Post Presentation Reactions

Hilary Butler - PeruVerde Group


Ricardo Holder - General Manager, Inkasign


Phil Powell - MBA Program Chair


Roberto Garcia - Faculty Advisor

The Work

Our first day in Lima was a beautiful sunny day in the mid-80's and the weather continued to be beautiful throughout the trip. We hit the ground running by stopping by the Lima Chamber of Commerce on Day 1. The Chamber had lined up specialists in each of our areas to provide greater depth of knowledge of the Peruvian economy and to answer specific questions from each group.



The following days were filled with client meetings, company tours and working lunches. We packed in a lot of work into that week. This is the time when adapting to culture and a foreign country came into play. Whether it was slow or non-existent internet connections, difficult translation, or the food playing havoc on our stomachs - we all learned first hand what it is like to work in a foreign country.


By the end of the week we came away with a lot of new knowledge. We forged greater relationships with our clients and dug down to the roots of their business problems. By the time we made our presentations, our recommendations were specific and actionable. While it was a long and sometimes difficult process - "Vale la pena", or it was totally worth it!

First Thoughts

Check out the thoughts of some of our GLOBASE team members - Justin Otani and Rashid Farrell.

First Day in Peru

I can't believe that after 7 weeks of classes, we are finally in Peru working with our client Inkasign. Our first day was action packed. We had a 7:30 breakfast meeting. I wasn't fully awake but it was productive meeting. Thank goodness for my teammates Bryan, Casey and Michelle. They are totally on it! Our client Arturo came to pick us up at 9am and we were off. Traffic in Lima is like nothing I have ever seen. Some of my classmates compared it to Ciaro, Mexico City and Mumbai but crazier! I thought we were going to get into at least 5 accidents in the 15 minutes that we were in the cab, but everyone is a really good driver so thank goodness we made it all in one piece. We got to the office and met Ricardo, the owner for the first time. After hearing so much about him and learning all the ins and outs of his business, it was great to finally meet him in person. We spoke to him for almost 3 hours and he gave us a good perspective on his business. It is really motivating to hear his story how he started with just a few orders and now he has built his business to where it is now. I am really humbled and am really hoping that we can provide him with good recommendations that can help further build his business. After his presentation, they took us to a fantastic restaurant called Caplina and it was so good. We had that best ceviche!! I know I am going to be saying that a lot this week but it is what Peru is known for. After our two-hour lunch, we headed to their factory where we got to see first hand how they made their beautiful sweaters. It is always fascinating to see how the garments go from just a design on a piece of paper to a finished product. We also got to meet their production manager who explained the intracate details of how they work with the artisans and the complicated the issues they they face. It sounded a lot like some of the issues that we talked about in Operations and Management. We ended the day back in their office at 6pm with a clearer picture of what needed to be done before Friday.



We really packed a lot into Day 1...I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store. Ciao!

1st Day in Peru!!

And the dream came true! We are here in Peru. The time passed really fast. Today, we visited the American Chamber of Commerce in Lima. It was a great experience. We learned even more about Peruvian economy and about opportunities for Peruvian companies. Globase teams had the opportunity to talk with specialists from different areas to help us develop a better strategy for our clients. It was a great afternoon! You can see from the pictures below that we had a great time together.

Enthusiasm

Today, was our last Globase class here in Bloomington. All teams presented their business plan to the entire class. It was really good to see what the other groups were working on the last seven weeks. This presentation is our first "polished draft", now we are going to refine it, considering all the feedback that we received from our professors and classmates. I am really excited to present our recommendations to our client in Peru. It is such a great experience to develop a marketing plan to a real company. Definitely, Globase is giving us a real learning experience, where we ca apply the theory that we are learning here at Kelley. It is exciting to see how our business skills improved so much in such a short term period.

I was watching my fellow classmates presenting and I thought how blessed I am to be surrounded by such intelligent and nice people. I am so proud to be part of Globase. I gotta a feeling that our trip to Peru will be a transformation experience for all of us. We are building relationships that are going to last forever in our hearts. Definitely, in my opinion that's what matters in life.

I felt that the last 7 weeks passed very fast. And I really want to say thanks to my fellow teammates Chantal, Casey, Bryan and Felipe to make this project enjoyable. I am learning a lot with you guys!! I know that more working is coming and we will hammer it.

This picture is awesome! t was late in the night. And after working hard with our client Arturo from Inkasign everybody still has a big smile on their faces.

I promise that next time I will write in Portuguese to my fellow Brazilians, I miss this beautiful country. It will be also a challenge to my American friends to understand it. =)

Spicy Peruvians

Peru? Machu Pichu, Incas, Pisco Sours, and Ceviche were my first thoughts. I was not sure what to expect signing up for GLOBASE, except a trip to Lima and my first attempt at live consulting work. The past six weeks have been intense, but incredibly interesting. I have learned a great deal about Peru, my teammates, and the spice trade.

My team of five has been assigned the client PeruVerde, a paprika producer looking to enter the US market. My initial reaction to the assignment was that it did not seem any different than the cases or projects we had done to date in school. We did some basic research and prepared for our first call with Mr. Fredy Perez, the owner of PeruVerde, and on that call was when it hit me…this is beyond anything I have done in school, this is the real deal. As a team we are to help an actual small business grow and improve the livelihood of its employees; never have I been on a project where I can have such a direct impact.

Over past 6 weeks we have built a strong relationship with Fredy over the phone as well as during his visit. However, it has been an interesting dynamic, as Fredy does not speak any English and only two members of the team speak Spanish. It is amazing the amount one can learn about paprika through quick translations while on the phone with Peru; our team has been really fortunate to have Jairo and John, our two Spanish speakers.

The highlight of the project to date, was taking Fredy to Farm Restaurant in Bloomington during his visit. Along with the fried chicken, Fredy truly enjoyed the conversation we were able to arrange with head chef Daniel Orr. Chef Orr was able to give all of us insight into the paprika market from the end user’s view, which was new to all of us. This only increased Fredy’s desire to enter the US market and gave us, as a team, a better idea for getting his product into the kitchens of America.

The PeruVerde team looks forward to getting to Peru and presenting Fredy with our thoughts and plans to help his company enter the US market. Hopefully we will be successful in expanding PeruVerde’s operations and we can ride into the sunset on Alpacas.