The Acropolis and an Entrepreneurship Panel for Greece Students

by Kelsey Crawford, Emily Griffith, Shannon Beatty, and Danny Veldman

After breakfast at the hotel, we all ventured to the Acropolis Museum.  It was an incredible experience to see some of the world’s most ancient treasures.  We really enjoyed the history behind the Acropolis before climbing the mountain to see the real Acropolis.  Our tour guide educated us throughout the tour, and we came to realize that the Acropolis was an area with an abundance of sacred temples, not just the Parthenon. After learning about the history of the Acropolis, we were excited to see the real building that we have seen so many times from afar and on Greek souvenir items.

The tour of the museum led into the main event – our trip up to the Parthenon!  At the ticket entrance, we ran into a big group of IU alumni, which was quite the coincidence.  Upon walking up some stairs, we walked past a huge, highly angled auditorium that was made of marble.  It used to have a roof, but it is now open to sunlight.  They still hold concerts in this auditorium today, and we even saw them setting up seat cushions on the marble benches for an upcoming concert!

We continued to go up to the Parthenon, and we noticed that the rocks were very slippery.  This was due to the continuous erosion over the many years of people treading on the rocks.  We made it towards the entrance, and we could see the fantastic view of Athens – similar to our trip to the hilltop a few days ago.  We made our way through the entrance gate, and it all came into clear view.  Walking around the Parthenon, we took many pictures of both the Parthenon and the fantastic views of Athens.  The Parthenon is continuously undergoing construction to keep it standing correctly, and this construction will show up in a lot of pictures.  We also ran into the Indiana University alumni again, so we decided to take a big, IU group photo.  This concluded our trip to the Parthenon.

After the Parthenon, we had a nice lunch on a busy street with shops and other restaurants. The streets are very busy with people trying to get you to come to their restaurants, convince you to buy knock-off purses, donate to people playing Greek music, and people just walking by in general. It was fun to see all the different cultures and types of people in one place!  After lunch, we shopped at the local stores and made our way back to the hotel.

For the last event of the day, our class met with a panel of three entrepreneurs and was able to get insights into how the economy and political situation in Greece affects the condition of business.  Our class split into three groups and had the chance to ask questions to each individual.   The panel provided us with a lot of information and even some advice for us as students going into the business world. 

Ms. Vicki Movzaki is an entrepreneur in the food industry and currently owns a snack food business.  After talking with Ms. Movaki, we learned that she was able to make her business of sesame snacks a success through innovation and finding a hole in the market that needed to be filled.  In class, we learned a lot about how it is difficult to start a business in Greece due to the thick bureaucracy and the time-consuming hurdles that an entrepreneur must jump through in order to get approval and proper permits.  We heard a different and encouraging perspective from Ms. Movaki, as she said that it was not difficult to start her business.  She continued that if someone has the drive, knows exactly what they want, and is willing to ask for help, then anything is possible. 

One of the main points that Mr. Palikavis made is that when we read or hear about current events, it is important to get different perspectives of the event and not only look at a situation from one view point.  He also stated that in a rapidly changing world, it is hard to project what exactly we will do in the future, so we must take our lives a day at a time, planning for the future but learning and enjoying the experiences that shape us in the present.

Mr. Alex Kolovos, Professor Kolovou’s brother, also joined the panel this afternoon and shared with us his experiences in owning several successful businesses.  Mr. Kolovos provided keen insight into the strategies of owning businesses during an economic crisis, saying that he structures his company with low operational cost and stability despite an unstable country.  Despite all the different viewpoints and opinions we hear about the future of the Greek economic crisis, Mr. Kolovos made the point that no one can truly know what will happen and this will be a time period that will be referenced and learned from in years to come.  We were extremely thankful that all three individuals took time out of their busy schedules to talk with us and give us unique insights that will be advantageous in our schooling and careers.

Day Trip to Mysore

By Jim Johnson
Assistant Director of the Undergraduate Program

Today, students from the Kelley P256 class are visiting Mysore, India. We first visited Mysore Palace, pictured here with the #1 Dean Dan Fan in India, Jake. This palace, built from 1897-1912, was home to five kings. The final king died in 1976.

We just enjoyed a quick buffet lunch at Lalitha Mahal hotel, a beautiful site that was once the King's summer palace. A fantastic local magician entertained us before we got back on our bus.

Now we are headed to the Infosys campus, which is the largest training campus in the world. Infosys is one of the largest IT providers, so we are looking forward to learning more about how they support businesses around the globe.

Coca Cola Hellenic

By Ashley Moore, Emily Balbach, Wei Shen, and Kristyn Crawford

This morning we took a bus to the Coca-Cola Hellenic bottling plant in Schimatari, which is about 60km from Athens. We started off the day listening to a presentation from the Plant Manager, John Kritas, who explained the company background and the bottling process. The plant opened in 1989, and is the largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in Europe, and the second largest in the world! They serve over 28 countries, ranging from Russia to Nigeria to Ireland.

We learned that all plastic bottles start as a smaller bottle called a preform. The preform is then heated and stretched into the formation of the actual bottle, which is later be filled with the beverage. Anna, the Health & Safety Manager, gave us a tour of the plant, and we each were able to take a preform with us. Along with soda products, Coca-Cola Hellenic also creates juices that are bottled in 7 layers of paper, plastic, and aluminum to keep out germs and air. 

Touring the plant was a great experience. We saw how the entire bottling process takes place from start to finish, from empty preforms to cans and labeled bottles that are boxed and ready to ship. 

Since being in Athens, we have learned that they serve "Light" drinks rather than "Diet" to match consumer preferences. Many of our classmates believe that Coca-Cola Light tastes much better than the Diet version in the U.S.; however, we learned today that the only difference in the mixture is the water! Everyone found this very surprising since the water seems to taste exactly the same. 

Before leaving the bottling plant, we saw nearby ruins of an old cemetery that was found during the creation of the plant. Coca-Cola was required to preserve this area.  We really enjoyed visiting the bottling plant and learned a lot! 


Later in the afternoon, we went to the corporate office of Coco-Cola Hellenic, who is primarily responsible for the finance and marketing aspects of Coco-Cola bottling business. First, we listened to the presentation given by the HR Manager/Training Manager and she briefly talked about the mission of Coco-Cola Hellenic and the overview of the company. Coco-Cola Hellenic is the second largest Coco-Cola bottling company in the world and the biggest in Europe. The primary business/market share is in Russia, Italy and Nigeria. Meanwhile, sparking beverage which is the traditional Coco-Cola soda product is the highest selling of Coco-Cola Hellenic as well. After 2001, they started to diversify the product line and tried to make products catered to different customer groups. They expanded still beverage (juice and tea) production and this proportion is still growing right now.

Right after her presentation, we had another presentation from a financial analyst in the firm and he talked about the budgeting strategies such as predicting sales, cutting down cost and improving corporate efficiency. We felt that we learned a lot from the two presentations especially because we got the chance to see their mature corporate strategies and missions. Those tips and advice will definitely be embedded with our personal development.

To finish off the day, we heard from Anya, the Marketing Director of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Company.  She works with directors from CCHC as well as the Coca-Cola Company to understand the marketing needs of both companies in order to develop the overall strategy.  We learned that the challenge of promoting a product that is 126 years old and never changes is keeping the product relevant to the target market, while promoting a consistent brand identity of hope and happiness.  Anya explained this idea of hope and happiness with the iconic Hilltop ad, and she showed us Coca-Cola’s latest innovative promotions from the 2012 UEFA Euro and Olympics.  Finally, she taught us about the elements of a successful visual advertisement and put us to the test in a fun activity in which we rated the quality of various ads. 

After a very informational and exciting visit to the Coca-Cola Hellenic Company headquarters, we headed back to the hotel for some well deserved rest and free time!

Summer I-Core: Ready or Not!

By Katharine Finn
Junior, Business Economics Public Policy, Consulting, and Entrepreneurship 

My box of I-Core books, before
I worked up the courage to open it.

There are a few milestones in every IU student's career: the first time you try Pizza X, your first Little 500 and, if you are a student in the Kelley School of Business, buying your books for I-Core.

As one of 300 students crazy enough to give up their summer to take intensive, required Integrative Core classes, my time to buy the books had come. My I-Core books arrived in a small, but super-intimidating box -- and they're not inexpensive.

As a business economics major, I've learned over and over again about opportunity costs -- the cost of an alternative that must be forgone to pursue a certain action. Choosing to take summer I-Core and opening this box of books costs me more than just money. I'll be missing out on sleeping in past 9 a.m., trading hours by the pool for hours in the library, and soaking up strategic management lessons instead of sunshine.

So why did I open the box?

Although my summer looks very different from many of my classmates, I'm excited to start the next phase of my Kelley education. I'm sacrificing a lot, but gaining so much more. The I-Core professors promise that by the end of the summer, I'll be thinking less like a business student, and more like a business professional.

I'll be blogging about my experiences in Summer I-Core every week. I already have the books (and I'm stuck with them!), so lets see if I have what it takes!

Culture Museum, Panathenaic Stadium, and Blue White Group

By Alex Lockhart, Michelle Sweeney, and Nilay Patel


We were able to “sleep in” this morning until leaving at 10:30 and our first stop was Parliament to see the changing of the guard. We crossed the crowded street and saw several tourists and others taking pictures. We watched a procession playing music and then saw them doing their traditional march through the street in front of the Parliament building. The guards were wearing some cool shoes which added some style to their high stepping march.  There is a stray dog that has always been known to lead the procession out into the street before they start marching and playing.  And of course, there he was, leading the guards as they marched around Parliament.  We then tried to take pictures next to the stationary guards, which are the guys who just stand still and don’t move at all, but another military person, who clearly wasn’t enjoying his day, shooed everybody away so we couldn’t take any pictures standing next to the guards.  We stayed at Parliament for only a little while and then headed to the Benaki Museum.

The museum housed ancient Greek artifacts on several different floors. The first floor was for the Byzantine era that had the real gold wreath of oak leaves and flowers from the 4^th century BC along with jewelry, statues, clay pottery and paintings. The second floor was dedicated to all the religious artifacts. There are numerous paintings and even elegantly carved wooden iconostasis’ which are walls of icons and paintings of religious figures.  The third floor was culture and the most spectacular features are replicas of royal Macedonian reception rooms.  The entire floor is filled with traditional clothing and tools from stretching back to ancient times.  The intricacy of every design detail of the rooms really brings them to life.  The fourth floor was for all the revolutionary war artifacts. There are quite a few swords and engraved guns as well as pictures of famous war leaders.  The whole museum was a lot to take in, but it gave us a stronger appreciation of the evolution of Greek culture. As we left the museum and we found our way to the Greek sandwich shop Everest and. As we were leaving we were unable to cross the street because of hundreds of people riding their bikes through the streets of Athens. It was crazy and the police were out blocking traffic which delayed us a bit.

Next stop: The Panathenaic Stadium. According to the pamphlet we received, the Panathenaic Stadium is located in the heart of Athens on the site of an ancient stadium and for many centuries hosted games in which nude male athletes competed in track events, athletics championships as we would call them today.  It’s an amazing experience to be able to be somewhere that is so old and has so much history behind it. Things like this don’t exist in the United States!  We climbed the steps and walked around the stadium in the scorching sunlight. We each had a speaker to listen to facts about the stadium.  There was a different number for certain locations to describe the significance. It told us that the king and queen got special chairs in the front row and that naked woman would dance in the tunnel in order to have better prospects for marriage. We all enjoyed the tunnel because it was dark and cool in there.  At the end of the tunnel, there was a room with torches from the different years of the Olympics. We saw all three that we got to hold. Knowing that we held 3 of the torches that are on display in a museum is awesome! We all sat down on the stairs at the entrance to the tunnel for a couple minutes to cool down.  We went back outside and took pictures running around the track and then went to the podium where we took a group picture. Also, many of the students took pictures with a sign that said “Happy Mother’s Day from Greece! I <3 you!”

 After leaving the stadium some went shopping on the Plaka while others went back to the hotel for a much needed nap. At 6pm we had a presentation by Angelos Kostopoulos and Alec Mally in our hotel. We were treated to refreshments and then sat down to listen. Angelos was formerly at GE in the United States and also a 1989 IU graduate. Today, he is the CEO for one of the leading renewable energy companies in Greece called BlueWhite Capital. The company is working on several solar panels called BlueWhite Helios that cost upwards of 450 million dollars. They are unable to get Greek debt financing for their project because ever since the economic crisis, loans became unavailable. Investors can cover around 20% of the price while the other percentage must be debt. The Greek banks are in no shape to loan money so Angelos has looked to the US and especially GE through his connections to invest in these Helios projects. The US doesn’t want to invest, even though this is an American product, because they don’t see the benefit and no one wants to “touch Greece,” as he said.
After much of this struggle to get them on board, he has looked to the Chinese who are growing as the US has slowed down. Angelos has threatened that he will strike a deal with China if the US doesn’t hop on board. He thinks that this muti-million dollar project is an “historic opportunity” and he will find someone to invest, even if it is China. This investment will get the Chinese into the EU and could start reaping the benefits as Greece pulls itself out of its economic crisis. This plan of renewable energy could one day capitalize on Greece’s comparative advantage in solar energy in order to build and maintain this renewable energy and form a power grid that could span across Europe. If this plan works, Greece could be known for the energy it produces and have an advantage with all the sun this small country gets.  Angelos has also invested in a new political party in Greece that formed about 6months ago and gained 0.65% of the popular vote in last week’s elections.

Alec Mally talked about how the crisis is not only economic but political too. He talked a lot about IMF statistics on debt and their projections on Greece’s stance in the future. He discussed a lot of what we had learned in class through readings and newspaper articles about the protests, deficit and other effects of the crisis. The unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds in Greece right now is at 54% and he also said that it would be important for the public sector to downsize and agreements are in the works now in Greece to do so. A few other fun facts we learned at the end of the presentation is Greece has the largest merchant fleet in the world and also the budget for GE is bigger than that of Greece’s. We would like to thank our speakers for coming in today and giving us more insight to what is happening in Greece. We finished the day by going out to eat on the town and staying in for the night.  We are off to the Coca-Cola plant tomorrow!

Akshara Foundation, Bangalore

By Jim Johnson
Assistant Director of the Undergraduate Program


This morning in Bangalore, India, the P256 class visited an education-related NGO, Akshara Foundation. Akshara works to improve education and literacy in pre-schools and primary schools throughout Bangalore - more than 1700 schools in all. Mr Venkatadri gave a very interesting presentation about their work and their growing repository of education-related data which helps to document outcomes and needs.


We left the office to travel to an Akshara library and pre-school which was deep in a Muslim neighborhood visited by very few tourists. At the school, we saw about 25 little pupils practicing English lessons in a very small room. Outside, we made new friends with the local populace, who were excited and curious to see us there. Some students commented that this was their favorite experience so far, and others commented that now they feel like they have been to India.


It was interesting to see some of the business skills needed to make a NGO like Akshara Foundation work. What role can business students play in organizations that make a social impact? Even working for a traditional U.S. or global corporation, would you want to play a part in your employer's Corporate Social Responsibility program?

Trip to Aegina Island and a Pistachio Farm

By Andrew Cruz, Lisa Block, Janna Fuller, and Ellie Hay

Transportation was an interesting subject today. We rode the metro as a whole group for the first time. There were a lot of head counts at the station to make sure everyone made it. We had to rush to the ferry to make sure we wouldn’t miss our 10 o’clock departure time.

The ferry was huge. Everyone was expecting the ferry to be a small boat so when we actually saw what we would be traveling on it was a surprise to everyone. Busses were being transported on the ferry, that’s how big it was.

We sat on the top of the ferry on the ride over to soak in some sun and enjoy the sights. The view was incredible and lots of pictures were taken. On the ride back we sat on a lower level because everyone was sunburnt and needed the shade.

Our first stop on the island of Aegina was a pistachio farm. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, as most people in our group didn’t have much experience with any kind of farm, much less a pistachio farm. Quite a few of us didn’t even know that pistachios grew on trees! 

It turned out to be a great learning experience. We found it interesting to learn stories about pistachio production, including the effects of the US embargo on Iran and California’s under pricing the market. We loved seeing the obvious passion and enthusiasm Nikos, our tour guide, possessed for his pistachio farms. His pride showed through in every point of the tour, especially when he discussed Greece’s high quality, unique way of processing pistachios. One of the best parts of the tour was sampling raw and cooked pistachios. The cooked pistachios were like nothing we had ever tried before, as they are not exported outside of Greece. They were absolutely delicious!

After the pistachio farm we went to lunch at a restaurant by the port. Professor Kolovou ordered us a bunch of appetizers so we could try a little bit of everything. There were a couple of Greek salads, meatballs, and cheeses. The most memorable part of the lunch however, was the fried whole small fish and the fried whole shrimp, eyes and all. Most people were brave enough to at least cut the heads off and try them; some even ate the whole thing. 

When lunch was finished the group split up for a little bit into a beach group and a running group. According to Ellie, the views on the run were incredible.

Eventually, the runners joined us at the beach where we all tanned and swam in the Aegean Sea. A few meters out from the beach was a little rock “island” that we all swam out to and hung out on for a while. It was nice to finally get to relax after what had been three very busy, but exciting, days.