Business School students' Mexico odyssey
1 April 2020
This January, 12 international students from the University of Auckland Business School had the unique opportunity to study at several Tecnológico de Monterrey campuses in Mexico for four weeks as part of the iWinterMx Global Business programme.
The iWinterMx programme brings together students from around the world to develop a creative business model canvas based on their observations of the Mexican business market. The student’s involvement was made possible with support from the Prime Minister’s Scholarship for Latin America, 360 International and the University of Auckland Business School faculty.
The students in the programme spent each week at a new campus, beginning with the Santa Fe business district in Mexico City. There they were introduced to the Tec De Monterrey education model of competency-based learning, that focuses on practical learning experiences with industry, starting with a visit to Pepsi-Co headquarters.
Week two saw the cohort travel to the campus in Santiago de Querétaro, visiting the Freixenet Vineyards, learning about the wine industry in the region and taking advantage of the campus’ impressive facilities, including an American football stadium.
León, was the cohort’s third stop, an automotive cluster that includes the Pirelli tire factory where the students saw first-hand the scale of its operations and export strategy. The team also learnt about the nearby Guanajuato Inland Port, one of the special economic dry ports in Latin America, created to export finished products to the United States.
For the final week, the cohort stayed at Tecnológico de Monterrey’s home campus in Monterrey, the base for a large number of multinationals. Here the students completed their final reports, reflecting on their experiences and takeaways from the intense four-week journey.
After a visit to Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bakery company, the University of Auckland contingent said goodbye to their new friends and travelled to the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare factory in Tijuana. This was a unique opportunity to see a New Zealand company operating in a maquiladora, a manufacturing operation that exports good under special tax grants and benefits.
The students involved in the iWinterMx programme describe it as one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences they have ever had.
"The iWinterMx programme at Tecnológico de Monterrey provided us the perfect opportunity to gather first-hand experience on the Mexican market, the differences in culture and operations, and how we can bring our experience back home to support future relations between Mexico and New Zealand."
For more information on iWinterMx Global Business and other international programmes, visit the 360 International page.
