T’25s Valeria Tiffer and Hernán Ovalle Valdés reflect on their Tuck Global Insight Expedition (GIX) experiences in India. They joined Professor Ramon Lecuona Torras to explore the emerging mega market in India, companies’ strategic approach to these markets—including addressing societal challenges—and how business models change across different contexts.
What interested you about the GIX location and topic?
My interest in the growing role of emerging markets in the global economy, along with India’s booming consumer market, vast young talent pool, and high GDP growth made it an ideal location to study strategic innovation in emerging markets. I was excited to witness the entrepreneurial spirit driving this, particularly understanding how businesses adapt to the changing needs of India’s growing middle class and rapid digitalization.
Another factor that drew me to the India GIX was its goal of developing a deliberate approach to leveraging travel for business innovation. The program did this through a practical exercise—analyzing India’s business landscape through industry visits in Chennai to brainstorm a new business idea for Peru. This experience, which we shared alongside Peruvian executives, highlighted the complexities and nuances of adapting business models across diverse cultures and economies.
To me, this also delivered on the goal of pursuing an MBA—to combine the academic learnings of the classroom into real-world applications. Having to condense everything we saw into a business idea wasn’t easy, but it forced us to reflect and connect our fragmented insights into something actionable. We even got to put our idea through a real-life test by pitching it to VCs, who challenged us to refine our model, validated our understanding of the industry, and deepened our analysis with local perspectives.
The India GIX trip explores how the country’s vast scale, with over 1.4 billion people, drives innovation, as students explore manufacturing in Chennai and entrepreneurship in Bangalore.
What is a key takeaway from this experience? What have you learned?
One key takeaway from this experience was seeing how businesses in India creatively solve societal challenges by blending innovation with context-specific strategies. In the food retail sector, we learned how empowering intermediaries rather than bypassing them is the key strategy to serve the needs of the country’s rising middle class. For example, we saw how startups complement mom-and-pop stores (kiranas) with digital tools to improve productivity through sourcing and logistics, rather than seeking to replace this traditional channel. India’s extensive digital connectivity—1.2 billion mobile connections and payment platforms like UPI—makes such solutions scalable, even in remote areas. This experience showed me that successful strategies in emerging markets require a deep understanding of local realities and adopting a “wide-lens view” of the entire ecosystem (as per Professor Ron Adner).
Students gain insights into India’s food retail industry, learning how businesses innovate to enhance traditional channels.
Do you think this experience will be valuable for your post-Tuck career? How and why?
Absolutely. This experience has given me a deeper understanding of how to approach strategy in emerging markets. I learned how to blend observations made through travel and fragmented pieces of information into a structured way of thinking. It gave me practical tools, inspiring examples, and the knowledge to analyze challenges in complex markets.
The most inspiring part was seeing how businesses drive India’s economic development. In food retail, companies like Swiggy and Urban Company are creating employment opportunities and helping workers move toward financial stability, while ventures like Vigo and Jumbotail enhance the productivity of traditional trade networks. In financial services, startups drive financial inclusion by enabling tailored financial solutions. In health care, ventures like Cloud Physician, Aravind Eye Hospital, and Kauvery Clinics are bridging gaps in accessibility by delivering high-quality care to underserved areas through innovative models that integrate remote support. These aren’t just business models—they’re pathways to solving socioeconomic challenges.
How did Tuck faculty and/or staff contribute to your overall GIX experience?
Professor Ramon Lecuona’s excitement for India’s potential was at the heart of our GIX experience. He crafted a three-step framework that pushed us to methodically unpack India’s business landscape: first, understand the country’s context; second, conduct industry-specific deep dives; and third, synthesize insights through a business idea creation exercise.
This experience was delivered alongside a local organizing team, father and son duo Mahesh and Varun Sriram, and Alicia Wright from Tuck who made sure that we took advantage of every moment, interpreting nuances we might have missed. The warmth of how the companies received us was a testament to Tuck’s presence in the city. They seemed genuinely excited to share their challenges and breakthroughs, making theoretical concepts tangible and actionable. We also had speakers who traveled from all parts of the country (we even had Ambassador Rahul Chhabra travel from Delhi and a T’08 entrepreneur, Nishkala Duddu, travel from Bangalore to meet us!).
Overall, the trip allowed us to “live” our Strategy in Emerging Markets course in one of the most exciting places with the expert professor. It cemented a mental model for understanding emerging markets—not just learning about India, but developing a systematic framework to approach similar complex economic landscapes globally.
What should prospective students know about the GIX and/or TuckGO requirement?
It will be a highlight of your MBA to travel with classmates to a new country, but the value of the GIX goes beyond that—it is about having a shared experience with equally curious classmates and having that curiosity guided by an expert.
Valeria Tiffer is a second-year student at Tuck focusing on international strategy and responsible business. Before Tuck, Valeria worked as an export strategy consultant and trade lawyer at the International Trade Center and the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She holds law degrees from the University of Costa Rica and Harvard Law School. At Tuck, she is a fellow at the Center for Digital Strategies and serves as co-chair of the Tech Club. Outside the classroom, Valeria enjoys exploring the outdoors with her dog, reading fiction, and traveling.
What interested you about the GIX location and topic?
India represents a fascinating intersection of tradition and innovation that I wanted to experience firsthand. Home to over 1.4 billion people, India’s economic and social evolution will undoubtedly shape global business in the coming decades. I particularly wanted to understand how businesses navigate the complexities of serving diverse market segments in a rapidly developing economy. India’s unique position—with its mix of world-class technology hubs alongside traditional communities—offered an unparalleled learning opportunity about different business models and their adaptability across cultural contexts. I was especially excited to witness firsthand how companies innovate to serve the base of the pyramid, particularly in financial services.
What site visits, tours, meetings, and/or people were most impactful for you during the GIX?
The most profound experience during my India GIX was visiting families living at the base of the income pyramid. As part of the financial services group, I learned about their participation in self-help groups and microfinance initiatives. What struck me most was their remarkable financial responsibility—despite limited resources, these families demonstrated an unwavering commitment to repaying their debts. This wasn’t just about financial obligations; it reflected their deep-rooted values and belief in how their actions impact their broader community. Their strong sense of collective responsibility and commitment to financial integrity challenged many preconceptions about lending in emerging markets.
How did Tuck faculty and/or staff contribute to your overall GIX experience?
Our faculty and staff were instrumental in creating this transformative learning experience. Their meticulous planning and deep connections within India gave us unprecedented access to a diverse range of organizations and communities. Professor Ramon Lecuona was particularly influential in helping us analyze our experiences, turning our observations into actionable business insights. His guidance was key in understanding how business practices in India might or might not translate to other contexts, and his expertise helped us move beyond surface-level observations to grasp the deeper cultural and economic factors at play in India’s business landscape.
Professor Ramon Lecuona (pictured) guides students through a three-step framework to explore India’s business landscape, helping them better understand local business practices.
Do you think this experience will be valuable for your post-Tuck career? How and why?|
This experience will be very valuable for my future career, especially in understanding how business models translate across different contexts. Through the CAGE framework (Cultural, Administrative, Geographic, and Economic distances), we learned to systematically analyze how business solutions need to be adapted between countries. Seeing how microfinance institutions in India adapted their models to work within local cultural norms and economic realities was eye-opening. This framework for analyzing cross-cultural business opportunities will be an essential tool in our increasingly global business landscape. The experience has strengthened my ability to approach different markets with cultural humility and curiosity—crucial skills for any business leader working across borders. Understanding how factors like relationship-driven business cultures, administrative structures, and economic conditions influence business success has given me practical tools for future international business decisions.
What should prospective students know about the GIX and/or TuckGO requirement?
The GIX offers an incredible deep dive into a country’s business and cultural landscape. The program’s strength lies in its comprehensive approach—we met with consulting firms to understand macroeconomic trends and market segments, spoke with an ambassador about international relations, visited families in rural and urban settings, and engaged with various financial institutions from traditional banks to innovative startups. As part of the financial services group, we studied everything from gold-lending companies to self-help groups, seeing firsthand how different organizations work to serve the base of the pyramid. The experience is enriched by sharing these discoveries with classmates and faculty members who bring diverse perspectives to each interaction. What makes this program special is its ability to connect high-level business strategy with ground-level realities, offering insights that couldn’t be gained from a classroom alone.
Hernán is a second-year student at Tuck from Chile, where he spent seven years in financial services before business school. Prior to Tuck, he worked in product management at a Chilean bank. He lives in Hanover with his wife and one-year-old daughter, making the most of Upper Valley life through mountain biking, running, and outdoor activities with family and friends. Last summer, he interned in business development and strategy at LoneCypressAI, and after graduation, he will return to Banco BICE in Chile.
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