page_title: Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi y Montiano
section_title: MAPFRE: domestic and international expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi y Montiano / MAPFRE: domestic and international expansion
caption_attribution_description: Español: Mapfre Centro se Servicio de Alcorcón
context_page_description: Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi y Montiano was a Spanish entrepreneur, Carlist militant and author. Larramendi was as a longtime head of MAPFRE and is often counted among 100 most influential Spanish businessmen of the 20th century. He is recognized as sponsor and organizer of multifold initiatives related to Hispanic culture, mostly in Latin America. He briefly rose to Carlist executive, but is better known as engaged in promotion of Traditionalist heritage.
context_section_description: Already in 1969 Larramendi ensured the decision to commence expansion beyond Spain; though various directions were considered, from the onset he had his sights set on Latin America. In the early 1970s the company, by means of Editorial MAPFRE, embarked on public relations campaign, while Larramendi used to tour the continent himself; he made sure that Argentina was the most promising market and Colombia was the "mas españolista" country. In the late 1970s the company was looking for the most appropriate expansion formula; on the one hand, in 1976 it set up MAPFRE Internacional and directly entered many South American markets, on the other, it formed re-insurance conglomerates with Belgian and Dutch companies. None of that really worked; the most successful strategy was taking over local entities and using re-insurance as a ram to enter local markets; following acquisitions of Seguros Caribe (Colombia), Aconcagua (Argentina) and other companies, in the late 1980s MAPFRE became a major player on the continent. Also swift response to the 1985 Mexico earthquake earned the group prestige and recognition. In 1998 the company became re-insurance market leader in Latin America and the first among foreign companies in general. On the Latin American market MAPFRE engaged in 10 companies before 1990 and 22 after that date.
  During Larramendi's tenure MAPFRE failed to develop more than testimonial business in Europe. Following market simulations it was agreed that though a key player in Spain, the company was not in position to engage in full scale competition with larger German, Dutch or French conglomerates in the EEC, especially that earlier investment in Progress, a Sicily-focused company intended as starter for the Italian expansion, turned out to be a failure. At some stage MAPFRE considered entering Japan, but the Far-East plans were finally scaled down to businesses in Hong Kong and Macau.
  In 1985 Larramendi re-formatted his role from chief executive to presidente de la comisión de control institucional, but it was himself who remained behind the steering wheel. In the late 1980s he co-designed another scheme, named Plan Sistema MAPFRE 92. Two key entities, Mutual MAPFRE and Corporación MAPFRE, remained at its core. The entire business was re-drawn in line with the logic gaining popularity among corporative moguls of the era and designed after the Japanese zaibatsu model; its key feature was turning multi-business conglomerates into loose federative schemes with huge autonomy of its components. In 1990 the company re-emphasized its banking arm by creating Banco MAPFRE, the nucleus of Crédito del Sistema MAPFRE. The same year, having reached the age of 70, Larramendi resigned from all corporate roles except in the international business, where he stepped down in 1995; he complied with the rules he created and introduced himself. He was leaving the company operating 1,648 branch offices, employing directly 4,500 people and indirectly further 12,000, with 500m ptas consolidated assets and annual proceeds of 200m ptas.
caption: MAPFRE SSC, Alcorcon
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