The First Steps Towards Peru

It has been over two months now since we got the redeeming phone call from Lotte, confirming that we were the lucky students who would be the IFP Board for the year 2019-2020. After being officially introduced to the rest of the Risk Community, we had two important tasks: decide the destination of IFP 2020 and select the 16 students who will be participating in the research.

After several meetings with our Supervisory Board, we chose to go to Peru! We immediately started with an intense but rewarding promotion period. Our promotion campaign involved spreading word of our destination and plans via flyers, lecture talks and stunts around Zernike Campus and online. For a period of two weeks, we tried to reach as many ambitious students as possible.

The following step was of course a hard one, as we had to choose 16 motivating participants. This task was made very challenging as every student had their own set of unique skills and personality. On Thursday the 13the of June, all participants were contacted and we had a dinner with all 21 IFP Students and the Risk Board to celebrate. The night was a great success and all participants bonded with each other in an informal setting before all the real work begins.

Set-up Phase

The summer break is almost upon us. After the break, we will officially start the year with all the 21 students. But until then, we are spending our days in the Risk Active Members Room to prepare everything and to get a head start before the upcoming year! 

We have already arranged a training with Overstagh BV in Hilversum in September, where the whole group will receive their first acquisition training. In order to acquire the right companies, we first have to gain the right skills and knowledge. We are all very excited for this period of acquisition, during which we will find interesting companies to do research for in Peru.

Moreover, Nik and Eline have made the first contact with a local from Peru! This guy, Alexander, was so kind to send us an email asking if we need any tips or have any questions about the country and its capital Lima. So, we planned a coffee-date at Zernike which went quite well. Alexander gave us a lot of information about the best places for travelling and more practical tips such as costs for hotels and the cheapest way of transport. We are very thankful for his help and are excited to gain more knowledge about Peruvian culture in the coming months.

We hope you guys have enjoyed this update. We will be spending our summer months trying to establish contact with target companies and if all goes well, we might sign our first contract already. So that’s all from us, we hope you enjoy your summer and we will be sure to keep you updated.