Engineering Change in Mexico: The Adoption of Computer Technology at Grupo ICA (1965-1971)

Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo and Haigh, Thomas (2009): Engineering Change in Mexico: The Adoption of Computer Technology at Grupo ICA (1965-1971).

Abstract

This article documents the adoption of computer technology by a civil engineering services and construction company in Mexico at the time that it became the first Mexican multinational enterprise. Computerization took place independently of cross border growth. The challenges, failures and successes of computerization attest to the transformation in the use of computer applications from the mechanization of routine procedures to the creative use of these applications. In line with company policy, the latter lead to the establishment of the computer centre as a standalone, profit generating business unit. However, this policy responded to ‘laissez faire’ and fiscal (i.e. minimizing tax payments) rather than strategic considerations. To little surprise computer services never grew to be a significant income stream.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Computer centers, History, Data processing, Computer integrated engineering, Mexico
• Subjects: N - Economic History > N8 - Micro-Business History; N - Economic History > N7 - Transport, Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services > N76 - Latin America ; Caribbean; N - Economic History > N6 - Manufacturing and Construction > N66 - Latin America ; Caribbean; N - Economic History > N8 - Micro-Business History > N86 - Latin America ; Caribbean

References

A. D. Chandler, Jr., Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1962.

G. Gordon and T. Williams, "How do you spell success in Mexico? CALICA," Business Horizons, Jan-Feb, 2001, pp. 11-18.

T. Haigh, "Software in the 1960s as Concept, Service, and Product" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 24, no. 1, January-March 2002, pp. 5-13.

J.J. Ledesma, Trayectoria Historico-Ideologica de la Universidad Iberoamericana, vols. 1 & 2, México, D.F.: Universidad Iberoamericana, 1985, p. 434.

"IBM 1130 Computing System," available: http://ibm1130.org.

E. Buzio, "Resguarda ICA acervo aerofotográfico," Grupo Reforma, August 10, 2005, available: http://anuario.ajusco.upn.mx/site?accion=articulo&id_art=78154&tema=

ICA, "Nuestra historia," available: http://www.ica.com.mx/home_ica.htm?idioma=sp

Dirección de Relaciónes Públicas del Grupo ICA, El Grupo ICA a 1967, México D.F.: Grupo ICA, 1967, p. 1.

G. de Angel Mobarak, "Computerization of commercial banks and the building of an automated payments system in Mexico, 1965-1990," in Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: International Historical Perspectives, B. Bátiz-Lazo, J.C. Maixé-Altés and P. Thomes (eds.), London: Routledge, 2010 (Forthcoming)

"El Banco Comercial Mexicano, S.A., adquiere un sistema electronico de proceso de datos IBM 360," Excelsior, August 1, 1966

B. Trueblood, 125 años de Banco Serfin, Dirección de Relaciones Públicas, Méxcio D.F.: Banca Serfin, p. 84.

Cárdenas, E. (2003) “El proceso de industrialización acelerade en México (1929-1982)” in Industrialización y Estado en la América Latina: La leyenda negra de la posguerra, E. Cárdenas et al.(eds), . México, D.F., El Trimestre Económico - Fondo de Cultura Económica.

"50 años de la computación en México," available: http://www.cs.cinvestav.mx/SemanaComputoCINVESTAV/Computo.html.

"History of Computing in Mexico," available: http://cocomc10.pereanet.com/html/coco_in_mexico.html.

Cantarell, A. and Gonzalez, M. (2002) Historia de la computacion en Mexico (three volumes), Mexico DF: Hobbiton Ediciones S.A.

E. Medina, "Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile" Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 38, no. 3 2006, pp. 571-606

E. Medina, "Big Blue in the Bottomless Pit: The Early Years of IBM Chile" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 30, no. 4, Oct-Dec 2008, pp. 26-41.

D. de Wit, The Shaping of Automation : A Historical Analysis of the Interaction between Technology and Organization, 1950-1985. Hilversum: Verloren, 1994.

Wardley P. 2000. The Commercial Banking Industry and its Part in the Emergence and Consolidation of the Corporate Economy in Britain before 1940. Journal of Industrial History 3(2): 71-97

Bátiz-Lazo, B. and Boyns, T. (2004) ‘The business and financial history of automation and technological change in 20th century banking’, Accounting Business and Financial History Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 225-32

Booth AE. 2007. The Management of Technical Change: Automation in the UK and USA since 1950. Palgrave: Basingstoke

Bátiz-Lazo B, Wardley P. 2007. Banking on Change: Information Systems and Technologies in UK High Street Banking, 1919-1969. Financial History Review 14(2): 177-205

Bátiz-Lazo B. 2009. Emergence and evolution of ATM networks in the UK, 1967-2000. Business History 51(1): 1-27.

J. W. Cortada. 2003. The Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation, and Retail Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003

J. W. Cortada. 2006. The Digital Hand, Volume 2: How Computers Changed the Work of American Financial, Telecommunications, Media, and Entertainment Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press

J. W. Cortada. 2007. The Digital Hand, Volume 3: How Computers Changed the Work of American Public Sector Industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press

T. Haigh. 2001. "The Chromium-Plated Tabulator: Institutionalizing an Electronic Revolution, 1954-1958" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 23, no. 4, October-December, pp. 75-104.

J. Yates. 2005. Structuring the Information Age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.

J. Yates, "How Business Enterprises Use Technology: Extending the Demand-Side Turn" Enterprise and Society, vol. 7, no. 3, September 2006, pp. 422-455

R. S. Cowan, "The Consumption Junction: A Proposal for Research Strategies in the Sociology of Technology" in iThe Social Construction of Technological Systems, W. E. Bijker, T. Pinch and T. P. Hughes, Ed., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987, pp. 261-280.

N. Oudshoorn and T. Pinch. 2003. "How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology" Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

M. S. Mahoney. 2005. "The Histories of Computing(s)" Interdisciplinary Science Review, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 119-135.