May 24, 2011

We started the day by visiting Ticos Electronicos, a company still utilizing human labor but producing materials mostly for the aeronautics and aerospace industries, where capital is outsourced to the company to actually make the products. It was interesting to find that more women than men were employed by the company because generally women are more detailed-oriented, according to the president of Ticos Electronicos. The difficulty in touring such a facility was understanding everything they produce, because the question I consistently asked myself was why they did not use machines for their production rather than human labor. It is a double-edged sword when thinking of the fact that they use human labor, however the company was providing employment for at least 400 people. I always wonder what the managers are not telling us on such tours, particularly related to the working conditions of their labor, but overlal it seemed like a decent operation.

Our afternoon session involved visiting the business school INCAE, which is a very pretigious program but not often heard of. We met with the admissions director who described the masters´programs which utilized the case-method approach of study, which I found very appropriate in relation to their academic mission of building future leaders who can legimitely solve problems. Our speaker is a former student who is very intelligent, but I had a difficult time understanding how and if the school aided the sustainability and business efforts of the sorrounding communities and Costa Rica in general (a similar thought towards Ticos Electronicos as well). Though they are an international program, the school would be hard-pressed to find better opportunities of building future leaders as to helping Costa Ricans generate business practices to help build their economy. It was interesting to think that such a school exists in the Alajuela province of the country, but overall I found the information seeling the school to be useful for admissions´purposes. As a not-for-profit institution, it was very interesting to learn about the school in general.