Checking in on 2010's Recommendations

One of the downsides of MBA projects is that one rarely gets to see the outcome of a recommendation. For example, I've had the opportunity to compete in many case competitions, where the "recommendations" are merely academic exercises and will never come to fruition. I've also had internships in which I made strategic recommendations that would be implemented so far down the road it was hard to tell what affect they would have.

As a member of 2010 GLOBASE Peru, my team worked with a metal fabricator in Lima, focusing on many sectors - education, health care, mining etc. The experience was fantastic, but as the team left we wondered if any of the recommendations we made would ever be implemented and if so what impact they would have - be it positive or negative.

As a member of 2011 GLOBASE Peru, I was fortunate enough to have these questions answered. My team is working with the same client we worked with last year and yesterday, on our first full day in Lima, we were able to visit his factory, which was bustling. As we toured his offices we noticed some new faces. Our client had implemented our recommendations from 2010; to focus efforts on the mining sector, and hire a sales person to solely focus efforts on this sector. In fact, our client had hired not one, but two sales people.

These new hires and renewed focus on mining have resulted in many new sales, which have necessitated hiring more factory workers. It became very evident that last year's GLOBASE efforts had in fact met the mission of GLOBASE - Global Business through Social Enterprise.

By helping the President of a company align his strategic efforts we were able to assist in an increase in sales which in turn resulted in job creation. It was a great feeling to see our work pay off for so many people, and gave me renewed confidence in our efforts this year. I have no doubt that all of the 2011 GLOBASE teams will find an equal amount of success with their projects this year.