In an increasingly global economy, international experience for Indiana University MBA candidates comes from hands-on work in the field as much as the classroom. A group of students, led by Dr. Phil Powell, travel to Peru to help local entrepreneurs tackle business challenges using cutting edge business practices. The Kelley MBA GLOBASE initiative provides a unique social enterprise experience by partnering with Peruvian businesses to make a global impact.


Tuesday, February 23, 2010

In The Thick of It

For our sixth class session, we were joined by Mark Cooper from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Mr. Cooper specializes in helping Indiana businesses export abroad. His experiences helped us to recognize that many U.S. businesses face the same challenges exporting that our small Peruvian businesses face trying to sell their products in the U.S. These challenges include: lack of knowledge of the end consumer, misunderstanding the importance that culture plays in business and customer behavior, inability to differentiate, and trying to make sense of all the laws, regulations and industry norms of a foreign country.

For the second half of class we split into teams to get some work done. Finding time to work on our projects has been tough, with so many activities competing for our attention. For team Inkasign, it was an eye opening moment to think that we have only 2 WEEKS LEFT until we arrive in Peru. We are in for a busy two weeks.

Sometimes projects seem so easy. That is, until you get into the thick of it. It's times like this when I have found a lot strength from my team. I can see that they are committed to the mission of GLOBASE and they are willing to stay up late and work hard to do this project the right way.

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