For the first time since arriving in Punta Del Este, our group had to be up early and cleared out of the hotel at 7:15 this morning. After a quick breakfast, the 37 of us loaded onto the bus with our luggage and prepared for a two hour bus ride. Our destination? Back to Montevideo to meet with CodigoDelSur, a mobile app and web development company.
After a quiet and uneventful ride, Sofia woke up the deep sleepers as we were entering a residential area, which was a surprise to me. When I learned that we were going to an app development company, I assumed that it would be found in one of the skyscrapers such as the one we attended the WTC meeting at. However, this was not the case, as she informed us that Codigo was in this neighborhood. After a couple of minutes, the bus came to a stop along the sidewalk and we all filed out and crossed the street to what originally appeared to be another residence, but I could not have been more wrong. Although I can’t speak for all of my classmates, I was shocked to see that the company was located in a massive three-story house flanked by a pool, hammocks, and a smaller, more modern structure towards the back of the property(below). Clearly, it was nothing I had pictured.
We were met at the gate by Carla Martinovic, the head of business development at CodigoDelSur. After a quick bathroom break, we were brought to the building behind the pool for a short presentation about the company. To keep it simple, Carla broke up the presentation into three categories: Our Company, Sales and Marketing, and Success Cases. Similar to her, my summary will be going in the same order.
To provide a brief background of the company, CodigoDelSur is a 12-year-old app and web development company that employs more than 90 people. Of these 90 people, approximately half focus on mobile app development while the other half strictly look at web development with a design team in each. We also learned that Codiga has two main client groups. Enterprise clients are bigger, more developed companies that result in longer term projects for CodigoDelSur(6+ months). On the other hand, startups often seek basic projects(3-4 months) and return to Codiga seeking improvements once the startup is established and receives enough funding. In such a competitive industry, this company needs to do an excellent job meeting the needs of their clients, and it seemed as if they were doing so.
Moving onto sales and marketing, I was surprised to learn that 90% of CodigoDelSur’s clients are located within the United States. This was originally a shock to me; however, it began to make more sense as Carla explained that the US has a much larger number of potential clients than in countries around here. In addition, Codiga offers slightly cheaper prices than US competitors; however, it is not low enough to attract local clients. Although this pricing allows them to undercut their competition in the US, they have lost out on a developing market in not just Uruguay, but other Latin American countries as well.
Carla also mentioned that there are a variety of challenges that come with working abroad. During the presentation, I asked if their employees ever travel abroad and meet face-to-face with their clients, but it turns out that they do not. This poses a slight communication problem but can be overcome with frequent conversations with their clients abroad. Another issue that they face is a difference in work methodology. In the US, we often find businesses operating at a slow and steady pace that creates a more relaxed environment for its workers. On the other side, CodigoDelSur utilizes scrum methodology, a practice in which companies work extremely hard for two weeks or so and then step back and analyze their progress- a sprint of sorts. All I know is that we learned this in management this last semester and Professor Kwesiga(my instructor) was extremely happy to see a company using this method. Despite the difference in work methods, these are all professionals and are able to adapt to any work environment.
To conclude the presentation, Carla showed us a couple of companies that they have had success dealing with. Their most well-known client was Shutterfly, who they had been working with for the last five years and has over 220 million users. CodigoDelSur also has 17 people assigned to GrubHub, an online food delivery service, and 22 people working with SupremeGolf, a site that allows people to book tee times. In terms of startups, they have helped DroneDeploy(The world’s #1 drone app), as well as Skout and Kindara. This is just a small list of the many clients they have helped, and I’m sure that they will be successful with the 10 clients that they have currently.
Once the presentation was complete, Carla and a couple of other Codiga employees took us on a tour of the office. We started on the first floor in a large living area that featured a moving Mona Lisa, a piano, and some facial recognition software that we all played around with, among other things. All of the surrounding decorations were unique as well; by no means was this your ordinary office building. We went down a small flight of stairs that led us right into a small game room that contained a ping pong table, a foosball table, and a small workout machine. There was also a basketball hoop outside in the parking lot where a couple of employees were shooting around. We then ventured to the top two floors; however, this was not nearly as exciting. It primarily held offices were we saw dozens of employees working. This company clearly promotes collaboration, as there were no cubicles to be found. Instead, the workers were found at large tables all communicating freely. The tour provided us with even more insight into the company than I had expected, and I’m very glad that we got the opportunity to.
The main insight that I had, as well as Professor Kwesiga, was that it was an awesome work environment for CodigoDelSur’s employees. During management this year, we watched a video that took us through Google’s headquarter’s in California, and I could find a lot of similarities in both companies. Of course Codigo isn’t at the same scale Google, but they are promoting more relaxed work environments, both physically and mentally. Workers were dressed down and clearly had the ability to take breaks when they felt necessary. In addition, the game room and other activities throughout the office provided nice distractions to employees during their stressful two week ‘sprints’. All of this will help to recruit employees in such a competitive industry and will benefit CodigoDelSur in the long run.
Overall, we are all very appreciative of Carla and the rest of the team at CodigoDelSur for hosting us today. It was an excellent experience that allowed me to take what we learned in class and applied it to a real company that was extremely competitive in their industry. They are also at the forefront of a movement to stray from the stressful office life of many companies and create a different environment in which their employees can thrive.
This was the first stop in our very busy yet adventurous Tuesday, and you’ll be hearing from Kiana and Randy highlighting our other outings throughout the day.
Adios!
-Luke Sanford
SIE 2020, Latin America 