Belmont International Business Team Places Fifth in the Netherlands

We did it! Belmont PR office published this story today about our trip to the NIBS competition in Rotterdam a few weeks ago.

Overall it was a wonderful experience -- gaining presentation experience; networking and making new friends among the international competitors, coaches & judges; seeing a few new cities; and getting to know my teammates and our coach outside the classroom.  We're like a little family now! 

Life

Life is about joy. enthusiasm. experience.
Life is more.
     It's about inspiration. love. learning.
            helping. going. doing. planning.
Life should have flavor. spice.
                           It's about relationships. 
                             remembering. appreciating.
                                       thinking. creating.
                                                going. seeing.
                   Life is about listening.
                                     really listening. 
           connecting.

India

Guatemala - Part II: "Esperanza"

Her name means hope. Esperanza is seven years old and studies in the third grade. She lives with her mother and sisters in Chajul -- a community of 3000 people in the highlands of central Quiche -- and speaks Ixil, one of 22 languages spoken by 22 distinct ethnic groups in Guatemala.

The Ixil [ "ee-sheel"] people are descendants of the Mayans.  A visit to their remote villages scattered throughout the valleys and steep mountainsides of Quiche reveals women in traditional red woven skirts and whipils ["whee-peels"] which take the women on average two and half months to hand weave on homemade looms.

It's a complex process, I learn, as I make my first attempt under the supervision of Esperanza and her family.  At seven, Esperanza has already mastered the basics of weaving. As I struggle to keep track of the many wooden tools involved, her mother, Maria Asicona, smiles over me and adroitly adjusts my errors.  Esperanza studies my blonde hair and foreign features as she stands nearby, transferring a spool of thread to another tool with nonchalant expertise. Her eyes bear a quiet confidence beyond her years.

Guatemala - Part I

We've just emerged from a week in the jungle of central Quiche, Guatemala.  Situated just 150 miles from Guatemala City, what a typical American would normally project as a 3 to 4-hour drive requires in actuality no less than 8 hours, in 20-year-old vehicles imported from the U.S., winding up and down Guatemala's sometimes-paved mountain roads to reach the town of Chajul.

It was here that we followed the coffee trail from the tree to the mug; we were invited into the homes of families in this indigenous community where we shared a meal and learned to weave; we witnessed the incredible poverty of these families and were touched by their joy and generosity. And we were introduced to four different organizations who are actively addressing the challenges and needs of this community in unique ways.

But since I have only a few minutes until the bus comes to pick us up to fly to the Mayan Ruins at Tikal, I will have to dive into the intensity of our experience in Chajul another day.  I wanted to at least share a few photos today!

We're now in the colonial city of Antigua, in a most deluxe hotel - a far cry from the abject poverty which plagues what seems like 90% of this country.  As we drove into Antigua yesterday evening I was thinking how it's almost unbelievable that we are in the same country as the Chajul we left early that morning.

Yesterday's highlight - zip lining in the canopy outside Antigua.

Quetzales - Guatemalan money. 1 USD = 7.90 Q

A walk through Beurs in Rotterdam

NIBS Competition

So, first progress report.

A reward after 15+ hours of
traveling: Our first European coffees
together!

After our 43-hour day starting Friday in Nashville, taking us to NYC, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Brussels, and ending in our hotel late Saturday night - 2am Rotterdam time, we stayed in for the most part and caught up on some much-needed rest on Sunday.

Or, rather, my teammates caught up on some rest while I sat in the lobby studying all day for an exam I thought I would have to take online this week.  (As unpleasant as it might seem, three good things have actually come of that... 1) I met that really neat Dutch journalist while I was alone in the lobby, reading; 2) A lot of the principles in my strategic management book were solidified in my head, and have actually been quite useful in the case competition; and 3) My wonderful Strategic Management professor agreed to allow me to take the test when I return instead of online -- so I studied for several hours with the urgency of an impending test date and now find myself thinking about the material from time to time, letting it sink it, and feel that with some more revision I will be well prepared for the exam!)

The first day of the competition was stressful, especially since we didn't know quite what to expect, and it turns out that European case competitions are quite different from American ones in many ways. There is a huge emphasis here on the format and structure of the presentation, rather than the idea.  Judges want to see detailed implementation and contingency plans over everything else, and are less appreciative of creative, innovative solutions than their American counterparts. In the head-to-head rounds of this competition, the panel of judges has a total of 11 points to split between the two teams.  We lost our first round (3-8) to the best team here, who gave an incredible presentation. The positive side of this is that by watching them we immediately had a great example of excellence that my teammates and I were able to use in restructuring our own style and approach.

A promenade through Brussels' downtown café district

Follow me for a short walk through the tourist-saturated back alley ways of downtown Brussels, only a few blocks from le Grand Place.  I can't remember a more beautiful, sunny day in Belgium!