Week 2 with Special

Experiment time

During April 2 and 3, the event Thinking Argentina 2030 took place at the Kennedy School, organized by the Harvard Argentine Society (which I preside). The participants of this 2-day seminar were 30 prominent future leaders of Argentina under 45 years of age, from several areas: private sector, public sector, non-profit, and academia.The main purpose of Thinking Argentina 2030 was to analyze and reflect on the international and regional scenario that Argentina will face in the next 15 years. This event had the ultimate purpose of identifying the main opportunities and threats to the national development process and outline a national strategy. 

Public leaders from the three levels of government participated in the seminar. During breaks and informal contact with them, I could exchange visions on the role of consulting, particularly with officers from the subnational level. Direct contact with them provided me with more information on their needs, their financial capacity to buy our products, their paying constraints, their timeframe to work during an election, etc. I had the chance to speak with 4 people: a national candidate’s campaign manager, a state-level public officer, and two mayors.  

Regarding the first hypothesis I stated in my first post (customer segment: whether mayors and governors could find in i4 a valuable service for which to pay a monthly fee), I could confirm that subnational public leaders would be able to make a monthly payment for a personalized, high-quality consulting service. However, I could also sense that selling our products would involve providing more visual information to our potential clients regarding the competitive edge of our offer. 

One of the things I learned was that they would be willing to pay more for an exclusive product, as long as they had the guarantee that we would not sell the same product to an opposition candidate. For example, our social media analytics tool provides insights, not only on how to increase and expand online engagement of our client, but also on the potential flaws and pitfalls of other candidates' social media strategy. This tool, according to what 2 of the people I contacted said, would have to be of exclusive use within a certain constituency. As a result, we would have to bear in mind the need to incorporate the cost of opportunity of signing exclusive contracts. 

Finally, I also learned about the need for criminal justice services and how victimization surveys could work as a good product in the intersection of public opinion research, consulting and criminal justice (my second hypothesis). This is a source of information they would not be able to get from the administrative data and would provide them with the dark figure crime, i.e. those crimes that haven’t been reported to the police. 

Testing Tureen

On this vein, apart from my three previous hypothesis, I plan to test two additional ones, namely one regarding the time needed in advance of elections that is usually taken to hire a consulting firm and the role of election "seasons" on the revenue stream of the company. These question arise because this year Argentina will have presidential elections, but I will be returning to Argentina in June, and would like to know whether my predictions are accurate with regard to the potential contracts we could sign between June and October (I may have overestimated or underestimated). I would also like to test wether the market is as cyclical as I proposed on my revenue projections, or whether there is continued demand for public consulting services in between election season. With this information in mind, I will be able to design a scheme of pains and gains of my services.

The following table summarizes my hypothesis, my proposed research plan, and intended information to be surveyed.

Hypothesis	Area of research	Activity involved	Contacts
1. Mayors and governors would pay a monthly fee for a high-quality product	Customer segment	Interviews	Interview with Mónica Tomei, Omar Abdo, Jorge Macri, and Monica Fei, Mayors of Argentina.
2. Mayors would be interested in a specific product built around the need to respond to rising crime levels.	Value proposition	Research / Interviews	Conduct research on the types of products could be innovative in the field of criminal justice and public security consulting (crime mapping tools). Interviews with Mayors of mid-size cities of Argentina.
3. Graduate students from Latin America in graduate school are potential clients.	Key partnerships	Interviews	Have semi-structured interviews on when they want to run, what kind of services would be of value to them, possibilities of association, etc.
4. The average time needed before an election to close a contract is 1 year.	Market research	Research	Analyze media articles, poll results, TV shows of political analysis.
5. The election consulting and campaign management consulting field is highly seasonal.	Managing growth	Research / Interviews	Interview specialists and practitioners: Prof. Chase Harrison (Graduate Practicum in Survey Research), Prof. Steve Jarding (Running for Office and Managing Campaigns), David Axelrod (contacted his office), Jamil Mahuad (former president of Ecuador) and 3 consultants from Argentina.

Simulation Sundae

During the simulation game, as a Founder I think I could encounter two dilemmas. The first one, about scaling in a context of uncertainty. In other words, on whether to scale up with a lot of risk or continue with the current size and potentially lose an important opportunity. The second dilemma I could face would be about a difference with my partner about a strategic turning point of the startup and in a context of rapid change. Finally, an issue I would probably have to deal with is hiring and working with the right team, drawing on the strengths of different profiles and potential employees. As an investor, I know I might face driven and energetic teams, but would maybe have to deal with very chaotic founders, or very raw projections on the financial performance of the startup. As an employee, I would have to face the tradeoff between belonging to the founding team with low wages and the promise of a successful career as a shareholder of the company, or simply earning a salary for my work. Moreover, in the context of high competition with other ventures, I would have to chose between different companies with uncertainty. In my case I would prioritize expansion over control, with the possibility of building a longlasting innovative company.