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Greetings from Chile and Brazil: A Field Trip to remember
July 31, 2017
Students share video messages from South America
In today’s increasingly globalized business world, it is important for the WU Executive Academy to send their students to the frontlines of new business opportunities. Just recently, the class of the Global Executive MBA was able to experience the particularities of Latin America’s most exciting countries when it comes to doing business. Four participants created short video messages directly from Santiago, Chile and São Paulo, Brazil and shared a few of their memories.
The environment can have great impact on a business’ performance – a fact that the Global Executive MBA class experienced first-hand when they travelled to South America from July 2 to July 8, 2017. In Chile and Brazil, the participants had plenty of opportunities to learn about the particularities of these two exciting economies, their customers and growth strategies. The residency included trips to businesses on site, which created experiences that no textbook is able to provide.
To start their residency, the Global Executive MBA class travelled to Santiago, the capital of Chile to find out how local businesses and startups function in this emerging economy. The situation for businesses in Chile is unique: The country has gained the respect of having a democratic and representative government as well as a stable economy. In addition, its productive trade agreements, which cover 60 countries, creates a high amount of exports. Yet, as with many settings worldwide, Chilean businesses are also dealing with the disruption of well-known business practices. While in Santiago, the students visited the Center of Innovation at Arauco. Priyanka Dutta-Passecker, a stem cell specialist and business development consultant at Axol Bioscience, was pleased with the first day: On day two, the class met wayra, a start-up accelerator. Topics included the challenges for startups in the Chilean business scene as well as how to deal with the disruption of well-trodden paths and industries. Lukas Skocek, Senior Manager at KPMG, talks about the learnings he gained: After three days in the Chilean capital, the participants went to the largest country in South America, Brazil, where they visited companies in São Paulo. The economic situation in Brazil is different than in Chile – the country with the largest population in South America is recovering from a recession and political corruption scandals. Özlem Sensin, Product Leader at Sberbank Europe AG, shares her thoughts on visiting Pandora, a global jewelry company: At the end of their residency, the students got the opportunity to spend half a day at Natura, the largest Brazilian cosmetics company by revenue. Martin Gikov, Chief Sales Officer and Member of the Managing Board at UniCredit Leasing Bulgaria, looks back on an eventful trip: Do you want to find out more about the international residencies of the Global Executive MBA program? Read more on our website "Global Executive MBA - International Residencies".First stop: Chile
Part two of the international residency: Brazil