Mejor en Bici: business model

innovation and shared value

Mario Andres Manzi, Erika Johanna Caicedo and Daniel Alberto Cardona

March 10, 2015 was not a regular day at Mejor en Bici (in English: Better by Bike). Its Mario Andres Manzi is
founding partners, Diego Ospina and Ricardo Arango, had met to review the 2014 financial based at the Department of
Business Administration,
statements and were very concerned about the figures, especially since the profit achieved
Pontificia Universidad
in the past year had only been COP $6,574,497[1]. This was not reflective of all the work
Javeriana, Bogota,
they had done during the past six years, and considering that their competition was growing Colombia.
strongly, it did not seem logical to continue with the company. However, this decision did Erika Johanna Caicedo is
not feel right in their hearts, and at the end of the meeting, the partners decided to look for based at the Department of
external help to see which direction they could take. Supply Chain and
Logistics, Estrella
Since Diego and Ricardo were pioneers in the bicycle-sharing system in Bogotá, they knew Internacional Energy
that Mejor en Bici was an innovative business idea with great potential in the medium and Services, Bogota DC,
long terms, and that they would do as much as was possible to sustain that. A few days Colombia.
after the meeting, Diego contacted the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá (CCB), an entity Daniel Alberto Cardona is
that had already provided consulting on other issues. Diego told them, “I am worried and based at the Direccio
n de
anxious about the results of Mejor en Bici, and I would like to ask you for consultancy to Ingenierı́a, Colombia Mo
vil,
Bogota D.C., Colombia.
create strategies that will allow us to grow.” The CCB’s reply was positive and it offered
them consultancy to develop a shared value initiative within Mejor en Bici. Diego and
Ricardo were skeptical but they finally accepted, with the pressure of the financial results
and their vision of making the bicycle the main means of transportation in Bogotá, despite
not understanding what the shared value initiative was about.
This case and its respective
On September 1, 2015, the consultancy began with a meeting at which Diego answered the teaching note correspond to
consultant’s questions about the company and the situation it was going through; Mejor en an adaptation of the degree
project entitled “Mejor en Bici:
Bici was proposed to have this consultancy developed through a co-creation process Pedaleando hacia la
innovacio
n de modelo de
between the consultant and the company. For this purpose, the consultant, along with negocio generando valor
Diego and Ricardo, had to define the main challenges that Mejor en Bici had to overcome to compartido” written by Erika
Caicedo and Daniel Cardona,
be able to design and implement a shared value initiative which would allow them to to opt for the Master’s degree in
respond quickly to the competition, obtain better financial results, and continue in the Business Administration at the
Pontificia Universidad
market. Javeriana.
The authors want to thank
Diego Ospina, Co-Founder and
The bicycle as a global means of transport Mejor en Bici Manager, for his
interest and collaboration in the
The bicycle is a symbol of ingenuity and design, which makes it part of the lifestyles of development of this case.
millions of people, whether as a means of transport, sport, or recreation. It has been Disclaimer. This case is written
solely for educational purposes
recognized that its use provides benefits in terms of mobility in cities and it improves and is not intended to represent
environmental indicators by contributing to the reduction of carbon dioxide in the successful or unsuccessful
managerial decision-making.
atmosphere. For these reasons, several cities in the world have implemented programs to The authors may have
disguised names; financial and
promote the widespread use of bicycles, along with the construction of adequate other recognizable information
infrastructure. to protect confidentiality.

DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-07-2019-0200 VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019, pp. 1-27, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE 1
 According to the ranking published by Copenhagenize (an organization dedicated to
evaluating the use of bicycles worldwide as a means of transport), the 10 most bike-friendly
cities in 2011 were: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Tokyo, Berlin, Munich, Paris,
Montreal, Dublin, and Budapest; the only Latin American cities in the top 20 were
Guadalajara, in 12th place, and Rio de Janeiro, in 18th place (Copenhagenize, 2011). By
2015, the most bike-friendly cities were: Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Strasbourg,
Eindhoven, Malmö, Nantes, Bordeaux, Antwerp, and Seville; the only Latin American city in
the top 20 was Buenos Aires, in 14th place (Copenhagenize, 2015).

The bicycle as a means of transport in Bogotá

Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, is a city located in the center of the country at 2,600 meters
above sea level, with an average temperature of 14 degrees Celsius. On December 15,
1974, the first attempt to encourage the use of bicycles as a means of transportation was
made through the nonprofit organization Procicla and the Administrative Department of
Transit and Transportation, when the two main roads of the city were dedicated to the
exclusive transit of bicycles from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.; more than 5,000 citizens attended
the event (Mayor’s office of Bogotá D.C., 2016). On June 7, 1976, the Mayor’s office of
Bogota issued decrees 566 and 567, which set aside 34 km of the most important roads in
the city for the recreational use of bicycles; and launched the program with the name Cycle
Street [Chamber of Commerce of Bogota (CCB), 2010][2]. In 1982, the inauguration of the
Weekly Cycle Street took place; an event where the main roads of the city allocated an
exclusive lane for the use of bicycles and other sports activities on Sundays and holidays
(Mayor’s Office of Bogotá DC, 2016).
In 1995 and 2000, an average of 1 million people mobilized along the Cycle Street, the first
Night Cycle Street event was carried out, engaging more than 3 million people, and the
construction of the first 10 km of cycle tracks was initiated [District Institute of Recreation
and Sports (IDRD), 2016].
By 2008, the extent of Bogotá was 1,636.63 km2, and the size of the population was
7,609,424 inhabitants. On December 23 of that year, the Council of Bogotá issued
Agreement 346 by which the use of the bicycle was recognized as a transport service
which was to become an integrated part of the city’s mobility system, and the Mayor’s office
was obliged to carry out promotional campaigns and outreach on behalf of bicycle
transport; the District Department of Transportation was given a 6-month term to carry out
the technical, economic, and legal studies necessary for the implementation of the bicycle
transport service called “BICI” (Council of Bogota, 2008). However, by the end of 2010, the
use of bicycles had not been integrated with the transport system, and the results of the
said studies had not been made available.
In 2011, the District Department of Transportation carried out a mobility survey in Bogotá,
the results of which showed that 11,587,750 trips of longer than 15 minutes were made in
the city per day, among which public transport predominated with 41 per cent, followed by
trips in non-motorized transport (on foot and by bicycle) of which 3.8 per cent, or 440,335,
were by bicycle. According to the above, 77 per cent of the trips were made by means
different to private vehicles [Chamber of Commerce of Bogota (CCB), Universidad de Los
Andes, Directorate of Urban Management, 2015]. In April 2012, cycle corridors[3], were
launched, which were part of the Pedalea por Bogota program; its purpose was for the
people to commute using public bicycles, and 20 bicycles were offered to support this
program.
In February 2013, the consulting company Eroski Consumer published an analysis of the 18
best cities in the world to use the bicycle, in which Bogotá was ranked in the eighth position
(Fernandez, 2013). By 2014, the program was extended and two new cycle corridors were
created: in the north of the city, at Virrey Park, and another one along the Mundo Aventura

PAGE 2 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019

area. During that year, there were 376 kilometers of cycle tracks and 30 different routes[4],
of which five had a length of more than 20 kilometers (the longest one was the North-Quito-
South corridor that was 26 kilometers long) and all of them were connected at some points
to facilitate the mobility of cyclists. 10.1 km of cycle lanes were also built [see Exhibit 1][5].
Cycle lanes are usually one-way and run in the same direction as mixed traffic, which
provides better safety for users and contributes to protecting the environment by
discouraging the use of cars and thus reducing polluting emissions. Among these cycle
lanes, those that stood out were the one in Mundo Aventura, which is 4.02 km long, and the
one on 50th Avenue between 59th and 13th streets, which is 4.75 km long.
By October 2014, the Mayor’s office of Bogotá launched the SDM-LP-026-2014 public
bidding process, whose objective was to carry out a “concession contract for the
implementation and operation, at its own risk, of the Bogotá Bike-sharing system (SBP)”
(District Department of Transportation, 2014). Only two companies registered for this
process, and on January 27, 2015, the bidding process was declared void “based on the
failure to comply with the rules established in the bidding documents and in the regulations
governing state procurement” (Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, March 27, 2015). However, after
appeals filed by the two companies, the tender was awarded to the BiciBogotá Temporary
Union on March 19, with a term of 18 months for the implementation of the first phase of the
project; nevertheless, works were not initiated due to political and economic issues.

History of Mejor en Bici

Pedaling together: the rise of the passion for bicycles. Diego Ospina and Ricardo Arango
first met at Universidad Politecnico Grancolombiano in 1998 while studying on the
Marketing and Advertising program. In 2002, Diego and Ricardo met again while working at
Fundacion Santacruz; they were linked to the “Tierra Nativa” program where they organized
trips for students from high-income schools during the midyear vacations, and
subsequently, with the money they managed to raise on these trips, they replicated the
same excursion with students from low-income schools.
One day in June that year, during a meeting, Diego’s uncle Francisco Vargas who was also
his coworker, proposed that Ricardo and Diego make a trip from Bogota to La Guajira by
bicycle to raise funds to take children with limited resources to see the sea. Diego said: “I
had never ridden a bicycle; I did not even have one and the truth is that such a trip seemed
impossible to make.” However, due to Francisco’s insistence, they finally accepted. The
excursion, which they called “To Cabo de la Vela by bicycle”, began on December 26,
2002; they covered much of northern Colombia and reached their final destination – Cabo
de la Vela – on January 7, 2003. After this experience, Diego and Ricardo made several
bicycle trips which their friend José Gaona joined, touring the four corners of the Colombian
territory: the Pacific, the Amazon, the Orinoquia and the Guajira.
Learning to ‘‘ride a bicycle’’: their first business. In early 2008, after returning from a trip that
they made from Colombia to Argentina by motorbike, and after receiving calls and emails
from friends and acquaintances asking them where they could buy bicycles and
accessories in Bogotá, Diego said: “I told them where they could buy the bicycles and
accessories [. . .] but I realized that I was losing the opportunity to be the one selling those
to them, and at that moment I talked to Jose and Ricardo and we decided to find the way to
seize this opportunity.”
Diego started to research the bicycle culture in Bogotá and, in one of those meetings, he
presented the CCB with statistics for 2007 which showed that people spent their longest
travel time on collective public transport, with an average of 63 min, then mass transport
(Transmilenio) with 55 min, and taxis, with 28 min. Regarding private vehicles, he showed
them that the average travel time by motorcycle was 28 min, by private vehicle it was
26 minutes, and by bicycle it was 22 min. On the other hand, according to the study, of the

VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE 3

 100 per cent of trips made daily, only 2 per cent were made by bicycle during that year,
while 56 per cent were made by public transport, 12 per cent were made on foot, and 30
per cent were made by private vehicles [Chamber of Commerce of Bogota (CCB), 2007].
From this information, Diego, José, and Ricardo got the idea of creating a bicycle-sharing
system in Bogotá, which would allow people to move within the city taking advantage of the
existing road infrastructure. However, given the lack of economic resources, and because
they still were not very clear about how they were going to execute their idea, they decided
to leave it aside while they obtained the economic resources to start it. As an alternative, on
February 15, 2010, the three friends opened the store “Movilidad en Bicicleta S.A.S.” where
they sold bicycles, accessories, and spare parts; located on 134th Street and 19th Road,
near a cycle track. In Diego’s words: “When Ricardo and José saw that the store was giving
good results and their sales had been made in record time, they told me that it was a good
thing we had not entered the bicycle-sharing system business [. . .] but right then we had
our first crisis.”
Four months after opening the store, sales decreased drastically, and customers, who were
mainly their friends, no longer bought from them. After considering this situation, they
decided to close the store. From that moment on, and thanks to the profit made during
4 months of the store’s operation and due to Diegòs personal conviction to develop a
bicycle-based transportation system that would improve the quality of life of the inhabitants
of Bogotá, he revived the initial idea of “creating a bicycle-sharing system.”
Origin of Mejor en Bici. In June 2010, once Ricardo and José had agreed with Diego that
the bicycle-sharing system was a business opportunity, they decided to research what was
happening with the bicycle culture in Colombia in depth. For that they hired Diego’s sister-
in-law, who was paid with 5 per cent of the company’s shares. As a result, they found that in
2010, people spent 65 min on average traveling by public collective transport, 53 min by
Transmilenio, 42 min by private vehicle, 36 min by taxi, 26 min by motorcycle, and 25 min by
bicycle; in relation to the 2009 mobility report, there was an increase in travel times for all
modes of transport. Additionally, they found that as of that date in 2010, out of 100 per cent
of the injuries in accidents, only 9 per cent was by bicycle; and out of 100 per cent of the
deaths, only 5.8 per cent were by bicycle. Later, they hired Diego’s brother, Rodrigo
Ospina, to design the company brand, and they offered to pay him 5 per cent of the
company’s shares. The result of this work was the brand “Mejor en Bici” [see Exhibit 2], a
friendly and fresh expression, from which you could create phrases such as “for the planet,
it is better by bike (Mejor en Bici),” “for your health, it is better by bike (Mejor en Bici),” or “to
work, it is better by bike,” which was a resource they considered very important for their
communications since it allowed them to convince people that it was better to get about by
bike in the city (“Mejor en Bici”). In this spirit, Diego, Rodrigo and José continued using the
same strategy – calling in their relatives and friends for the initial needs of the company, and
they were all paid with a percentage of shares; soon there were nine partners.
They established the company mission – “To improve people’s quality of life by promoting
the use of bicycles as a means of transport.” The goal was to create a trend and encourage
people to use the bicycle as a means of transport, for which they wanted to work hand in
hand with private companies to motivate employees to replace their use of cars, taxis, or
public transport. Regarding this, Diego explained the following:
If they live far away, they can use a folder bike to get on a bus or Transmilenio, and I recognize
that thanks to the fact that I go to work by bike on a daily basis, I have managed to transmit this to
my colleagues and employees. Besides, it is normal for them to give you a weird look at first, but
then, people begin to understand the meaning and importance of what you do and decide to
copy it.

Mejor en Bici wanted to tell other companies that if they decided to implement a service
where their employees were offered a bicycle-sharing system, they would improve their

PAGE 4 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019

quality of life and that of all the people in Bogotá, allowing them to obtain better results in
their jobs.
By late July 2010, Diego decided to take a gap year and traveled to Europe with his wife,
leaving Ricardo and José in charge of the company. First, Diego visited Barcelona and
later, he decided to visit Madrid and Amsterdam. In this last city, he saw that children went
to school by bicycle, people went to work by bicycle, and even messengers and policemen
also traveled by bicycle. The city was very well equipped for the use of bicycles and had
more than 400 kilometers of signaled cycle lanes; there were more than 600,000 bicycles
for a population of 750,000 residents. Then, Diego and his wife traveled to Berlin, where he
observed how top executives commuted to work by bicycle. At the end of the trip, Diego
confirmed that this same culture could be developed in Bogotá and in Colombia, a country
that has appropriate weather for this activity and where vehicle traffic grows year upon year.
Diego said:
I’m not crazy! Moving around by bicycle on a daily basis is not a crazy or unreasonable thing;
crazy people are all those people in Colombia who buy cars that cost more than 50 million pesos
in order to move around a city like Bogotá, where traffic jams and roads do not allow it. You can
only use your car two or three times a week and you are also destroying the environment.

The first crank of the pedal: their first client. In September 2010, Codensa, a Colombian
company dedicated to the distribution and commercialization of electricity in Bogotá and in
the department of Cundinamarca, launched a marketing strategy that consisted of a
discount voucher attached to each electricity bill for the purchase of a bicycle and to be
paid in installments. However, this strategy did not have the success they expected, and
Codensa had to store most of the bicycles in its warehouses.
The person in charge of Codensa’s new businesses heard about Mejor en Bici and its
initiatives in favor of the use of bicycles, so he decided to contact them to identify a purpose
for the bicycles it was storing. Ricardo and José saw a great opportunity to start their
shared bicycle business at this juncture, and the best thing was to have Codensa as their
first customer and ally. The partners told him about their idea, where Codensa would put the
bicycles at the service of their employees to commute from work to home and vice versa,
and Mejor en Bici would oversee its administration, loan, and operation. For this purpose,
Codensa had to assign space in the parking lot of its main headquarters, which would be
used to park the bicycles and to take them and leave them. The business manager liked the
proposal and he accepted. In June 2011, after 10 months of negotiations, Codensa and
Mejor en Bici signed a contract for 2 years for a monthly value of $1,600,000[6], and this
way, they started the program they called “E-bike to Work”. Regarding this situation, Diego
said, “I have to give the credit to Codensa because they were the ones who believed in us
at first and gave us the opportunity to start off.”
Materializing the dream: the origin of Sistema de Bicicletas de Uso Compartido. In January
2012, the founders of Mejor en Bici decided to name their core business line the Bicycle-
Sharing System (Sistema de Bicicletas de Uso Compartido – SIBUC), by means of which
Mejor en Bici would now be responsible for supplying bicycles to customers and managing
the services for users. The main components of the SIBUC were the following:
Step by Step: To use the service at companies or universities, employees or students had to
register on a web page and from there, book the date they wanted to use the bicycles. On
the day that they had booked the bicycle, they had to go to the cycle parking facility and
ask for the bicycle, go to their destination and return the bicycle to the cycle parking facility
at their company within a maximum period of 24 h; and on Fridays, they could take them for
a period of 72 h.
Additional services: Mejor en Bici offered the following services to the organizations in
addition to the SIBUC:

VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE 5

 䊏 adaptation of the parking spaces in the company offices to park the bicycles;
䊏 management and control of bicycle loans to users;
䊏 delivery of monthly reports on the use of SIBUC;
䊏 placement of company branding on bicycles as a means of advertising;
䊏 provision of an insurance policy that covers bicycle theft;
䊏 accompaniment of each user during the first trip made by a Mejor en Bici employee to
help overcome the most common fears that people feel when using the bicycle for the
first time as a means of transportation in Bogotá, such as not knowing the cycle tracks,
insecurity, nervousness of other bicycles that circulate along the road, and lack of
knowledge of traffic regulations; and
䊏 delivery to all users of a manual containing the regulations for the correct use of the
bicycle, correct use of the road, physical and safety recommendations, infractions and
penalties, and maps of the city’s cycle tracks.

Infrastructure: In March 2012, Mejor en Bici got a local vendor of bicycles and spare parts
to ensure the supply and proper maintenance of the bicycles; also, they rented a
warehouse in the north of the city where they kept and repaired the bicycles.
Advertisement: As a first advertisement strategy for employees and students of companies
and universities, who could become potential users of SIBUC, Mejor en Bici informed them
about this service and its benefits; this was done through posters, POP material, emails,
social media and BTL activities; the latter consisted of skits and dramatizations made by
actors to convince employees of the health benefits of using a bicycle instead of taking
buses and taxis, or driving private cars. Also, a presentation called “The First Crank of the
Pedal,” which was given by Diego or Ricardo to all employees, was added to these
strategies, in which they transmitted their passion for bicycles and encouraged people to
use the SIBUC. They also made cycle picnics, which were trips made by bicycle to a park
to have lunch there. Due to the originality of their service, they managed to obtain free press
in the main tabloids of the country, such as El Tiempo, El Espectador, and La Republica,
and in magazines, such as Semana.
Mejor en Bici enabled an option on its website to have a two-way communication with their
final users, allowing them to write their comments and reviews about the positive or negative
things they found in the service, and providing them with additional and updated
information.
Mejor en Bici also designed an advertising strategy aimed at the people who led the human
resources areas in the companies and universities that acquired the SIBUC, who were the
main sponsors of the service. This strategy consisted of generating a series of reports
through a technological platform, which showed statistics on the use of bicycles, such as
the numbers of users, kilometers traveled, percentage of carbon dioxide emissions reduced
(as a result of avoiding the transit of private vehicles), money saved by people who avoided
paying a taxi or bus to get around, as well as reductions made in travel time.
Management: In 2012, Diego and Ricardo carried out the main SIBUC activities under a
project management scheme. The distribution of activities and tasks was made depending
on the needs; both were in charge of contacting potential customers, and once the
customer showed interest, the person who had contacted the customer initiated a
negotiation where different issues were addressed, such as the monthly payment for the
implementation and administration of the SIBUC.
Mejor en Bici charged its clients for an annual contract, which depended on the number of
bicycles that the customer requested and it included the adaptation of the cycle parking
structure at the client’s facilities, the delivery of the bicycles in perfect condition, a person

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from Mejor en Bici that was in charge of managing the system, and access to additional
services.
Pedaling and pedaling to overcome the stones on the way. In February 2012, Mejor en Bici
managed to obtain its second customer, Pacific Rubiales, a Canadian oil and natural gas
exploration and production company, with which they closed a contract for the SIBUC
service for 1 year for a monthly value of COP $5,000,000 and that initially started with ten
bicycles[7]. In March, Mejor en Bici managed to enter Unilever’s new client pool; with this
push, Mejor en Bici opened its first office in the El Polo neighborhood in Bogotá.
The company structure also grew with the new office. Diego was the general manager and
Ricardo the SIBUC manager; the third founding partner, José Gaona, decided to go to
study in France but he continued to be linked to the company. José’s departure was the
reason why Diego was also in charge of human resources management and commercial
management, whereas Ricardo was in charge of the shop where 13 mechanics worked.
Additionally, each time a new client was acquired, a person was hired to control the daily
operation onsite.
In December 2012, Mejor en Bici faced its first crisis. The financial statements showed that
there was not enough money to operate, and there were operational losses of COP
$8,696,411[8]. In view of this situation, at a very tense meeting, some of the partners felt that
it was best to close the company, while others said they should change their strategy; Diego
then asked, “Who would like to sell at this time?”, to which six of the nine partners who had
35 per cent of the shares immediately responded that they wanted to sell their shares. At
that moment, Diego said, “No problem, I’m going to find someone who buys your shares
and decides to continue with us in this dream and business,” and that’s how it was; in a few
days he got two people interested, who saw the potential of the company and who had
knowledge in the financial area. One of them was Federico Márquez, an industrial engineer
from Universidad de los Andes, and the other one was Juan Camilo Nariño, an economist
from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; in early 2013, they bought the shares that the six
partners wanted to sell.
After some months of apparent calm, a new crisis arose in June 2013; the person in charge
of managing the account with Codensa resigned and created a company that became a
competitor of Mejor en Bici, causing Condensa not to renew the contract with Mejor en Bici
but to sign with him. Although this was a very hard blow for Mejor en Bici, since they only
had a minimal profit of COP $2,702,533[9], it was also an alert to get new customers.
By the end of 2014, Mejor en Bici had the following customers: Pacific Rubiales, Unilever,
Sura, Universidad de los Andes, Bavaria, Cemex, Universidad EAN and Findeter. However,
despite the growth of the company that year, the partners began to see that the number of
employees of companies that had started using their own bicycles as a means of transport
was increasing rapidly, but the number of SIBUC users had not. Additionally, the
competition was also growing, and by the start of 2015, there were already companies like
El Tomacorriente, Ciudad Bibo, Biciclick and City Biobike, which started to offer similar
bicycle-sharing services; and added to the awarding of the bid for the public bicycle
program by the Mayor‘s office of Bogota to Union Temporal BiciBogotá in March 2014, this
represented a great threat to the future of Mejor en Bici.
By early 2015, Mejor en Bici had a customer base of 12 clients and had planned to offer its
services in the city of Medellin within its projects.
The next cranks of the pedal: how to create shared value? On March 10, 2015, Diego
summoned Ricardo to a meeting to review the 2014 financial statements, which the
accountant had given him the previous day [Exhibit 3]. During the meeting, Diego and
Ricardo were very concerned that the net income of COP $6,574,497 did not reflect all the
efforts they had made to improve the company’s growth and profitability[10], and with the
growing competition, the landscape did not look sustainable for them to continue. As a

VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE 7

 conclusion to the meeting, the partners decided to look for external help to review the
direction they could take because they were convinced that their idea was very innovative
and that it could transform the way in which the inhabitants of Bogotá were moving around
in the city.
Diego came up with the idea to ask the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá for help because
it had already provided them with prior consultancy. Diego told them: “I am worried and
anxious about the results of Mejor en Bici, I would like to ask for consultancy to create
strategies that allow us to grow.” The reply of the CCB was positive and it offered the
consultancy to develop a shared value initiative. Diego and Ricardo accepted without
understanding much of what this was about under the pressure of the disappointing
financial results.
On September 1, 2015, the CCB consultancy began, which was operated by the
company CreativeLab. That day, the first meeting between Diego and the consultant was
held, where questions were answered about what the company was, the context in which
it operated, and the situation it was going through. After this meeting, the consultant
Keywords: proposed to Diego to carry out this consultancy as a co-creation process between him
Innovation, and the company. For this purpose, they had first to define the main challenges that
Entrepreneurship, Mejor en Bici had to overcome to design and implement a shared value initiative that
Business formation/start would allow them to respond quickly to the competition, obtain better financial results
ups
and continue in the market.

Notes
1. US$1 = COP$2,585.36. Average from March 2015.
2. Streets intended for the inhabitants of Bogotá to make use of their bicycles, skates, and to perform
sports activities such as running, jogging, or walking on Sundays and holidays from 7:00 a.m. to
2:00 p.m. The transit of vehicles was not allowed along Cycle Streets.
3. Street intended for the system of recreational bicycle use in the public space.
4. Street dedicated to the exclusive transit of bicycles. Cycle tracks make an intercommunicated
network that can be used by the inhabitants of Bogotá to ride their bicycles 24/7.
5. Exclusive lane for bicycles in the streets, identified with a bicycle symbol. Cycle lanes are usually
unidirectional and go in the same direction of mixed traffic flow.
6. US$ = $1,785.56 COP. Average from August 2011.
7. 7 US$1 = COP $1,782.75. Average from February 2012.
8. US$1 = COP $1,768.39. Average from December 2012.
9. US$1 = COP $1,812.02. Average from June 2013.
10. US$1 = COP $2,585.36. Average from March 2015.
11. The story was developed by the authors, adapted from the blog Sin Palabras (Sin Palabras, n.d).

References
Chamber of Commerce of Bogota (CCB) (2007), “Characterization and indicators of mobility in Bogota,
2007”, available at: file:///D:/Informacion/Downloads/Observatorio%202007%20(1).pdf (accessed 16
March 2017).

Chamber of Commerce of Bogota (CCB) (2010), “Manual of bicycle-friendly policies”, available at: http://
bibliotecadigital.ccb.org.co/bitstream/handle/11520/14248/Manual_bicycling-2010.pdf?sequence=1&is
Allowed=y (accessed 15 March 2017).

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(2015), “Mobility Observatory – Annual mobility report 2014”, available at: file:///D:/Informacion/
Downloads/observatorio%20de%20movilidad%208.pdf (accessed 5 March 2017).

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Copenhagenize (2011), “The copenhagenize urban cycling index 2011”, available at: www.mobilservice.
ch/admin/data/files/news_section_file/file/2781/copenhagenize-index-201-bicycle-friendly-cities.pdf?lm=
1418801210 (accessed 20 March 2017).
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(accessed 20 March 2017).

Council of Bogota (2008), “Agreement 346 of 2008, which implements the use of the bicycle as a
transport service integrated to the mobility system of the capital district”, available at: www.
alcaldiabogota.gov.co/sisjur/normals/Norma1.jsp?i=34264 (accessed 12 March 2017).

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Further reading
Mayor’s office of Bogota D.C (2015), “Declared a tender to purchase public bicycles”, available at: www.

n-de-la-licitacio
bogota.gov.co/article/declarada-desierta-adjudicacio
n-para-adquirir-bicycle-pRepúblicas-
para (accessed 15 March 2017).

Mayor’s office of Bogota D.C (2016), “Draft agreement no. 236 of 2016”, available at: www.
alcaldiabogota.gov.co/sisjur/normas/Norma1.jsp?i=66156 (accessed 17 March 2017).

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 Exhibit 1. Map of cycle tracks and cycle lanes in Bogotá, 2014

Figure E1

Exhibit 2. Brand: Mejor en Bici

Figure E2

PAGE 10 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019

Exhibit 3. Income statement for Mejor en Bici – year 2014

Table EI
Movilidad en Bicicleta SAS
Comparative income statement for the term ended on December 31, 2014-2013
(figures in COP) US$1 = COP $2,000.33. Average from December 2014.
Year 2014 Year 2013 Variation

Operational income
Bicycle rental – conferences $275,956,426 $202,416,505 $73,539,921
Costs of sales $81,436,022 $81,616,445 $180,423
Operational profit $194,520,404 $120,800,060 $73,720,344
Operational expenses $183,826,514 $100,768,656 $83,057,858
Management expenses
Non – operational income $0 $0 $0
Miscellaneous income $248,445 $1,079,495 $831,050
Non-operational expenses $2,176,340 $17,507,522 $15,331,182
Financial expenses $2,176,340 $2,093,362 $82,978
Sales expenses $0 $7,459,169 $7,459,169
Miscellaneous expenses $0 $7,954,991 $7,954,991
Profit before tax $8,765,995 $3,603,377 $5,162,618
Income taxes $2,191,499 $900,844 $1,290,655
Net profit (Loss) $6,574,496 $2,702,533 $3,871,963
Source: Mejor en Bici, April 8, 2017

About the authors

Mario Andres Manzi currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Business Administration at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia. MS in
Creative Studies and Change Leadership of the State University of New York – Buffalo
State. Mario Andres Manzi is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: mmanzi@
javeriana.edu.co

Erika Johanna Caicedo currently serves as International Buyer at Estrella Internacional

Energy Services. MBA from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.

Daniel Alberto Cardona currently serves as Engineering Leader in Mobile Colombia. MBA
from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.

VOL. 9 NO. 3 2019 j EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES j PAGE 11