Brazil: Pre-Departure

By: Skyler C. DeWalt, Smith MBA Candidate, 2018

Our class has been eagerly anticipating the field component of our “Doing Business in Brazil” course!

Through lectures and discussions throughout the Fall semester of 2017, Prof. Prochno engaged us on the economy and political climate in his home country of Brazil. The country was a bright spot in the global economy despite the global recession this past decade, but it has recently faced serious political challenges. Once we arrive in Brazil, we intend to visit with several companies and learn about the local business environment from industry perspectives.

We students have also paired up with small companies supported by Rio Criativo, a business incubator supported by the State of Rio de Janeiro. Teams were paired with creative-industry businesses facing unique challenges to growth, including an online consignment store seeking to overcome operations limitations, a children’s theater program considering new funding streams, and a bamboo furniture-maker in need of market analysis and strategic direction. Over the past several months, we studied each company’s operations, spoke with employees, gathered and analyzed data, and considered business problems within the context of the local Brazilian economy. Visiting Rio de Janeiro will grant us the opportunity to finally meet the small companies we’ve been working with.