In class this week we first watched a documentary on Corporations and the idea of treating them as a person rather than an entity. The documentary followed many real life examples of actions taken by corporations that could constitute as almost psychopathic behavior when applied to a real person. While the documentary was certainly eye-opening, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sick to my stomach after hearing about the manipulation and fraud detailed in the documentary. On Wednesday, we began class with a very interesting discussion about corporate opinions. I have typically been of the mindset that corporations don’t have any obligation to making statements on social issues that aren’t pertinent to their business. After our discussion in class I was introduced to the idea that corporations are typically the ones lobbying for big decisions in congress, so the opinions they hold will have some merit and should be considered.

This week at Gruppo Tempocasa, Dane and I presented our findings on our comparison of Italian vs. American real estate brokerages. The feedback we got was overwhelmingly positive and our bosses and coworkers found it constructive. We’ve since moved into our next project which is an analysis of the workflows of the customer care department at Tempocasa. We’ve been studying the ways in which the customer care employees collect feedback from customers at each step or the selling process. Dane and I will be finding sources of improvement, whether that is adding or removing a touch point or tweaking the method in which information is collected, Tempocasa wants a fresh eye to look over their procedures.

This week in travel included a trip to Lake Como on Sunday and a trip to Genova on Friday. Lake Como started off a bit rainy in the morning but became more and more beautiful as the day went by. We grabbed a great lunch at a hole in the wall osteria then laid in the park by the water. After it had warmed up a bit, Sachi, Neave, Lili and I rented a little boat and got on the water. Genova followed a night of very little sleep so once we had arrived, we all took a long nap on the beach. Once our appetites had warmed up, we had a feast at another hole in the wall deli in downtown Genova. I spoke with the owner, a very nice woman originally from Milan, and was able to practice a bit of my Italian. Another great week!—