Guest Blogger: Alice Talks Global Consulting Practicum

Props out to our guest blogger Alice, who sent me this summary of the one week GCP trip to Chile. The company where the study was done is confidential and under NDA. -Chairman P
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Check out pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/citronbay/sets/72157594362820136/show/

As part of GCP tradition we visited Chile, our client's country, in the week before Christmas.

We Like Sheraton

We settled in a B&B like local four star hotel in the beach resort town Vina Del Mar, where our partner university (UAI) is located. Soon Guru found out that his room was just the size of a walk-in closet. A single bed barely fits in. With his arms open Guru can touch both ends of the wall. We all had a good laugh. Lucky for me at least I got a king-bed.

Later on Marianne discovered that just a stone's throw away there lies a much nicer hotel with breath-taking ocean views from EVERY guest room - Sheraton! Though too late to change the lodging plan, the nostalgic Wharton Executive team paid a rather emotional visit to our SPG member hotel. Yes if you'll ever visit Vina Del Mar, our vote for the choice of the hotel is –Sheraton!

Top Reasons To Go To Chile

Our driver+tour guide Fernando obviously was very experienced. Half an hour after getting into the van I learned from Fernando all the highlights about Chile (Well, a lot of them having to do with Chilean women):

1. Contrary to conventional thinking, Chile is a liberal country. Why? Because Chile elected Socialist Michelle Bachelet, a 54-year-old single mother and pediatrician as its first female president. Imagine if Hillary lived in Chile! She would have kicked Bill out and could have won the presidential election already!

2. According to Fernando, the women to men ratio in Chile is 2 to 1. Lucky guys!

3. Chile has its own version of Hooters restaurant! And it's called "Cafe with Legs"!!! What an artistic name!

Fernando was only willing to give us a glimpse of the restaurant so I stood outside and took one blurred picture of a 'Santa' dressed "Cafe with Legs" lady. Don't worry; you will NOT miss it in my album.

4. Fernando was particularly proud that Chile had no divorce laws...couples are bound not by contract, but by faith. (Well this has changed recently.)

5. Chile is full of valleys and mountains; beaches and deserts. From the modern city of Santiago to the nature's love Patagonia, it's suited for a wide variety of interests and activities.

6. At this point you probably don't care about economy any more. But worth honorable mentioning is that Chile is actually one of the most developed and fastest growing economies in Latin America. In 2006, it became the country with the highest nominal GDP per capita in Latin America. To quote the impressed Raj, "It will take India 5-10 years to reach this level!”

A True International Team

The combined Wharton-UAI team has 10 members, coming from 8 countries:

From Wharton: India, China, Finland, and USA

From UAI: Dominique Republic, Panama, Ecuador, and Chile

And if I count spouses and faculties I'm sure the number of represented countries will double. Thus every working day we experienced a round of meetings in United Nation. Though it was chaotic at times, I was impressed by the UAI team's high working spirit and intellectual level.

After a few days Marcela and Jose became my buddies. Three of us would sneak out after lunch and drove deep onto the winding streets of Vina Del Mar's hill side. We'd stop by at Marcela's house, the President's summer palace, and take a snapshot at the 'Flower Clock' - symbol of the city. The international round table was terrific, but secretly I was longing for the road trip on Marcela's 80 something stick shift Honda with her Bond Girl like driving style. After all it was peachy early summer and we were in a flower garden beach resort town!

Vina Del Mar & UAI Campus

Vina Del Mar - the beach resort city feels much like a small Spanish town. Vintage. European. A little paradise. Our partner school, UAI is located only a few miles away. As a matter of fact our 'war' room in one of UAI's buildings got a million dollar view of the whole beach front.

Somehow UAI reminded me of California's Pepperdine University and the story about Larry Ellison's son. It goes like this: Larry's son was 18 years old and was deciding which university to go to. In particular he was choosing between Harvard and Pepperdine. The son then went to Larry for advice. "Of course Pepperdine!" Larry said.

Following Larry's wisdom we Wharton team offered to swap with the UAI folks for one semester....guess what? To our disappointment Vina Del Mar still beats San Francisco...none of the UAI folks wanted to take the offer! (Well, admittedly UAI is one of the best Universities in Chile, but still, we are Wharton + San Francisco! Oh that hurts. )

So here you go, with a week immersed in Chile, Vina Del Mar, Santiago, and UAI, we're back in whole. Happy New Year!

-Alice