EVOLUCIÓN HISTÓRICA DE CEMENTOS MEXICANOS: UN GRUPO ECONÓMICO DE CAPITAL NACIONAL

RESUMEN Objetivo: Conocer la evolucion historica de una gran empresa de capital nacional y abordar las estrategias que ha puesto en practica hasta constituirse en un gran corporativo o grupo economico. Se parte del enfoque del devenir historico en el que prevalece el analisis de los origenes y evolucion de la empresa. Por ende, predomina la cronica y las descripciones, reune acontecimientos de la vida nacional y local de Monterrey, con la guia de un orden cronologico, logrando establecer planteamientos analiticos. Material y metodo: Los metodos que se utilizaron fueron el metodo historico-critico, el metodo analitico con un enfoque dinamico y el metodo comparativo. Se utilizaron los enfoques: 1) regional, 2) de origen historico y 3) de estrategias corporativas y organizaciones. El enfoque regional considera que el origen regional es un factor importante en las practicas economicas y politicas de los empresarios mexicanos. El segundo da mayor peso al origen historico y a las condiciones de surgimiento para establecer la configuracion definitiva, las practicas economicas y politicas predominantes y los patrones de desarrollo de los grupos. El tercer enfoque de las estrategias corporativas y organizacionales, atiende la cambiante estructura organizativa de las grandes corporaciones modernas y su tendencia a adoptar estructuras de administracion y morfologias corporativas mas complejas. Se establece el metodo comparativo para tener en cuenta aquellas situaciones en que las caracteristicas comunes de las empresas se combinan con circunstancias historicas que preceden a la formacion de grandes corporativos de Monterrey. Resultados: No se pretendio hacer un analisis historico profundo, sino identificar y reconocer los eventos historicos y particularidades del comportamiento empresarial en Monterrey a fin de rescatar una presencia socioeconomica activa que llevara a considerar el surgimiento de un gran corporativo o grupo economico que ha transitado a la logica nacional. Se abordo a Cementos Mexicanos desde su constitucion como empresa en 1906 hasta 1982. Al periodo comprendido entre 1890 y 1910 se le puede considerar como la etapa de surgimiento de las grandes empresas manufactureras en Mexico, periodo que corresponde al porfiriato. El patron de inversiones que predomino dio como resultado una gran concentracion del capital en los sectores de ferrocarriles, mineria y banca, aunque tambien en algunas empresas del sector industrial como Cementos Hidalgo (hoy Cementos Mexicanos, S.A.). En Monterrey surgieron en esa epoca grandes empresas que todavia subsisten y son la base de varios grupos o corporativos industriales actuales. Conclusiones: El nacimiento industrial de Monterrey, es el resultado logico de un proceso de acumulacion de capital dentro del ambito comercial y de la necesidad de esos capitales de hallar nuevos campos de aplicacion que posteriormente invirtieron en la esfera industrial. Los factores a los que podemos atribuir el desarrollo industrial de Monterrey corresponden al apoyo permanente del Estado, a factores geograficos favorecedores y a coyunturas historicas de Mexico. Una segunda etapa de periodizacion de las grandes empresas se localiza en los anos que van de 1930 a 1950 y se caracteriza por la instalacion de empresas dedicadas a sustituir importaciones y la produccion orientada hacia un mercado nacional y donde el Estado oriento el proceso de desarrollo. Entre los antecedentes historicos de estas empresas encontramos que en 1931 se fusionaron Cementos Hidalgo y Cementos Portland Monterrey y formaron Cementos Mexicanos, S. A. En una tercera etapa que va de 1951 a 1970 se da propiamente el surgimiento del grupo economico de Cementos Mexicanos cuando sus inversiones se dirigen hacia la integracion tanto horizontal como vertical y la diversificacion en la produccion de las empresas, asi como la suscripcion en la Bolsa de Valores. ABSTRACT Objective: To know the historical evolution of a large company that runs with national capital and approach the strategies that this firm has implemented in order to become a major corporate or economic group. The first approach has to be with the historical evolution where the origins and development of the firm prevail. Because of this, the chronicle and descriptions predominate. It gathers events of the national life and the local life in Monterrey, with the guidance of a chronological order, achieving the establishment of analytical approaches. Material and method: The methods used were the historical-critical method, the analytical method with a dynamic approach, and the comparative method. The approaches used were: 1) the regional, 2) the historical origin, and 3) the corporate strategies and organizations. The regional approach considers that the regional origin is an important factor in the economic and political practices of the Mexican entrepreneurs. The second approach gives more weight to the one of historical origin and the conditions of emergence to establish the definite configuration, the predominant economic and political practices, and the patterns of group development. The third approach, the one of corporate and organizational strategies, responds to the changing organizational structure of large modern corporations and their tendency to adopt managerial structures and more complex corporate morphologies. The comparative method is established to take into account those situations where the common characteristics of the companies are combined with historical circumstances that precede the formation of large corporates in Monterrey. Results: It was not intended to do a deep historical analysis, but to identify and recognize the historical events and special particularities of the entrepreneurial behavior in Monterrey in order to rescue an active socio-economic presence that will lead to consider the emergence of a great corporate or economic group that has transited to the national logic. Cementos Mexicanos was addressed since it was constituted as a company in 1906 until 1982. The period between 1890 and 1910 can be considered as the stage of emergence of the great manufacturing companies in Mexico, and this period corresponds to the Porfiriato. The predominant pattern of investments resulted in a great concentration of the capital in the railway, mining and banking sectors, but also in some companies of the industrial sector such as Cementos Hidalgo (nowadays Cementos Mexicanos, SA). In Monterrey at that time, large companies emerged and they still exist and are the basis of several existing industrial corporate groups. Conclusions: The industrial birth of Monterrey is the logical result of a process of accumulation of capital within the commercial scope and the need of those capitals to find new fields of application that subsequently were invested in the industrial sphere. The factors that can be attributed to the industrial development of Monterrey correspond to the permanent support of the state, the geographical favourable factors, and the historical junctures of Mexico. A second stage of periodization of the large companies is between the years 1930 and 1950 and it´s characterized by the establishment of companies devoted to substitute importations and to the production oriented towards a national market where the state oriented the process of development. Among the historical background of these companies it was found that in 1931 «Cementos Hidalgo» and «Cementos Portland Monterrey» merged and they formed the firm «Cementos Mexicanos , S. A.» In a third stage, that goes from 1951 to 1970, the emergence of the economic group «Cementos Mexicanos» was actually given, when its investments were directed towards both, not only the horizontal integration but also the vertical one and the diversification in the production of the companies, as well as the subscription in the stock market.