Here I Go Again

Yes I realize I’ve been gone forever, but that’s what summer break is for, right? So what have you missed? Not a whole lot I must confess… Several ballgames including the return of Stephen Strasburg and Davey Johnson to the Nationals bench (yay!!) … Bacon jam (double yay!!)… Some late nights finishing up group and individual projects (there is no rest for the wicked… I mean the weary… of course I mean the weary…) and the mundane list goes on…

But now it’s back to class and the learning… We’re about 4 weeks in and this is as good a time as any to assess…

I am still processing the summer residencies. Certainly the Dominican trip has generated work on my end that is unexpected as well as some new friends. From the intial paper I wrote, I am now expanding the focus from high-level strategy to develop some tactical work products and processes which may ultimately form the basis for a business plan. I am considering entering the GWU Business Plan Competition this winter.

The timing is pretty good for contemplating corporate social responsibility and the role it plays as well as the role it should not play in its community. There is a need to put a business spin on social responsibility efforts and consider what investments show real returns. Bill Gates at the annual meeting of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation admitted that while they are pouring large dollar amounts into charitable work and good work, they are not maintaining good performance metrics or doing strong program management. Ding!

For the last 10 years, I have been in a role like this and now I learn that there is a need for this external to the consulting work I have been doing for the Feds… Thank YOU!!! Yes, it excited me to no end. More to come in the near term so watch this space.

I and the rest of my cohort have met the incoming World Executive MBA class and they are a force to be reckoned with. Suffice to say I am glad to have started the program in Fall 2010 because I don’t think I could have competed with this group. I am looking forward to sharing the year with them and learning with them.

My plan for this year as far as this blog goes is to post more albeit shorter, stream-of-consciousness posts. If there’s something you’re dying to know about business school or baseball and you think I have an opinion, feel free to ask. Sometimes I am less creative than others… Especially during accounting class… Although I have an excellent professor…

I am thankful to be able to see light at the end of the tunnel… Looking forward to new challenges (maybe even the math ones)… and especially looking forward to big life changes in 2012!

P.S. As for the bacon jam, a lucky few will be receiving this as part of their Christmas/Hannukah gifts (is giving bacon for Hannukah bad form?)… For others, all I can tell you is get yourself to the Dupont Circle farmers market which is the first place I discovered it… Oh yeah… There may be a few recipes online as well… For those creative types among you…

From a Distance

Prior to my travel to the DR, I spent 2 weeks in Brazil for my international residency which I believe colored some of my experience in the Dominican.

Since this trip, I have been doing a lot of what a friend calls "processing". It is impossible to understand poverty on the level which we observed without seeing it in person and learning about how it impacts people every day. I thought I understood but at the end of the day, I only understand it as a North American from the U.S. even after having significant international travel experience. In some ways, people are accepting of their situation but others (especially young men) recognize that there is an opportunity to get out of the current conditions through baseball and see it as the best way to improve their living conditions. This creates a conflict in some ways: on one hand, it is a driving factor for them to improve their athletic skills, on the other hand, it can make them targets for less than ethical independent baseball talent agents.

Activities that I enjoyed included:

• the opportunity to hear from former MLB players who are now working at the academies as player development staff or scouts - especially at the New York Yankees academy
• seeing the enthusiasm in the academy players' faces on the field
• gaining an understanding of MLB's perspective of the Dominican Republic including why they continue to invest human and financial resources in the country
• the warmth of the Dominican people
• and last but surely not least playing "street beisbol" with 8 year olds in a barrio in San Pedro de Macoris - home to David Ortiz and Pedro Martinez

For the required project/paper, I'm focusing on corporate social responsibility in the Dominican Republic and the role that MLB as well as the Dominican government play as stakeholders. Currently there are many ongoing stovepiped charitable efforts focused on alleviating the effects of poverty on the Dominican people - including illiteracy, malnutrition, lack of access to health care, and poor general education to name just a few. Some of these projects are being coordinated through USAID but most are independent. Ultimately, this paper will be a gap analysis and recommendation for more effective practices.

I think there is great opportunity in the DR not only for MLB but also for the people who live there and are surviving hand-to-mouth. It's not enough to just look on the DR or any other country as a location of a human zoo. If we are truly ethical global citizens, we need to invest ourselves and work with others who can benefit not only from our experiences but also who we can learn from at the same time in different ways.

Put Me In Coach...

Let’s talk about why we’re here in the Dominican Republic… It might be a little more than the non-baseball fans are interested in, but for context it will help…

Our trip consists of visits to MLB and private training academies which feed the Dominican Summer League… The players in this league are between 16 and 20 years old… Most have been playing baseball in the streets since they were toddlers… Discovered by both scouts from the academies and independent trainers/agents (called “buscones” in the slang term), these players are being groomed for MLB… There is no draft in the DR… Players are signed to contracts at the age of 16 or older… Baseball is their ticket out of the barrios and rural poverty that is so pervasive here... Signing bonuses range from USD$3000 and up, and I do mean up... Some of these kids sign for over USD$1mm...

In addition to poverty – and perhaps a contributor to it – is the lack of value that is placed on formal education here… Most children go to school 3-4 hours a day which includes the time it takes to travel there and home… Illiteracy is rampant and from the information we’re receiving it seems that there is no correlation between education and better economic opportunities… The government is of little to no help as less than 4% of the budget is allocated for education and of that the average amount spent per year in reality is less than 2%...

The academies in the best cases fill the role of trainers, educators, mentors and guardians… Some do their jobs better than others… Once the players enter the academies, the play on the field and the work done in the classroom become their jobs… All the academies have some education component… At the minimum, there are English classes to teach basic language skills both on and off the field…

Our role is to assess MLB and other private academies in the DR… What is the impact on the baseball players in the DR? What is their impact in the communities where they are located – primarily in Boca Chica? Are they being good corporate citizens, good international citizens? Can they be doing more? Should they be?

There are a lot of questions… Let’s see if we can develop some informed answers…

Playing in the Streets

Just to give you an idea of what's been going on this week... We spent yesterday playing baseball with some kids in the barrio of San Pedro about 20 minutes from our hotel in Juan Dolio... These kids were happy with a dented plastic ball (which was much more dented after our adventure) and a bat that had seen much better days... but their love of the game could not have been more pure nor their enthusiasm more infectious...

San Pedro is the home of many well-known MLB players including Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano and Daniel Cabrera... More shortly including action shots of these players on the "field"!

Off to See the Wizard

Bear with me as I shift quickly to the Dominican Republic from Brazil… I will come back to the update for Rio and Sao Paulo…

The trip to the DR began inauspiciously at 0445 on Saturday morning… Checking in at the airport in Sao Paulo was mildly entertaining… 2+ hours including getting in the wrong line… Thankfully there was an Austrian gentleman who spoke English who got in line just behind me which meant I would not be the last one on the plane… He also ensured that I didn't off myself or Aviance staff... Apparently there were systems issues because when we finally boarded, all the seats had been issued in duplicate so we were encouraged to sit wherever there was an empty seat…

Avianca might not have great systems but breakfast was pretty good… I don’t think anyone serves bad coffee on this continent… The layover in Bogota was uneventful and all of 60 minutes with a wireless connection and Dunkin Donuts – no munchkins so just coffee and back in the queue for the final leg to Santo Domingo…

At the airport, Customs involved multiple lines of waiting and then no one checking my luggage… Oh yeah and 3 forms require same information plus the purchase of a USD$10 visitor card which you immediately hand over… No ATMs working in the airport which was a concern… Then a cabbie offered to help me to the hotel… Exhaustion had set in… I threw myself on his mercy and was not kidnapped and sold into white slavery… but merely delivered safely to the hotel in Juan Dolio...

Sunday was our first trip to the MLB academies and the Pirates have a great facility… The idea behind the academies is to develop young men in their late teens into potential MLB players… I have some questions related to operations and the role that they should play in the bigger picture that I will explore in future posts… For today, let’s leave it at the Pirates give good voice to all the right things… Player development via education programs and ESL classes… Enhanced nutrition… Limiting hours of practice and socialization via mentoring… The academy focuses on 16-20 year olds and the portion sizes in the cafeteria surely reflect it…

The facility is modeled on the minor league facility in Bradenton, FL… More than just modeled according to the Operations Manager, the academy is a mirror of the MiLB clubhouse and campus… This is done to provide a sense of security even as they transition to the U.S. and everything is changing so dramatically around them…

The afternoon was spent in Old City Santo Domingo where we saw the oldest church and hospital in the New World... We also visited a cigar factory and shop where I may have picked up a few gifts... All of my attempts to lose the "tour guides were in vain... and we were led around with great gusto...

If you find yourself in Juan Dolio, check out El Sueno for delicious Italian food... Freshly grilled dorade, tostones and limoncello to end the night!

Monday will be the Nationals Academy as well as meetings with the tourism bureau… So far so good…

My City of Ruin

Day 2 in Brasilia has us up and on the bus early to visit the university where many of the Brazilian companies are recruiting new employees. Our focus today is on the government of Brazil and its actors… This is also where classmates began experiencing some health distresses – I am sure none of it was caused by capirinha consumption nor sushi boats… but I digress…

First up a tour of the university mineral collections and a meeting with a Congressional representative who reminded many of us of politicians in the U.S. – saying so many of the “correct” things but without plan to actually implement them… At times, it seemed that he was still campaigning… I can’t believe I was the only one to notice this similarity to our own representatives… His background as a former prosecutor in the financial crimes sector certainly gave him stage presence… It was during this presentation that we experienced the first conflicting views between the Brazilian populace – academia vs. government vs. private sector citizenry…

While people remained upright throughout the morning, things started going downhill at lunch… A restaurant with specialties from Minas Gerais took a lot of folks down hard… A very small, WARM mom-and-pop restaurant that served cachaca from a goat statue – a specific part of the goat figurine which encouraged me NOT to partake… Lots of rice, potatoes, and pork-based dishes including the first feijoada seen on the trip… If you like black beans, you will like this… Dessert made up most of my lunch… and really good café again plus sweetened and spiced steamed milk…

Once we hit the Congress building and the tour, it was obvious that we were losing people… The tour was great but we lost 5 people between the Senate gallery and the meeting with the Ministry of Finance… stomach problemos primarily but 2 folks ended up with the Senate nurse and others went back to the hotel to sleep it off… For those who remained upright and among the living, we took a trip to a local mall and then dinner near the manmade lake…

The odd thing about Brasilia was how clean and organized everything was… Almost a Reston version of Washington DC… But beautiful sunsets, fountains and architecture…

By Friday night, I discovered just how miserable this “stomach bug” was… The flight to Rio meant catching up on sleep… the ENTIRE flight… Thank God for Pepto…

We Built This City

Brasilia D.F. – A planned city for the future… Shockingly similar to D.C. but in a comforting way…

We flew from Salvador to Brasilia on an early morning Thursday flight… Let’s just say security in Brazil is not security in the U.S. and I am more than ok with that… Put your bags on the belt, walk through the scanner, pick up your bag… Works for me… Oh and great coffee at the airport… Coach is coach no matter what country you are in… Even at 5’4”, leg room is an issue… One interesting note on the flight: no one waits to disembark… When the plane stops moving, everyone – and I mean EVERY ONE (except us) leaps up and races for the aisle… No waiting for row in front of you or grab bags, just race for the aisle…

We arrive to be greeted by Rosa who was a wonderful guide… Lunch at a beautiful buffet in a restaurant built of bamboo and palm fronds – fresh grilled meats, salads, grains, beans and rice, fresh fruit and coca zero… You will soon see a trend in the meals…

Post-lunch, back on the bus and onto a tour of the city… It’s very linear, very minimalist and very clean… Very orderly which appeals to my linear brain but makes some of my classmates uncomfortable… Oskar Niemeyer is the city’s planner and architect… He is still alive at over 100 years old… Chad, I think you would enjoy Brasilia very much given your appreciation of the Salk Institute…

The cathedral is VERY modern but still sacred space… It is under renovation after 50 years but we lucked out and were able to get inside and appreciate the art… Classical and modern sculpture inside an open dome… Feels much like the Pantheon inside with its wide open sanctuary… The Pieta is a copy from St Peter’s but the angels flying overhead are pure Brazil much like the Black Madonna and its disturbing story… One scary moment when Rosa took a flatout tumble which I am sure left her with bruises to remember us by…

Main greenspace in Brasilia is much like the National Mall although here they are setting up a futbol stadium rather than the Smithsonian Folklife Festival…

Onto the U.S. Embassy and our meeting with the Ambassador and his staff…. Lots of information related to activities ongoing in country… Finally churrascaria with university professors, a few lawyers and judges and plenty of meat and caipirinhas… for medicinal purposes of course - Lots of vitamin C in limons...

Coming shortly - Brasilia Day 2 aka The Day Sickness Invades...