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"If it entered the market and lost lots of money, that would be
worse," said Lodish, who noted that it does not affect his evaluation
of the student teams if that is what they prescribe for the client. "That
is part of the game. If they come up with a practical approach and
decide it isn't worth it for their company, then that is the answer."
It was a close call on that score for Wharton student Gil Dibner,
WG'05, and his team advising a Chilean office supplies company.
Although this multi-million dollar company has a significant share
of the notebook market in its home country and already exports to
several Latin American countries, it still sought the advice of the
Wharton team and its partners from the Universidad Adolfo Ibanez
in Chile. Dibner said the ultimate advice the students gave was
not completely negative, but that the company had to do better at
distinguishing its products to make any real inroad in the United
States market.
"It really was a great experience, since it is one of the few classes
at Wharton where you get to integrate a lot of stuff," said Dibner,
who wants to be a venture capitalist after graduation. "It was an applicable
and relevant fusion: market strategy, pricing, international
work, even finance."
"And you are working with a client paying money, which is
pretty relevant," said Dibner. "You learn all the same lessons as in
a classroom, but in the context of a high-effort environment. That
adds to the stress level, but also to the relevance. People really care.
We stayed up until 2 a.m. arguing the fine points because we wanted
to see the final and best product. You get real-world experience,
but with an educational context to reflect on it and talk about it."
Ellie Moss, WG'05, was most appreciative of the hands-off
policy of the Global Consulting Practicum staff. It was scary, in a
way, she said to be in Peru, where her group was trying to find ways
for a winery to get into the U.S. market. But on the other hand,
that was the point—to have the experience of being on a real consulting
project.
"There are a lot of resources at GCP, but that is the back-up.
They want to see how you do on your own," she said.
The winery, one of the oldest in South America, markets products
that are well known and well respected locally, but no one in
the always experimental wine-buying market in the United States
knew about it. Before she came to Wharton, Moss had worked as
a director of operations for a translation company that focused on
pharmaceutical and medical device instruction translations. She said
she already knew from that how difficult and important language
and culture is in putting together business propositions.
"I speak Spanish and lived in Spain for a while, but I never had
to conduct business in the language," she said. "It's a whole new vocabulary,
and even with that, you have to learn cultural differences.
You are thrown into this situation and you have to learn quickly
to adapt. This is not just a grade. A client is depending on you for
your advice."
On top of that, she said, you have to learn how to work with
your own team.
"Everything in business now is involved with groups, so you
have to get used to group dynamics," said Moss, who after graduation
intends to go into international development, primarily with
food policy, and probably in Latin America. "But together, we got,
I think, a good result, some ways the winery can position itself to
come to the market. It will be exciting to see if they are successful."
The group consulting with Mercomujer, though,
will not just be waiting around to see if the non-profit is successful.
All the Wharton Global Consulting Practicum members have
signed on to continue consulting. It is the first time the practicum
has taken on a non-profit client, and Lodish said it will certainly
not be the last, though this and future non-profit projects will have
to be funded differently than the for-profit clients. In this case, the
students on the Wharton GCP team had to raise several thousand
dollars of the budget themselves to help finance the Mercomujer
project (with GCP itself donating some in-kind services in research
and the like). This was no small feat, considering that GCP projects
typically cost $50,000 to $60,000.
"We are not doing this to change the perception of MBAs as being
capitalists, because that is what we are," said Emily Lin, WG'05,
one of the four Wharton students to team with a similar group
from the Universidad Del Pacifico in Peru for the project. "But we
did this to have something we feel good about doing."
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