IBD in Easter Island, Chile
by Marcy Lynn, MBA 2006
OUR TEAM
We were a motley crew – Tatiana, the Venezuelan marketing guru and keen social commentator; Miguel, the Peruvian economist and ceviche connoisseur; Nimrod, the Hungarian finance genius who speaks more languages than all of us put together, and me, the American communications specialist who actually tried to register for the island’s annual triathlon (taking place the day before our departure)! We were never quite clear how we ended up as a team but we were grateful that we did – we laughed, hard, every single day; we taught each other everything from financial modeling to market segmentation; we supported each other as we missed our loved ones, got ready for our summer internships and worked our tails off to deliver a fantastic and useful business plan for our client. For me, the best part was hearing Tatiana, Nimrod and Miguel tell stories of politics, war, business and history in their home countries and to see them beam with pride as they talked about the places they are from. I am certain I learned as much – if not more – from them as I did doing the project.
OUR CLIENT
Sergio Rapu was our client and generous host. Sergio is something of an Easter Island celebrity. He was the first native Rapa Nui to be appointed Governor of the island. He is also a successful local businessman, having owned a number of different businesses on the island, including the hotel he currently owns. But Sergio is probably best known for – and most proud of – his work as an archaeologist researching and restoring the island’s historic Moai statues. As he took us on several tours around the island he described to us the history of the Rapa Nui people, the island’s cultural evolution and, each time we passed an Ahu (the name of the platform on which the Moai were placed), the details of the statues and the efforts for their preservation. He also introduced us to the Rapa Nui nightlife (read: one bar where the same band plays every single night), and for that we will always be grateful!
OUR PROJECT
We were sent here to write a business plan for a high-end ecotourism resort on Easter Island that Sergio is hoping to build in the near future. We worked in twosomes – Nimrod and Miguel worked on gathering all the financial data in order to build the financial model for us to analyze, and Tatiana and I did the marketing research in order to develop the hotel’s marketing and sales strategies. In the end we were able to deliver a 100+ page business plan, complete with sales and marketing strategies and financial projections for the next seven years, that Sergio can give to potential investors in this project.
We did share the ultimate “MBA geek” moment: In an effort to determine annual cubic meters of water usage per double occupancy hotel room, Nimrod stood with an empty water bottle under the shower faucet and I stood with the stopwatch (Miguel had the camera) to time how long it took to fill up the 1 liter bottle. We did this three times to get an average (2.7 seconds). We then multiplied 2.7 seconds by the number of minutes of water we assumed guests were using each day (7 – 10 minutes) and found our estimate. The consulting firm that hired Nimrod for the summer definitely made the right choice with him!
ISLA DE PASCUA – RAPA NUI – EASTER ISLAND
After two grueling days of travel, our team finally arrived on Easter Island – aka Isla de Pascua aka Rapa Nui. Our 35 hour expedition to the island was sweetened by the fact that we had a ten hour layover in Santiago, Chile, during which we slept and were treated to a local lunch and city tour by one of our Chilean classmates.
The one thing everyone knows about Easter Island is the existence of those strangely large statues – called Moai. I cannot begin to describe the Moai, except to say that they are enormous and when you look at them, you feel their age and you feel their mystery. Something about them is unapproachable yet there they are, standing in the middle of the street waiting for you to go near, touch, take a picture!
There is a “quarry” on the island that is home to the “Moai forest.” All the stone to make the Moai came from this quarry – today it is a huge crater with a lake inside. There are Moai scattered about the inside and outside of the quarry, the tallest one standing 22 meters. What is unbelievable is that this quarry is on the far southeastern end of the island, yet there are hundreds of enormous Moai, some weighing two tons!, all around the island. Therein lies one of the mysteries of this place: How did they move these gargantuan statues from one end of the island to the other?
In addition to the Moai, there is much to see on Isla de Pascua. We were fascinated by the hundreds (if not thousands) of wild horses that roam free on the island. What an incredible sight it was to be driving and to have to slow down until the horses moved out of the road. We were also blown away by the variety of landscape on Rapa Nui. There are rocky hills, wide plains, sandy beaches, craggy cliffs, volcanic craters and intricate underground caves that lead out to ocean cliffs.
Tatiana and I went on a fantastic four-hour hike to a village called Orongo (which means “Place of the Messenger” or “Place of God” depending on who you ask). At the top of the village was an amazing vista of the entire island and what seemed like the entire Pacific. It also incredibly serene up there. We could tell it was a place of spiritual significance (only later did we learn that Orongo could mean “Place of God).
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
I went to Easter Island as part of my MBA studies. I learned so much more than I could have sitting in a classroom and I got so much more out of it than I could ever have expected or hoped . Someday, when there is a high-end, ecotourism resort there, I plan to go back!
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Last Updated on November 30, 2005
