On April 19, 1978, on page six of El Colombiano (a newspaper from Medellín), the following note was published: “A group of Antioquian investors created a common capital fund of $1,000 million pesos, with the purpose of investing in Antioquian companies to maintain control of them in the region and to continue the Paisa tradition of creating new job opportunities, expanding existing companies, and creating new industries.” This note accounts for what has been recognized as one of the main Colombian economic groups: the “Sindicato Antioqueño” (Antioquian Union) or “Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño” (GEA) (Antioquian Business Group). This economic group is not linked to a family, as is common in Latin America; in fact, its name is related to a geographic and cultural region: Antioquia. In this video, Diana Londoño-Correa, a corporate strategy researcher in the Colombian context at EAFIT University, discusses the main corporate functions carried out by the informal and eventual corporate center that has directed it.
Diana Londoño-Correa. PhD in Administration, MSc in Administration, and BA in Administration from EAFIT University. Professor at the School of Management of EAFIT University, Medellín, Colombia. Research interests: Corporate Strategy. dlondono@eafit.edu.co.
Basic Bibliography on the history of the Antioqueño Business Group (GEA)
Álvarez, Víctor. “De las sociedades de negocios al Sindicato Antioqueño. Un camino centenario”. En Empresas y empresarios en la historia de Colombia. Siglos XIX y XX: una colección de estudios recientes, editado por Carlos Dávila L. de Guevara, 213-246. Colombia: Norma, 2003.
Londoño-Correa, Diana. “Los cambios en el control de mando en las firmas según la teoría de agencia: una hipótesis para explicar el surgimiento del Sindicato Antioqueño”. AD-minister 7 (2005): 46-69.
Londoño, Carlos. “Grupo Empresarial Antioqueño: evolución de políticas y estrategias, 1978-2002”. Revista EIA 1 (2004): 47-62.
Rivas-Montoya, Luz y Londoño-Correa, Diana. “Los roles de los centros corporativos en empresas multinegocios colombianas”. Estudios Gerenciales 36. 156 (2020): 299-313. https://doi.org/10.18046/j.estger.2020.156.3678