I cannot believe that our time in Spain has already come to an end! We learned so much about doing business both in Spain and in Europe during our studies there, in addition to immersing ourselves in Spanish culture through the sights, food, and people.
One of the business excursions that I learned the most from was our visit to the Port Authority of Barcelona (we even got to ride a boat through the port to see different aspects of its commercial and logistics activities!). Barcelona is a logistics hub for Europe and the Mediterranean that generates 11.553 billion euros and accounts for 7.1% of Catalonia’s GVA, with 37,000 people working there every day. It has a city port for large yachts, a cruise port for tourism, and a commercial port for storage. I thought that it was interesting that they are making it easier for goods to reach the port using rail services from central Spain and southern France to make it more attractive to shipping services that pick up the cargo. The city port features something known as a ?blue economy,? which includes all kinds of businesses that are in one way or another linked to the sea and benefiting from that. For example, businesses like hotels that do not have to be by the sea but that benefit from that location are part of the blue economy. The maintenance, repairs, and docking of luxury yachts is another example, the provision of which the port of Barcelona is known worldwide for. In addition, it is a European leader in cruise ports and provides economic benefit to Barcelona by creating a need for supplies for the cruises, hotels for passengers, etc. The port of Barcelona has the most important storage and logistics facilities in the Mediterranean and has a successful business model with its warehouses located so close to the port. Many leading international brands have distribution centers there, like IKEA, Amazon, Honda, Mazda, Mango, and Schneider Electric. The port is even making strides to become greener by offering rebates to companies who have their cargo arrive by train (as opposed to trucks), which is better for the environment. Being able to learn so much about the port of Barcelona was really interesting to me because I was able to compare it to what I know about doing business in the United States and especially what I learned about in my Supply Chain class. The port of Barcelona has a really unique position as the ?door of Europe? that differs from the U.S. simply because it is surrounded by so many other countries.
Through the other company visits that we went on, such as our tours of the Freixenet and Via Romana wineries, the Estrella Galicia brewery, and the Sargadelos ceramic factory, in addition to our courses about the European Union, we were able to learn a lot about doing business abroad. In the future, I look forward to using this new knowledge in my career, which I hope will be an international one that will involve visits to many more countries.
