CUHK MBA Field Trip to Chile
The trip to Santiago, Chile, was the first ever field trip for our MBA students in South America. The week was extremely fulfilling for our students who travelled all this way to spent time understanding business practices, start-ups and entrepreneurship ecosystem on the other side of the globe!
Day one of the Chile field trip got up to a great start with an amazing talk on start-up ecosystem by the Managing Director of Girls in Tech Chile, Maitetxu Larraechea. Girls in Tech Chile is a non-profit organization that aims to identify, connect and give visibility to technology creators in Chile, turning them into sources of inspiration and specific knowledge for other women.
Day two – Great meetings with CasaCo, Sistemas B, Mujeres del Pacifico, Game Lab and Start up Chile: Organisations that inspired so many countries in the world on innovation, gender equity and entrepreneurship!
Day three – Great sharing sessions from Pro Chile, Sunplicity and Mountain Nazca! On top of that an enjoyable evening with our alumni here in Chile.
Day four – Our MBA students gained significant insights from the presentations delivered by the HK Chamber of Commerce in Chile and from Wines of Chile on trade and business developments!
Plus our students presented their results for the group consultancy project and made recommendations to a Panel comprising of 3 companies. Special thanks to Rocketbots (and Mountain Nazca) La Bicicleta Verde and Fundación Mi Parque!
Day five – It was such an amazing week! The trip was concluded by a tour to the city of Valparaiso, one of Chile’s main shipping port and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003 and a lovely lunch at a Vineyard in the Casablanca Valley.
An overview of the Chilean wine industry through a tour to the Kingston Vineyard on its wine production facilities, a case study on the Family Vineyards and of course… Wine Tasting!
Wait… there’s more… Follow Up trip to Peru
What a nice surprise bumping into a CUHK Alumni whilst hiking on the Inca Trail in Peru!
What our student has to say?
Franklin Law (Year 2 Part-time Student):
“The study trip to Chile was a great experience for us to get acquainted with the local Chilean culture and economy, as well as understanding how Chile could serve as a good entry point for start-ups to get into the LATAM market.
It was a privilege for us to meet with local entrepreneurs, such as Girls in Tech, Sunplicity and GameLab, to learn how they developed their business and solved existing challenges based on local intelligence. We also witnessed how government support could do wonder in the development of start-up culture and how its commitment helped drive the country to become a major entrepreneurial hub in the world.
The visit to the Kingston Family Vineyards on the last day of the trip was a highlight. We took a close look as to how the vineyard has developed and transformed its strategy in order to survive in the market. It was definitely a perfect ending to our trip!”