While many students spent their winter breaks in the comfort of their homes, a group of MBA students were foraging through the rainforests of Peru with the hopes of aiding local artisans.
The students were doing consulting work through the Global Consulting Practicum -- an international consulting organization run through a Wharton MBA course.
Typically, students working in the GCP cooperate in teams of four to six students to consult for a for-profit multinational company. However, in the past year there has been a movement to provide consulting for non-profit organizations.
The students in Peru were consulting for the non-profit organization PaTS, or Partnerships and Technology for Sustainability, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the rainforests of Peru through the economic development of its indigenous population, the Yanesha.
PaTS operates by connecting the Yanesha artisans with larger retail buyers, who then work to sell their products -- which include carved wooden trays and stools.
According to GCP Office Manager Lisa Linn de Barona, when PaTS approached the GCP for consulting advice they had already established a solid program but "were looking to make the next step" in terms of "support on the economic level."
Throughout the year the students working on PaTs are communicating with local students in Peru to develop recommendations to present to their clients in May at the annual GCP May colloquium on campus.
According to team member and first-year MBA student Lauren Bloomer, the team is helping PaTS with their U.S. marketing campaign to ensure that they are targeting the right segment and marketing their products correctly.
Members of the team visited Peru in order to better understand the Yanesha, Bloomer said.
The students were in Peru for a week over winter break. After arriving in Lima, the students traveled into the heart of the Peruvian rain forest. They traveled six to eight hours a day, often on dirt roads through harsh conditions.
According to group member and first-year MBA student Erin Billman, the group had to ford deep rivers and deal with flooding because of the Peruvian rainy season.
"It took us six hours on dirt roads to get to woodsheds where artisans carved wood," Billman said, adding that the trip helped the team realize that the artisans "can't just ramp up supply and production because you say so."
The team also experienced problems as a result of cultural and language barriers between the team, the PaTS organization and the local artisans they were working with.
"In some cases we were operating in three languages," Linn de Barona said, adding "there was a lot of 'Spanglish' going on," referring to a mix of the Spanish and English languages many found themselves using.
Overall, students involved in the trip found the project enlightening.
"It's interesting to see these people who don't have much at all but are very concerned with lasting priorities for their children and future generations," Billman said.
