Virtual Expo & Trade Show —BIDEM Brawta

tRADE Show Banner

Join us for the BIDEM Brawta (Extra) Trade Show, Bazaar, Match Making and Networking Session.

Nov. 19, 2020 – 11:15 AM – 4:00 PM EST

Showcase your services, Traditional Knowledge, Creative Industries  & High Value Manufacturing Solutions!

Agripreneurs and healthcare service providers welcomed.

For you if you are looking for investors, partners and collaborators, to grow sales locally or domestically or just to keep you brand top of mind.

Mainstream entrepreneurs, Caribbean business leaders [local and in the diaspora] and entrepreneurs of African descent are welcome.

No wirefence, if you are in business and want to do business with Caribbeans, come over.

11:15 – 12:00 PM – Revenue Protection & Assurance

12:00 – 1:00 PM   –  Medical Trials, Sports and IP

1:00 – 2:00 Networking

3:00 – 4:00 Match Making

Registration form     

(Click the words Registration Form above)

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Copyright © 2020 by Meegan Scott, Magate Wildhorse Ltd .(Toronto), Magate Wildhorse Inc.,(New York). All rights reserved.

Views on News — Free Newsmaker Opportunity !

VIEWS on News Flyer

It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, that means Views on News is back!

Share your views and become a newsmaker.

You and your business that is!

Deadline: Monday, November 15, at 6:00 PM | Toronto, EST

Each year we partner with The Caribbean Camera to bring you this opportunity to share and promote your business during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

This year we present you with one radio and four opportunities for gettng published.

Seize this opportunity to represent your brand.

Who can submit?

  • Entrepreneurs with Caribbean Roots worldwide
  • Canadian entrepeneurs with our without Caribbean roots
  • Entrepreneurs without Caribbean roots but who want to do business with them
  • One lucky entrepreneur from anywhere in the world with no North American or Caribbean roots. Say hello Canada, have a chill to COVID-19.

Publication date  – Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020

How to participate:

Context

One hundred and eighty countries, including Canada, several in the Caribbean and its diasporic markets are celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2020. #Ecosystems and #Policy are among the themes of GEW 2020.  Ecosystems focuses on building connected and thriving entrepreneur communities.  Policy aims to recognize the work of government in helping entrepreneurs “start and scale”. It has been concluded that even with a COVID-19 vaccine the pandemic will be far from contained for 2021.  Therefore we cannot rely on economic forecasts for informing business decision making.

Question:

To what extent do you believe entrepreneurship can still deliver self-actualization and financial independence for SMEs in this era of COVID-19?

SMEs, small, medium-sized and micro-enterprises.

Instructions:

Thank you for submitting your response in 100- 150 words for Views on News. Eighty words will be fine but not more than 150.

Include your name, the name of your business, city and the country where your business is located.

Please include a headshot photo or portrait with attitude that is not cluttered (There may be nice background image but you, your face should be visible.

Type or copy and paste “Views on News Entry” in the subject line.

 

Submit your entry 

click words colour hand

I know some of you have been anxiously awaiting your question, six will be featured in Views on News in The Caribbean Camera.

A treasure hunt on Magate Wildhorse blog or LinkedIn page will lead you to the other media opportunities.

#IAmAnEntrepreneur

Conditions:

Each entrepreneur is limited to a maximum of two print and a radio opportunity only.

Depending on uptake you might be restricted to one during Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Copyright © 2020 by Meegan Scott, Magate Wildhorse Ltd .(Toronto), Magate Wildhorse Inc.,(New York). All rights reserved.

 

Calling all Recent Graduates ― Publishing Opportunity

Call for Papers recent graduates, publication opportu

Closing soon!  Last Call for Papers!

Who

Last 3 to current year graduates from community colleges, Baccalaureate Masters, and PhD programmes.

Graduated more than 3 years ago but interested?

If you’ve got a hot topic not explored or discussed adequately that relates to Caribbean and  Caribbean diaspora entrepreneurs, agri-preneurship, management, and performance management and measurement, trade finance, behaviour change marketing, corporate strategy planning, trade, creative industries, or management consulting, that is up to 5 years old then your are welcome to submit.

Besides the topics highlighted above we are interested in pieces that address entrepreneurship, and management that are by and or related to Caribbean Immigrant and diaspora entrepreneurs (all Caribbean diasporic markets), indigenous and founding nation Canadians, Black and non-native speakers of English entrepreneurs and consultants in North America, Africans in the diaspora and at home.

What

See Poster for topics.

The best 2000-3000 words of your thesis.

  • Business
  • International Trade
  • Trade Finance
  • Market Systems Development
  • Evaluation
  • Organizational assessments
  • Corporate Strategy
  • Private Sector Development
  • Marketing
  • Entrepreneurship

 Deadline: Midnight, Sunday, October 27, 2019

Submission Guideline:

http://ow.ly/Npyg30pKjOV

The Noësis: Double-Blind Peer Review Guidelines 2019

http://ow.ly/hTzz30pKjNF

About the publication

http://ow.ly/nWZl30pKjMb

Call for Papers —The Noësis: MWildhorse Strategy and Performance Magazine (2019)

The Noësis | November 2019, Fall Edition

#publishing #opportunity #lastcall #closingsoon #recentgraduates #thesis #The Noësis #CanadianBusinessMagazine #Magazine #Journal #hybridpublication #management #business #subjectmatterexperts #peerreviewed #doubleblind #greyliterature #CanadianCaribbean #Caribbean #Blackbusiness #immigrantbusiness #nonnativespeakersofEnglish #diasporaentrepreneurs

 

Cs of the Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs

collaboration, cooperation, curiousity, co-creation, creativity, curiosity, The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs

We decided to share the Cs of the CoP as presented on the Magate Wildhorse Facebook Page for readers not on Facebook―though you can access it whether or not you are signed into Facebook.

The CoP Challenge towards Greater Cooperation and Creativity

The nature and circumstances under which The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs (The CoP) came to be, and its unique opportunities and challenges― as well as that of its members, potential members, partners, and supporters requires that it operates back and forth along the collaboration to cooperation continuum.

In so do doing, it will be best able deliver its vision and mission ―given, its hybrid form, structure, and its ambitions, related to good, emergent, novel, and even best practices.

Within that structure, and substructures for working on individual projects, for projects members will partner to deliver, for CoP and partner projects we expect to move to the C of creativity. But collaboration will be another big C for long time until the targeted beneficiaries of the CoP have overcome some of the barriers and challenges that it aims to overcome.

Some best practices and coordination will be involved as we organize, plan, and deliver structured components of our programme.

We look forward to endless curiosity from members and in particular members in the core and shaper categories.

Lessons from Jarche and the different blend of The CoP given, its unique hybrid of a Community of Practice.

Meegan Scott

Source: Magate Wildhorse Facebook, November 30, 2018
https://goo.gl/BSi1Cv

 

Stakeholder Invitation: Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs, & Professional Service Providers― with Caribbean Roots

focus group, the community of practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs

 

You are invited to participate in a focus group consultation with The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs.

Deadline extended

Registration has been extended to January 20, 2019

Dates: December 15-31, 2018

Time:  10:00 am – 11: 30: am | 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm | 2:00 pm – 3: 3:30 pm    | 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm | 4:00 am – 5: 30 am

Time Commitment: 45 mins to 1 ½ hours

Location: To be provided by Email upon receipt of R.S.V.P.

Participation: Europe, Asia, Africa, Caribbean, North America, Pacific

Purpose: The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs aims to connect entrepreneurs, consultants, and providers of professional services (solopreneurs, individual consultants, and businesses with 2 or more members of staff) to a connected diasporic market, learning, networks, networking, financing, and opportunities to co-create and gain mastery of business know-how.

The goal is to create that safe space for meeting of minds, markets, resource sharing, research, learning, support, knowledge transfer, building of social capital, collaboration, cooperation, and creativity for accelerating the growth of Caribbean immigrant entrepreneurs. Two-way learning and growth between diaspora and home countries and increased member capacity to create jobs for Caribbeans by Caribbeans are also among the expect results of The CoP.

You know what you need most? You know what exist in your neck of the woods. You also know what is missing most, and what you would most love to see changed.  In addition, we would be delighted to have your contribution to shaping a CoP initiative that is currently in its infancy.

By participating in this focus group consultation, you’re helping to shape The CoP. But more than that you are helping to improve and ensure its relevance and offer.  The information that you share will serve to help our people to succeed in creating a more inclusive entrepreneurship space for themselves. You are also helping to create a more supporting environment for your business, and most of all you are helping peoples of the Caribbean and their peers to benefit from their right to economic freedom. Your host country will also be rewarded by your role in helping your immigrants who share your roots to make a bigger and better contribution to their societies.  You’ll also find out who are the members of The CoP Steering Committee.

The CoP presents an opportunity to demonstrate our symbols of freedom; and ability to attain social and economic progress in large numbers―across vast geographic areas. Our ability to contribute to home and host countries, as well as to share that with non-Caribbean members such as African-Americans, Africans at home and in the diaspora, Canadians with no history of family business, and immigrant entrepreneurs who are not native speakers of English. It presents a terrific opportunity to overcome the barriers of “foreignness”, lack of entrepreneurial experience, and more.

Confidentiality: Please note that your name and any identifying information you share with us will be kept confidential. Your responses will be summarized along with other responses and used collectively to help guide decision-making. No names or identifying information will be used when compiling this information.

Privacy: Your contact information will not be shared with third-parties, nor will it be used for sharing marketing or other CoP related information. 

Participation in the stakeholder engagements are by invitation only. Please indicate your interest in order to receive an invitation, if selected to participate. Please R.S.V.P. by December 18th  to participate in a  meeting between December 15th and 20th, or to coordinate attendance by a designee, by contacting Meegan Scott at magatewildhorse@gmail.com or by calling 1(647) 854-5323.

Thank you in advance for including your full name, Email contact, business or services offered, country of your Caribbean roots, as well as the city and country in which you currently live. Links to company or professional web sites are also welcome.

 collaboration, cooperation, curiousity, co-creation, creativity, curiosity, The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant EntrepreneursAbout The CoP

The CoP aims to fertilize, strengthen, manipulate, and boost the entrepreneurial ecosystem from talent, through to markets, support, culture, finance, policy, and training. Very important, it will connect and boost social capital among Caribbeans at home and in the diaspora as well as within their extended networks. The CoP opportunity presents a chance for our entrepreneurs to develop mastery of entrepreneurial skills.

 CoP members have already begun to report benefits or payouts as we call it.

About the Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs with Caribbean Roots

Why bother with a CoP?

The Cs of the CoP

 What is Happening in the Caribbean Entrepreneurship Space & Commitment to The CoP.

Interview with Dr. K’adamawe K’Nife, (UWI, Mona Campus)

 Shared by: CoP Sponsor, & Secretariat, Magate Wildhorse Ltd

Thank you for sharing appropriately with your network!

 

CoP little Globe and Logo

The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs (CoP), is Not a STARTUP COMMUNITY

CoP not a Startup Com with Logo

By Meegan Scott

The CoP is not a startup community!

It is that safe place where trust is built, collaborations, cooperation, friendships, and partnerships are forged― in a market place and research hub for delivering dynamic and inclusive entrepreneurship for and by Caribbeans.  It is where Caribbean entrepreneurs and their businesses will draw on connections, knowledge, opportunities, and support to help them thrive and grow.

The same is true for members of the African community, immigrant entrepreneurs who are not native speakers of the English language, African-Americans, and Canadian entrepreneurs with no history of entrepreneurship in their families.

The CoP is that space were tacit and formal knowledge blends, and is transferred within the community among retired entrepreneurs, more seasoned, not so seasoned entrepreneurs, youth entrepreneurs (over 18 years old), young entrepreneurs (those over forty who are embarking on their first business), individuals who have or are approaching retirement and are starting their retirement business, as well as startup entrepreneurs over the age of eighteen years old.

Many who still do not quite understand technology as a method, tools, or equipment for executing strategy and tactics during operations, view the CoP as another Facebook group.

Let us take our governance related responsibilities seriously, and engage in needed research when steering organizations or seeking to influence public opinion. Let us make it a habit to step outside of the domain of our core areas of expertise and engage in research that will enable us to understand and to twin both risk intelligence and risk management for delivering real and lasting solutions. Leaders and entrepreneurs must engage in research that will inform decision making and put them and the organizations they serve in the position of innovators and first movers.

With its day-to-day work, connection, research, and market place housed on the Facebook social media platform the CoP is positioned to deliver relevant solutions that are inclusive in terms of access to information, markets, and networks as well as financial accessibility.

It is where families, friends, fellow alumni, social workers, politicians, members of the diaspora in different continents and others can stumble upon the CoP opportunity and bring it to the attention of one of our entrepreneurs, or a community member sitting on the fence of becoming an entrepreneur. It is where the real entrepreneur who constantly seek out knowledge will come across its existence and seize the opportunity to give and to receive.

The CoP is therefore in a perfect space as a solution that is relevant, effective, and inclusive as it relates to access, as well as for facilitating formal and informal learning on how-to do business for entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey ―from the retired to the startup.

Moreover, where social media and the CoP hub intersects is fertile ground for the kind of shared knowledge that is equivalent to social capital―a concept advanced by Harold Jarche’s framework for Personal Knowledge Mastery (PKM). The planned and desired unintended results of the CoP cannot be delivered by a regular Facebook Group (The ties of a regular Facebook group are too weak to deliver the objectives of the CoP.).

In keeping with the PKM model (And its’ seek, sense, and share approach), we say with confidence that the CoP provides a safe environment for testing innovative ideas, market research, and building trust (a challenge in our community, and a barrier to doing business).

Furthermore, the CoP is supported by a backbone for conducting virtual face-to-face meetings, market connections, team work, and conversations. This was demonstrated in the form of training events, its virtual launch, and the panel discussion “Born Global & Born-Again Global Businesses: Pathways to Internationalization (Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs & Peer Entrepreneurs), held during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2018. Additionally, the CoP will be supported by face-to-face meetups in various cities in OECD countries and wherever members of the diaspora reside. We invite community members who share the vision of the CoP to put themselves forward to lead a hub in their city.

At the next level the rich ecosystem of the CoP―intersects with work teams in individual businesses, core working committees of the CoP, supporting entities and partners such as JAMPRO, Jamaica National, The Centre for Entrepreneurship Thinking and Practice (UWI), and prospective host cities for delivering innovation and co-creation of value. It is at that intersection that knowledge is translated and put to work by individual businesses, partners, and the CoP.  At that intersection we will also see solutions to social problems, scaling-up of Caribbean businesses to mainstream businesses with that ethnic or local Caribbean flavor, job, intellectual property, and wealth creation. It is also where the job of Caribbean and host country trade and business support agencies will become easier and can focus resources at a higher level on the value chain, and on the results chain.

That intersection is also where shared practice and reputation flows back from work teams, individual businesses, and entrepreneurs into the Community of Practice for the benefit of all. The CoP and its stakeholders will be able to assess how well shared practice is working and delivering impact, or to make suggestions for improvement by interrogating the CoP’s theory of change and performance results, in addition to member and partner testimony over time.

Even in its early days the CoP is backed by decades of experience in corporate strategy, organizational performance management and measurement, marketing, research, education, social and economic development, entrepreneur and private sector development, business incubation, ethnic media, finance, FDI and trade promotion. The core actors and shapers of the CoP are themselves serial entrepreneurs with experience establishing businesses in the diaspora. The door is open for others to join and contribute to leading the CoP.

The CoP aims to deliver shared visions, acts from a position of inclusiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.  It values and is grounded in the principles and practices applied by performance driven, learning organizations, that are designed to facilitate improvement, and acting together. Our work will be informed by rigorous research, and evidence. We are entrepreneurial in thinking, and we value and collect dissenting perspectives for driving the delivery of innovative solutions, innovation, and for putting forward a best solution that continuously gets better.

It is therefore clear that we are equipped with a rich talent pool, tools, different perspectives, and mindsets for growing a CoP that will manipulate the “foreign” or “local but unsuitable” entrepreneurial ecosystem to deliver our objectives (that of member businesses, entrepreneurs, partners, and the CoP) while adding value to society and customers. It is where we will develop greater mastery of entrepreneurship.

(Meegan Scott, B.Sc. Hons, MBA, ATM-B, CL, PMP., is a Jamaican-born Strategic Management Consultant, at Magate Wildhorse Ltd in Toronto, and the CoP Secretariat).

Born Global & Born-Again Global Businesses:Pathways to Internationalization, Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs & Peer Entrepreneurs

Panel Title: Born Global & Born-Again Global Businesses: Pathways to Internationalization: Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs & Peer Entrepreneurs

Organizer: Meegan Scott & Magate Wildhorse Ltd on behalf of The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Moderator: Meegan Scott, Magate Wildhorse Ltd
Panelists:
• Loretta Green-Williams, Caribeme Magazine
• Marguerite Orane, Free & Laughing
• Marva Hewitt, Food Hygiene Bureau
• Tamu Petra Browne, Innovative Education and Training Solutions
• Lester de Souza, Impact Galaxy


A Global Entrepreneurships Week (GEW 2018) Event!

Held: November 13, 2018

Findings from Panel Discussions

Born Global Panel Report Final

This the first public event hosted by The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs.

All partner including South Florida

Why Bother with a CoP for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs?

To start, I have two questions for you.

  1. Do you believe that the Windrush scandal would have happened if the Caribbean immigrant population was a high demand and preferred demographic at the business or hiring table?
  2. Do you believe the high rates of deportation of individuals of Caribbean heritage from North America  and Europe would be happening if we had managed to change our social and economic results?

Why bother CoP the community of practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs Whys and Wherefores CoP rationale, purpose of the Community of Practice

  • The need to improve the social and economic outcomes of Caribbean immigrant entrepreneurs & the community in all Diasporic markets.
  • The need to close the entrepreneurial experience gap between Caribbean immigrant entrepreneurs and their counterparts in OECD and other Diasporic Markets.
  • The need to better leverage the Diaspora for growing strong businesses, that solve big problems, create jobs, and grow wealth for entrepreneurs, families, the Caribbean Community, host, and home countries.

problems faced by Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs problems challenges the CoP Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs seek to solve

  1. The gap in entrepreneurial experience between Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs and their counterparts in OECD and other diasporic markets.
  2. Sparse markets and networks for supporting growth of sales and scaling in local and foreign markets
  3. Insufficient literature on the practice, pathways, and processes of Caribbean entrepreneurship, and the culture of Caribbean entrepreneurs in the Diaspora and at home
  4. The need for more High Performing Caribbean businesses. That includes moving Caribbean Immigrant businesses beyond the micro and small business categories with incomes less than $500,000 per annum
  5. The need to increase the attractiveness, desirability, and feasibility of entrepreneurship among Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs (The Immigrant and Caribbeans at home).  And in particular, the English-Speaking Immigrant who is “least likely” to start and grow a business in OECD countries
  6. Lack of experience in building business networks
  7. Difficulty and lack of access to community and traditional financing for businesses
  8. Challenges associated with “foreignness’”, lack of confidence, and the perception of the colour of entrepreneurship (especially as it relates to high value services and other intangibles)
  9. The missing presence of the Caribbean immigrant entrepreneur in all our ethnic blends and diversity (The need to promote and tell our stories as entrepreneurs, the how of telling those stories)
  10. The need for an accessible vibrant and connected Caribbean Diasporic Market Place
  11. The need to speak the language of our roots and markets we want to serve
  12. The need to build entrepreneur capacity in business
  13. The need for mentors, as well as to close the entrepreneurship experience gap through active learning, knowledge, skills and resource exchange
  14. The need to create more jobs for Caribbean immigrants within our communities and to catapult Caribbean immigrants into the high demand, high income/ high earning potential demographics (Making the Caribbean immigrant a preferred demographic)
  15. The need to improve the social and economic outcomes of Caribbean immigrants and their contribution to their adopted homes and home countries.
  16. The need for rigorous quantitative and qualitative research for delivering relevant solutions for our entrepreneurs as well as for serving markets (A real market research hub for entrepreneurs, supporters, and facilitators of Caribbean entrepreneurship)
  17. The need for an affordable, accessible space for creating the change we want to see through our own commitment and actions. The need for more symbols of the practice of freedom, independence, and power of our people and communities to chart our own destiny.

But how are we going to do all this?

To find out,  join us for Whys and Wherefores of the Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs in your own time.  Get the whys, rational, and how. Share in the ongoing discussion.

The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs is owned by its members. Join it! Own it! Benefit without spending a penny on member subscription.

For immigrant entrepreneurs with Caribbean roots, researchers, and Caribbean immigrant and entrepreneur support organizations. Find out about the 5 member seats for Caribbeans in the Caribbean— only 2 still available.

Join your CoP and be a part of the change you want to see.
Click here to join.

CoP Whys and Wherefores cover

Find out how you or your organization can become a CoP partner or member.

Click  contact us to send schedule a meeting, or to ask your question.

Magate Wildhorse Ltd.
CoP initiator and coordinator.
Businesses can set social change in motion!

The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs

community of practice for Caribbean entrepreneurs, High performance Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Worldwide Caribbean Diaspora Markets

The Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs (CoP) is not a regular Facebook Group. Our day-to-day meeting hub is housed on the platform of a Facebook Group.  And that serves our purposes perfectly for a number of reasons that you will experience for yourself when you join the CoP.

The CoP, also known as the High-Performance Immigrant Entrepreneurs’ Ring is a knowledge sharing, market, and research hub. At the core of the CoP are relationships of trust, information sharing, active research, dissemination of research findings, bridges to markets, creation of new market spaces, promotion of entrepreneurs and their stories for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs with Caribbean Roots in all of the Region’s Diaspora Markets.

It is a coming together for learning, sharing, collaborating, selling, knowledge building, resource mobilization, and skills share in the area of Caribbean Entrepreneurship and success strategies for our immigrant entrepreneurs.  Among the outcomes of the CoP are improved financial results and growth of member networks (As we help each other to become more competitive in foreign markets), increased levels of robust, and realistic market research among members. But those are just some of the outcomes that we will deliver.

At a higher level we will increase research on the pathways, and processes for growing successful Caribbean Immigrant businesses in host countries in Europe, North America, The Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa.

The Caribbean entrepreneurial experience will be boosted; and the levels of trust and collaboration among members, researchers, and other support partners will certainly help us to growth our businesses within our communities worldwide. All other groups have relied on their communities to grow their businesses and it is time for us to catch up.

While you are encouraged to promote your business and services in the CoP, participation in discussions, research, workshops, and sharing of advice and tips are a must for maintaining your membership in the group. Give generously and receive generously.

We have been building models of business growth, and for strengthening the capacities of our entrepreneurs on the findings of research done for other communities with more entrepreneurial experience than us. It is time to change that to generate insights needed to develop right solutions for us.  The CoP is open to new members, partners, and leadership team members.

Coming this September, CoP Strategy Update planning meeting, join now to have your say.

Get on board to create the change you want to benefit from today!

See the CoP Brochure for additional details at: CoP HICEP Brochure Sept 2018.v.2

Click the link to Join the CoP at: Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs .

Resources

Benefitting from a Community of Practice for Caribbean Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Who is the Young Caribbean Entrepreneur in 2018

Conversational Language Push Starts

Invitation to Share Your Immigrant or Caribbean Diaspora Entrepreneur Story

Online Language Volunteers

 

 

Benefitting from a Community of Practice

The Equalizing Community of Practice Has Arrived!

Recent studies show that the Caribbean immigrant in Canada and other OECD countries are among the least likely to start and grow a business. Many Caribbean immigrant businesses fall in the micro business category with incomes well below US $500,000 per annum.

On the other hand, immigrants from Europe and Asia form and grow businesses at a rate that leaves a huge gap between them and their Caribbean counterparts. Ironically, the Caribbean immigrant is more likely be a lower income earner who is underemployed or serving in a precarious job, irrespective of qualifications. Besides paying the bills there is a serious risk to the financial freedom and economic wellbeing of current and future generations of Caribbean immigrants.

But does it have to be this way?

I doubt that I am alone in thinking— absolutely not!

The social, economic, and ideological factors that were relevant in causing the belief that entrepreneurship was undesirable or impractical for the Caribbean immigrant has been dead for at least two decades. But like the proverbial frog the community did not feel the water change temperature and now we are almost cooked. This situation is one of those rare cases when “urgent” is “important”.

Entrepreneurship experience, knowledge and big business success are needed in order to make entrepreneurship which is vital to our survival desirable, financially viable and feasible. A community of practice (CoP) provides the perfect opportunity for coming together to tackle and solve the problem of missing high-performance businesses by Caribbean immigrants in Canada and the wider Caribbean diaspora.

A CoP is made up of individuals with a vested interest in a subject who engage in joint activities, share information, stories, discussion, and approaches in order to help each other while developing and gather best practices. The level of trust and quality of relationships that exist among members is of great importance to them. It is one of the factors that distinguishes a CoP from other social networks.

Being able to learn from each other through frequent and rich interactions is key to the effectiveness of a CoP (Dialogue and engagement is essential, it does not work like one of those Facebook Group where many members merely join but do not share and engage with each other). Good old fashion social skills beliefs and behaviours are essential if a CoP is to deliver impact. By impact we mean the desired change and results for having come together for solving the problem in the first place.

When you join a CoP pretend you have entered someone’s home or a social gathering to share and exchange (There must be greetings, questions, conversation and a commitment to sharing and learning whether meetings occur in a Facebook Group, a hotel meeting room or web site.). Shared interest and a willingness to share for helping each other is at the heart of a CoP. It could not be any other way since the purpose of the CoP in not just about social networking, it is about problem solving.

Among the outcomes of a CoP are a collection of shared stories, experiences, tools, resources and knowledge collaterals for solving challenges that are common and likely to happen again.

CoPs have been used for facilitating innovative learning in various fields including health care, knowledge management and ICT as well as by professional groups. It is now being applied to entrepreneurship.

The High-Performance Caribbean Entrepreneur’s Ring has been established for facilitating the kind of sharing, gap assessment, networks, markets and problem solving for ensuring Caribbean immigrants can be among the groups with the highest rates of starting and growing successful businesses.

It provides the perfect opportunity for research, action learning and discussions for generating needed knowledge and experience.

The solutions shared and provided by a CoP of Caribbean entrepreneur in diaspora markets who are concerned and passionate about growing successful businesses will deliver significant value while increasing the viability and desirability of owing a business.

Entrepreneurs and their families are not the only ones who will benefit from such a CoP, cities will benefit from economic growth and more rapid assimilation of immigrants. The Caribbean community at home and aboard will benefit from improved levels of economic wellbeing, financial freedom and the acquisition of productive assets. The reputation of the community will be enhanced and like other immigrant groups the culture of Caribbean entrepreneurship abroad will be distinct, rich and a source of pride. What’s more it can ensure inclusiveness in the representation of Caribbean immigrants not only in terms of ethnicity but also by race.

The majority of Caribbean immigrants speak English, are highly educated or skilled and possess significant cultural assets that can be developed into profitable solutions. They come with the grit necessary for excelling on the journey of entrepreneurship, and most are entrepreneurial.

Given, those attributes and the imminent threat associated with depending on a job for making a livelihood the time for growing more high-performing businesses is now. The need for a CoP was urgent and important a decade ago and more so today.

While we must not trivialize the need for — cash from ready jobs for paying the bills and for assisting families at home, like other groups we should also view it as a source of investment into starting a business. One Caribbean-Canadian financial expert highlighted our emphasis on the acquisition of non-productive assets for communicating image related messages and needs as a major handicap.

He attributes that condition to the legacy of slavery, but it is time to unshackle ourselves. If the Caribbean immigrant is to be a part of an inclusive landscape for entrepreneurship in Canada or elsewhere we have to play a role in making that happen. We cannot expect Cities and other government departments to do it all for us. Like other immigrant groups we must take the bull by the horn to make it happen for us in a manner that is relevant to our situation and which draws on our different capabilities (As well as our wants, needs, aspirations, preferences and obstacles).

We shouldn’t blame anyone for the once valid buy-in to the idea of “a solid education is a ticket to a great job and wealth”. That idea was relevant and applicable to many groups and nations worldwide, today a solid education is still necessary but is does not bar against poverty. Many who got that solid education along with some who ventured into business lacked the social network and social capital for opening the right doors that would help them to benefit from their education, expertise or business activities.

Coming together as a diaspora increases the diversity of human and financial capital (monies earned through supporting our markets) that is key to growing an entrepreneurial community. Capital has been a big hindrance to the Caribbean immigrant who is often more than three times more likely to be denied a loan for financing a business.

A CoP such as the High-Performance Caribbean Entrepreneur’s Ring can provide the essential network, markets and accelerated learning for helping us to grow bigger and stronger businesses.

The Equalizing Community of Practice Has Arrived!

Let’s do it! Share, research, learn and grow high performing Caribbean businesses in Canada and the diaspora.

By Meegan Scott

 

 

 

Copyright © 2018 Meegan Scott
All Rights Reserved