Leaving Costa Rica, I have gained so much knowledge and experiences on this trip that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn about or see firsthand back in the States. Costa Rica has built an economy around a set of values that embody their country through community, sustainability, and care for their people which is evident through the way they structure and operate their businesses. My project theme of social enterprise and community was apparent throughout this trip, and I am leaving with a clearer understanding of how culture shapes the way a country does business.

The cooperative model was one of the most eye-opening concepts I learned about here. Before visiting Dos Pinos, I had a basic understanding of what a cooperative was but had yet to see it in action. What started as 25 dairy farmers pooling their resources has grown into an operation of over 1,300 farms producing more than a million liters of milk per day. The democratic structure, where every farmer holds one vote regardless of the size of their operation, ensures that smaller farmers are heard and can make big moves in business despite their smaller scale. In the United States, that kind of structure is rare. Most of our large food and agriculture companies are investor-owned, and the people doing the actual producing rarely have a seat at the table where decisions are made. Dos Pinos showed me that there is another way to scale a business without leaving the people who built it behind.

Sibo Chocolate reinforced this idea from a different angle. Julio Fernandez built Sibo around a philosophy he called win-win-win, meaning that every business decision should benefit the farmers, the consumers, and the environment at the same time. When the global cacao market spiked 300% in just nine months due to drought in West Africa and irregular rainfall across Latin America, Sibo felt it directly. Rather than passing all of that cost onto the consumer or cutting corners with their farmers, they held firm to their sourcing values. The commitment they had to the people in their supply chain is not something you see often, especially when prices are rising and inflation is apparent. It increased my understanding of what operating as a resilient and responsible business looks like.

One thing I kept coming back to, though, is that the cooperative model is not without its drawbacks. When every member has a vote and major decisions require consensus, efficiency can get lost in the mix. In a fast-moving market, waiting for agreement among a large body of people can mean missing windows or responding too slowly to change. The model works well in stable conditions, but when quick decisions are necessary, the process of gathering everyone to make those decisions slows everything down. The cooperative also distributes benefits among its members which can make large-scale expansion more difficult compared to a traditional corporation that you would see more commonly in the States.

I think the reason the cooperative model works so well in Costa Rica and struggles to gain traction in the United States comes down to culture. American business culture is built on individualism, efficiency, and rapid growth. We celebrate the self-made entrepreneur and the company that scales as fast as possible. The cooperative model asks you to slow down, consult everyone, and prioritize the group over the individual, which cuts against the American business culture rewards. Costa Rica, on the other hand, is deeply community-oriented. It is evident from the way our host families welcomed us into their homes, to the way locals at the Mercado went out of their way to help us, to the way businesses here structure themselves around their workers and communities.

Costa Rica also operates on what locals call Tico time, a more relaxed and flexible relationship with schedules and urgency. It is a smaller country with a culture that values personal life, hobbies, and being present. That kind of pace is not compatible with the high-efficiency, move-fast mentality that drives American business. But it is deeply compatible with a model that requires gathering people, building consensus, and making decisions collaboratively.

What will stay with me the most going into my career is the idea that how you structure a business is a values statement. Dos Pinos did not become a cooperative by accident, and Sibo did not build their packaging from cacao shells because it was the easiest option. Every decision we saw made by these businesses reflects a deliberate commitment to something larger than the bottom line. As I enter the business world, I want to carry that with me. Not every company can be a cooperative, and not every market allows for the pace that consensus requires. But the question of who benefits from the decisions a company makes is one that every business, regardless of its model, should be asking.