It’s been another adventure-filled day in Costa Rica. I’ve been having a little trouble with the food, but I’m hoping I’ll get better on what to order now that I’ve had some experience. Today we visited a milk and ice cream company called Dos Pinos. It is the main dairy company in Costa Rica, and keeps international brands for milk out of Costa Rica. The tour was all in Spanish unfortunately, but luckily we have a member of our group who is very fluent in Spanish and helped translate. Poor guy has been stuck translating for all of us! i’m so grateful we have at least one native Spanish speaker with us though. My favorite part of the day was getting samples of ice cream at Dos Pinos.

The people of Costa Rica are marvelous, very friendly, good spirited, and always aiming to please.  The staff at our hotel continues to reach out to us, and make us use what Spanish we know, for any request.  One phrase I have gotten down at breakfast is Mas Café con leche, por favor?  You can’t just have one or two or three or even four cups, it really is just that good.

Today, was a long day, but one filled with much learning and experiences. We first traveled to the East side of town to visit Vitec Videocom Limitada, this company makes television shows, movies and sporting events happen, they produce the worlds best quality cameras, camera accessories and services.  We were able to sit in their board room and ask the tough questions to one of the senior managers of the plant.  Afterwards, we took a tour of one of the most technology advance manufacturing plants in all of Costa Rica.  This plant has also won an award for being one of the best places to work in all of Latin America, and when asked how they did it, Don John informed us that their greatest assets were their people.  They had pride in doing their work and being the best of the best of the best which really showed in their products, and throughout their facility.

After a quick stop at a local mall, which seemed very similar to one you would find in the states, it was off to Dos Pinos, a dairy producing plant.  Upon arrival, we were given a tour of the facility, which was a sprawling complex on a few hectors of land.  The facility consisted of several operations outside of dairy, but related.  Dos Pinos, supported the farmers which had the dairy cows, and had food, along with a farming supply store, additionally, they had a recycling plant where they collected the used packaging of their products to make chairs, desk and roofs.  We then entered their dairy processing plant, where the first thing you saw was a board, tracking their resource use; electricity, gas, water, waste, etc.  Costa Rica is very concerned with preserving nature, and this board was a reminder for all who worked there the goal of the company to be carbon neutral.   The small company had grown into one of the largest dairy producers, now doing business in 16 counties, including China and the United States.  The tour guide again informed us that their success was base on their people and their pride.

What a powerful force, peoples pride; it can act as a multiplier to create a good business into a great business.  I have always know about American pride, and now  I have been given the chance to see another countries pride, and how it plays a role in their daily life, along with their working life, from highly technical manufacturing to producing milk, it’s the people of the company and country that make it great.

Our first stop today was to visit John Hill at Vitec. Hayley and I met John during a dinner at Prof. Lewis’s house back in April.  We had a very lengthy conversation about how a British product manufacturing manager ended up in Costa Rica.  As it turns out he came expecting to be here for a couple of weeks to set up a new facility.  His two weeks turned into 10 years.  We had the opportunity to tour his manufacturing floor where he has an extremely organized workflow that follows the product down the line to shipping.  His technicians are highly skilled in their specific task, which makes crossing functions almost impossible.  All employees showed a deep pride in what they do, what they make and the company.  In return the company provides at terrific place to work, in which they have earned an award in the top companies to work in Costa Rica.  An award the company is clearly proud of.

Our next stop was at Dos Pinos Dairy Manufacturing facility.  Here we took a quick tour in the van since it was raining, then viewed the industrial equipment used to manufacture the milk, milk products and juices.  The public relations employee on spoke only Spanish, but Juan was quick to volunteer to translate for the entire tour.  Thanks Juan!  We ended our visit with a picture and an ice cream.

Dinner this evening was typical Costa Rican (Tico) fare at a local restaurant.  My dish, the Esparada Monteverde was grilled chicken covered with cheese, fried plantain, salsa and tortillas – something I’ve never eaten before, but enjoyed every bite.

Until tomorrow….

Cindy

Today was a great day. We visited Edwin and his company, Performance Excellence Solutions (PSX). I love listening to Edwin. He is so insightful and a joy to be around. I am always interested in what he has to say. He really opened my eyes to thinking of things that I wouldn’t think of on a day to day basis. He came to Lowell during the spring semester and it was nice to see a familiar face who also recognized me. I am really excited to see John again as well. I also met him in Lowell for the first time during the semester and he is an awesome story teller. He is very personable and when he first explained what he does in his workplace I took great interest and hoped that we would visit his company and now we are! We will be seeing Vitec tomorrow morning.
The group has talked about going to Monteverde and how cold it may be. We are leaving in two days. I didn’t bring pants so I’m hoping I will survive the cold with my leggings and light jacket. Maybe I will be able to pick up a pair of pants before or on the way. I have heard wonderful things from Lisa about Monteverde. She is the one who said it is cold. Of course all of the girls wear jeans and boots around here. The rain is just phenomenal. Cindy and I ventured off from the group for dinner and took an exciting taxi to a little Italian restaurant down the street and walked back in the rain. It was nice to get out and see the place on our own. Bye for now and I will talk to you later!

Edwin founded the Performance Center of Excellence here in Costa Rica, but takes his message of promoting excellence globally.  His presentation consisted of many business related topics surrounding the worlds views and what it means to be global and how we can best relate with one another to understand how do business together.  One issue he seems very passionate about is what he calls “War on Mediocrity.  His company’s promotion of excellence is honing in on this issue and how best to educate people to rise above this self-limiting mindset to excellence in all they do.  Change is hard for many people so approaching this from the top level and give them the tools to promote the message to their to the entire company.

We all enjoyed the visit and would like to thank Edwin and his team again for a very enlightening morning and a very Tico breakfast.

Cindy

Today we met and heard words of wisdom from UMass Lowell alum Edwin Garro, president of Performance Excellence Solutions

Freshly baked bread

A busy crosswalk in San Jose

Near the entrance of the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum in San Jose

So far we have been having a great time, ‘Ticos’ or locals are quite friendly and easy going, I can’t help to notice the similitudes with my own country in many different aspects. Last night was uneventful, went to bed a little early feeling tire from all the traveling. Today we had a visit with Edwin, a former UMass student from Costa Rica and had the opportunity to sample the local cuisine. We had a meeting in which Edwin explained some of the business aspects from a local’s point of view. Then we had lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant within a walking distance from hotel were we are staying and later on visited ‘El Museo del Oro’ in downtown San Jose, a well organized and interesting place.

After a long day of travel in planes & a bus, we have finally made it to our hotel. Although we are tired, we are all very excited to be here. The city of San Jose is beautiful. There are mountains everywhere and so many types of flowering plants. Everything is green and lush. I was surprised at the cooler temperature. I expected to be physically assaulted by the heat, but it was nothing close to that.
After settling down in our rooms, we were treated to a wonderful 3-course welcome dinner at the end of the evening. Today we are touring Performance Excellence Solutions, a consulting company founded by UMass Lowell alumni Edwin Garro. I am looking forward to hearing his story.

Bueno Tardes!  I have arrived in Costa Rica to 85 degree heat and 100% humidity and it feels and looks like Jurassic Park out here, only if J.P. had an airport instead of a waterfall helipad.  The adventures started shortly after landing, with an unlikely suspect.  As the first activity on the list, was to get some colones in my pocket so I could eat, I had to find and use an ATM, simple enough, challenge accpeted.  After spending some time finding the English button on the ATM, I requested $150.00 US dollars, the next thing you know, the ATM is doing its best impression of a Las Vegas slot machines expensing 10 Mil Colones by the handfuls.  The Colones looks a lot like Monopoly money except with beautiful nature scenes instead of Mr. Top Hat’s money train on the backside of them.  I was afraid I had pushed the wrong button or worse put in too many zeros, and that my wife at home was going to look at the bank activity and think we now have a new winter place we could not afford.  After confirming with my group and realizing the exchange rate was roughly 550.00 Colones to $1.00 American Dollar and that I had not made a mistake, and all parties accounted for, we could leave the airport, for the real adventure to start.

Sitting in the back of a red 20+ passenger bus, which had striking resemblance to the Oscar-Myer Wiener vehicle; we hit the road to our home base for the next week, Hotel Le Bergerac, about a forty-five minute drive through San Jose.

One of my favorite things to do while visiting a new place is just to observe, and the back seat of the Oscar-Myer Wiener Bus was the perfect place for me.  I began looking and seeing the businesses and brands of Costa Rica, and at first they did not look to different then home.  KFC, Hertz, Pizza Hut, Citi Bank, McDonalds, Volvo, Subway,  (I had not eaten yet, so food was definitely on my mind) all lined the major roadway we were traveling on and for the first time, I experienced these companies as being a global brand, not just an American brand.   However, something was different about these brands, it took a few hair pin curves, sudden stomping of the brakes, and a few toot of the horns, for me to realize but these brands were double-take-brands, copyrighted, right now.  Similar to being at an airport when you see someone out of the corner of your and you swear it’s your friend from high school, with whom you use to listen to Blink 182 too, and when you look again you realize that in fact they are not your high school blink buddy, but someone different, these companies were not the brands I grew up with back at the states, these brands were different.

These brands had small differences that made them Costa Rican brands, under a parent umbrella of their global brand of course.  The McDonald’s arches were still golden and found in their standard red box frame, but rather then advertising a Big Mac or a Mcdouble, for those who don’t frequent at the arches often these are both beef products, EL McPollo (Chicken) was the superstar product here and was clearly shown on a poster with a soccer player taking a big bite from it.  Pizza Hut had the same red color and logo, but it appears to be just called the Hut, or, another pizza store borrowed the first five letters, convenient to me and my point.  KFC still advertised a chicken bowl, but rather then chicken on top of a mountain of mashed potatoes with extra gravy, the chicken was placed upon white rice surrounded by steamed vegetables.  It seems simple but the companies had been influenced by the culture of Costa Rica to modify their products, and image, to be successful in this market.  I guess “all the small things” do make a difference for a global brand to make it locally.

And for those who are wondering, I went with the rice bowl, with chicken, mango, pineapple, and steam vegetables stirred in and washed it all down with eight glasses of water.

After a long day in the air, we all met up outside of customs at the airport. We had a little trouble finding the right “red Mitsubishi van”, but eventually figured it out. We were looking for the Sara Bradshaw sign. Got all signed into the hotel and got our bearings from Heidi. After a hardy lunch, picked up provisions at the local supermarket for snacks between meals. My first recollections of San Jose is that it a lot of the polution is gone. Drivers even stopped for me in the crosswalk! (very unlike other parts of Latin America.) Tonight we are having an orientation to get our schedules together, and then the welcoming feast. Tomorrow morning we meet Edwin Garro, a UMassLowell grad in his office, to get his perspectives on Costa Rican business. Tomorrow we promise to post some pictures.