I often check out innovation job postings in different web pages since they show the market’s interest on the theme. Yesterday I saw a job posting at OCC Mundial that caught my attention due to recent news.
This week 145 (and counting) dead bodies have been found in “narco fosas” (pits where drug cartels bury their victims) at San Fernando, Tamaulipas, a small town whose most important characteristic is being the intersection towards Matamoros and Reynosa, two of the most important northern cities in the state, and sadly, two of the most damaged by drug-war violence. Government has said that the dead bodies were people trying to cross the border towards US that were caught by cartels to force their “recruitment” or die. Tamaulipas is one of the three states that has more violence and less governmental control.
What has been disturbing and controversial about the news, besides the quantity of dead bodies, is that before the findings there had only been 1 previous report of a person missing, out of 145 known victims. Omnibus de México, a transportation company, just today reported that they had 5 missing buses in San Fernando. Their report comes AFTER the body findings. HOW COME THEY SAID NOTHING BEFORE??? Families of the victims are already thinking of suing the transportation company which, on top of everything, has no insurance on kidnapping and violence, just accidents. Other transportation companies have made no public comments or statements on the problem but have stopped providing services towards San Fernando and limiting others in Tamaulipas.
The job posting I saw yesterday, as shown in the printscreen, is looking for a “Continuous Improvement and Innovation Coordinator” for Transportes Tamaulipas SA de CV (Grupo Senda), a bus company in North Mexico whose own name makes reference to the state where the violent news happened. I couldn’t stop thinking about the challenges a job such as this one could have after the recent events. What innovations could win back user confidence and security? I started to ideate forms of preventing high-way violence through communication technology or security controls inside buses, but the truth is it is a complex problem to deal with. What measures would you implement without provoking more violence to your company?
While drug cartels are kidnapping and killing people out of buses for recruitment in Tamaulipas, Tamaulipas’ bus companies are recruiting employees for innovation. Talk about ideas needed!