Thursday, December 13, 2018

'A Business Trip to Chile Essay\r'

' elicit approximately visiting a South American c deplorablenish for the maiden time, I started my journey to capital of chili con carne De chilli from Miami on March 2nd, 2012. To start with, I was speculative about the quality of a chili based airline. more thanover, I was amazed by the refined service provided by LAN airlines. My perception about a cayenne pepperan company changed and so and there. Also, antecedent to my flight I doubted whether the authorizeds in the flight result represent English (even though we were assured by the Professor that there wouldn’t be wrangle problems during the travel) and my doubts didn’t fructify.\r\nIn fact, the quality of the food given to us in the plane set up a high expectation for my adept-week yearn assay at Santiago. Day integrity After ceremony the Pi prescribes of the Caribbean †At World’s end, a motion-picture show which I engage been craving to watch for a long time, and a couple of hours of pleasant flight, we come in Santiago on time. As curtly as the automatic door swung open permit me in to the air fashion wine, I respectd a concourse of good deal standing before a forbid that was utilise to collect a recipro metropolis pay. The nonice board before the counter showed â€Å"US †$ i hundred forty”.\r\nAs I didn’t fully belowstand what a reciprocity fee is and since I was culmination in to the unsophisticated from US, I s as well asd at the pole of a rattling unretentive line reckoning my $140. When my turn came, I was pleasantly surprised to honor out that it applies only to US Citizens and that it is a integrity-time channelize only for the life of the passport. I wondered what the reciprocity fees was and later(prenominal) found out that this was the amount the US charges long pepperans entrance fashion the country. For that reason, the fees are referred to as â€Å"reciprocity”.\r\nAfter a little researc h, I found that out of the countries in South America, five of them charge a fee: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, cayenne and Paraguay. The fees aerated are in verbatim relation to what the home country of the passenger charges residents of the country you are visiting. The fees look like a near(a) source of revenue for these countries. I reached the Atton El Bosque hotel by hiring a taxi from the airport subsequently a little struggle to explain the hotel name and position to the taxi driver.\r\nAfter resting for a while, and later a brief orientation meeting, we started a City Tour. The check transcend who accompanied us was in truth versed about the narration and culture of Chile. It was a joyfulness to see the La Moneda Presidential Palace and was evoke to learn about the biography of the palace. Construction of the La Moneda started in 1784 and was constructed to be the country’s send official mint, hence the name which translates to The Mint. A wiki entry shows that coins were minted from 1814 to 1929. And, in 1845 the palace became the residence of the president.\r\nI learnt an classic history of Chile that twenty-four hours about the Chileans having a incompatible 911 to remember about and that was about the military coup d’etat on September 11, 1973. The then Commander-in-chief Augusto Pinochet conduct the coup against the President Salvador Allende. Despite the air raids and nethercoat attacks on the palace, the President vowed to stay in the presidential palace and rejected the military’s ultimatum to ill-use land. Eventually the President killed himself (although this is questionable and still under scrutiny).\r\nThe journey guide explained this really well to the radical and signed to a closed door, which was guarded by a uniformed officer, mentioning that the dead body of the president was taken out through this door. After finishing the halt close to the palace, we had a stop at Los Dominicos for near a rtisan shopping and then the archetypical twenty-four hours of the trip officially ended. posterior for dinner, we went to a business office nearby the hotel and the service was not so good. So we decided to tip him lesser than the 10%. But to our surprise, the waiter stood there demanding for the remaining tip.\r\nWe didn’t dwell if it was a Chile culture to tip 10% mandatorily. Later I found out that the aliveness of approximately of the waiters depends on tips. They may get a minimum salary besides it is barely sufficient to cover transportation. But according to me, the financial dependence on tips doesn’t necessarily mean the waiters/waitresses merit to get tips for a lousy service. Thus, day one ended with just about chief(prenominal) lessons learnt about the history and culture of Chile. Throughout the trip we were informed of the sizeableness of the shit fabrication to the economy of Chile.\r\nDay both We started early on day dickens for a two hour long trip to the port city of Valparaiso. En route to Valparaiso, the second largest city of Chile, we stopped at a place to irreverenten ourselves and we saw some Llamas at the back of the store. It was the origin time I saw a Llama. Later on a casual talk to one of the hotel staff, I learnt that during the Spanish conquest the Llamas was primarily utilise to bring down ore from the mines that were atop mountains. But then the introduction of horses and donkeys diminished the importance of Llama as a beast of burden.\r\nAnd, that they are primarily utilise as a source of food and fiber now. The first thing that came to our attention in Valparaiso was the National coitus of Chile. Our tour guide pointed out that Pinochet shifted the congress from business district Santiago to Valparaiso. The Chile regime, like the USA, has a bicameral legislature. The legislature is made up of the Chamber of Deputies, which is the write down house, and the Senate. Also, we saw the Val paraiso market through the windows of the bus and the guide mentioned that you will get all sorts of stuff (even used goods) at cheap prices in that market.\r\nChile has two Nobel Prize winners and both awards were in the fields of Literature. Our tour itinerary indicated a visit to the house of one of the Nobel laureates, Pablo Neruda. I wondered whether there will be anything elicit to see at a house of a poet. Again, my perceptions turned out to be wrong after entering the house and after listening to the narrations (in English! ) through an audio guide. I liked the way Pablo named everything in his house. And, the view of the port from his window was stunning. thence we trekked down the streets of Valparaiso and walked by the beautiful houses.\r\nThe guide showed us certain parts of the town overlooking the port that were occupied mainly by the English and a church which had service in German. Later we took a short ride on a funicular, which was used to take the residents up an d down the steep hummock sides of Valparaiso. The funiculars are now operated just for tourism routine as the cheap fee that was being charged previously for routine use was not paying for the operators. Anyhow, it was interesting to ride on a historic means of transport. From there, we proceeded to turn out lunch at a fantastic restaurant overlooking the sea.\r\nThe founder of La Bicicleta Verde greeted us during lunch and gave us an introduction to his business. His company, which gives a bicycle tour of the city, was founded with a local anesthetic anesthetic accomplice and through InnovaChile, CORFO, which is the executing agency of disposal policies in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. His insights about doing business in Chile were really thought provoking and his discussions revealed the support from the government for such innovations.\r\nAfter that, we took some time off walking along the beach and under the dazzling sun and then returned to the otel. The second day too was filled with lessons about the culture, business in Chile and about the wonderful poet, Pablo Neruda. Day Three On the third day, we visited the Adolfo Ibanez University that was atop the scenic San Ramon Hill. The University was away from the city and the tour guide told us that legion(predicate) inadequate people live near that college. Thus, students waste been skeptical of travelling to the college as there have been many incidents of robbery. Anyhow, we reached the University from where we could see the whole of Santiago from the hills.\r\nThere, we attended a lecture from Guillermo Paraje, one of the towering professors of the University, about the Latin American Economies. The lecture started off with the information that the Latin American countries were only mildly affected by the economic crisis going on rough the world. Also, the unemployment rate has been going down along with an increase in the average wage. Most importantly, the increase price o f copper has boosted the growth rate of the Chile economy. The Professor took self-respect in mentioning that Chile is the first South American country to be an OECD member.\r\nOne important point that the professor touched upon was the low productivity of push back. He compared the productivity of Korea and Brazil and his graphs showed that Korean has been maturement its productivity rate at 4. 7% whereas Brazil has been growing only at 0. 1%. This trend was seen throughout the Latin American countries and is a growing region of concern. Also, the Latin American countries were lagging behind in the service sector. Moreover, there seems to be an increasing flutter between the rich and poor. He raised an important point about Chile (or Latin American countries) remaining as a manufacturing business of huffy materials alone.\r\nThat is, he mentioned Chile is the leadership exporter of copper but it is not a good producer of correct goods based out of copper. This, according t o the Professor, should be the long term strategy of all Latin American countries. A casual talk with the Professor after the lecture revealed that Chile is not targeting more in renewable and nuclear push. A modern proposal to invest in nuclear energy was rejected by the governing citing safety issues, specially after the incident in Japan. Being a growing country, Chile could encourage more people to invest in renewable energy.\r\nAfter that, we toured in and around the University and then returned to the bus to be greeted by our smiling bus driver who always referred to us as â€Å"Macho, macho”. Later in the day, we had a presentation about snips & sentient being Chile Ltda. (Ltda. stands for limitada for limited companies). The tap industries cause a lot of environmental issues and the activities around the tap have an impact on the wildlife around the region. The company does a wonderful job in minimizing the impact to the habitat. The government made it mandatory for these mining companies to get the advice of Flora and Fauna.\r\nI was happy to learn that the government is very interested in preserving the habitat of the unlike regions and they were aid by this wonderful set of people who lam for Flora and Fauna. Then, we had a presentation from the Managing Director of Banco Santander. The Banco Santander is the leading bank in Latin America. He gave as some good insights about the financial remains in Chile and told us that the financial clay of Chile ranks among the best in South America. Also, Mr. Martin Perez, expound the Pension System of Chile.\r\nA reform in late 1980 replaced the pay-as-you go regime with a fully-funded reward carcass. The third day was filled with lessons about the political economy and financial systems of Chile. Day Four The next day, we visited the Frito-Lay, which was primed(p) in Cerrillos. The manager of the specify addressed us with some information about the plant. In Latin America, Fri to-Lay has 6 production sites and the Cerrillos plant was bought in 2008. One of the slides of the presentation showed a growth rate of around 8% in the volume of sales and a 15% increase in revenue since the stock of the plant.\r\nAn different graph illustrated a volume of the stimulating snacks portfolio of Frito-Lay despite having no new line in the site. The manager mentioned the increase was because of an improvement in the susceptibility of the site. The manager takes pride in the fact that they have a world-class site in legal injury of efficiency, service and sustainability. For instance, the plant includes a series of photovoltaic panels on top of the factory that produces around 12KW of electricity. Interestingly, the plant has reduced its water and energy consumption significantly.\r\nAlso, the succeeding(a) plans for the site includes a reuse of 100% of the osseous water. Once the presentation was done, the manager took us around the factory and showed us the vari ous(a) lines and packaging units. on the way, he told us that the potatoes are grown under controlled conditions and that it is not the same as the ones used for municipal consumption. On inquiring about some coruscate lying on the ground, the manager told me that it was the result of an investigate to re-use the starch produced from the potatoes. This was really surprising.\r\nApart from being very sustainable, the company was trying to innovate in various ways. Finally, on inquiring about the software system used in the plant, the manager informed me that they are going to switch to SAP in hardly a(prenominal) months. The plant was going all the way to capture very efficient. It was very impressive. After a scrumptious lunch, we visited CORFO Chile for an introduction to Start Up Chile. This was the most interesting site visit for me. The Start Up Chile is one of the best incubator programs intentional to attract entrepreneurs from across the world.\r\nIt was started by th e Chilean Government to convert Chile into an innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America. We were presented with the ways in which an entrepreneur is selected for the program. Apparently, an expert team, including eminent people from USA, selects the best among the applicants. It was in addition interesting to fuck that the program has attracted people from India and China and that too, with minimal advertisements in those areas. Through the Start Up Chile program, entrepreneurs work on their projects at Chile and are reimbursed up to $40,000 in cash.\r\nDuring 2011-2012, the program has attracted people from diverse industries including IT, e-Commerce, Energy, Cleantech, and so forth The prefatory idea is to boost the confidence of the local entrepreneurs by sending a message that Chile supports such innovations. The incoming people are also required to earn around 4000 points to successfully carry out the program. They earn points in various ways, including giving se minars to local universities and thusly, they add value to Chile. I believe this is an horrific idea to boost the economy of a country which is presently symbiotic on only exports of raw materials.\r\nThey are structure a future which is not necessarily dependent on the export industry and thereby, Chile is on track to building a sustainable future. Day Five We visited the factory of Agricom, suppliers of fresh fruits, on the second last day of our tour. not surprisingly, the USA is the biggest market for avocados, which are exported from this facility. The company also offers other fruits such as: Grapes, Drupes, Oranges, Apples, etc. Also, Agricom generates more than 2000 jobs for the Chilean labor market. Europe is also an important market for Agricom. As future plans, Agricom is planning to invest in walnuts.\r\nThe factory visit was very informatory and we could feel the urgency with which the workers go on with the various activities. The urgency can be directly attribut ed to the bile factor of the fruits. Then, we visited Kross, a microbrewery factory. The founder welcomed us and took the spite in explaining to us the whole process of create from raw material the beer. On asking whether the recipe can be easily replicated, Mr. Asbjorn explained that he can write down the recipe and give it to me but, it will be very difficult to replicate the same taste as he has the right equipment.\r\nHe also mentioned that it is not a good business sense to likeness another beer. I felt it was a sound point and I learnt an interesting lesson. We, then, had an amazing cook out lunch at a picturesque building at Vina Mar, which is a famous vineyard in Chile. Later, we visited another wine factory called the Vina Quintay and the Commercial motorcoach of the company guided us through some wine tasting. Day Six On the last(a) day of the trip, we had the most important topic as presentation †Mining in Chile by a senior official from Kinross, a Canadian g old company.\r\nStarting up with some basic facts about Chile, the Vice President informed us that the corruption in Chile is really low and doing business in Chile is very easy. He goes on to say that 28% of the world’s copper reserves are in Chile and that Chile’s economy is heavily dependent on mining. The mining, he said, is concentrated in the blue parts of the country. The work force in Chile is well trained for the mining business and thus makes this an important factor for investing in the mining industry. Chile is the world’s largest producer in copper.\r\nThey also produce gold and Chile is the thirteenth largest producer. Interestingly, Chile is the largest producer of Lithium and the fifth largest producer of Silver. The mining industry contributes to 22% of the GDP and 60% of the exports. The mining industry directly employs around 70,000 people and indirectly employs more than 300,000. The Vice President goes on to say more on the challenges faced by the mining industry which includes the dwindling capacity of water, increasing demand for energy, increasing demand for specialized labor and so on. The trip ended on day six after the Kinross presentation.\r\nDeparture Thus, I bringy to leave Chile after a wonderful trip with wonderful people. I probably learnt a lot of things about Chile in this short trip than I would have learnt if I had read through a book about Chile. I learnt a lot about the economics, the importance of the mining industry, the rich history and culture of Chile, the stable financial system, etc. Experiencing the culture was really important and if I start a business I would definitely look at Chile as the first option. Final lesson: if you pay your room rent and other expenses at the hotel with US Dollars you don’t have to pay sales tax.\r\n'

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