I've created a web site to archive all issues of this journal. You can find the entire series, along with photographs (and probably some documents before we're done) at http://www.dennisdeery.com/wrlp.

You're receiving this email because I've taken the liberty of signing you up for this journal. You can expect to receive emails about every other month, following each of our 11 seminars over two years. If you wish to stop receiving these emails, please hit Reply, type remove and send the message - you will be automatically removed from the list. If you choose to keep receiving the email, and would like more detail on any topics covered, please don't hesitate to drop me an email. I look forward to any feedback you might care to offer!

Dennis Deery
dennis@irose.com
 

We started this seminar on Tuesday evening with a talk from Don Nichols, a professor of Economics and Public Affairs at UW-Madison. This was another one of those seminar topics that I think most of us believed wouldn't impact Wisconsin much - how much of a role does global economics play in Wisconsin? Through Dr. Nichol's talk, and several other throughout the seminar, we learned that Wisconsin companies work very much on the global level, exporting and importing products from around the world.

Wednesday morning we started off with a trivia game, a great approach to making information about a potentially dull subject easy to take in. After the game, members of our group shared things they had learned from interviewing businesses in their community that work internationally. I was surprised at the wide variety of companies in Wisconsin doing business globally, and especially at the small size of some of the companies.

Next up was a discussion with Steve Watrous, the director of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign, an organization that works to promote fair trade practices in Wisconsin. Mr. Watrous had a message I agree with wholeheartedly, that we must practice ethical business, working to ensure that all workers are treated fairly, etc. However, I was disappointed at his command of facts, as he seemed to rely more on an emotional appeal rather than providing the facts to buttress his argument.

Our last task before lunch was to perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of Wisconsin's place in the global economy. This was a good chance for us to brainstorm in small groups about how we see Wisconsin working internationally.

After lunch, we got a tour of the General Motors plant in Janesville, where GMC Yukons are built. This was a really impressive tour, getting to see the automation used in making these trucks. I was somewhat surprised that GM has kept this plant running so long, as they obviously have had to do a lot of work to modernize this plant and make it work with all the automated equipment used.

After our GM tour, we hopped the bus for a trip to Chicago, a new addition to this seminar. In Chicago, we took in dinner at Cafe Laguardia. This Cuban restaurant is run by a family who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba. A member of the family is always working, and we were greeted by the matriarch of the family when we arrived. We absolutely stuffed ourselves on multiple courses of traditional Cuban foods. After dinner, we were joined by Carlos Laguardia, the owner of the restaurant, who told us the story of his family's immigration and the story of the restaurant. Finally, he offered us a round of shots that are the bar's specialty, serving them up with a traditional Irish toast. I think if we had taken the time, we could have sat all night and chatted with Mr. Laguardia. Instead, a large part of our group headed to the theater to see "The Producers", and many of the rest of us headed to the Second City Comedy Club. We rounded out the night by taking in some blues at Blue Chicago.

Thursday morning we headed to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, arriving in time to catch the opening bell. I had been to the Merc and to the Board of Trade several times in Chicago to watch the trading, but our visit this time came with a talk from one of the Merc's guides, who taught us the basic hand symbols and methods used for trading on the floor. Our group all agreed that floor trading was probably a more stressful job than we'd care to have.

We then headed to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, where we got a brief lecture on future economic projections for agriculture, and how the global economy would affect us. This was followed by a tour of the fed's visitor center, where we got to see a plastic cube about 4 feet long per side that contained one-million $1 bills.

For lunch we got some great Chicago-style pizza delivered to the U.S. Export Assistance Center (EAC), where we heard talks from EAC staff and a representative from the U.S. Export/Import Bank. We learned about the role that these organizations play in helping U.S. companies to work internationally, helping navigate the bureaucratic problems and help with financing.

Once again it was back onto the bus for the return to Janesville. On the way we stopped at Genencor International in Beloit. Genencor is a biotech firm that produces enzymes for use in cleaning products, ethanol production and food production. They're truly a global company, with operations on four continents. Their enzymes are basically grown from cultures, and are used to break down elements in other products. (Be sure to check out their Enzyme Q&A, I actually felt like I understood their products after reading it!)

Back in Janesville, we were joined for dinner by several WRLP alumni, and Roger Axtell, our evening speaker. Mr. Axtell is a former vice-president of marketing at Parker Pen in Janesville. Having experienced a lot of international travel in his job, Mr. Axtell has written several books on doing business internationally. He spoke to us about how to be more aware of other cultures while traveling, and gave lots of good tips to help us on our international trip. He was also incredibly entertaining, showing us how difficult it can be for us to adapt to other cultures.

Friday morning we did some small-group work discussing some case studies showing ethical dilemmas in international business. Once again we saw how doing business in other cultures can provide ethical challenges because we may have a different standard of behavior.

Next up we heard from Rod Nilsestuen, the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). Secretary Nilsestuen talked about how DATCP views the future of Wisconsin's ag community in international trade.

After lunch, we visited Everyone Cooperating to Help Others (ECHO), a food pantry in Janesville. We spent the afternoon helping the pantry prepare for producing their Thanksgiving baskets. WRLP has made it a point to have each group participate in a service project during their two years in the program. We had a blast moving and labeling hundreds of cans of food, making boxes and producing a newsletter for the organization.

This seminar also tacked on another day for an orientation session for our international seminar. We got a chance to meet Gary Lake, an Australian teaching at UW-Madison, who would be accompanying us on the trip, and learn some tidbits about Australian culture and lingo.

For more information about the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program, check out their web site at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/wrlp/.