How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience? 

In addition to the continuous monitoring and risk analysis (associated with, for example, bills that change the rules of the game in the industry) and ensuring contracts include clauses that protect against legal uncertainties, it is necessary to go further. It is required to have a commercial and managerial approach that goes beyond what is traditionally considered the lawyer’s role. This means taking concrete actions to: (i) collaborate with industry players to develop joint strategies, (ii) actively participating in committees that influence public policy and (iii) developing a clear communication strategy to keep internal and external stakeholders informed about the specific situation, the impact on the business, and the concrete actions that have been taken. 

All of the above must be aligned with the business strategy. This alignment is achieved by ensuring that legal decisions are consistent with the company’s growth and sustainability plan, working hand in hand with the non-legal areas of the company, developing a flexible legal framework that discards phrases like “this is how it has always been done”, and instead adapts to the needs of the operational, financial, and technical teams making their job easier. Finally, it is key to promote a proactive rather than reactive approach to legal challenges, ensuring the company is prepared for any eventuality and keeping the flexibility that the organisation needs. 

In your opinion, what are the main trends that are salient in your country currently (these can be legal, political, economy or business-based)?  

There are clear global trends that have gradually had a local impact on topics such as AI and the ESG approach. The former poses challenges for companies to use it while maintaining an ethical focus. The latter, from a practical perspective, should go beyond listing objectives in a policy and translate into concrete actions to ensure that the goals are met. Beyond these clear trends, in my opinion, Colombia, as an emerging economy and given its strategic geographical position, has shown trends of adaptation and flexibility that have stood out in the region. 

Indeed, considering the political and economic context of expected change that the country is going through, several actors have faced the natural uncertainty derived from this expectation by generating creative solutions that allow them to continue operating and generating value. This has meant abandoning the typical approach of executing a strategic plan to adopt a flexible and adaptable approach to the environment from all areas of the company, allowing them to read the environment, adjust the plan, decentralize decision-making by empowering employees, have a practical focus, and make informed decisions based on data and analytics.