FIU brings together top Haitian entrepreneurs

The top Haitian entrepreneurs of 2010 sharpened their business skills as part of a CEO retreat at FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus Nov. 10-12.

Twenty-four finalists of Digicel’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 program attended the three-day workshop, organized by FIU’s Office of Executive and Professional Education and the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center.

Digicel, the largest mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean, established the award program to identify, reward and cultivate entrepreneurs whose initiatives can give Haiti new economic foundations.

The FIU seminar, which offered simultaneous translation to French speakers, exposed the finalists to seasoned entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who brought a mixture of concepts and practical examples to the group. They learned about new venture creation, business promotion, marketing and social media as well as funding and long-term success.

Participants attended two sessions presented by College of Business professors Irma Becerra, director and fellow of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center and the Knight Ridder Research Professor of Management Information Systems, and Sumit K. Kundu, the Knight-Ridder Research Professor of International Business.

“These successful entrepreneurs were selected because they’re doing something amazing in their countries,” said Becerra, whose session focused on new venture creations and innovation. “What we are trying to do here is give resources and knowledge to the people who are most likely to make a difference.”

At the end of her lecture, Becerra separated the class into six groups. The teams were assigned a product and asked to create a plan addressing specific questions: What is the idea? Who cares? Will anyone buy it?  What is the opportunity? What is the value?

Group 1 was assigned a spy camera. The team decided the product could be marketed to farmers who wanted to monitor the chicken coop. Haiti currently imports one million eggs from the Dominican Republic. Team leader Mathias Pierre, who owns GaMa Consulting S.A., a successful information technology business in Port-au-Prince, explained their plan would help increase Haiti’s national production.

“I was surprised by how focused on Haiti they were,” said Becerra. “All their ideas centered on helping the nation.”

“If we were thinking politics, then there would be no solution,” said Pierre after the exercise. “But because we were thinking business, everybody worked together.”

Emmanuel Andy Milfort, founder of Société de Développement Communautaire, an organization that helps Haitians start their own business, added, “If you are a successful entrepreneur, then you are a social entrepreneur. You have a positive impact in your community.”

— Sissi Aguila