MBA students gain valuable experience into business culture in Argentina

Ted Rogers MBA students have been known to go the distance for experiential learning, but this spring a group of 23 MBA candidates went all the way to Argentina.

The International Experience Capstone (MB 8018), which was introduced in 2021, allows students to gain an understanding of a specific cultural, business, political and economic environment impacting businesses. Under the guidance of a Ted Rogers School faculty member, students work with a community group or business to transfer knowledge or solve a problem.

The capstone is the culmination of the students’ MBA studies, explained Dr. Donna Smith, the graduate program director of the MBA program, and the faculty member who teaches the International Experience Capstone course. It integrates everything they have learned over the program - from strategy, operations, and sustainability – and puts it all together to find a solution for companies. 

In 2022, Smith and the capstone students travelled to Chile to consult with wine companies. In 2021, students studied the coffee industry in Colombia. This year, Argentina beckoned, where students consulted with fintechs. 

Prior to travelling, students attend training and pre-travel presentations with guest speakers to discuss the economic environment and the cultural environment.  

Argentina has the second largest economy in Latin America, according to the World Bank (external link) . However, the country suffered serious financial problems in the 1980s (external link) , as markets collapsed, currency depreciated and prices rose. The country experienced a further economic crisis in 2018 and never recovered. Annual inflation reached 109 per cent in April (external link)  and is forecast to reach 149 per cent (external link)  this year.

In Buenos Aires, students met with their client company to understand and consult on a problem and where they needed help, explained MBA student Jessica Da Silva (external link) .

“Once we were there, attending meetings, understanding the economy and seeing how Argentina works, we were able to not only consult our clients to the best of our ability, but understand what's happening within South America,” she said. “For the rest of the semester, we'll be working on a consulting project to fulfil their problem and answer their specific questions.”

This year, students are working with fintechs PersonalPay and AgroToken. 

Three teams of students are working with Personal Pay (external link) , a fintech company that allows Argentinians to pay, send, save and manage their money, who want to diversify into insurance technology, or insur-tech. 

Two teams of students are working with AgroToken (external link) , a fintech that transforms grains into blockchain technology. AgroToken tokenizes soybeans, corn and wheat which allows farmers to exchange tokens for seeds, vehicles, machinery, fuel, services or collateral for loans.

Argentina is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat and soybeans. The country produced an estimated 12.5 million metric tons of wheat and 27.0 million metric tons of soybeans for marketing year 2022/23, according to the US Department of Agriculture (external link) . 

“AgroToken is trying to revolutionize the cryptocurrency market and tokenize grains - wheat, soy and corn - for the farmers,” Da Silva said. “They're trying to find a middle ground between the consumer and the farmers. So, if farmers have wheat or corn and they want to convert for this specific agrotoken, they can convert it and that can go towards buying materials, machinery and things like that.”

Different countries, different business cultures

It’s important for students to understand the business culture in Argentina, as it is quite different from Canada, Da Silva explained. 

“From what we’ve studied and what we’ve learned, their economy used to be a global powerhouse, but when you’re there, you realize there's been a huge shift and Argentina is now a developing country with an economy that is not sustainable,” she said.

“You definitely have to understand the culture, see it, to be able to do business down there,” she said. 

Despite the topsy-turvy economy, MBA student Brandon Nguyen described the business culture in Argentina as thriving. “It's because they understand the importance of their work, that the money or effort that they put in is working towards making the country a better place.”

The group also met with companies related to the financial technology sector, like consulting firm Deloitte, tech company BairesDev, and several others to really understand business, banking, and how things operate in South America versus North America, Da Silva said. 

“We saw a lot of decentralization strategies in the works - even the consultants at Deloitte were mentioning it, AgroToken acting on it and BairesDev are very much working and operating in Argentina, trying to decentralize and really getting that point across internationally,” she said. 

“It's fascinating to see how they do business down there… they're pivoting and thinking of new strategies and operations to be the new thing.”

International learnings

The international capstone trip broadened the students’ knowledge about Latin American business, culture and lifestyle. 

“There’s so much to learn from an international perspective. We met people continuously learning and wanting to become innovative - Tokenizing your grains?! Who would've thought tokenizing soybeans and corn would be an ideal way of being able to collect income and live sustainably?!” Da Silva exclaimed. 

“Buenos Aires is a very interesting city because of what they're going through and what they have at their fingertips. I didn't expect them to be the second largest growing Latin American city with the highest amount of technological innovations,” Nguyen said. “Buenos Aires supersedes all of your expectations.” 

The International Capstone really challenges MBA students to devise solutions that are effective. “It’s much more challenging to do a consulting project outside of your own country, because there’s a lot that you don’t know,” Smith explained. “This year is particularly challenging because Argentina is experiencing extreme inflation. And, if you can consult under those economic conditions, you can do anything.”

The capstone project continues through June and July, 2023. In July, the MBA students will present their project to their Argentinian client companies.