GCP wines and dines in Chile
Brian Lam & Vinayak Naik, WG'07
Issue date: 1/30/06 Section: News
The Global Consulting Practicum (GCP) is one of the highlights of the Wharton School MBA program. One of the GCP projects this year involved helping a Chilean Wine manufacturer, codenamed Bevdesur, to improve its market share in the US. This is a synopsis of the events that happened during the in-country visit of the Wharton team, as experienced by two team members when they were sober enough to comprehend what was going on.
After being greeted with 80 degree temperatures and the even warmer hospitality of our counterpart team, we locked ourselves alternately in the University Adolfo Ibanez campus and Hotel Rugendas, creating and synthesizing our proposals for Bevdesur, our client. Awed by the quality of the project proposal put forward by the team and the presentation skills of the two-headed "Pablo" monster, Bevdesur only asked 3 questions and quickly signed on the dotted line. Meanwhile, back at headquarters, half the team put together a flawless work-plan to execute our finalized deal, illustrating the cohesion that our team built over the week.
Away from Project Bevdesur, we spent time eating food and feeding (stray?) cats at fun places like the Fish Market. We also managed to visit a dungeon that doubled up as a wine cellar. However, the crowning glory of the trip was our visit to Montes, the leader of Chilean wines. During our underground reconnaissance of Montes, the friendly staff of Bevdesur's rival tried to get information out of us by giving us a heavy sampling of their wine portfolio, providing us with a home-cooked meal in a cabana on the hill and walking us around their "feng shui" styled facility. In spite of their sweet offerings, we maintained the sanctity of our relationship with our client. Our team did manage to go to Valparaiso, "the new year party capital of South America", and to Vina Del Mar, an oceanfront resort city, where our counterpart students live just like us, in beach facing penthouse suites.
All in all, we had a great time, made especially better by the company of our TA, Lori "the Dancing Boot" Holmes, and our faculty advisor, Jody "#1 Tourist Photographer" Levy.
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After being greeted with 80 degree temperatures and the even warmer hospitality of our counterpart team, we locked ourselves alternately in the University Adolfo Ibanez campus and Hotel Rugendas, creating and synthesizing our proposals for Bevdesur, our client. Awed by the quality of the project proposal put forward by the team and the presentation skills of the two-headed "Pablo" monster, Bevdesur only asked 3 questions and quickly signed on the dotted line. Meanwhile, back at headquarters, half the team put together a flawless work-plan to execute our finalized deal, illustrating the cohesion that our team built over the week.
Away from Project Bevdesur, we spent time eating food and feeding (stray?) cats at fun places like the Fish Market. We also managed to visit a dungeon that doubled up as a wine cellar. However, the crowning glory of the trip was our visit to Montes, the leader of Chilean wines. During our underground reconnaissance of Montes, the friendly staff of Bevdesur's rival tried to get information out of us by giving us a heavy sampling of their wine portfolio, providing us with a home-cooked meal in a cabana on the hill and walking us around their "feng shui" styled facility. In spite of their sweet offerings, we maintained the sanctity of our relationship with our client. Our team did manage to go to Valparaiso, "the new year party capital of South America", and to Vina Del Mar, an oceanfront resort city, where our counterpart students live just like us, in beach facing penthouse suites.
All in all, we had a great time, made especially better by the company of our TA, Lori "the Dancing Boot" Holmes, and our faculty advisor, Jody "#1 Tourist Photographer" Levy.