operate in the best possible way, taking into account the current context. It is a best-practices manual that is adapted to the specific needs of each client and to the different regulations we are seeing around the world. If we focus on Mexico, for example, the needs of a hotel located in Quintana Roo will be very different to the needs of a hotel in Sonora.

Q: In which industries does Bureau Veritas expect to find the most challenges and which will adapt first to the new normal?

A: On the one hand, less regulated industries will have the most difficulty adapting to the new normality. Mining and oil and gas will be able to adapt easily, as their practices are very standardized. In the other industries, we will have to analyze companies case by case. On the other hand, the greater the number of people handled (clients and employees), the greater the challenge toward adaptation. Sectors such as entertainment, education and tourism and sites as malls and call centers, are included in this group.

Q: What are Bureau Veritas’ projections for when the world has overcome the COVID-19 crisis?

A: Restart Your Business With BV is a service that allows us to stay in touch with more clients and helps us to offer services that are very different from certifications. Bureau Veritas is much more than a company that offers certifications. Thanks to this platform, Bureau Veritas has become even better known and entered industries such as hospitality, where we were not on the radar a year ago. Ideally, in a year's time, Restart Your Business With BV will not exist because the world reached the new normality. We have applied to participate in the Mayan Train project and are participating in the Dos Bocas refinery, reflecting that Bureau Veritas is and will still immersed in the country's economic growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a scenario in which more and more controls will be implemented in all industrial processes to minimize the possibility of anything like this happening again. However, we are prepared to mitigate any adverse effect should it happen again. In terms of certification and safety, hard to reverse decisions will be made. After 9/11, safety decisions were taken and are still valid today and I believe that something similar can happen with the verification, certification and control of production and operational processes in Mexico’s different strategic industries.

Q: What are Bureau Veritas’ priorities and objectives in Mexico for 2020, taking into account the current socioeconomic situation in the country?

A: The projections we were handling in October and November 2019 are completely out of date. Three years ago, Bureau Veritas was a completely different company in Mexico than what it is today. Bureau Veritas’ commitment to Mexico is long-term, so a situation like the one brought by COVID-19 will not change the plans that our headquarters has for the country. Diversification continues to be a very important part of our business and I believe that Bureau Veritas will be successful in Mexico.

 

Bureau Veritas is a world-leading provider of testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the group has more than 78,000 employees located in more than 1,500 offices and laboratories around the globe.

 

Photo by:   MBN

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