Taking care of business

Gringa here! After recuperating from my illness (which turned out to be strep) I was ready to make the most of my last week in Panama.

We started the week with a visit to the banking sector. Historically, Panama has had a very strong banking sector but has also dealt with quite a bit of money laundering. This is partially due to the proximity to Colombia and the drug trade and partially due to guaranteed money secrecy in Panama. Our first visit to Banco General impressed everyone in our group. I was struggling to keep up with all the financial jargon that was being thrown around in discussion but the presentations were very interesting and informative. One of the most interesting things I learned during our bank visit is that many of the corporations are undertaking corporate social responsibility initiatives. This is something that I have come to take for granted in the U.S. and I often forget that businesses in developing economies are held to different environmental standards.

The following day we visited Grupo Rey, a large supermarket chain in Panama. We spoke with people from many different functional areas of the company and got to watch a few commercials for the supermarkets. They even gave us empanadas and fresh pineapple and papaya to munch on during the presentations. My kind of company! Grupo Rey is hoping to expand internationally soon, however they were very sneaky and did not tell us which country they are planning to seek a presence in. My money is on Costa Rica! Here is a link to 2 commercials we were able to see during our visit. The first is a commercial promoting their environmentally friendly eco-bag initiative and the second is more lighthearted.

One of the students in our group asked if the company would be moving toward self checkout. As an American I usually assume all things are moving toward the most efficient technology. But I was surprised to hear the answer. Panamanians like to be served and they expect the personal attention and detail that a person offers. Because of this the company is not making moves to implement self checkout quite yet. This made me wonder if a self checkout would really be completely rejected by society or if society would eventually change to accommodate a new way of doing things.

After two full days of business visits they let us loose in the grocery store. I got some delicious arroz con pollo, una empanada, un tamale y mas frutas ¡Que rica! There was also plenty of time for fun and we got to participate in a drum circle in the City of Knowledge. There is the beautiful, old tree on one of the soccer fields with branches that seem to extend forever. The band set up underneath and everyone was encouraged to come dance and bring an instrument. We threw some rocks in a bucket (such innovative business students) and went to dance with all the families under the tree.

That is all for now. One last post to wrap up the trip coming your way soon!