News & Events
Oregon Executive MBA Class Visits the Puentes Brothers Shop Floor in Salem, Oregon
by Gregg Morris
"How do I grow my business?" It's a fundamental question, of course, whether you're expanding an international footwear brand, leading a behemoth healthcare corporation or…selling tortillas.
The answer? "It's all about relationships," says Oregon Executive MBA Academic Director and MacArthur Foundation research leader Steve Lawton, "and grasping your core competency." Growing a business, it appears, demands a hands-on effort that can't always be achieved in the boardroom.
Resonating through disparate economic endeavors are challenges and opportunities presented by the Northwest's briskly expanding ethnic market segments. Accommodating that market, and a parallel evolution in the workforce, ramify far beyond specialty foods.
One place to begin a systematic exploration of a business' core competency is on the shop floor. And an invitation to do just that is what Salem's Puentes Brothers, Inc.—perhaps best known for Don Pancho brand corn and flour tortillas—extended recently to Lawton and his class of second-year Oregon Executive MBA students.
"What are the dynamics of a family business?" was among the challenges posed to the students by Professor Lawton, recently appointed as Academic Director of the Beaverton-based Executive MBA program. "What opportunities are presented by a largely ethnic market that has fueled a 20% annual business growth?" At "ground level" in Puentes Brothers' Salem factory, the entire process is within grasp.
Puentes Brothers COO Walt Olson (Oregon Executive MBA '98) was on hand to guide the students; appropriate in that he was recently charged by the firm to assist in the leap from a relatively young (1979) "family business" to a competitor in the fiercely-contested market niche in which national brands as well as myriad local and regional companies joust for acceptance by the Hispanic community.
The upshot? By concentrating consistent marketing to the Hispanic community, Puentes Brothers has realized the additional benefit of credibility with the "mainstream" community.
"It's all about students learning from students," relates Lawton, emphasizing the practical importance of examining a business like Puentes Brothers. "Understanding this business produces a 'cross-fertilization' that has consequences for a wide array of other endeavors faced with adapting to an ethnic market and workforce; say, healthcare or microchip production."
In Puentes Brothers' case, rapid growth has led to a partnership with Reser's Foods, another Oregon family business. It's a relationship that's helped spur the of construction of a new, state-of-the-art production facility slated for 2003.
Oregon Executive MBA class-members experienced first-hand how the manufacturing facility will be redesigned, leading to a spirited give-and-take about the mechanics of such a change. No mere academic case-study exercise, the students were able to involve themselves with the palpable operational challenges that retooling success entails.
And many students will be able to directly apply the lessons learned at Puentes Brothers; Oregon Executive MBA comprises working managers from regional companies, unlike more traditional MBA programs. It's a hands-on, face-to-face program delivered jointly by three business schools: Oregon State University, Portland State University, and The University of Oregon.
It's all about relationships.
