A Special Event

Over the past year, the Peruvian economy has been one of the fastest growing in the world. A stable political environment and sound economic policies have fostered business expansion. One major issue that Peru now faces is how to include the indigenous population in its newly found success. Please join us for a brown-bag lunch to learn more about the topic on February 3, 2010, from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. in CG0034. Please RSVP for a seat (lunch included).

And so it begins

After months of planning and preparation, GLOBASE is officially underway. During our first class, participants were presented with the companies that we will be working with. Denise Denson-Hanson, our External Relations Manager, has worked tirelessly to arrange a great set of companies and one non-profit. We can't forget, either that Maryori at AMCHAM has been extremely helpful and put in many hours to help us coordinate in Peru. A special thanks also to APOMIPE for allowing us to partner with them to take on a non-profit project for the first time.

GLOBASE 2010 will feature the following projects:

PeruVerde is a food processing company that is focused on exporting and importing food products. The company also offers commercialization and trade support to small businesses in the agriculture and food processing sectors.


Laban handcrafts fine Peruvian silver into jewelry, combining ancient Peruvian designs with modern styles. Laban aspires to become a premier exporter of silver jewelry. They are also committed to creating employment opportunities by helping young people develop skills in the art of jewelry making.

Metalic is specialized in the manufacturing of metal furniture and for 28 years has established a reputation for high quality in Peru. Although several of their products have been exported indirectly through business customers, Metalic aspires to establish business customers in the international market in 2010 .

Inkasign, is a textiles manufacturing business that exports to France, Italy, Venezuela, Chile, and the USA. Inkasign offers fully designed, cut and sewn knitted garments and accessories for women, men and children. Inkasign’s products are made of alpaca, baby alpaca, cotton (Pima and Tanguis) and blended with other fibers.

APOMIPE is a collaboration between COSUDE (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) and the Peruvian Ministry of Production. After 2011, COSUDE will no longer be funding APOMIPE. As APOMIPE approaches 2011, they have several exit issues to consider: how will their established business networks continue to gain funding? Are they self-sufficient and ready to manage themselves?

GLOBASE teams now have some basic company information and the contact info for their companies. Each GLOBASE team is now responsible for scoping, analyzing, researching and ultimately delivering high quality recommendations and implementation steps. With the backing of our Faculty Advisor, Roberto Garcia and other Kelley School of Business resources, lets see what great things we can do.

The Wait is Almost Over

After months of planning, GLOBASE 2010 is about to begin. During our leadership team planning sessions we’ve thought about how we can build on last year’s tremendously successful program. We’ve considered some great ideas, and with the collaboration of the Indiana University CIBER program and the Kelley MBA Office we are set to bring them to reality this spring.

Communication between native English-speakers and native Spanish-speakers can be difficult. Students from GLOBASE 2009 hit the language barrier as they worked to complete their projects, so we added a new facet to GLOBASE 2010 – free Spanish courses offered to GLOBASE participants. Over the fall semester, beginning Spanish has been taught by Giselle Martins, a Spanish PhD student. Advanced translation courses also began during the fall semester to assist fluent Spanish speakers as they translate for their groups. These courses will continue through the first seven weeks of the spring semester and will prove to be an invaluable resource to GLOBASE participants.

One of the key learnings from GLOBASE 2009 was that business in Latin America is very personal. Students spoke with their company representatives via email, telephone and Skype before they travelled to Peru, asking questions and diving into business issues, but the information really started to flow once students arrived in-country. Participants found that more information was obtained after a 3 hour lunch in Lima than from various emails and phone calls. For this reason, Peruvian company representatives will travel to Indiana University during the first week of February 2010 to meet course participants. During their visit, Peruvian representatives will be able to talk with their GLOBASE groups in-person and will be able to network with various Indiana business organizations.

Finding experts on the Peruvian economy is difficult. GLOBASE 2009 found a rare gem in the Lima Chamber of Commerce. Their knowledgeable economist provided groups with information on the intricacies of the Peruvian economy. To afford students with ample time to incorporate this valuable information into their recommendations this year, we are bringing the Director and Lead Economist from the Lima Chamber of Commerce to the Kelley School of Business to present to GLOBASE students on January 27, 2010.

The GLOBASE course will also feature other lecturers and tools that will offer students the knowledge and resources for successful consulting projects. We are excited for the course to begin. It will be a remarkable opportunity for Kelley MBA’s to exercise their business acumen and provide a valuable service to help small Peruvian businesses and non-profits reach their goals.

¿Hablas Español?

Beginning October 29th, GLOBASE students will be able to participate in a free Spanish course offered with the assistance of the IU Center for International Education and Business Research. This course will be offered once a week over the next 14 weeks and is one more way in which GLOBASE is allowing students the opportunity to increase their skill set to become more effective international managers.

GLOBASE 2010 in the works

The leadership team for the GLOBASE 2010 has been hard at work this summer. Stay tuned for updates regarding the Peruvian partner organizations that we will be working with, travel plans, and informational event notifications. You can also stay up-to-date by checking out our Facebook page.

Kelley School of Business GLOBASE on Facebook

Credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena ...

Teddy Roosevelt said something like, "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out where the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes up short again and again...who does actually try to do the deed; who with great enthusiasm spends himself in a worth cause; who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

And finally - I wouldn't be me if I did not make some overdue shoutouts. My definition of a shout out is mentioning / calling -out someone for a contribution or a thing they have done.

So let me begin, shout outs to AmCham for being great in country partners. For the Pisco Sours, great facilities and inroads to small businesses in Peru. Shout out to Kunal and Matt for suffering through a working lunch which included an additional hour of Monica, Marjorie and me shopping. Shout outs to the amazing Peruvian small to medium sized businesses who allowed us to consult their businesses and offer recommendations for implementation.



Next phase of shout outs ... Shout out to the Alums, prospective students, visiting faculty and other guests who attended our official dinner once in Lima. We had the best time and a life changing view of ruins right in the heart of Lima... Shout out to whoever had the guts to hold that nice gold clutch ... it really looks good with your eyes ;-)


Lastly, I would like to give an IU shout out to Chair Whalen, Pam Roberts, Amanda Bannon, Professor Garcia, PhD Candidate Denise Williams, Tania Sanchez, Monica Olivia, Colleen Powers, Mike Seeger, Scott Maloney, Chris Ryan and anyone else who contributed to the launch, planning and execution of this trip. We appreciate it and future MBAers will be fortunate to have it ...

Super finally, a shout out to the entire globase team for 2009 ... there will never be another first and it was us ... glad to have shared it with you!!

Warm and Fuzzy

When we came back from spring break in Peru, the weather in Indiana was lovely. It felt like a change was in the air, partially from mother nature, and partially from what we had learned throughout the past 10 weeks now. But like our consulting projects, the weather changed before I knew it, and I soon had the opportunity to wear the cozy handmade 100% alpaca wool fashions that I got from my client, OriginAlpaca. As I type this, I am wearing my new scarf. To most of my classmates, it is just a scarf. But when my GLOBASE classmates see me wearing it, they know. The scarf is my love of a company I knew nothing about a few months ago. It's my desire to share the value proposition of a product I so intimately know with the world. It's a connection between me and my other teammates, who understand every detail that goes into the scarf, and the thoughts that go through the consumers' minds when considering purchasing it. It's the sweat and the laughter and the blood and the tears that went into our final presentation. And that makes my scarf extra warm and fuzzy on a cold March day.