How Alejandro Betancourt López Balances Profitability with Long-Term Business Sustainability
Alejandro Betancourt López approaches business longevity differently than his contemporaries. While many executives chase quarterly earnings targets at the expense of future viability, the Hawkers president takes a more nuanced view. “Sustainability and profitability are two different things,” he notes, drawing from hard-earned experience across fashion retail, energy production, and transportation technology.
This distinction has shaped his strategic decisions at companies like Hawkers, where he transitioned from explosive social media-driven growth to building diverse revenue streams that could weather market fluctuations. Having weathered both spectacular successes and challenging downturns, Betancourt López offers practical insights into creating business models that remain relevant despite shifting consumer preferences and economic uncertainty.
Understanding the Distinction: Profitability vs. Sustainability
Betancourt López makes a critical distinction that many business leaders overlook: the fundamental difference between achieving profitability and building sustainable enterprises. “Sustainability and profitability are two different things. So if profitable tomorrow, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be profitable forever,” he explains with characteristic clarity.
This distinction forms the foundation of his business philosophy. While many entrepreneurs focus primarily on short-term financial metrics, Betancourt López takes a more nuanced view: “I think profitability is tough, but is something easier to achieve than sustainability, because in any industry, it’s very hard to predict where the market is shifting.”
This recognition—that creating momentary success is fundamentally different from building enduring business value—guides his strategic approach across diverse industries. By acknowledging the inherent difficulty of sustainability, he avoids the common entrepreneurial pitfall of mistaking initial profitability for long-term viability.
Strategic Adaptability: The Essential Ingredient
Facing these sustainability challenges, Betancourt López emphasizes adaptability as the critical factor for long-term business success. “So you have to use all the tools you have in marketing, creativity, reinvent yourself constantly,” he notes when discussing how fashion brands must evolve to remain relevant.
This principle applies beyond fashion to all industries experiencing market shifts. “It’s a matter of being able to adapt constantly or in the long term or in the medium term,” he observes. This adaptability requires both strategic foresight and operational flexibility—qualities that characterize Betancourt López’s management approach across his varied business interests.
The evolution of Hawkers under his leadership exemplifies this adaptability principle. Initially relying heavily on social media marketing when digital advertising costs were lower, the company has since diversified its approach: “We’ve done… Many things. We have done all kinds of things. So yeah, then we moved to influencers, then we moved to the retail space.”
This strategic evolution has created a more resilient business model: “Now it’s a robust company that doesn’t depend on one main stream of revenue. So we have different mainstreams, different strategies at the same time, and it’s more sustainable.”
Recognizing Market Cycles and Competitive Realities
Central to Betancourt López’s sustainability framework is his acute awareness of market cycles and competitive dynamics. He recognizes that no business exists in isolation, and sustainability requires navigating these external forces effectively.
“Nobody has a perfect upper line,” he observes, acknowledging that even the most successful businesses experience fluctuations. “People do get down downturns and then get up and do better, or people don’t get up and do better.”
This realistic perspective helps him avoid the common entrepreneurial trap of expecting continuous, uninterrupted growth. Instead, he builds business models designed to weather inevitable market fluctuations: “It’s really, really, really hard… It’s a very competitive market, and sustainability, it’s something that you have to be on top of your game all the time to make sure in any industry, that your head is above water.”
Industry-Specific Sustainability Challenges: Energy vs. Fashion
Betancourt López’s diverse business portfolio gives him unique insights into how sustainability challenges vary across industries. He contrasts the fashion industry’s constant demand for consumer attention with different dynamics in energy markets.
“You go to something totally different like the oil business, where sustainability doesn’t depend on you, but on technology, whereas the energy demands are going to come from the next 20 years, it’s not going to be from the hydrocarbon universe, but from something else,” he explains, highlighting how external technological trends drive sustainability in the energy sector.
This cross-industry perspective enables him to apply lessons from one sector to others, creating a holistic understanding of business sustainability that transcends individual market segments. By recognizing the unique sustainability challenges in each industry, he adapts his strategies accordingly rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions.
Gas as a Transition Technology: Strategic Positioning for Sustainability
Betancourt López’s energy investments reflect his sustainability-focused approach through strategic positioning in natural gas—a transition fuel between traditional petroleum and renewable energy sources.
“I think gas is the future, if you ask me, more than solar. I think we’re shifting, we’re not going to get away from hydrocarbons completely, we’re going to shift more into gas than oil,” he predicts, outlining a measured transition that acknowledges both environmental concerns and practical energy needs.
He cites multiple advantages of this position: “It’s much cleaner, it’s much more efficient, and there’s plenty of gas in the world.” This perspective reflects his preference for realistic sustainability approaches rather than idealistic but impractical solutions.
His gas investment strategy also considers geopolitical factors affecting energy markets: “In Europe there is a huge hole by the war that’s going on. The gas come from Russia, so any new gas projects that are in different hemispheres, in different countries, can really take advantage of that.”
This global perspective demonstrates how sustainability strategies must account for both technological trends and geopolitical realities—a nuanced approach characteristic of Betancourt López’s business methodology.
Technology Integration for Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Across his business interests, Betancourt López views technology integration as essential for sustainability in the modern economy. He particularly emphasizes artificial intelligence’s role in creating sustainable competitive advantages.
“What is AI? It’s a machine that thinks faster and finds solution faster. So AI just makes everything more efficient,” he explains. This efficiency can create sustainable cost advantages while improving product and service quality—key factors for long-term business viability.
His early investment in AI technology demonstrates this forward-thinking approach: “I have a big investment I made about five years ago in AI, and now it’s exploding.” By positioning investments ahead of major technological shifts, he creates enterprises better equipped to sustain success through market transformations.
Betancourt López sees this technological transformation as both challenge and opportunity: “I think the digital revolution is going to be as world-changing as industrial revolution, but even faster and more aggressive, and there are going to be a lot of winners, a lot of losers.” Creating sustainable businesses in this environment requires embracing technological change rather than resisting it.
Social Impact: The Extended View of Sustainability
For Betancourt López, true business sustainability extends beyond financial performance to encompass social impact and community development. His investments, particularly in emerging markets, reflect this broader sustainability perspective.
In energy investments, he has witnessed how business activities can transform communities: “In South America, we run one of the largest oil and gas companies, privately-owned oil and gas companies, in South America. And the impact in the communities was so massive because of the wealth generated, a portion of that wealth went directly to the communities.”
The results demonstrate how sustainable business operations can create lasting social benefits: “I saw it firsthand when we were very active, schools were being built, a lot of jobs, people were thriving, and families, their life, their social life, their economic life, everything was triple what there used to be, with the wealth being injected into the community.”
This integrated view connects business sustainability with community development: “Social responsibility is not only to build a school or build a hospital, but also to make sure that you have job creations, that all that people in that community has something to do and has an income, has something to go to and to wake up for every day.”
The relationship works both ways—sustainable businesses create thriving communities, and thriving communities support sustainable businesses: “If you don’t build a community that has the right amount of job creation that makes it sustainable… then that society or that community, suffers.”
The Personal Element: Sustaining Entrepreneurial Drive
A frequently overlooked aspect of business sustainability is maintaining the entrepreneurial drive that launches ventures in the first place. Betancourt López addresses this personal dimension with characteristic directness: “A lot of people sabotage themselves because they say, I arrived where I wanted to be, and I don’t want to do anything more, and I feel comfortable. Don’t be afraid of feeling uncomfortable.”
This willingness to embrace ongoing challenges rather than resting on past achievements enables him to sustain momentum across multiple business cycles and ventures. By continuously seeking new challenges—”We like challenging environments. We like to innovate and be first”—he maintains the personal engagement essential for guiding businesses through difficult transitions.
The Sustainability Framework
Alejandro Betancourt López’s approach to corporate sustainability offers valuable insights for business leaders navigating increasingly volatile markets. His framework emphasizes:
- Distinguishing between profitability and sustainability – Recognizing that short-term financial success doesn’t automatically create long-term viability
- Embracing continuous adaptation – Developing flexible strategies that evolve with changing market conditions
- Diversifying revenue streams – Building resilience through multiple business channels rather than relying on single sources
- Balancing price sensitivity with market position – Making strategic sacrifices when necessary to maintain competitive standing
- Integrating technological innovation – Leveraging emerging technologies to create sustainable competitive advantages
- Extending sustainability to community development – Creating mutual benefits between businesses and their social environments
- Maintaining entrepreneurial drive – Sustaining the personal engagement needed to guide businesses through transformations
By implementing these principles, Betancourt López has created business ventures that not only achieve profitability but maintain it through market fluctuations and industry transformations—the true measure of corporate sustainability in today’s dynamic economy.
