By Jeferson Barros, Miguel Becerra, and Tulio Bracho, 2nd year MBAs
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| From left to right: Jeferson Barros, Miguel Becerra, Alejandro Guerrero, Patricio de la Rocha, and Pedro Sanchez. |
With the support from the Institute of Global Organizational Effectiveness (IGOE), five Latin American Kelley MBA students participated on the first Latin Business Challenge organized by Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management on March 27 and 28, 2014. The competition, the first of its kind focused in Latin America, was sponsored by Deloitte, AT&T, and the Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies.
The Kelley team brought home the first prize after competing with very talented MBA students from schools such as Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business (second place), The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, Washington University's Olin School of Business, and Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.
Miguel Becerra, Jeferson Barros, Alejandro Guerrero, Pedro Sanchez, and Patricio de la Rocha spent a week working together on the challenge case, which was focused on the consolidation and global expansion of Brasil Foods (BRF), the second largest Brazilian food company resulting from the merger of archrival companies Sadia and Perdigao. The knowledge acquired through the different classes at the Kelley MBA program and the training provided by the academies helped the team in the process.
True to the Kelley culture of collaboration and mutual respect, the team was able to leverage the strengths of each member in different areas such as Finance, Marketing, Strategy, and Business Analytics to frame a solid strategy that successfully addressed the most critical issues of the case: domestic market diversification, entering new global markets, and organizational change.
The Latin Business Challenge at Vanderbilt not only represented a great opportunity to network with executives from the sponsoring firms and top students from the other competing schools, but also reaffirmed the increasing importance of Latin America as a region for doing business. The Institute for Global Organizational Effectiveness feels proud of the achievements of its fellows, and reaffirms is commitment to keep providing them opportunities to develop the special skills needed in the global marketplace.