Madrid Company Visits

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MONDAY:

Our first visit today was to Interes, Spain's government organization responsible for attracting FDI. The presentation was good in terms of presenting Spain's advantages and key attraction factors for corporations. They also presented a few case studies of companies they had worked with, which did a good job of showing us what kind of services they offer and how they interact with companies. Our next stop was Telefonica, a Spanish telecommunications company. The part of this company that stood out for me was their ability to develop solutions for the "bottom of the pyramid" consumer segment. For example, in Latin America, where many consumers cannot afford individual home or mobile phones, Telefonica has installed local community centers with telephones and internet. They have also developed websites for their services targeted specifically to the elderly and handicapped. One of the products they are currently developing is a mobile locator device for the mentally disabled. I was really excited about seeing this technology, but unfortunately, we ran out of time and had to leave without seeing the product demonstrations to stay on schedule. After lunch, we visited Repsol, a Spanish oil company. This visit was pretty much entirely over my head - partly because I don't know the industry and partly because I really don't care. The executives that were talking with us didn't seem that enthused either and were in a big hurry to get out of there immediately after the presentation. (The highlight of that visit was that they gave us a free t-shirt!)


TUESDAY:

Our visit this morning was to Ciudad Grupo Santander. This is not translated as Citigroup in Santander but is instead the Santander Group's City - literally, a city!! It includes office space, a childcare center, gym, swimming pool, athletic facilities, golf course, small grocery store, beauty salon, hotel, restaurants, and a 24-hour emergency room!! It's a cool idea, but for me, it also kinda borders on creepy. I think that may be because it's owned by a company (instead of just being a natural city), and if you add permanent housing, it becomes a whole compound-type thing. A little too "1984-ish," I think. After the presentation, we toured some of the "city," visited their art museum (yes, they have an art museum too - contemporary art, though - I didn't enjoy it, I'm more of a classics kind of girl) and ate lunch at one of their restaurants. Our last stop of the day was Ebro Puleva, a Spanish food and beverage producer. They are in the sugar, rice, milk, and pasta industries. This company was pretty interesting to me because it was a consumer products company. It was really interesting to hear how they plan to move from just selling rice and pasta to selling "meal solutions" to encourage cross-selling and product bundling.


WEDNESDAY:

This morning we visited the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales (ICEI) for lectures on the Spanish economy and Spanish multinational companies. The professors were a little boring (not as good as our professors at Moore - probably partly because they were having to lecture in English instead of Spanish). Their accents were harder to understand than other people's have been, they seemed to repeat a lot of stuff and not really say much, and I just found it REALLY hard to concentrate today. I think I'm starting to suffer from burn-out. None of us really feel like this trip was planned very well (we're the guinea pig class) and that the schedule is just way too intense. We've had really long days of 2-hour presentations (3-4 per day), with fast lunches and hurrying in between, and all of the presentations are starting to sound the same. I'm definitely not getting the same level of learning now that I was at the beginning of the trip - I'm to the point now where I really don't care anymore. I'll be glad to get to go home for about a week to unwind and then start something new. After the lectures from the professors, the school provided a sandwich lunch for us, and then a representative from Gestamp Automocion came to the university to present the company to us. Gestamp is a Spanish company that manufactures just about every metal part on automobiles. They are a Tier 1 supplier, meaning they deal directly with the customer. (Other manufacturers further upstream on the value chain are Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4, etc. Tier 4 sells to Tier 3, Tier 3 to Tier 2, Tier 2 to Tier 1, and Tier 1 to the final customer.) This presentation was pretty good - just ran a little longer than I would have liked. Sometimes the speakers take longer to answer questions than I think is necessary, but I guess that's part of the learning experience. Absorb everything I can, right? Never know when I might need to know something! Tonight, a group of us are planning to go out for a tapas dinner. Tapas are kind of like Spanish appetizers - you get a plate of a bunch of individual pieces, and you can either order a "sampler"-type platter or just order a bunch of different tapas and share among the group. (If you're interested, by the way, Gervais and Vine in Columbia has really good tapas).

Two more days in Madrid, then I fly out Saturday morning. Will swing through Charleston to visit family and go to an anniversary party my aunt and uncle are having. Then I'll be at home until Friday, when I leave for New York for the first leg of my internship.

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Comments

[Joey]

Spain sounds awesome
I wish I could go to Spain. I'll have to go in college, since i'll probably be double-majoring in it or at least minoring in it. Hey, Burbage said that our first playoff game will probably be the week after Aunt Nancy and Uncle Phil's party, so you should be able to see it. We beat Ridgeview 11-7 and I had 21 saves. Can't wait for you to come home. Love ya.