“Work with what you have”, the Kingston family’s business mantra as explained by Courtney Kingston, managing partner of the Kingston Family Vineyards, was instrumental in helping her decide on how to take the family business forward. The mantra stuck with me and I kept wondering how different family run businesses are from corporates and how emotions & values play a greater role in these businesses. It was interesting to learn about the family history of the Kingston family which goes back to the early 1900’s when the family patriarch Carl John Kingston first arrived in Chile in search of copper and gold. Courtney’s story of starting the wine business was particularly interesting to me. The fact that the family had their feet in both countries (USA & Chile) was a key factor in the success of the business. The family in Chile brought the ability to “Operate” in local circumstances and the family in USA brought the knowledge that was required for successfully running the wine business.
I started learning more about the country by looking at some key economic statistics. Chile’s nominal GDP in 2014 was estimated to be $258 billion. Chile’s exports in goods totaled $76.98 billion in the same year. Copper was the most exported item (53.6%) followed by grapes & other produce (8.4%). Wine exports stood at 2.4% which is approximately $1.84 billion.
While studying these statistics I came across a web site from the World Bank called Doing Business which ranks countries on their ease of doing business. It was interesting to learn that of all the Latin American countries Chile (ranked 48th overall) came second in the ease of doing business. Mexico (ranked 38th overall) was first and Peru was third (ranked 50th overall). The link is shared below.
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
I am looking forward to the trip and to learn more about other businesses and how regional factors dictate the way businesses are run in the country. I am also trying to learn more about wines and here’s a link to the basic wine guide from Winefolly.com which i found useful.
I started learning more about the country by looking at some key economic statistics. Chile’s nominal GDP in 2014 was estimated to be $258 billion. Chile’s exports in goods totaled $76.98 billion in the same year. Copper was the most exported item (53.6%) followed by grapes & other produce (8.4%). Wine exports stood at 2.4% which is approximately $1.84 billion.
While studying these statistics I came across a web site from the World Bank called Doing Business which ranks countries on their ease of doing business. It was interesting to learn that of all the Latin American countries Chile (ranked 48th overall) came second in the ease of doing business. Mexico (ranked 38th overall) was first and Peru was third (ranked 50th overall). The link is shared below.
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
I am looking forward to the trip and to learn more about other businesses and how regional factors dictate the way businesses are run in the country. I am also trying to learn more about wines and here’s a link to the basic wine guide from Winefolly.com which i found useful.