In the course of the first third of this semester, I have become acquainted with many principles of consulting that I was previously unaware of. Our teams’ work with a chocolate-spread company based in Mexico, has allowed us to delve more deeply into applying many of the frameworks used for investigating, analyzing, and solving issues within companies to a real case. This applicability has allowed us to glean new insights into useful methods of approaching problem-solving in the real world — this is particularly true for me, as I have no prior consulting background or experience. During our meetings with company members, we’ve confronted the dynamics of “scope creep”, an issue which can easily arise in any project without a SMART goal/ clear aim. Yet, despite these challenges, we’ve been encouraged to ask deeper and more insightful questions to better ascertain how we can help our client within the relatively attenuated timeline of the semester. The soft skills necessary to facilitate these conversations have been an integral part of my learning experience this semester, and foundational I think to what will ensue in the following months. Our next goals are to create a company profile with information regarding assets, liabilities, mission, revenue, when they were founded and other relevant facts. My team is also continuing to prepare for our trip to Mexico, where we will embark on a new challenge to work with and interview employees to determine the company’s social impact. The process of problem solving in the real-world is often a recursive one, where reevaluation of initial goals happens even as the project is underway; this is another integral part of what I’ve learned this past month.