Doing Business in Latin America

Description
This course will focus in “Doing Business in Latin America”. Students will learn about socio - cultural issues, economic and political - legal environment, together with strategic and marketing considerations when doing business in Latin American countries. Learning approach will be base in cases of study as well as lectures and a team project.

Aims
At the end of the course the students will be able to:

1. Understand the concept of marketing environment and its application in L.A.
2. Assess the importance of understanding the process of market research and consumer behavior for developing company strategies.
3. Understand the meaning of the concepts market segmentation, targeting & positioning.
4. Understand the concept of marketing mix (4p: product, price, promotion & place).
5. Understand the concept of business intelligence related in marketing environment.
6. Understand how the process of the data mining and impact company strategies in L.A.

Methodology
The course will have a total of 51 hours including evaluation processes. We will employ lecture, discussion, case study, research and presentation as our learning methods. We will discuss Latin America doing business cases in every class that relates to our scheduled topic area.

You will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss the issues and dynamics at play, as well as offer solutions and strategies. Discussions will be frequent and you will need to participate to get participation credit in the course. For each class students will be required to read relevant material in advance. Course Newspaper I recommend to keep reading different business and economic newspapers and magazines from the region :

Chile :

• El Mercurio newspaper (Economia y Negocios section) http://diario.elmercurio.com/
• Diario Financiero : https://www.df.cl/ c) Diario el Pulso : http://www.pulso.cl/

Argentina :

• Diario La Nacion : http://www.lanacion.com.ar/
• Revista Target
• Revista Apertura : http://www.apertura.com/

Brazil :

• Folha de Sao Paulo : http://www.folha.uol.com.br/
• Veja Magazine : http://veja.abril.com.br/
• Istoé : http://www.istoedinheiro.com.br/

México

• Diario Reforma de México – negocios : http://www.negociosreforma.com/defaultr.htm

Grading
Your grade will be issued based upon the following breakdown:

Attendance & Participation : 15%
Business Cases (10) : 35%
Team Project : 30%
Final Individual Exam : 20%

Attending class, being prepared and participating is the key to getting the most value out of this class. Cases, current events and various management scenarios will be taught and discussed and you need to be actively involved. You need to ask questions about the material, give comments, and defend positions. I look for your opinions and insights. All of us benefit by your preparation and cooperation.

Business Cases : will be 10 business cases all related to the scheduled topics.
Due dates will be as follow :

1. B. Case Provida Chile
2. B. Case Himalaya
3. B. Case Juan Valdez Colombia
4. B. Case Natura Brazil
5. - B. Case Gastón Acurio Peru
6. B. Case Concha y Toro Wines Chile
7. B. Case Dannone Argentina
8. B. Case Lan Tam
9. B. Case Revlon & Cover Girl (these ones will be solved during the same class)

All business cases will be delivered to you in advance of the course start date. Questions related to each one will be send, too. Responses must be no more than five typed, double – space pages.

Team Project : At the first class teams must be formed in groups of maximum 4 students each. After having the groups formed, professor will assigned to each group the project they will be working on. Project will consist on a business plan related to a brand or organization within Latin America. Main objective is for the students to apply knowledge and tools learned at the course.

Full project guidelines will be distributed first class.

All groups must send digitally their project draft update (Date to be informed) in order for the professor give them preliminary feedback and from there keep working until the final presentation.

Final formal presentations (TBD) with a print version of their project and a 15 mins slides summary to be presented.

Exam will be given on the last session. The final will be of all the subjects covered throughout the course. It will be a business case as usual.