With only $700 in the bank, in 2006, Andres Moreno founded a company that is worth $350 million today. Open English, an online English-language learning module, owes its success to business agility, opportunity seizing and marketing strategy.

Seven years ago, the Venezuelan entrepreneur had a traditional English school in Caracas. Although already successful at the time, Moreno chose to reinvent his firm into an all-online model in response to a major change in the business environment: the growth of the internet.

Open English took advantage of the growing demand for language training in Latin America’s emerging nations to gather 70,000 students from 22 countries. In addition, its recent and successful expansion to Brazil, where 10,000 students enrolled within a year, further underscores the firm’s potential to increase market share.

Similarly, great part of the CEO’s success is the result of Open English’s value propositions. Not only do they offer high-quality, online lessons from native English speakers, but their coaching is also flexible, affordable and convenient to busy professionals.

Finally, the enterprise’s market strategy – “quirky, homemade commercials”(ABC,2013) – have effectively raised the brand’s popularity, while conveying the its friendly environment.

Andres Moreno has revolutionized the way English is being taught.

Websites:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/29/3370994/miami-based-open-english-raises.html

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/tech-journey-open-english-online-learning-expands-launch/story?id=19485674

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/open-english-secures-43-million-investment-led-by-insight-venture-partners-will-continue-to-focus-on-latam-and-brazilian-markets-163836926.html

Video:

Virtual English Language School “Open English” Is Worth Millions

“Los Poderosos” is a Peruvian trading company that specializes in the buying and selling of gold in the Amazon Jungle and that is currently engaging in unethical practices.

To start with, the firm acquires gold that comes from illegal mining. In doing this, they are condoning and promoting socially undesirable behaviors, since unethical miners evade paying taxes and employee benefits, and contaminate this center of biodiversity.

Furthermore, “Los Poderosos” does not declare the whole of their transactions to the government. This is exemplified by the recent interventions from the police, who have caught representatives from this firm transporting gold ingots out of the country and bringing in large amounts of cash across the Peruvian border. In such a way, they hide their money to avoid paying taxes. Along these lines, the firm sees its costs reduced and thus, competes unfairly against other enterprises that obtain their gold in a lawful manner.

Unfortunately, this company is just one of the many firms that revolve around unlawful mineral extraction in Peru. Driven by the price incentive of selling each kilogram of gold at US$39,000 and disregarding their social and environmental impacts, these firms are already responsible for costly and irreversible problems.

http://elcomercio.pe/actualidad/1628845/noticia-incautaciones-ponen-evidencia-lavado-dinero-oro-ilegal_1