Thursday, November 19, 2009

Farrad Ali - Ace photographer

Greetings all.

Thus far, I have spent 5 nights in Chile. Upon commencing my journey here, I must admit that I had some reservations due to my perceived language disadvantage (i.e. not a fluent speaker of Spanish). I must say that I am quite surprised in what I am able to recall from 2 years of high school Spanish and 1 year of Spanish in college. That was 150 years ago… ;-) While my conversational Spanish is lacking (to say the least), my comprehension of words and meanings seems to come back with each day. It is amazing how things can lie dormant from years of non-use and come back along with the memories from when you learned the concepts.


Just about everyone from MBAE9 knows that I am a vegan. Since coming here, I learned to state that I am a “vegano”. Some people at restaurants know what that means, while others don’t (same as in the US). I had done my research on vegetarian restaurants before coming to Santiago and I learned of El Huerto Restaurante via happycow.com. I was very pleased to learn that both Claudia and Maria (two of our three tour guides) knew of the restaurant and suggested that we go there one day. On Tuesday, a group of us traveled to El Huerto via the Metro (subway). The food was great for me (many vegan options) and we had some great conversations during the meal as well. For the past two days, I have also eaten falafel and hummus at a local mediterranean restaurant.


With each day that we stay in Santiago, we branch out more to explore the city. We’ve traveled to local markets and restaurants each day to try new foods and shop for gifts for friends and family back home. Today, we traveled to Funicular San Cristobal. For 1,600 pesos, you get to ride a cable car up to the top of a mountain that provides spectacular views of Santiago. This was a great experience and I recommend that all who came with us get an opportunity to go.


In addition, we traveled by taxi to Parque Arouco. This is a very modern mall in the Los Condes (uptown) area of Santiago. I felt transported back to any mall that was in the US. They had many anchored department stores along with a ton of specialty shops. If I ever get to live here one day, this would be the area that I would choose to reside (golf courses, restaurants, malls, etc).

Today, we met the CEO of Telmex Chile along with other VPs and directors. The entire staff that greeted us was very welcoming and we really got an in depth view of the issues that Telmex Chile faces and how they plan to address the issues. More importantly, they noted that since the principal owners of Telmex Chile have a great stake in the company, they are embracing a long-term strategy to grow their marketshare as opposed to a short-term strategy to yield quarterly results for shareholders. This was food for thought. They have stressed a “people first” approach and I wish them the best of success in obtaining more marketshare here in Chile.

Overall, my initial assessment of Chile is that it is a very modern country is many respects. It has some outstanding architecture (corporate and metropolitan buildings) and the people here have been very friendly and welcoming. While this is the second country that I have traveled to in Latin America and the first in South America, Chile strikes me as a country that adopts some of the best features from the US and Europe in its makeup and strategy. This leads me to believe that this is a unique competitive advantage for Chile that would be hard to duplicate by other countries in Latin America. There are many opportunities here for those with the skills and education. From wineries to think tanks to non-profits, we have seen a broad spectrum of life and industry in Chile. I look forward to maximizing the remainder of our trip to obtain further clarity and insight.

Buenas noches y buena suerte.

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