News

DECEMBER 2011

EGI Workshop – Business Legislation

On Wednesday 7th, a very constructive and introspective workshop on “Business Legislation” was conducted by renown Haitian lawyer Robert Laforest. This workshop awakened the interest of both our current students and former graduates that are currently conducting small business ventures, which listened closely for one hour and a half to what Mr. Laforest’s had to say about the different procedures required to establish a business legally in Haiti.

Instead of taking a theoretical approach to the workshop, Mr. Laforest decided to combine law concepts with practice through clear and practical examples. An attentive crowd responded with a myriad of interesting questions, some hypothetical while some others concerning actual personal cases, turning the workshop into a dynamic panel of discussion.

This experience allowed to expose EGI participants to the opportunities and challenges of doing legal businesses in Haiti, as well as to create awareness from a legal standpoint about improper behavior within certain business practices in the informal sector. While it is a fact that the Haitian economy remains mainly informal and does not offer much incentives for businesses to go formal, it is our mission as EGI to articulate a constructive message so these trends and patterns can be eventually reversed. Through this workshop, Mr. Laforest aimed at planting a seed of civil responsibility into our students and former graduates so they realize how vital it is for Haiti to count with young entrepreneurs operating its businesses in a legal and accountable manner.

NOVEMBER 2011

EGI Workshop – Sustainable Innovation

On November 26th, a workshop on “Sustainable Innovation” took place at the EGI facilities in Port-au-Prince. Conducted by Spanish designer and innovation consultant Marius Quintana, the workshop introduced the concept of sustainability and its relevance for achieving long-term economic growth.

The workshop was divided into two main blocs: a theoretical introduction of long-term sustainability, and a group exercise dynamic. The first bloc began by Mr. Quintana pointing at how the exponential increase in human population numbers after the Industrial Revolution has brought about a bigger demand for natural resources, goods and services to satisfy our needs and wants, threatening the environmental stability of the planet. He showed how during the past years factors such as pollution, increasing droughts and floods, and extinguished species have increased the awareness of this global threat, which has led certain individuals to rethink our current models of economic growth and look for feasible alternatives to reduce the spillovers causing the threat.

The speaker then introduced the term “Sustainability” by noting that while there is no specific agreement about its general meaning, since 1980 the term has nevertheless been used in the form of human sustainability and has been associated with the economic, social, and environmental spheres. Sustainability, Mr. Quintana explained, must be thought in a long-term perspective as it must allow current generations to meet their current basic human needs, aspirations and desires without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their owns. Mr. Quintana illustrated this by invoking the concept of permaculture as a reference on how this process of long-term sustainability through innovation can be achieved. Lastly, some corporate examples of businesses implementing sustainable strategies in their models were shown.

The second bloc of the workshop consisted on developing a group strategy to address a particular problem in Haiti through a long-term sustainable business model. EGI Participants were divided in 4 groups of 4 people each, and were told to present their ideas to everyone in a white billboard. The groups came out with interesting initiatives that ranged from manufacturing sandals using recycled materials, to collecting garbage and processing it into energy and fruit processing from planted trees.

The core aim of the workshop was to implement the seed of sustainable innovation and the relevance of long-term thinking into the entrepreneurial rationale of our graduates, so as future leaders of the private sector they would not only contemplate the profit variable in their models, but also the environmental and social gain as key indicators of sustained economic growth in Haiti.

DECEMBER 2010

The graduation ceremony for the Class 3 took place on November 13th with board members Patrick Brun and Tom McIntire in attendance. EGI would like to congratulate Goretti, Edith, Jaqueline, Volmar, Ketcia and Wisly for completing the EGI Business Training Program. Class 3 is smaller than the first two classes as a few participants have had to leave the program after the earthquake but this group will always have a special place at EGI. It has not been easy to attend classes and complete projects with so many other things going on. We are inspired by their determination and hard work during this very challenging period in Haiti’s history. We know that this group will go on to do some great things for their country.

A big thank you goes out to all of those who helped the class complete this year’s program. EGI will remain a strong presence in Haiti and we are committed to working to improve the country through the development of entrepreneurship and the creation of businesses.

Gilles Rousseau is currently the Country Director for EGI in Haiti.  He also works as the head of Innovation and New Business at Flamingo Foods S.A., which is based in Port au Prince.  Since he joined the company full time, he has been able to increase their product lines to include frozen meat and bullion cubes as well as double their number of stores to six.

A strong desire to help his country drove Gilles to join EGI.

He is energized by the concept of teaching business and entrepreneurial principles to aspiring business leaders in order to foster economic growth within Haiti.  He sees tremendous future in the students of EGI and knows that their ideas can employ people, decrease poverty, and help change Haiti.

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We are pleased to announce that EGI has received the official registration number needed to become a recognized foundation (NGO) in Haiti. We expect to receive our full credentials in 2011. Despite the challenging environment EGI is making progress each month and we are confident that we will continue to advance in 2011, supporting more entrepreneurs and helping to finance more businesses.

OCTOBER 2010

Haiti Ventures: good news

EGI was contacted a few months ago by a group called Haiti Ventures who are creating a forum and network designed to connect Haitian entrepreneurs with potential investors in Haiti and in the US Diaspora.  We were able to follow up with the group on the ground in Haiti and organized the attendance of 15 EGI students and graduates to an investment forum they held on October 6^th in Port-au-Prince.

As you can see from the photos the EGI group fit in well and enjoyed connecting with other entrepreneurs and investors. Gilles commented to me in an email that “the Forum was a success. Everyone was very motivated and now they are very positive about new opportunities in Haiti.”

At the moment some of the founders of Haiti Ventures have expressed an interest in investing in LogiPam, a business started by EGI grad (Class 2) and current TA, Jean Came Poulard. LogiPam is a software business that focuses on designing open source packages for schools and libraries. We’ll keep you updated on how things go…

At the moment we are also working with a few other EGI entrepreneurs who are ready for financing. Antoine Jean Godenson’s printing business, Satinfo, has already been doing all of EGI’s printing needs and now both Patrick Brun and Gilles are sending contracts Godenson’s way. Some of the larger projects are being prepaid which will hopefully help Satinfo invest in some needed equipment. The idea is also to promote Satinfo’s service to other businesses in the Port-au-Prince area, especially in light of the quality service provided to the EGI community.

Gilles and Tom are currently working with other EGI participants and graduates to prepare and finalize their business and financing plans in order to make the most of current and future opportunities.