Designing Change in ChilE: Developing Tourism on the Coast of Poets
SOLUTION: A Diagnostic Tool to support Economic growth through the Integration of Women into the Labor Force
Role: Project Lead
Client: University of Valparíso
Class: International Environment of Business
Team: Dyanis DeJesus, Jennifer Laga, Jahanzeb Khan
Executive Summary
The rapid growth in Chile’s economy and population has resulted in an immediate need for the developing nation to create new employment opportunities while also lessening their dependence on the copper mining industry. Copper makes up one third of the government’s revenue, however additional sectors that contribute to their GDP have also been growing. One of these sectors is the tourism industry. Proposals to further explore opportunities for expanding this industry have been identified by the Chilean government and are currently in development. This evaluation explores opportunities in Chile and a government-approved proposal for developing tourism in Valparaiso and the Coast of Poets region. As part of this evaluation process our team also identified the participation of women in the labor market as a secondary area of focus. The subsequent findings inform a methodology that will allow others to use strategic design thinking and triple bottom line practices to find superior solutions for industry development in any region.
Project Overview
In collaboration with Design Management professors at the University of Valparíso (UV) our team took a strategic look at how Chile could develop local industry in the context of a global economy. Our design brief propsed the development of tourism to create economic value, increase equity and safeguard the local ecology. We used the 4D model of Discover, Define, Design and Deliver, as the foundation for our approach to this project.
Discover
We started our process with the Discover phase intending to identify opportunities for Chile to use tourism to support their growing economy, while also serving the Chilean population and preserving the integrity of their abundant natural resources. To successfully develop new types of industry in any country, city or community, strategists need an understanding of regional cultural, environmental, political and economic factors. As we got deeper into our research we discovered that our initial ideas and perceptions were far from reality.
After further research, debate and collaboration, we were able to identify specific areas of industrial development in Chile that also had the cultural elements needed to support their growth. At times, this process felt aimless and frustrating. However, each period of frustration was followed with an “Ah-ha” moment, where the frustration of the discovery process resulted in a new way of forming or defining the challenge. These were the moments when we were able to see beyond the problem, a potential opportunity.
Define
To create strategic advantage, we must have a strategic framework. With this in mind, we began by looking not only at Litoral de los Poetas, the location our clients were focused on, but also at the country of Chile. We looked at its history, its economy, and its aspirations.
Economic Value Created Using Triple Bottom Line by Design
Based on this phase of our research we were able to determine that Chile would benefit from a TBLD strategic approach to economic development on the Litoral de los Poetas. In summary our research determined that:
1) Chile needs to increase employment opportunities to accommodate the projected increase in their working population over the next few decades.
2) The female participation in the Chilean labor force is low in comparison to other nations in the OECD and South America.
3) Chile needs to decrease their economic dependence on copper. In order to achieve this goal Chile needs to develop other industries, such as tourism.
Design
Define phase we identified an opportunity for Chile to better utilize their female labor force to support the development of new industries and their rapidly growing population. Our timeframe for this project was limited, and without place-based research we were not expecting to provide the UV professors with an immediately deployable solution for developing industry in this region. However we felt that the insights and conclusions identified in each phase of our research, as well as process itself, could potentially provide value to other strategist looking develop industries in any region. Therefore we decided to design a diagnostic tool that would help other interested parties identify opportunities where they could leverage the female labor force to develop industries that are not dependent on the extraction of natural resources.