A full day

Today was our busiest day yet, with three business visits on the agenda. Our first visit was to Recycla, a company that recycles electronics using environmentally friendly methods. Traveling to their recycling facility allowed us to see a totally different side of the city of Santiago--an area filled with industrial parks. After a brief tour of the recycling center, we had coffee with Fernando Nilo, CEO and founder of Recycla. He explained Recycla’s triple bottom line model, in which economic value is balanced with a commitment to positive environmental and social impact. The social mission of Recycla includes employment of individuals who have experienced imprisonment, which facilitates their reintegration into society. The students enjoyed learning about Recycla, as well as discussing their own business ideas and career goals with Fernando. Upon leaving, we presented him with a Kelley t-shirt and an IU hat, which, as you can see below, he couldn’t wait to put on!



The second visit of the day was to General Electric. We ate lunch and listened to a very informative presentation that began with global trends currently affecting GE and moved on to deal more specifically with GE's operations in Latin America and then the Chilean context in particular. Our hosts, Sergio Blanco, Alejandro L. Bottan, and Luis Felipe Carrillo (pictured below with the group), answered questions from the students on a wide variety of topics, including the impact of the 2010 earthquake in Chile and the recent tsunami in Japan on the energy industry.

Our final visit was to the Santiago Bolsa de Comercio (Stock Exchange), which was founded in 1893. Macarena Henriquez and Daniela Araneda Reveco provided us with an overview of what the Stock Exchange is and how it works and showed us a demonstration of the technology it employs. We concluded with a visit to the trading room floor. We learned that most brokers now choose to work from other locations, so the trading room was much quieter than most of us originally expected.

During our small group reflection later in the afternoon, Carl, Gabe, Kyle, and Lissa shared their impressions of the business visits so far. They are enjoying the fact that we have been meeting with such a broad range of types of businesses. Some of the students were struck by the pride and confidence that Chileans have in their economic success and their potential for continuing development and feel that this has been a common thread throughout our trip. The students also shared that they are grateful for the very unique opportunities that this trip is affording them, noting that generally on a visit of this length, you don’t get to have extended interactions with the locals or learn so much about the society and the economy. Additionally, the students have had positive experiences with the santiaguinos, finding them friendly and helpful, which makes them feel more welcomed into the culture and less like tourists looking in from the outside.

We ended our busy itinerary with a group dinner at Restaurant Peyo, where we were joined by Penelope Knuth, an IU alumna who lives in Chile, and her son. We enjoyed getting to know them and we’re grateful to Penelope for suggesting such a nice restaurant that we probably wouldn’t have found on our own. The food was plentiful and very tasty. Below the pictures of our group and our guests, you can see two of the delicious dishes we enjoyed, the unbelievably tender calamares and the colorful salad prominently featuring palta
(the local word for avocado—a new addition to our Spanish vocabulary for most of us). All in all, it was a busy but wonderful day!