Haiti: Day 4
As with every morning so far, I started the day with a run in Petionville on the streets near our hotel. I have been trying to recruit more of the team to run and had three commits as of last night, but the morning came and only Rory was ready. On our run, we passed three girls that were holding hands on their way to school. They appeared to be sisters and it made me smile as I thought about my little girls at home. I sure do miss them right now and I can't wait to see them in a few days.
After the run, we showered and headed down for our usual breakfast at the hotel where we ate together and continued discussing yesterday's meetings. We are all impressed with the passion the entrepreneurs have and really the passion of Haitians in general. Seeing the entrepreneurs dreaming big and pursuing these dreams makes me so happy! Our lovely hosts, Isabelle and Lynn, arrived and we headed down to Port Au Prince for a full day of work.
On the way to our first meeting, we stopped at Rebo, which is the local Haitian coffee shop. After learning last night about locally grown and roasted coffee in Haiti, I was eager to enjoy this espresso with a different mindset. Drinking coffee in Haiti is the first time I have experienced this type of local experience. We only have locally roasted coffee in the US since the bean is not actually grown there, but in Haiti we get to enjoy the full local experience from tree to cup.
The next stop was Collibel Sandals. This business was started by Felder, the winner of last years business plan competition where Haitian entrepreneurs work with Notre Dame MBAs to develop their business plan. This takes place with a social innovation class during module four of the MBA curriculum. At the end of the module, the entrepreneurs pitch their idea via video and then key stakeholders at Notre Dame and in Haiti vote. Felder won last year and used the winnings to open up a store in order to increase sales. Visiting his sandal factory was amazing.
We entered Collibel's rented space in the back of a warehouse and were immediately greeted by Felder with a big smile. All of his sandals are handmade and he walked us through each part of the process. He shared with us some growing pains that he has experienced and what they have done to solve them. He shared a story of their trouble sewing, which was having an impact on quality. They started out hand sewing, but the quality was not good enough. Next, they purchased a sewing machine, but it was moving too fast for them. As a result of these troubles, Felder took a class on sewing and then trained his employees to further their knowledge and the stitching is now impeccable. Felder has also transitioned to more of an assembly line system and he has increased his production capacity to about two dozen per day. This number might seem small, but it's actually huge given their limited resources. Through further conversation, Felder shared information about his other businesses, plans for scaling Collibel, and his continued social impact in the community. He also asked us a few business questions and we took this opportunity to provide him with some valuable feedback. Felder is an inspiration to the local community and I look forward to the continued growth and impact his businesses will have.
We returned to the EGI office and ordered some more local cuisine at a cafeteria attached to the hardware store next to the office. While we waited for our food to be ready, it was time to work on a presentation for social entrepreneurship. We split into three groups to tackle certain categories: Definition of Social Entrepreneurship, Examples of Social Businesses, and Group Ideas for Potential Haitian Enterprises. In the middle of this work, we had an unexpected visit from one of the entrepreneurs, Coqmard, and we decided to hear his presentation and give feedback as one big group instead of two.
His idea is very unique and he is extremely passionate about it. He has been trying to get an internship at another company in this field, but it is very challenging in Haiti because of the fear that you will steal their idea. This has presented an interesting dilemma when it comes to raising money to start his business. On an off chance, I have a couple of close contacts in the US that run similar businesses and he is very interested to know if they would allow him to intern for two months over the summer. Based on the industry, I would not see any problem with them helping Coqmard out. This internship is crucial to him because he is looking for a lot of funding and he will need to have experience for anybody to fund even a portion of his requested amount. Our feedback for Coqmard was to consider starting slightly smaller in order to have some skin in the game and to start building his reputation in the industry. Then, he can scale according to his plan. I hope that my contacts will work out and I look forward to seeing him in the US.
We ended the meeting and headed out to eat our lunch. Rory and I have really been enjoying the Haitian Pikliz. Coqmard taught Rory and I how to ask for more pikliz in Creole and Rory nailed it! The result was a lot of laughs at the table and some extra pikliz. It was a win-win.
The day wrapped up back at the office where we discussed Coqmard's idea as a large group and prepared for the next day.
Our productive day was rewarded with a dinner at Haiku, an upscale sushi restaurant not too far from our hotel. The food was amazing and the service was great. We all got a few different sashimi, nigiri, and rolls to split amongst the group. Due to the great service, this was our quickest meal of the week and we headed back to the hotel for some team bonding.
We all went to our rooms for a quick change of clothes and then gathered around a large table downstairs to play a few rounds of bananagrams. Since we do not need to be up so early the tomorrow, we played a little later than normal and enjoyed lots of laughs and a few local cold beverages.
One by one we all disappeared to our rooms and turned in for the night. The learning each day has been an incredible experience and makes me even more excited for the next day to come.
- Jeremy L Forbes