Performing in Peru - A Virtual Consulting Experience

Centro de Capacitación en Conservación y Desarrollo Sostenible (CDS) is an environmental conservation social enterprise that is based out of Oxapampa, Peru. Due to COVID-19, we were unable to travel to the country directly for our project. But this did not stop us from having a great overall experience, and a large part of this was due to the people we worked with. Flor, who is the director of CDS, brought a tremendous amount of positive energy to all of our calls, and it could be easily seen how passionate she is about her work. She was also extremely grateful for anything we were able to accomplish as a group, which made working on the project a lot more rewarding. A special shoutout should also go to Nicole and Amy, two GVI representatives who helped make this project flow in a smooth and cohesive manner overall.

Before the two week project began, we completed a half-semester classroom portion of the program, which was extremely valuable. This really helped us prepare for the project and showed how we could strategize to be successful. In the seven weeks we worked, many things were highlighted, from team dynamics to project management. There were many cultural differences that we considered. Dominic, who led the classroom portion, was able to bring in people from McKinsey to talk about different methods of problem solving. Former students who had also been a part of Fisher Global Consulting programs were brought in to talk about some of the things that previously worked for them, and some things they wish they would have done differently. The classroom portion was low stress and moved at a relaxed pace; it was something that really added to the program.

Starting in May was when the actual two week consulting project began. The main focus of our project was marketing the CDS virtual tours. These tours were environmentally focused and gave participants a look at how they can help the environment, as well as some of the research that CDS is doing in the cloud forest. Unfortunately, tourism is an industry that was extremely affected by COVID-19, which is the reason why the once in person tours were moved to a virtual format. We met with Flor a couple of times a week to discuss some of the ideas she had for how she wanted the tours to be promoted. She gave us suggestions along the way, but ultimately allowed us to have free reign on determining our position. As a group, we all worked together to come up with a solution that we thought would work best. We determined that it would be smart if we gave CDS multiple things to make marketing their programs a little easier. Shaun largely worked on a “content manual” that heavily focused on the different social media platforms, their features, how they should be used and what demographics each one focuses on. Nicole worked on making different social media templates that CDS could use, as well as providing websites and software CDS can use to make marketing easier (including tutorials on how to use them). Nick worked on templates, and also made a content calendar with post ideas and descriptions to make posting as easy as possible. Greg was able to establish a connection between OSU and CDS, allowing CDS to create material used in the OSU environmental curriculum. Not only would this bring money to CDS, but it would also vastly expand the reach of the organization.

There are quite a few things that can be taken away and learned from this great experience. We would recommend the nonprofit consulting program because your team will have the opportunity to help someone (and their organization) who really deserves it. Along with this, you are also helping make a positive impact on the world, no matter what organization you work with. This makes the work that you accomplish that much more rewarding. This program gives you a real world problem that you can help to solve. For the people in our group, there were some that were interested in consulting as a career, and an opportunity like this could help decide if this were something that you would like to pursue in your career. It also provides the opportunity to develop skills that will be useful in any job, consulting or not. Things such as working in a team and presenting research findings are skills that are translatable across many fields. Our project gave us a chance to learn about a different culture, which allowed us to observe different values and ways of working. Overall, we definitely recommend this experience to anyone who is considering it!

We would like to give one more thank you to all of the people who made this experience possible. It was something that was extremely valuable, and we will use the skills that we learned throughout our careers and life.

MEET THE TEAM

Shaun Wiech

Major: Marketing
Hometown: Elyria, Ohio
Student Organizations: American Marketing Association, Muscle Movement Foundation, Fisher Cares

Nick Sheldon

Major: Accounting
Hometown: Medina, Ohio
Student Organizations: Accounting Association, STEP Program

Nicole Espinoza

Major: Marketing
Hometown: Lima, Peru
Student Organizations: Phi Sigma Theta NHS, The National Society of Leadership and Success, L.A.S.E.R (Latinx Space for Enrichment and Research)

Greg Madjarov

Major: Finance
Hometown: Grayslake, IL
Student Organizations: Pi Kappa Phi