MBA students working with Peru businesses

On March 8, MBA students from the Kelley School of Business flew to Peru, where they have been working with five small, local businesses.

The two-week-long trip is part of a program developed by a group of second-year MBA students called the Global Business and Social Enterprise initiative. The program provides international business experience for 20 students as well as guidance and direction for the small businesses for which they’ll be consulting.

Monica Oliva, a second-year MBA student studying marketing and management, helped found the GLOBASE initiative and is a native of Peru. Oliva said she was excited to go home and help the emerging economy. Oliva sees the program as a positive learning experience for both students and the small business owners.

“Not only are we going to put our skills to the test, but also help the businesses that we’re working with,” Oliva said.

A group of students flew to El Salvador a year ago and found that there was interest from small businesses to work with the Kelley students. They changed their destination to Peru after national elections in El Salvador prohibited them from going back.

Since January, the students have met regularly to discuss Peru’s economy, political system and culture.

Scott Maloney, a second-year MBA student studying strategic management and finance, said he was looking forward to seeing how other cultures do business and is excited to integrate himself into another culture while sharing the best aspects of his own.

“Everyone can benefit from being a bit more culturally sensitive,” Maloney said.

Leading the students on the trip is Roberto Garcia, clinical associate professor of international business. Garcia was excited by the fact that the MBA students and the GLOBASE initiative can contribute to a foreign society and potentially stimulate that country’s economic development.

“It captures our student body’s interest in doing more than just being good at business,” Garcia said.

The Kelley School has previously offered international trips to look at businesses and give presentations. The students who developed the GLOBASE initiative took this model and decided they could do something that benefits the country as well.

“This is going to help them define in their career how they can be more socially responsible or how they can help their companies in the future exercise corporate social responsibility,” Garcia said.

The enterprises for which the students are consulting consist of two clothing manufacturers, a cosmetics company, a jewelry maker and a pharmaceutical company, according to an IU press release. All the companies are potential exporters to the United States.

The students will divide up into smaller groups and work with the companies. They’ll then deliver presentations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has worked closely with the GLOBASE initiative throughout its development.

“If this thing is successful, perhaps it could lead the way for what these companies need to do in the future two or three years down the road so that they can increase their chances of surviving and end up growing,” Garcia said.