Jorge Sanchez is President and CEO of San Antonio-based Thor Energy, which develops and finances energy-efficient projects throughout Mexico and South America.
Sanchez tells the fascinating story of how a start in his family’s business turned into Thor Energy, and how simply listening – to your customers, yourself, your children – holds the key to differentiating yourself from the competition.
From the start, Sanchez listened to customers’ specific needs and found a foothold selling locomotive parts to Mexican businesses. Leveraging the common language, Sanchez quickly expanded into South America, and listened when businesses in the marine and oil and gas industries – both of which utilize the same parts as the auto industry – asked for his services as well. At every turn, says Sanchez, listening to customers and their needs catapulted Thor over their competitors.
The move from oil and gas and fossil fuels to renewable energy occurred when Sanchez’s daughter presented a school project on renewable energy; it was the moment he recognized not only the opportunity, but also an immediate need, to pivot in that direction.
Sanchez seamlessly transitioned the company into a service that recognizes a problem, identifies the technology to solve it, then finds funding for the partnership. In this instance, he explains, Thor quickly overtook the competition by adding the financing piece. Even large, State-run companies throughout South America often lack the financing up front to address pressing issues in the Amazon, he explains. Thor Energy can simultaneously find the partners and technology for a solution and conduct a visibility study to secure the financing to push projects forward.
Culturally, each country is its own entity, says Sanchez. To help bridge the gaps, pay attention to “country briefings” from the US Department of Commerce and utilize the services of the US Commercial Service and your local District Export Councils (DECs), both of which will open doors to the whole world.
Links:
United States Commercial Services - https://www.trade.gov/let-our-experts-help-0
National Association of District Export Councils - https://www.usaexporter.org/
The International Trade Administration’s Country Commercial Guides - https://www.trade.gov/ccg-landing-page
Connect with Wendy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendypease/
Connect with Jorge –
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorge-g-sanchez-3151950/
Music: Fiddle-De-Dee by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com
ATTENTION: Below is a machine generated transcription of the podcast. Yes, at Rapport International, we talk a lot about how machine translation is not good quality. Here you see an example of what a machine can do in your own your language. This transcription is provided as a gist and to give time indicators to find a topic of interest.
[00:01:00]
Wendy: Welcome to another episode of the Global Marketing Show. This is another interview that we're doing at the EXIM , conference down in DC. And we have the pleasure of talking to Jorge Sanchez, who is the CEO and President of Thor Energy. And The company is based in San Antonio and develops and finances, energy efficient projects in different countries.
So welcome, Jorge.
Jorge: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. For inviting me here. Thank you. Now I would like to, to share my history. Maybe someone is going to be interested to hear about that . Yes. Yes. But okay. I'm, start my business. Well, I start working my family business in a custom broker there in the border, and I saw the [00:02:00] companies buying the, the equipment from Mexico to United States and something like Home Depot, wherever.
So I say, okay, I have to place better a company in San Antonio that held to the importers in Mexico to find the products to the factory There. I must start my business there. But then there was a long time ago then I, I went to , Mexico instead, I jump to South America, Uhhuh, and I never meet, the, the other countries like Mexico.
But, and I see, I, I want to expand my business and I'm start to selling locomotive parts. I'm no. Yeah, but I'm start to, to taking a course about how was the locomotive for selling the parts. And I'm, I take just a short, , short and then start to selling locomotive parts. But the, [00:03:00] the locomotive engine is the same thing used for, vessels, for marine vessels and for oil and gas.
then jump to Marine and Ang Gas, companies are industries. So my companies start to selling to that kind of companies.
Wendy: And so you're selling at this point into South America?
Jorge: Yeah, south America. So, so I, we expand to selling to Marine. locomotive and oil and gas, and then oil and gas become the, the biggest one.
Hmm. This was a lot. And I ago, mainly the companies pay me in advance for selling the products there. And I, my, my goal, the company is to put the, the merchandise in the, in the place that they. . Mm-hmm. . Just when we place the merchandise and the place that they need, we jump over all the competitors because the multi, the competitors say this, the merchandise just come and take it.
But no, I try to [00:04:00] send the merchandise in, in the, in the place, and I keep all the service warranty wherever, and this time they don't ask me for. But later I jump from energy, oil and gas, fossil energy to renewal because one of my daughters has a project in the school about the Renew energy.
And I help them and I say, oh, that's very interesting to me. And I start to take in a. .
Wendy: Interesting. So your daughter triggered the
Jorge: business. My daughter triggered to, yeah. To test into, to renew energies, and then I certified renew energies, energy efficiencies, smart grid energy storage and energy management.
Right now, have a lot of certification done from 15 years ago to now. Mm-hmm. , I'm start helping the, the companies and government in the energy. And, and they, my projects grow [00:05:00] in money and I know that the Latin American content, because my main market, they have another necessities, but they don't have money to pay in upfront.
So I'm start to finding. entity like Exxon Bank. Exing Bank for me, is the best, entity to help because it's the most easily, entity to find, the financing support for my projects there. So
Wendy: talk a little bit more about EXIM Bank and how you work with that, cuz this, this really ties. Global marketing.
Yes. Cause you're selling more by being able to access mm-hmm. capital for your
Jorge: clients. Yes. , my clients, for example, I have a break there in South America. That break is, that company is a state company for the, the country is a oil and gas company, has a lot of, oil wells in the Amazon and they has gas, the freeing in the Amazon, [00:06:00] and they contaminate a lot surrounding areas.
They have a big problem. So I just review the issue, and I have the solution because I know the equipment, how, how to help to them to get the equipment, to clean the energy, like capture the, the gas instead of to, to burning there and release to the, capture the gas, concentrate in a process center, convert an.
putting carbon co carbon capture, uh, equipment to clean the energy, and put the carbon capture, and back to the oil. Well, to keep more
Wendy: pressure. Wait, let me get this straight. So , they continue to burn the energy Uhhuh, , but instead of letting the emissions go up into the environment, yes. You capture them Uhhuh, clean it.
Mm-hmm. , and then reuse it.
Jorge: Reuse the, the carbon. The carbon. place back to the old well, to make more pressure [00:07:00] and the energy, put in the grid. Wow. Become, that's become clean energy because the, the energy is already clean. The, this is a very huge project because that country is going to save a lot of money because they, they use, they generate the energy there with using diesel, generat.
And they spend a lot money in diesel and transportation. Diesel contaminate the rivers. They go everywhere. So I, so a lot of things with this, for doing this, they need money because I money, so I use the infrastructure, need the money, use CDA for, feasibility students, and then we're going to jump to EXIM Bank.
Wendy: Okay. And so then X. So how does Exm Bank work with you and the client to fund. .
Jorge: How? Because we, once they uset they finish, uh, they study the project. I have to give the project to EXIM Bank and [00:08:00] to EXIM Bank. This project is already reviewed. They're gonna underwrite it. Yeah. review it. They're gonna submit, the feasibility says that this going to be a good project.
So the EXIM is then, then, uh, .
Wendy: Oh, okay. Okay. So you do the feasibility study? Yeah. XM Bank reviews it. Mm-hmm. , and then they'll finance it through the government. we just said down in the Amazon, we didn't say the country. Mm-hmm. . So, and then, so they, they'd be funding it with the government. Yeah. So you're assisting in it, but you're not really in.
involved in it financially?
Jorge: No. My company is to find the, the technology, the solution, and the financing. Yeah.
Wendy: Okay. So you put it all together and bank has the money to come in and support something
Jorge: like that. So print like that. This is one man. I have another for clean help to clean the, the lake that is contaminated.[00:09:00]
Surround the populations. Yeah, we want to clean the lake using renew energies and cleaning the putting wastewater plant plants for clean the water that goes to the lake Uhhuh. this another good project that I, that we have. So my job is, keep the solution and, but with technology and finance it.
Huh. Okay. Complete. Because most of the time the, that countries don't know how technology use. Right. Right. How to get the money. .
Wendy: Right, exactly. So you're the mastermind that comes in mm-hmm. and puts all these pieces together. Yes. So the money can meet the project and it's for sustainability and
Jorge: improving another project.
Then in the Caribbean, the Caribbean use the, uh they, have the image with, diesel engines and they use a lot of, like a golf cart, but no electric is with the gasoline. So they [00:10:00] asked me about the solution because they want to put. energy because the diesel engine is very expensive. it's not reliable.
Yeah. So my suggestion is not just put, uh, renewable energy plant is also, try to join the community to that. They changed the, golf carts, from gasoline to battery. They put small, grids. There're in the mini grids. So the charging stations,
Wendy: stations, it's easy
Jorge: for them to change, um, fix the, the waste, the streets because they have a lot haul fixing the streets because this energy efficiency, if you go to you road, is go.
It's in a good shape for, driving around you save a lot of time. You save a lot of energy in this, so I, I, I review all the spec to save the energy and give the complete solution to them.[00:11:00]
Wendy: I love what you're doing now, you know, switching it into the culture and the language of doing this.
Obviously you speak English and Spanish, so that helps working in South America. Mm-hmm. And you can serve as the liaison for the XM bank?
Jorge: Yes. The kilter is very important because, Latin America is, we, we see Latin America in a whole. Every country has a little bit different.
Wendy: Yes,
Jorge: yes.
Most, mainly Brazil. Most of the people say, oh, Brazil. Brazil is one of the, no. Brazil is very huge. It's has more people speak Portuguese and South American than Spanish at. Nobody
Wendy: knows that. I never realized that there's, the population in Brazil is bigger than all the other countries. Yes. And so Portuguese is the biggest language in
I, I, I never looked at the numbers
Jorge: behind that and different, the, the way that YouTube business in Brazil, in Argentina and Chile is. , it's very different. [00:12:00] Sometimes we need some company, some help to, to try to reach that
Wendy: markets. Right? He's referring to Rapport International, who's the sponsor of the podcast, which I, you know, neglected to mention that focuses on, high quality foreign language translations.
So which languages do you operate in?
Jorge: Spanish, English, but sometimes, we trying to, we travel. . Uh, and right now, we have some kind of business in Europe, but close to Russia. It's different the way that every country does the does business.
Wendy: So what are your recommendations for how to be successful when you're working across cultures and languages?
Jorge: There is a lot, for example, department of Common has, interesting, uh, documents about this country briefing. I think it's the country briefing that this ,
Wendy: oh, the country briefing. So if you go to the department, yeah, you look up. , [00:13:00] US Federal Government, department of Commerce. Yes. Country
Jorge: briefings.
Country briefing. They Okay. Have a review about the country that you want to, to go. There is a lot of tools there in Department of Commerce. I work based with them. Mm-hmm. , because I support with US Commerce Service. Ah, it's. US commercial service and every embassy help you to, to reach the country that you want and they help you a lot, but most of the people don't know about that.
Wendy: So tell us more so
Jorge: people know. Okay. Well,
Wendy: or give us a story about how you've worked with the US Commercial
Jorge: Service. Well, I'm member of the Tech District Export Council from Texas and the React here in the department of here in, in Washington. So when I want to, , for example, you have like a project or, or a solution for one necessity there and don't know how to reach the, the, the real people that has the decision there [00:14:00] in that country.
Mm-hmm. as to the, to the use commercial service in the embassy to help explain, to help to explain to them, , the solution that you want to. to the people in that country. Then they made the arrangement, , meeting or video conference with them and, and, and that way you can explain to them, it's very different if I, I go to that country to not talk.
Maybe they open, maybe they not, but truth, US commercial service is almost, is is really open for, for you because the EM embassy. That's fantastic. But the embassy need to review to you, , to the company that want to do business there because your commercial service is open for everyone. So they, they need to review the company that this, , that you have a, a good solution that you can to do that.
Okay. Oh, okay.
Wendy: So before they'll just help you, they'll, yes. Look at your reputation. Mm-hmm. and [00:15:00] they'll, decide whether they're gonna work with you. But if they. , they open the doors and can make introductions. Yeah. And explain culture and assist with language. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Okay. Well this has been fabulous information.
It's so exciting to hear about what you're doing around the world. You sound like a wonderful resource. If people wanna reach out to you, what's the best way to do that? Ah,
Jorge: email . LinkedIn. I don't have a, it's the only social network that I've used Link.
Wendy: Okay. And
Jorge: what's your email? J s A T h o r, middle energy.com to energy.
I, I name it my company like to, because to is the, , Scandinavia Energy?
Wendy: Yes. Okay.
Jorge: Yes. Most of the people say, Hey, Marbel, no, no . It's, it's about that. It's about the energy. [00:16:00] Other things not about
Wendy: Marvel. Yes. Okay. So J s A N for Jorge Sanchez. Yes, at Thor, t h o r. Middle dash. Middle dash n id.com. Okay. And, , the final question I was asked, and I didn't give you warning of this, is what is your favorite foreign word?
And foreign? Foreign language can be anything. English, Spanish, Portuguese.
Jorge: Russian, Russian . okay. For me, it's more easy to, to do business in Spanish. Right now I am in the conference. The, the, the two presidents coming from Zabi and Angola, they both speak Portuguese, , is very, very similar. Sometimes I, understand that they are talking mm-hmm.
but, is very hard to learn. .
Wendy: So what's your favorite foreign word out of all those languages?
Jorge: Form [00:17:00] word. Favorite word. Favorite word, yeah. Word. Business .
Wendy: Business . Yes. That's excellent. . That's a really good one. That's different than I've heard. Well, Jorge, thank
Jorge: you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Inviting to meet here.
Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you everyone.
