The ideal Support Network for personal and professional success: a 3-question Test

By Oriana Torres

If there is something that women can benchmark from men, is how –consciously and mainly unconsciously- they build effective support networks around them. Recently, while interviewing Babson College new President Kerry Healey around key advice for young leaders she could not emphasize enough on the importance for women to build a support network, defined as a unique group of diverse, loyal and enthusiastic individuals that are not only genuinely willing to invest in your success, that are vested in it and that cheer for you while you get it. 

            While the concept of network might sound overrated and there are infinite sources of information of what a network is and how to build one, this article is all about breaking mental models and inviting women to evaluate their network. Breaking mental models is all about rebooting the idea women self-sufficiency makes us heroes. Evaluating our networks is about recognizing that while many women might already have apparent core networks in our lives, its composition and motivation might not be ideal.

The ideal support network: ask yourself these 3 questions first!

The 3-question Test

Networks are sets of relationships critical to your ability to get things done, get ahead and develop personally and professionally (Ibarra, 1996). While the definition is very precise and assertive, I would like to “spice it up” with 3 key elements that might be taken for granted when it comes to building a network.

We all have families, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances … but does that automatically make them an ideal network to support our development as women, at home and in the workplace? I invite you to reflect on your own current networks and think about how they rate in the light of these three features.

Question 1 - Are they available to invest in your success?

To have people with a true desire to invest in your success is the building block for network building. People that have the readiness to support you succeed as a woman, must not only believe in your dreams and plans but they should have the availability (time, financial resources, other) and conditions (skills, abilities, attitudes) to help you make them happen. As a personal example, I have absolutely no doubt that my two sisters would do anything to see me succeed. But one of them lives miles away in Europe and the other one is autistic and for obvious reasons can’t support me in certain things. And yes, we are talking about extremely practical things here as picking up my child from school or cook a meal, while I am on a heavy workday in a particular season. This might be an extreme example, but it serves very well to illustrate the point.

Question 2 - Are they vested in your success?

Having someone willing and available to help you succeed (as we saw in the past question) does not imply that they are “vested in your success”. To have a vested interest is “to have a strong reason for wanting something to happen because you will gain from it”. While I do not mean to suggest that relationships should be transactional, the notion of vested interest makes willingness to support more sustainable. A professional sponsor or entrepreneurial mentor might be vested in your success: if you do succeed, she/he and industry, company or cause you both fight for might be better of. Another, and in my opinion the most important example is of course your spouse or partner: if you succeed (under the assumption that you both share what success means), your overall relationship, family and household will become stronger. As Sheryl Sandberg said, “the most important career decision a woman can take is deciding who to marry”.

Question 3 - Will they cheer for you while you get it?

On a day-to-day basis, energy is what keeps us going. If someone is helping you, his/her own satisfaction while doing so should exude. Cheering for you means being there just to listen, to give you constructive feedback, or to simply tell you “I am proud of you” or “Keep going” when it is most needed. You do not need robots that just get tasks done inside your network. You do not need people that despite being available and even vested in your success can’t relate to you and can’t have the level of enthusiasm to celebrate you.

Rejuvenating your network

When applying the 3-question Test for the ideal support network there is no wonder that family and mentors generally meet all three criteria. Sometimes however, we might be surprised that people in our core network just meet one or two of the three criteria. What is certain, however, is that there is nothing wrong if your network seems unbalanced right now, as long as you are aware of it and you start working on it. For this, you can use some on these quick strategies to start rejuvenating your network:

•     “Talk to them”: Explore why some relationships appear so unbalanced. Do they really understand and accept your own definition of success? Are they supporting me out of generic responsibility or politeness, or do they really see this as a “win-win” relationship? If answers are not apparent to you, dare to have these difficult conversations and get to the root of the issues.
•          “Use the 3-question filter actively to engage with new people”: You meet people daily and time helps you develop a relationship with them. Ask yourself the 3 questions actively and welcome people that can add value to you. Remember network members come in different shapes. In intermediate cities in Latin America, for instance, neighbors are key network members, so give yourself permission to see beyond the family, co-workers and friends circle.
•        “Let people go”: There might be individuals that after deep conscious analysis, you realize were never meant to play certain roles in your life and it’s healthy to let them go. That does not mean you finish or truncate your relationships, but you might now locate them in a completely different place when it comes to supporting your path as a woman to success.

Vulnerability is power

Vulnerability is power. Many women, especially those of us of the “You can have it all” mentality, still can have the misconception that we can achieve “professional-personal balance” alone, by multiplying or cloning ourselves. Men have created for generations an ecosystem around them to advance in careers (being us women as partners and mothers their principal network members!) and now as women is our turn to move from only from being only “supporters” to be the “supported ones”. As the African proverb says, “it takes a village to raise a child”, same way, it takes a village for a woman to make his way into her own definition of success. And this village is your core network. Pick it wisely. 

Notes to self! a.k.a. Amazing Quotes from amazing Women Entrepreneurs

Spring 2013 - Women's Entrepreneurship and Leadership Class at Babson MBA

Today, we had two wonderful Entrepreneurs in Residence of Babson, Sharon Kan and Gail Simmons, who visited a very unique elective class that we have at BABSON called Women's Entrepreneurship and Leadership, taught by Professor Candy Brush. I can just say that this has been one of my favorite classes at Babson and one of the reasons have been all the women we have had as panelists around different topcis in nearly every class this spring. 

For those who know me, I am a "quotes" person, so here are few of the amazing thoughts I captured this afternoon from these inspiring women. I know they might not make much sense with out the context of the conversation we were having in class, yet I thought you might still enjoy few of them them as muchas I did.

My top quotes from Sharon

• [Answering to the question: what did you want to be when you were younger?] "A king (yes, not a queen!!)"
• "I always wanted to be with the boys"
• "Accidentally I ended up in the right place"
• "I usually do what I am not supposed to do"
• "For women is hard to say NO, but it seems to be harder to get a NO"
• "Do you remember a time when your mother has shared one of her NO's with you? This is where all starts"
• "If I saved people's lives, I can handle a No" (referring to her experience in the Israel air force)
• "What does it mean/imply when men 'go for drinks'? When we women talk to a man, seems like we have to 'pitch'"
• "If you do not take the responsibility to make a change, it's not going to happen"
• "The generation of our parents is all about job security. On the other hand I have created jobs for myself, that is what I have been doing all this time. The opportunity for me is to create the job I am looking for"
• "Aim for big, it takes the same effort than aiming for small"
• "Your most important professional decision is who you will marry"
• [Answering how to understand/deconstruct legacy] "Legacy is about credibility"

My top quotes from Gail

• [Answering to the question: what did you want to be when you were younger?] "I wanted to be a dental hygienist. When my mother asked why a dental hygienist. and not a dentist, I answered 'dentists are men, dental hygienists are always women!'"
• "Where do you see yourself in  years? I hate that question. And that does not mean that I am not organized, but I know that it's all about dealing with uncertainty."
• [Answering how to understand/deconstruct legacy] "Legacy is about integrity"

About Sharon Kan   

Sharon Kan is an entrepreneur and a seasoned operational executive. Sharon was a co-founder of Tikatok.com, which was acquired by B&N in 2009.  Tikatok was the fourth startup company that Sharon built from its foundation with a group from MIT University. Before Sharon co-founded Tikatok she was CEO of Zoomix, a data management solution provider that was acquired by Microsoft in 2008. Prior, Sharon was President North America of c-Ark, a product lifecycle management company. c-Ark was acquired by SSA (now Infor). Prior to c-Ark, Ms. Kan spent 5 years with Demantra Inc., a leading global provider of supply chain management and established its activity in NA. Demantra was acquired by Oracle in 2006. Sharon is currently Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson College; a mentor at The MIT Venture Mentoring Service, formed to support entrepreneurial activity throughout MIT University.; and a member of the Advisory Board of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College School of Management. She has been a speaker at conferences and educational institutions on the subjects of entrepreneurship, innovation, core values and leadership. Sharon holds an Executive MBA from the University of Bradford in the UK, a BA degree in Business from the College of Management in Israel, and is a graduate of the French Culture program of the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. (Source: Babson Website)  

About Gail Simmons  

Gail Simmons is a trained culinary expert, food writer, and dynamic television personality. Since the show’s inception in 2006, she has lent her extensive expertise as a permanent judge on Bravo’s Emmy-winning series Top Chef. Now in its tenth successful season, Top Chef is rated the #1 food show on cable television. Gail is also host of Top Chef: Just Desserts, Bravo’s pastry-focused spin-off of the Top Chef franchise, which aired its second season in the fall of 2011. Gail joined Food & Wine in 2004 and directs special projects for the magazine, acting as liaison between the marketing and editorial teams on magazine events and chef-related initiatives, working closely with the country’s top culinary talent. During her tenure, she has been responsible for overseeing the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, America’s premier culinary event. Prior to joining Food & Wine, Gail was the special events manager for Chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurant empire. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Gail moved to New York City in 1999 to attend culinary school at what is now the Institute of Culinary Education. She then trained in the kitchens of legendary Le Cirque 2000 and groundbreaking Vong restaurants, and worked for esteemed food critic Jeffrey Steingarten at Vogue. Throughout her career, Gail has contributed to several cookbooks, including It Must’ve Been Something I Ate by Steingarten, Chef Daniel Boulud: Cooking in New York City and The New American Chef, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. Gail’s first book, her very own memoir titled Talking With My Mouth Full, was published by Hyperion in February 2012. In addition to her work on Top Chef, Gail makes frequent television appearances on TODAY on NBC, ABC’s Good Morning America, and Fox & Friends, among others. She has been featured in such publications as New Yorkmagazine, Travel + Leisure, GQ, People, TV Guide, US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, and was named the #1 Reality TV Judge in America by The New York Post. She also appears at the nation’s foremost culinary festivals, including the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, New York City Wine & Food Festival and many more. Gail can be seen in the online video series The Pantry Project on www.kitchendaily.com, where she teaches viewers new ways to cook with the staples, both familiar and unusual, in their kitchens. (Source: Babson Website)

When it comes to entrepreneurship - Are you an obstetrician, a pediatrician, or a geriatrician?

Recently on a casual chat with Rene Rojas, Founder and CEO of HubBog, he shared with me one of the coolest analogies I’ve heard when it comes to entrepreneurship.

Rene and I, both passionate for education, were talking about the concept of “academy” for entrepreneurial context and how it differs from the traditional  MBA/business education mental models. So, it was when he told me: “Supporting Entrepreneurs is like being an obstetrician, we are talking about a fragile human being hardly trying to come to life, in a process that is fairly delicate , unexpected and difficult. MBAs in the other hand are full of pediatricians, those who deal with the child when he’s expected to be stable and fit and now it's all about raising her/him healthily” (1)

As a soon-to-be MBA (even from Babson and its differential entrepreneurial approach) I could not agree more with the past point, to the extend that I added that some graduate programs or at least people I have come across, seem to be even “geriatricians”. However in a entrepreneurship movement that eery days leans more towards SCALE UPs (vs. Start Ups) and RAPID GROWTH, pediatricians will be nevertheless in high demand, specially those who hang out with lots of obstetricians. 

While many of the greatest things I’ve seen in the entrepreneurial world have risen however from the magic zone of collaborations between obstetricians, pediatricians and geriatricians, such as …

• ·   Endeavor connecting adolescents (High Impact Ventures) with adult doctors (seasoned executives of Large Organizations and TOP consulting firms)
• ·       The IBM Emerging Opportunities Program, for Corporate Entrepreneurship

… I still think that everybody needs to be clear of where its natural space it. 

The beauty of all this is not to play cool about being one or another; we need the three types of doctors for the economic system to function! 

The real beauty is to understand where our expertise, talent and personal culture relies, as a manager or as a “mentor” (I am pretty scared to use the underestimated/misunderstood M word these days) and offer this expertise in the right context. Just because entrepreneurship is so cool these days, does not mean that you have the right skills set to support entrepreneurs or turn into one.

And thinking back in my own business education at Babson, I can truly say the Entrepreneurial Thought and Action DNA of our school is nothing else as an invitation to understand that in today's world, we'll be many times pushed to be obstetricians (weather we want it or not- "you never know when a pregnant woman in the middle of nowhere we need your help!"). That does not mean that every single person that leaves this school will be an obstetrician, but at least we all are aware that pivoting, and testing and dancing with ambiguity (even in the most stable organizations)  is the "new forecasting".

(1) These might not be textual words, but you get the idea.

My definitions of Entrepreneurship and of Social Innovation!

Entrepreneurship ...

Share yours at http://define.babson.edu/ ...

Social Innovation ...




Share yours at http://definesocial.babson.edu/ ...

My view on the role of Entrepreneurs in a “booming” ecosystem

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Oriana Torres, MBA Student Babson College

December 20^th, 2012

“ENTREPRENEURSHIP ECOSYSTEM? Another academic jargon-  you might say. I wonder how many Entrepreneurs know the concept … and if they actually should know it from a technical perspective. Probably not. But what I wonder is, if Colombian Entrepreneurs are aware enough to NAVIGATE such ecosystem and make the most out of it – genuinely and strategically.”

Fist of all, I want to open making the disclaimer that I am not an entrepreneur, although, yes, I opened a restaurant in northern Bogota (Colombia) as a side business back in 2010. The business failed and the reasons why it failed are crystal-clear to me today. I guess this is a “fashionable” thing to share nowadays that our culture finally starts to understand that failure is inherent to innovation and entrepreneurship. But this post is neither about my “low-growth” previous entrepreneurial try, nor about me. This post is about all those privileged, real, High Impact Entrepreneurs out there. And even if I just stated that I am not an Entrepreneur, I have spent lots of time around them to the point that I am more than confident to write the following thoughts. 

It’s a good moment to be an Entrepreneur in Colombia, specially if you are a Dynamic, High-Growth, High Impact one – “label” it however you want: it’s a good moment to be a visionary leader, who identifies an uncontested market space, captures the extraordinary value around it and makes sure such endeavor GROWS healthy and sustainably.  And it’s a good moment because since couple of years things are changing and a solid  ENTREPRENEURSHIP ECOSYSTEM seems to be emerging in our country.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP ECOSYSTEM? Another academic jargon, might you say. I wonder how many Entrepreneurs know the concept … and if they actually should know it from a technical perspective. Probably not. But what I wonder is, if Colombian Entrepreneurs are aware enough to NAVIGATE such ecosystem and make the most out of it – genuinely and strategically.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, I was born and raised by Endeavor. Great parents, I must say. Right now I’m entering the adulthood thanks to the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project and  Babson College where I am doing my MBA (which included a summer sabbatical at iNNpulsa Colombia, the National Agency for Innovation and Dynamic Entrepreneurship in Colombia). And because I have been a lucky apprentice around those who are trying to figure out how to stimulate a strong entrepreneurship ecosystem for Colombia, I would like to offer you Entrepreneurs some advice on the role that you are encouraged to play in such a booming ecosystem.

 Make sure you understand YOU are the center of the model

All the institutions and policies around the topic of entrepreneurship exist for a reason: to make sure more and better High Growth Entrepreneurs scale to a point where  - apart from fulfilling their personal dreams - the entrepreneur’s companies  move the needle of the economy in terms of economic capital (jobs, contribution to GDP), intellectual capital (innovative solutions, patents), cultural capital (powerful narratives, role modeling), among many other societal benefits. So, YOU, Mrs/Mr Entrepreneur, please remember that you are the end consumer, the ultimate beneficiary of the system. Live your role. Claim your place. Often I see Entrepreneurs rather “intimidated” by the organizations that support entrepreneurship, scared of knocking doors or full of paradigms about how those catalyzing institutions work. Rescuing an amazing quote from Wences Casares, an Endeavor Global Entrepreneur, he said that “Theory is when nothing works & we know exactly why, practice is when everything works & we have no clue why”. You Entrepreneurs are the practice, you are the living proof of what works and what doesn’t, and while the best thought leaders in the ecosystem have been entrepreneurs and/or investors, is it you, Mrs/Mr Entrepreneur, who needs to expose yourself to the system so that it always remembers why it was established in first place. Don’t be concerned about  “fitting” in a movement that is precisely meant to understand and catalyze you.

Differentiate the “great” from the “not that great”

An ecosystem is an emerging structure, no matter how oxymoronic it sounds when we say that “we are working to build it”. It’s a living process where at times it’s very hard to answer the question weather if policy, programs or access to capital precede the existence of great entrepreneurs or viceversa. But the point that I try to make is that, because it’s an emerging system there are not “gates” to it and it’s hard to control who is in there and therefore, as an Entrepreneur you will be likely to find “great” and  “not that great” actors out there. Use your criteria and be wise. Not every program will be well thought. Not every “mentor” will act as a real a mentor. Not every capital offer will be “smart” for your business. And this advice is particularly relevant since some of the programs out there are extremely attractive because they are easily attainable or “free”, to the point that entrepreneurs feel tempted to just participate in whatever they find as a manifestation of the well known “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out). Set your priorities, look for strategic fits and be selective in terms of whom you work with.

Good things come with a price, so do the homework

Often I meet entrepreneurs that just do not want to do the homework. As H. Roark once said, "to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences".  Even if institutions in the ecosystem are doing a great job marketing who they are and how they operate (and in my opinion few of them even “babysit” entrepreneurs!) you must put in the hours to do what it takes to benefit from the system. And this goes from basic things such as following the relevant social media channels of institutions to be informed of opportunities, over doing quality applications that really do reflect the reality and plans of your company, over networking to make sure you really understand what the ecosystem as a whole has to offer. You, Entrepreneurs, are thousands and the leading organizations are probably only tens, so there must be standard procedures in place for these organizations to interact with you and you need, if applicable, to commit to those. It is understandable that an Entrepreneur’s main responsibility is to “take care of her/his company” and that time is the one of the scarcest resources, that’s why the key is to a align with those organizations and programs that really fall into your own agenda, so that they become leverage points, rather than “extra random tasks” in your TO DO list. Be organized and proactive.

Help the ecosystem institutions be better

Here is the catch: Because our country is in diapers in terms of an entrepreneurship ecosystem, many of the institutions that foster entrepreneurship are also start-ups and scale-ups themselves. They might be under the umbrella of strong global brands or even under the government, but things are being “professionally figured out as they happen”, these institutions are pivoting too! That means that YOU, as the end consumer, play a key role offering candid feedback though formal and informal channels to those organizations on how to SERVE YOU better. It’s very easy to criticize when we are upset about the content of an event, or about the requirements or outcome of an application process, but it adds more value for all to come back and express what should -in your opinion- be different. Dare to do that, it’s one of the most important roles you can play.

  Give Back

Something that I admire particularly from the Entrepreneurs of Endeavor is their fierce commitment to “Give Back”. For them, giving back means belonging to a network where they play a role of a “member” rather than the sole role of a “receiver”, despite their clear condition of benefiter. Giving Back in a genuine attitude and manifests itself in many forms and moments. Here is an example. Few months back I was collecting data from entrepreneurs (applying a survey) that was very relevant for a research I was running for iNNpulsa Colombia: the few entrepreneurs that took 15 minutes of their time to answer my questions were giving back to the ecosystem. Yes, surveys are boring, but do you see the bigger picture of what could be accomplished by that and how this can benefit all of us? Giving Back could also be something way more rewarding such as mentoring/investing in a younger entrepreneur, or doing a public presentation telling your Entrepreneurial story to society. Don’t underestimate the power of your narratives, they might well be the only real driver of change an ecosystem has. At this point my message does not go towards what specifically to do to give back (this can be an interesting whole new reflection), but towards the importance of seeing your “residence” in a particular entrepreneurial ecosystem as a two-way process.

One of the things I loved about the last visit of iNNpulsa Colombia to the President of Colombia Juan ManuelSantos was the fact that they brought along Entrepreneurs, whose stories were actually in the spotlight of the meeting. To me, that sent a strong message, which is the same message I felt like passing through this post. You, Entrepreneurs, are the reason for this entire boom. This is about YOU, not about we, that talk about it.

If there is a moment to become and High Growth Entrepreneur in Colombia, it’s now. Dance with the ecosystem, be bold!

Disclaimer: Opinions presented are my own and do not represent the organizations that are named in this article.

Surviving change Vs. being the change

A short refection on this article
http://www.economist.com/node/21542796 ... warming up for my Strategies for Innovation & Growth Class, this saturday.

After reading the article, one "extreme" and probably naive reflection came to my mind:  surviving in a changing environment is all about forgetting "who you are" and simply ensuring that cash comes through the door. Let me explain what I mean.

I might have anchored too much in the example of how Fuji used its capabilities in chemicals for films, to move into the cosmetics space (but I'll still use it). From the technology point of view, the application of the antioxidant "technology" used in films to a skin care products makes a lot of sense. However (besides the technology we just talked about) - what do a  film making firm and a cosmetics firm have in common? 

Fuji's reaction to the imminent change is indeed impressive, however I see its merit around "staying live", rather than around re-shaping its industry or space. They simply created another business, being smart enough to leverage in an "inheritance" (call it cash, technology, or even a market). And by the way, this new business is not necessarily innovative, from a buyer perspective (despite the detailed features described) to me Astalift looks very similar to what Este Lauder, Clinique or any of those cosmetic companies offer). I am not trying to undermine the brilliance of Fuji. The stories I am trying to contrast is the one of "Fuji moving into new spaces because its space is dead" Vs. "Fuji/Kodak adding smart phone capabilities to their cameras". The first story is about substitution of revenue streams, the second is about real evolution or transformation of your industry.

Any thoughts?

Last July 18th of 2012 was the public launch of "Manizales Mas" ("Manizales Plus", in english), the first initiative of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Project in Colombia. 

As described in a recent article by Newswise, "the project will seek to enrich the city’s entrepreneurship ecosystem to support ambitious entrepreneurs in rapidly starting new ventures, while accelerating and scaling existing ones". Manizales is a city in central Colombia, capital of the Department of Caldas and part of the region of Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis.

Seeing the project becoming a reality was extremely special for me, not just because I am a Babson student from Colombia, but also because the project is one of the manifestations of how the understanding of what entrepreneurship really means is slowly changing. Four particular things called my attention during the launch ceremony:

• The "lingo" is changing: Before coming to Babson as a student, I used to work at Endeavor Colombia. The more I learned about the concept of High Impact Entrepreneurship thanks to my job, the more I was exposed to the difficulties that our national ecosystem faced to even understand the term. However, seeing local entrepreneurs, politicians and of course the local project leaders in Manizales giving speeches where expressions like "self-employment is not entrepreneurship" or "is all about sustainable growth" were used, made me positive about key actors now getting the difference between the diverse types of entrepreneurship and their completely different impacts in the economic development of our country.
• An example of team work: A quite impressive moment to me was seeing on stage all actors of the project  symbolically committing to the project, pasting "+" signs on the main project wall: there were private sector reps, university reps, government reps, among others.  Colombia has always been known as a very creative, enthusiastic and hardworking culture, but in my opinion collaboration hasn't necessarily been our strength, specially when  it comes to entrepreneurship development projects: there is lots of redundancy and thus, inefficiency. That's why seeing people focusing efforts on a winning project, together, gave me a lot of hope.
• The power of the regions:  There is the common say that "Colombia is a country of regions", however main entrepreneurship development efforts have been focused around the capital. Even if my home is half  "manizaleño" (being my husband from there and knowing through him the potential of the city), Manizales wouldn't be on my top of mind of cities where you would expect an entrepreneurial revolution to happen. But "Manizales Mas" is proving me wrong. The spotlight is now on Manizales and all Colombian regions have an eye on it to learn from this truly pioneering experience.
• An "Entrepreneur-centric" model: Despite the multiple players involved "Manizales Mas" is very emphatic about the entrepreneurs being the reason and main beneficiary of the project. I loved that. 

The platform is set, the citizens excited, the actors committed. Good luck to "Manizales Mas" and I look forward to witness and support a first in class bet in Colombia.

Rwandan Entrepreneurs of all kinds

And here I am, in Kigali, Rwanda in a very “comfy” leather couch in a coffee shop where there is fast enough to blog WIFI and - for the record - “the best ginger honey lemon” tea of the world.

Yes, I have been since last 24^th of May in Rwanda mainly living in the countryside in a small town called SAVE, in the south of the country.  I have tweeted a lot always using the hashtag #WLPRwanda2012, which is the Program though which I am here: the Babson Women’s Leadership Program.  Yet nor the Tweets neither the pictures I have managed to post of Facebook are enough to capture all what has been lived.  Luckily despite the technology, we humans will always have hearts and minds where all can be stored forever.

There are too many angles from which I could write about Rwanda, and hopefully I will. But being a Babson MBA student, of course I need to start with our DNA topic: ENTREPRENEURSHIP. Specially because just few minutes ago I finished a pleasant Sunday morning meeting with one of them, and get so motivated that remembered that I needed to blog.

Babson celebrates Entrepreneurs of ALL kinds and my short stay in Rwanda has been a playground to meet Entrepreneurs of all kinds. I want to introduce you some of them.

1. Alphonse, the evidence of the power of Corporate Entrepreneurship

I might be over-excited with the whole idea of Corporate Entrepreneurship as one of the most effective ways to create high impact ventures, just because I just started (my first ever!) independent academic research called: “Anatomy of the Colombian High Growth Entrepreneurs: making the case for Corporate Entrepreneurship”, supervised by Babson Professor Jay Rao. The research is inspired in the need of  Innpulsa Colombia, where I will be doing an internship in the second half of my 2012 summer.

But coming back to Alphonse, he is just one of the many cases we expect to find in my research. Alphonse (who is the father of the only Rwandan undergrad student at Babson!) worked for 15+ years in big organizations, being Heineken one of them. He has done Talent Management, Marketing and Corporate Development functions and now he is focusing in developing a conglomerate of Education/Career Development companies, as I see it! Partly with support of Babson he launched already a Business Language Institute in Rwanda, which he put into action right after a team of Babson students helped him with the Business Plan some years back. Heineken is being a true Anchor Firm for him, not only was Heineken his first client, but also they even gave him space in their premises to host the business. “I talked directly to the CEO and he loved the idea”, “I have the network” – are some of the aspects he shared with me and show the powerful role of Anchor firms.

Now Alphonse wants to move on with a Career Development firm, by the way totally in synergy with his current a Business Language Institute. We meet to see how I could help him developing the product and we do have a roadmap for that! I was too passionate since I am also passionate about Education and the opportunities in this space in countries as Rwanda and my own Colombia are infinite. The developed world has so many models that are just waiting to be adapted to our realities, and as Professor Isenberg says, many times is all about “minnovation”.

Me and Alphonse, in Kigali

2. Geraldine, First Rwandan Woman in the Supreme Court

Geraldine was the first Rwandan leader we met after we landed in Kigali. Ben, one of the country directors of the Babson Rwanda Entrepreneurship Center whispered to me after we sat in the table in Heaven Restaurant with Geraldine the following: “She is a very modest person, but she has an amazing story behind being the first Rwandan Woman making it to the Supreme Court”.

My lesson from Geraldine: Balance and family. Although you expected her to talk about all what it took her to make it to Harvard despite her humble origins, she was very emphatic sharing her conscious effort to be a “A” wife, “A” daughter and “A” mother. “I shower my kids, just to make sure every day there is nothing wrong in their bodies”  - she said. And her agenda does look like the one of someone that is even in town enough to do that, but she does. Another inspiring aspect is how she talked about her parents, even if not with her, everything she does is oriented to make them proud.

Me and Geraldine

3. Robin Smyth, The social Entrepreneur behind African Bagel Company

Robyn, a nurse by profession, and his husband moved from the USA to Rwanda with their 4 kids to drive social change. I can’t find a simpler way to describe it. She had her family had always been involved I social initiatives to support Africa but at some point they felt they could and needed to do more. After few visits before to Rwanda, they decided one day that they would stay for a longer period of time to see if they could adapt and establish there. And they indeed did adapt and establish. 

Roby founded the AFRICAN BAGEL COMPANY (ABC), that is “THE” place to go in Kigali if you want “American style” bakery goods, specially bagels, doughnuts, cakes, chips, sandwiches and all that goodies that seen “common” to us but a rare treat when you are an expat in Rwanda. You have to see how full this place was on saturday. Insane!

Well, but that's not the real success of ABC. Behind ABC there is an institute to train and empower Rwandan women in cooking and customer care - Rwandan hands are the ones that bake, package and sale the goods and they have found in this new activity a gateway out of poverty. It is still a relative small model in terms of the quantity of women supported, yet the more I am in Africa the more I realize the High Scale Change is an oxymoron. You start with a small community and then you replicate. And this is more and less how Robyn sees it happening. 

My lesson from Robyn: Impact is to be done in the ground and if you feel that the place where you are at is not close enough to that playground, you need to find ways to get closer, even if it implies leaving your whole life behind for a while. Understand first the people you are trying to help, only through doing that you will be able to support and empower them better. 

The Babson WLP Team with Robyn

Life is good. When you are around role models anywhere in the world, nothing can just go wrong.

Hope to have time to blog even often, since certainly the list of entrepreneurs to talk about goes on. For now, it’s time to pay for the delicious tea and go back to my students!

Let’s keep Social Media real: insights from a Social Media User

During the second “Global Connections Through Technology” (GCTT) class at Babson College, Professor Bala Iyer asked the provocative question: “What do you use social media for?” As a student sitting in his class, I answered that to me the use of Social Media was an extension of my purpose. This answer was in contrast to students’ answers such as “to stay in touch with friends”, “to obtain the latest news” or “to get exposed to potential employers”. My answer might seem pretty “philosophical” but represents what at least to me, matters most while interacting with someone on Social Networks.

I am not a Social Media expert (especially when it comes to the corporate sector). Despite the education I am receiving at Babson, my personal ambition is not to become a Social Media expert. I am though a heavy user of Social Media since the early days and I enjoy introducing friends and family members to the basics of the Social Media world.

With so much emphasis put nowadays into the role and “do’s and don’ts” of Social Networks, I am disappointed about Social Media turning into a space of unreal individuals. Here are some of my concerns:

“But, I do not know what to tweet!”


That’s what many people new to Twitter (as an example) tell me. My automatic reaction to this is that it’s not about what to tweet: it’s about what you are inspired by and ultimately, about who you are. Talking about your purpose on Social Media sounds like a scary and complex concept, but let me give you a real life example that proves it is not.

The mother of a good friend of mine is a housewife. She blogs and tweets about how “to make everything very special” – which also happens to be the name of her blog. The difference between her and any other user, is that she truly narrates stories on how she carefully selects each detail for each occasion in her home (a meal, a gift, a decoration, a medicine), what inspired her to do so, what her family thought, and in general, how she sees a value in making extraordinary things to unite her family.  
Her purpose is not to post heartless “meal recipes” or “craft instructions” which you could find in any website or magazine.

To unite her family. That is her purpose.  


When you are genuine about your purpose, a community starts to build around it. That’s how followers, contacts and friends arrive.

Social Media is an attitude, not a strategic plan


As much as I value the exercises that we are doing as part of the GCTT class on Personal Digital Presence, I believe that interest for Social Media is not something that you gain by stating it in a written plan, although it’s certainly a start.

Let’s assume the clarity on your purpose is checked. Is that enough? My answer to that is no. More than a plan you need to have the right attitude. When your mind and your fingers are ready to tweet, or to “pin” on Pinterest, or when paragraphs flow while writing a blog post without even thinking of steps and rules. You realize that you not only have the attitude but the habit of Social Media.

Everyday I un-follow and un-friend at least 1 person. The main reason is that those people created a profile, but never cared to share anything. Why follow a “dead” profile? I tell friends that they should not have a Social Media presence if they are not going to care of it.

Attitude for Social Media also means being open to embrace the implications of expressing your purpose, such as critiques on your opinions and loss of followers. When people stop following you on some networks should not always be seen as something negative, because it could be the best evidence that your audience is adjusting based on the topics you chose to share.

The risks of building an image of someone that you are not


Recently during a visit back home, I sat during an 1-hour bus ride next to a person that I know but that I had not seen for a very long time. I have been following him on Twitter and Facebook, so was not an issue to track what this person was up to.  As an icebreaker, I asked him to tell me more about an article he recently posted on Facebook about a topic that I also happen to be highly engaged with. “Oh yes, that article” – he said.  “I put many links out there, but I rarely read them myself”.

After hearing that, I totally lost my respect for this person.

I want to follow real people, not images of what they want others to see of them. Everything we share or support on Social Networks, should be a mirror of aspects that we are ready to discuss in person.

“Yes” to humanization of brands


My favorite brands on Social Media are those that while interacting with them feel as if I would be talking to a human. One unforgettable example that I have is Coca-Cola.
Last year when doing grocery shopping I discovered a new presentation of Coke on the shelf: a tiny, beautiful can, which I had never seen before and instantly captured my attention. Still in the grocery store I took a picture of it and uploaded it on Twitter, sharing how much I liked it. To my surprise, within minutes, CocaCola had already answered my Tweet, even mentioning my first name.

Evidence of my Coca-Cola Twitter conversation back in May 2011

What a different feeling is to get such a warm response versus getting “automated replies”. I am not intending to say that all companies must have thousands of human beings just dedicated to engaging with customers over Social Media, but in the spirit of “keeping Social Media real” brands should consider including elements that go from static self promotion into an ongoing conversation with clients. And yes, that has a real impact in their economic bottom-line. Coming back to my Coca Cola example, since the day our little Twitter interaction happened, I have NEVER asked for a Pepsi when Coke has been available. Since that day Coca Cola is MY FRIEND, not just a vendor.

As a user which engages with like-minded individuals and brands every day, I can’t stress more that what gives people and companies the edge on social media is keeping a real tone. Social Media is not a shop window, where only a one-way communication happens. Social Media is a playground where thoughts and feelings are exchanged and for that, authenticity is the key.

Perseverance: A picture is worth a thousand words

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One day (or a short refection on kindness)

"all my life I've been waiting for
I've been praying for
for the people to say
that we don't wanna fight no more
they'll be no more wars
and our children will play"

This song video by Matisyahu is everytwhere in the social networks. When I finally opened it (sometimes I am skeptical about the quality of the stuff that is overly shared on Facebook) I understood the reason for such hype. It's beautiful.

Where the heck do you learn to be kind? How the heck to you teach to be kind? How do you scale simple acts of kindness as the ones seen on the video into a higher level of reality? And actually, would our world be better if ...?