I was recently featured in an article by the University of Illinois, Gies College of Business, highlighting what I learned as a student in the school’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree program and while attending global immersions in Germany and Brazil with my fellow MBA students. Here’s an excerpt from the article titled “Blanchard Uses MBA Experience to Explore near-Shore Tech Options.” ^{1, 2, 3}

Gies College of Business MBA student Wylie Blanchard’s love of technology runs deep. The founder of Chicago-based Great Tech Pros grew up taking apart everything from toasters to his first word processor to see how they worked. His company advises clients primarily in the healthcare and insurance services industries how to design tech solutions that create value for their customers.

Blanchard said the iMBA experience has also taught him to think more globally about how to grow Great Tech Pros, founded in 2013.

Blanchard is exploring setting up near-shore database operations with fellow iMBA student Paul Taylor in his Jamaica home base. He turned to Taylor to create a solution that had a US-friendly time zone when Great Tech Pros couldn’t meet a client’s price point with a US-based solution.

The Gies iMBA program isn’t Blanchard’s first experience with online learning. He received a BS degree in business administration and management from Walden University. Blanchard said interacting with more marketing, strategy and finance decision makers is what prompted him to consider getting a master’s degree.

Visit the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Gies College of Business, website to read the full article that includes my quoted statements.

“Blanchard Uses MBA Experience to Explore Near-Shore Tech Options.” Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 9 Oct. 2020, https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/news/2020/10/09/blanchard-uses-mba-experience-to-explore-near-shore-tech-options.

“Blanchard Uses MBA Experience to Explore Near-Shore Tech Options.” IMBA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 18 May 2021, https://onlinemba.illinois.edu/blanchard-uses-mba-experience-to-explore-near-shore-tech-options/.

“Blanchard Uses MBA Experience To Explore Near-Shore Tech Options.” Poets&Quants. 24 Feb. 2021, https://poetsandquants.com/2021/02/04/blanchard-uses-mba-experience-to-explore-near-shore-tech-options/

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I just returned from a 9 day immersion trip in Brazil learning about their economy and business practices with a group of MBA graduate students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

First, let me say that I’ve always wanted to visit Brazil. Prior to this trip, I had an interest in the economics of South America, along with Africa and the Central American region of North America, thus I was very happy to participate in the Brazil immersion in order to gain a better understanding of at least one of the countries in South America. This immersion trip gave me a higher understanding of Brazil’s unique economy, complicated tax system and the country’s need for tax reform.

Here’s a list of businesses that we visited. 

• Prof. Roberto Nagai (FEA/USP) for a guest lecture on “Doing Business in Brazil” (São Paulo, Brazil).
• Geru (São Paulo, Brazil).
• XP investments (São Paulo, Brazil).
• Leroy Merlin (São Paulo, Brazil).
• Ibmec (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
• SICOOB (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Prior to the trip, I began researching Brazil’s economy and culture, which included buying two books:

• The Politics of Blackness: Racial Identity and Political Behavior in Contemporary Brazil​ by Gladys L. Mitchell-Walthour; and​​
• Africans in Brazil a Pan African Perspective: A Pan-African Perspective​ by Abdias Do Nascimento.

I’ve not yet finished reading the first book but plan to have completely read both books by the end of 2019.

The businesses that we met with were all excellent choices. My expectations of the business leader meetings/discussions were mostly met. The discussions with economics professor Roberto Nagai and the faculty at Ibmec delved into the challenges facing the country’s economy with both discussions reaffirming that taxation is a major problem in Brazil. These conversations forced me to consider whether taxation was partly the reason for the declining revenue that one of my USA clients, an American Fortune 500 business, recently experienced in Brazil that eventually led to the closure of its Brazil division.

At Leroy Merlin, we met with Michelle Dapper, Director of Organizational Transformation and Continuous Improvement, who I found excellent to learn from and engage with. She gave us a greater understanding of how and engages leaders at Leroy Merlin to create change. Personally I felt that this company visit was more unique than the others because, prior to the visit, I’d never pondered on the operations of a hardware/furniture business.

SICOOB was another great visit. I enjoyed speaking with the Company Director, Eduardo Diniz, and his team. The visit helped me visualize the challenges that member-owned companies can face in Brazil.

Overall, the trip presented a great learning experience for my peers and I.

As a tourist, I visited Trianon Park (Parque Trianon), Museum of Art of São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, Casa das Rosas – Espaço Haroldo de Campos de Poesia e Literatura, Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açucar), Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor), Paragliding from Rampa de Voo Livre da Pedra Bonita to São Conrado Beach (Praia de São Conrado), Maracanã Stadium to watch Clube de Regatas do Flamengo gain a win over Avaí Futebol Clube (SC), Copacabana Beach (Praia de Copacabana) and more. The highlight of the trip was meeting Aílton Macarrão, owner of the Rocinha Orginal Tour, who gave me a private tour of Rocinha, the largest favela in Brazil.

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I just returned from a 9 day immersion trip in Germany learning about their economy and business practices with a group of MBA graduate students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

My initial interest in visiting Germany was to revisit a country I briefly lived in as a child with my parents. Overall, I feel that the trip gave me a better understanding of German economics, though I must admit that my prior understanding and interest in the German economy was extremely low. Globally, my interests have typically focused on countries in the Central American region of North America, South America and Africa. I realize now that there is a value in researching the Euro Zone countries and after meeting with Gerlinde Sinn, lecturer at the University of Munich, I’ve taken an interest in researching German economic recent events.

Here’s a list of businesses that we visited.

• Ms. Gerlinde Sinn, university lecturer at the University of Munich, for a guest lecture on “Business in Germany” (Munich, Germany).
• BMW (Munich, Germany).
• Oracle (Munich, Germany).
• KPMG (Munich, Germany).
• Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu brewery (Munich, Germany).
• Heidelberg Startup Partners (Heidelberg, Germany).
• Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Frankfurt, Germany).
• European Central Bank (Frankfurt, Germany).

I enjoyed the conversation with Gerlinde Sinn of the University of Munich but I quickly realized that I was personally unprepared for the conversation, lacking any true knowledge of the companies challenges to establish itself globally. Sinn’s passionate and educational overview of the country’s challenges with expanding the European monetary union (EuroZone), its current/future impact on Germany as a world leader and her personal thoughts on what steps should be taken to ensure further success helped me see that US tariffs have a strong impact on European nations just as it does the nations that I normally follow – countries in the Central American region of North America, South America and Africa. I took a stronger interest in researching the German economy after this meeting – which turned out to be useful in discussions with the businesses I would meet with in the upcoming days. I also enjoyed Heidelberg Startup Partners who explained how they help local entrepreneurs develop business plans, find investors and gather technological and business knowledge needed to successfully launch a business. Lastly, I highly enjoyed visiting the European Central Bank, where we continued our discussion about the expansion of the EuroZone with banking leaders.

Overall, I highly enjoyed my 9 day visit in Germany.

As a tourist, I visited the Bavarian Alps, the Partnach Gorge (Partnach River), the BMW Museum, the Heidelberg castle and more. I even drove 140 miles per hour on Germany’s Autobahn highway system on my way to/from spending a day in Strasbourg France.

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