The Sustainable Markets Intelligence Center (CIMS – Centro de Inteligencia sobre Mercados Sostenibles) is a private initiative from the Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLADS - Centro Latinoamericano para la Competitividad y el Desarrollo Sostenible) of INCAE, the leading business school in Latin America. This initiative came about after many efforts from the named institutions on research on competitiveness and sustainable development in Latin America. These studies determined that the lack of sustainable market intelligence was one of the key factors limiting the growing business opportunities for small Latin American companies. It also pertains to a new global trend to make companies “greener,” causing a growing demand for better company performance and for products reflecting environmental and social awareness.

Through its research work, CLACDS determined that Latin American companies lacked any detailed information enabling them to take advantage of the opportunities derived from international markets or that they received scattered, confusing and/or fragmented market information, keeping the data from being properly analyzed. In addition, most Latin American companies cannot bear the costs derived from acquiring independent knowledge and from following up on market demand.

To overcome these obstacles, CLACDS/INCAE proposed creating CIMS. After almost two years of development and other endeavors, CIMS was legally established on March 7, 2003, to provide the Latin American private sector with vital information about sustainable products and services.

CIMS is a business development organization that is unique in its genre offering unparalleled services. It is committed to producing and selling broad market information for business representatives, producers, and processors throughout the world. CIMS seeks to promote new market opportunities for the Latin American region.

More specifically, CIMS offers a series of market intelligence services through its multi-lingual staff members who have a mixture of technical, business, and communications knowledge as well as a commitment to serve the broadest audience possible with an emphasis on the Latin American small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In addition, CIMS operates with a cost structure capable of providing products at prices that are affordable to Latin America clients. Its “non-profit organization” status enables it to focus on small enterprise and at the same time to be able to serve a broad international community.