Day 4 - 3M & Tata Consulting Services (TCS) Meetings

Well, I'm back to catch up a little on the blog as the group is sitting in the Santiago airport waiting on our flight to Argentina. Our flight at 9:45am was canceled and we all are now on the 12:20pm one, well, at least we all think so.....

Our first meeting on the 4th day was with 3M Chile. This presentation was a great meeting with 2 marketing managers. They gave us an overview of the company, the Chilean business, the new first aid kits that they have been working on, as well as an overview of the Nexcare brand. Seeing that we did a case on 3M in international marketing, it was great learning what has happened in the 10 years post the case. The main points are listed below:

• $24.5B, 76K employees - 55K products, 45K patents
• In Chile, 32yrs. existence (since 1976) - 6K products, 285 employees
• Office equipment, graphics, energy (ex. electric tape), security, health care, industrial
• #3 "Most Innovated Companies" in 2006
• #1 innovated company in Chile
• Top 10 "Most Respected Company" in Chile - High service standards & positive attitudes
• William McKnight principals - "delegate responsibility", "mistakes will happen"
• Implemented Six Sigma and New Product Introduction (NPI)
• 3M Chile - 6% of investment in R&D
• "I am 3M"
• Walmart is now coming to Chile so a lot of analyzing their model and competition issues
• Employee performance is based partially on values/people/leadership attributes
• 60% of 3M market share/37% Nexcare market share/3M 70% Brand Awareness
• J&J have tried for 5 yrs. to penetrate Chilean markets, but can't
• Nexcare has expanded its channel mix from only pharmacies to now supermarkets, drug stores & homecenters
• **1st mover affect was significant for many of 3M products!
• 3M focuses on more localized packaging
• The corporate offices in the U.S. still doesn't think the kit was a good idea (our case)

Lunch was at a restaurant called El Parron in downtown Chile. We had Pisco Sour o Vaina, empanadas, beef and chicken skewers, steak & vegetables, vino and some dessert (it was good, no name).

The afternoon meeting was with Tata Consulting Services. Some notes are below on Tata

• Established in 1968 in India originally
• 142 offices in 42 countries
• In 2002 Tata entered Latin America-6K employees in SA, offices currently
• Started in Uruguay for the cost structure, English, incentives, and regulations
• Chilean cost structure is actually bigger than most Latin American countries, but similar to Uruguay
• The cost drivers are salaries and infrastructure
• Work weeks in Chile on average are 45 hours a week and they tend to work even more each week
• Tata, like other companies, use numerous Chileans for upper management. Tata's CEO of the Chile office is a local.
• The Chilean govt will reimburse Tata for sending employees to English training
• 95% of the Santiago office = Chileans
• **No security in Chile - anyone can walk into a building without being stopped
• Tata hasn't entered Venezuela yet, but have a partner in mind for entrance
• Reasons for entering Chile = Friendly, Secure, fairly good cost structure, good infrastructure, time zone advantage, and the financial and banking system is one of the most sophisticated in SA
• Plan to enter Peru this year
• 40% of their business is from the banking and financial industry (BoA, ING, and many others)

We then took a tour of the Tata facilities to see where the employees process all the checks. Just think of someone sitting at a cpu and entering numbers into a system and staring at the screen all day long! These are the type of jobs we are talking about (a very eye-opening experience to say the least). Overall, a good meeting.

After Tata the cohort was on our own so a group of 11 of us went to El Otro Sitio. Fran, our tour guide went with us so we were able to get some good local recommendations for what to eat and drink. We ordered a lot of appetizers of ceviche and empanadas and again, tons of wine! For my main meal, I had salmon, Peruvian corn, and mushrooms (Very good). Seeing that we were out late a couple nights in a row, most of the group decided to call it a night at midnight. Drew on the other hand won the award for the evening! Pisco?