In case you did not notice, I have not updated this blog since last Monday (April 4). I don't have a valid excuse except that I was overwhelmed a bit and figured the blog could wait. If we are connected on Facebook, you probably already know of a few things we have been doing in Buenos Aires.
I believe I mentioned on my last post that we were a bit overwhelmed on Monday with all the information we received. In case I did not mention it, we were a bit overwhelmed with all the information we received. We spent Tuesday morning at the hotel and reviewed all the materials we collected and did a brain dump session. Then we headed over to the office. We spent some time reviewing our materials with Matias. In the afternoon, Rodrigo and Caro from Pyxera Global stopped by the JA office and spent some time with us to see how we were working. While they were there, the founder of JA Argentina, Eduardo Marty, stopped by for a chat. Eduardo is a very interesting person. He studied in Grove City College in PA. I think that was over 25 years ago. He took quite an interest in me when he found out that I went to a state school in PA as well and studies economics. Eduardo did not hesitate to tell us that he is a firm believer of free market economy. He also has a photograph of himself with Milton Friedman in his office. He wanted to know my reading list because I mostly read non-fictions. I need to send it over to him. I think he might like the Angus Dutton. ;-)
We have our weekly group meeting with Pyxera Global on Tuesday evenings. We all met as a group at the hotel and talked about our projects. I think I talked a bit too much - primarily because I was struggling with the scope of work we were given and we had a looming deadline over our heads to finalize the scope of work by Friday, April 8. We got some guidance from Rodrigo, Caro, and the other teams but it felt like we were really behind all the other teams.
On Wednesday, we got to ride the subway in BA. Lupi was quite worried about our safety. And I believe you already saw the photo of me wearing my backpack in the front. The subway system is a bit outdated (such as no air-con on most trains) but it is fast and damn cheap. A single ticket costs 5 pesos. To give you some idea, the official exchange rate for $1 is approx. 14.50 pesos. As far as the project was concerned, I felt that we were still in deep waters in terms of scope. Each one of us in the team had a different view of what "digitization" meant when in came to the project in hand. Toward the end of the day, we received the JA Americas' and JA Argentina's strategic plan. That was probably the highlight of the day. They both contained a ton of information and I went nuts highlighting the materials. Matias also sat down with us and gave us an overview from his meeting with the JA Innovation Committee meeting. That was helpful too. He also invited us to a meeting with the JA Argentina strategy team on Thursday morning.
We finished the day with having dinner with Rodrigo. It was his birthday. Unfortunately the whole crew couldn't attend. We went to one of his favorite places and had a great meal.
Well, I might as continue on to Thursday. We started the day with a meeting with JA Argentina strategy team as SC Johnson. The meeting was quite productive and I gathered some valuable information to formulate our revised scope of work. After the meeting, we headed back to the JA office and met with two former students. Sebastian is on his final grade in high school and was part of the "La Compania" (The Company) program last year. Lorena was part of the "La Compania" program last year as well but from a different school. In fact, her team won the program by beating Sebastian's team. She is currently in university studying political science. The discussions with Sebastian and Lorena were very engaging. Both were both quite passionate about what they learned by participating in the JA program. They loved the program. "La Compania" is a 15-week program where they form a business venture of their own with support from a mentor. As part of this business venture, they come up with a business plan, elect a leadership team, raise funds, and sell products for real money. It teaches valuable entrepreneurial skills to high school students and is one of the most popular JA programs. It turned out that both Sebastian's and Lorena's teams were selling the same product (collecting recyclable mason jars and re-purposing them for something else) even though they went to different schools and did not know each other. Both were very honest in providing feedback to us. It helped us understand the struggles JA is going through. We will be bringing them back again.
At the end of the meeting, Matias asked us if we would like to go to his school sometime and talk about our experience. We are waiting for him to get back to us.
I really want to talk about Friday because it was one of my favorite days in BA. But it's too late and I think Friday (and Saturday too) deserves a separate post. Again, I think most of those on FB already have some ideas.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I also had a long conversation with my "buddy" Rob about our project and our struggle (maybe it was just my struggle). He gave some good advice. We also had a very good conversation about teamwork and team dynamics. Even though we all work for SAP and we are all part of "Top Talent," we come from different cultural and organizational backgrounds and we have our own work styles. I think that makes this assignment very challenging because we only get 4 weeks to do our work. My the time we get to know each other, we will be on a plane back home to go back to our regular jobs. While this makes our assignment challenging, it is also a great way to develop ourselves.
Cheers!
I believe I mentioned on my last post that we were a bit overwhelmed on Monday with all the information we received. In case I did not mention it, we were a bit overwhelmed with all the information we received. We spent Tuesday morning at the hotel and reviewed all the materials we collected and did a brain dump session. Then we headed over to the office. We spent some time reviewing our materials with Matias. In the afternoon, Rodrigo and Caro from Pyxera Global stopped by the JA office and spent some time with us to see how we were working. While they were there, the founder of JA Argentina, Eduardo Marty, stopped by for a chat. Eduardo is a very interesting person. He studied in Grove City College in PA. I think that was over 25 years ago. He took quite an interest in me when he found out that I went to a state school in PA as well and studies economics. Eduardo did not hesitate to tell us that he is a firm believer of free market economy. He also has a photograph of himself with Milton Friedman in his office. He wanted to know my reading list because I mostly read non-fictions. I need to send it over to him. I think he might like the Angus Dutton. ;-)
We have our weekly group meeting with Pyxera Global on Tuesday evenings. We all met as a group at the hotel and talked about our projects. I think I talked a bit too much - primarily because I was struggling with the scope of work we were given and we had a looming deadline over our heads to finalize the scope of work by Friday, April 8. We got some guidance from Rodrigo, Caro, and the other teams but it felt like we were really behind all the other teams.
On Wednesday, we got to ride the subway in BA. Lupi was quite worried about our safety. And I believe you already saw the photo of me wearing my backpack in the front. The subway system is a bit outdated (such as no air-con on most trains) but it is fast and damn cheap. A single ticket costs 5 pesos. To give you some idea, the official exchange rate for $1 is approx. 14.50 pesos. As far as the project was concerned, I felt that we were still in deep waters in terms of scope. Each one of us in the team had a different view of what "digitization" meant when in came to the project in hand. Toward the end of the day, we received the JA Americas' and JA Argentina's strategic plan. That was probably the highlight of the day. They both contained a ton of information and I went nuts highlighting the materials. Matias also sat down with us and gave us an overview from his meeting with the JA Innovation Committee meeting. That was helpful too. He also invited us to a meeting with the JA Argentina strategy team on Thursday morning.
We finished the day with having dinner with Rodrigo. It was his birthday. Unfortunately the whole crew couldn't attend. We went to one of his favorite places and had a great meal.
Well, I might as continue on to Thursday. We started the day with a meeting with JA Argentina strategy team as SC Johnson. The meeting was quite productive and I gathered some valuable information to formulate our revised scope of work. After the meeting, we headed back to the JA office and met with two former students. Sebastian is on his final grade in high school and was part of the "La Compania" (The Company) program last year. Lorena was part of the "La Compania" program last year as well but from a different school. In fact, her team won the program by beating Sebastian's team. She is currently in university studying political science. The discussions with Sebastian and Lorena were very engaging. Both were both quite passionate about what they learned by participating in the JA program. They loved the program. "La Compania" is a 15-week program where they form a business venture of their own with support from a mentor. As part of this business venture, they come up with a business plan, elect a leadership team, raise funds, and sell products for real money. It teaches valuable entrepreneurial skills to high school students and is one of the most popular JA programs. It turned out that both Sebastian's and Lorena's teams were selling the same product (collecting recyclable mason jars and re-purposing them for something else) even though they went to different schools and did not know each other. Both were very honest in providing feedback to us. It helped us understand the struggles JA is going through. We will be bringing them back again.
At the end of the meeting, Matias asked us if we would like to go to his school sometime and talk about our experience. We are waiting for him to get back to us.
I really want to talk about Friday because it was one of my favorite days in BA. But it's too late and I think Friday (and Saturday too) deserves a separate post. Again, I think most of those on FB already have some ideas.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I also had a long conversation with my "buddy" Rob about our project and our struggle (maybe it was just my struggle). He gave some good advice. We also had a very good conversation about teamwork and team dynamics. Even though we all work for SAP and we are all part of "Top Talent," we come from different cultural and organizational backgrounds and we have our own work styles. I think that makes this assignment very challenging because we only get 4 weeks to do our work. My the time we get to know each other, we will be on a plane back home to go back to our regular jobs. While this makes our assignment challenging, it is also a great way to develop ourselves.
Cheers!
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