Business Visits with Germans

I have now been in Brazil for about three weeks and it has been quite a whirlwind. After a few days of seeing the most iconic things in the city, a group of Germans arrived in Curitiba for their own Rotary New Generations Exchange. The three of them are here for a group exchange for only three weeks, and have quite a packed schedule visiting businesses, cultural centers, and touristy things in the area. Denise, the New Generations Chair for the Rotary District, decided that I would go along with their programming while they are here. Because of this, Alex, 32 year old radiologist, Eva, 23 year old medical student, and Lisa, 23 year old business administration student, have been my companions over the last few weeks.


Some of the Business visits we have done include:


Bierhoff- A microbrewery here in Curitiba. They are considered to be one of the best artisanal beers here in Brazil and in Latin America. It was really interesting to learn about the brewing process and the business model of the brewery. Artisanal beer is not common here, and I see that I was really spoiled in Michigan with all the great craft beers.

Boiling malt

Fermenting

Final Product 

After a beer tasting

Botocario Group- The largest perfume and body products storefront chain in the world. We visited their administrative headquarters and manufacturing center and learned about the history and practices of the group. The group has over 6,000 storefront locations in Brazil and a presence in eight countries. It is the largest chain in Brazil, the only thing that has a larger presence here is the post office. It was really neat to see the process of making the different perfumes, makeup, and other body products! Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures in side the factory so I can't share what it was like. It is quite interesting as the products are 100% free of animal products and testing, but the company doesn't use it in it's marketing or even post it on the products.

Our guide, Lisa, Eva, Alex, and Piotr (Polish high school exchange student)  in the lovely outfits that we wore to visit the factory

Some production buildings

The group even has its own foundation that operates separately that focusses on preserving the environment, that among other projects operates two nature reserves. 1% of net income is given to the foundation and they do not advertise this. Some people know about the projects, but the idea is rather than spending money advertising the good, to just do it and they will be able to have a larger impact and allocate more resources to the cause.

Universidade Positivo- This is a private university, since 2002, that has a pretty big presence in the city. It was sort of similar to a US campus with buildings for the different programs in the university, but in its own secluded campus not integrated into the city, sort of like Grand Valley State University, but students do not live on campus and less green space. The school system here is a bit different than the US, where the majority of students end up going to private universities if they continue on to that level. The public universities are the best ones, have few spaces and are free. Because of this, they are very very difficult to get into and the majority students that continue on to university go to private schools.