Business School backing Latin American start-ups to close gaps in inequality and build ties across Europe

Students at the Business School (formerly Cass) are supporting the next generation of start-ups to make waves across Latin America.

As part of the MSc in Management, 19 students chose to study the international elective ‘Start-ups: International Field Trip’ in their third term. The module allows students to spend six weeks on consultancy projects to support new businesses in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

While the module is normally taught in Buenos Aires, the pandemic has seen a transfer to online learning, which module leader Dr Joanna Zaleska says has created “more access for students and teachers to benefit personally and academically”.

Students worked simultaneously with entrepreneurs in the four countries, which are seeing a boom in business ideas thanks to growing economies and new opportunities. This included collaborations with:

• A Tenda das Candidatas, a Brazilian company to support under-represented women and minority groups in politics – students advised the company on fundraising and marketing methods, performing a competitor analysis of similar Brazilian charities. There was also a benchmarking of large charities of a similar structure based in the USA and UK to ensure a realistic idea of A Tenda’s future growth.
• Localshop, a Chilean start-up to connect local shops with the local community – students examined the online delivery industry and proposed a marketing plan to achieve a target of 12,000 orders by the end of 2021.
• Pagos Digitales Peruanos, a Peruvian financial services business aiming to grow its customer base – students designed a strategic management plan for customer expansion and helped in platform development, product positioning, and client profiling.
• Turny, an Argentinian environmentally-friendly household cleaning product company looking to expand across Europe – students analysed the feasibility of international expansion in Germany, France and the UK.

Mia Partridge, Postgraduate student on the MSc, said:

“Applying what I've learned in an academic setting to the real word has given me great confidence in my abilities and has helped me to decide what path I'd like to take after graduation – working with start-ups.

“The start-up in Brazil that my team worked with was a non-profit providing free support for minority women to get into politics and be elected to official positions. The opportunity to be able to make a real difference for this fantastic cause has helped me to see how widely my education can be applied.”

The Business School is committed to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion in its subjects and modules. Next month, the School will officially become Bayes Business School, and it is pledging to ‘change more than a name’ including further embedding ethical and socially responsible values into the curriculum.

Dr Joanna Zaleska said: “We are very proud that our students had direct opportunity to work and learn about socially responsible entrepreneurial activities and network with progressive start-ups from different Latin American countries.

"Studying entrepreneurship and innovation during this online module students can ensure students learn the underlying principles of starting a business, how to avoid common pitfalls so they can pitch their own ideas more effectively, and how to develop a solid business model.”

More information on the MSc in Management can be found here.

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