Spears School of Business

 

OSU’s Spears School of Business and Plataforma in Peru have formed a partnership that will enable students and faculty to work with business owners in native communities in Peru and to connect them with Native American tribes in Oklahoma. The partnership will contribute to the research, teaching and extension of OSU’s land-grant mission.

 

The discussions between Plataforma and Spears Business began in July 2018, thanks to the connection of Dr. José Sagarnaga at the CAGLE Center (Center for Advanced Global Leadership and Engagement) with Enrique Villar, Honorary Consul of Peru in Oklahoma. In January 2019, a group of 33 Spears Business students visited the Plataforma facilities in Lima, Peru. 

 

This new partnership will expand on the existing connections that Spears Business has in Peru. Dr. Craig Watters, director of OSU’s Institute for Global Social Entrepreneurship, has been working on social entrepreneurship projects with Plataforma and has visited Peru on multiple occasions to meet the local entrepreneurs, universities and government officials. Also, the OSU Enactus program has been working on a project with native fishing communities in Peru.

 

Dr. Dave Carter, Greg Massey Professor of Finance and OBA Chair of Commercial Bank Management, has led multiple study abroad programs to Peru since 2013. These programs provide students with first-hand experience with doing business in Peru. 

 

Expected outcomes and proposed programs/activities of the partnership:

• Train people to teach social entrepreneurship
• Help develop skills to create and establish entrepreneurship
• Research and grant seeking
• Student exchanges, internships, and service learning
• Faculty exchanges and joint conferences

Plataforma is a Peruvian consulting group with extensive professional diversity and vast experience in designing and creating self-sustainable economic chains in the form of customized business plans.