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Entrepreneurship in the International Community

Description:

Panel discusion –

With increasing globalization, there are compelling reasons why many people find themselves discovering and exploiting cross-border opportunities and collaborating with persons of other nationalities and different cultures. The need to become global has also ceased to be a discretionary option and has become a strategic imperative for virtually any medium-sized to large-scale corporation, if they are to survive in this era.

Presentation by Dr. Tita –
Process and management of this global expansion of mind-set and growth imperative.

Drawing largely from experiences during his tenure at the Private Sector Development Program of the United Nations, he will address the critical milestones of the journey of international entrepreneurship.

Presentation by Tom Ermolovich –
GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship and its College of Professional Studies are coordinating to launch a new online program that will have a global reach. His focus will be global entrepreneurship education.

Presentation by Jim Cook –
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN CHINA

Jim Cook is a retired entrepreneur who is currently a principal in the largest Intellectual Property case of this year, a $1.5 billion case. Jim entrepreneured in USA (and went public in 1982) and then in China at the turn of the millenium. In 1999, Jim went to China to start a Japanese financial web portal venture. The logic was, you couldn't get good programmers in Japan (they all worked for the majors). China seemed ideal: cheap, talented, language/culture close, and highly motivated! China turned out to be complex and, at times, extremely challenging. The entrepreneuring condition “on the ground” is radically different than the USA. Generational differences are profound: before vs. after the “door opened”. Relationship isn't just important, it's the collateral of action. No collateral, no action. Size matters! And, politics prevails. So, to get going there, as an outsider, you must master these additional dimensions.

Presentation by William Insaidoo –
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AFRICA

Although over 30 percent of the Sub-Saharan African population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, the sub region’s share in world trade of agricultural produce remains low. The sub- region continues to record very modest levels of exports of high-valued agricultural or agro-based products despite the dramatic changes and growth in the global demand for such products. Based on information brief from the UN-DESA, Mr. Brafu-Insaidoo presents a brief argument that it is possible to promote growth through the development of agro-based industries in Africa. In spite of the numerous challenges faced by the agricultural sector, some lessons can be drawn from successful experiences in Asia and Latin America for sustained growth and development. A special case of challenges and opportunities facing small and medium scale agro processing in Ghana is mentioned and discussed in the presentation.

Presentation by Errol James
Why Trigent Software has an Offshore IT Professional Services Delivery Model in Bangalore, India

 

 

Presenter Information:

William Tita

A faculty member in the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University, he is a visiting faculty member at Stellenbosch University Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, South Africa. Chairman of GMC-TIN which owns and operates www.g77tin.org and www.tradeinfonet.org , recognized as the electronic commerce portal of the G77's 133 member states.

Dr. Tita has been Program Manager and Chief Technical Advisor in the Private Sector Development Program of the U.N. Development Program and founder of IOCS-African Informatics, S.A., a Cameroonian software engineering firm and software reseller. He serves on several high-tech company boards. Dr. Tita has been recognized by the International Development Agencies, notably the World Bank, as a pioneer and expert in distance learning and eCommerce. He is also a Kent Fellow on Social Ethics from the School of Religion, University of Southern California where he completed his post-doctoral studies.

 

Jim Cook

Jim specializes in high leverage situations that capitalize on his technological, entrepreneurial, and managerial background. His originality, depth, and quality continually bring him in contact with members of World Class organizations such as MIT, Tsinghua University, Du Pont, and Motorola. His consulting projects generally run 6 to 24 months. His focus is on managerial processes to guide the implementation of technologically enabled Step Change and Game Change.

Consulting, mostly to Du Pont Nylon, on: Step Change in Production Process Improvement, Game Change Business and Technical Strategies, Demand Activated Production, and Resource Allocation. Other clients include American Express, AT&T, and Fiat. Consulted to them on Information Technology Strategies, Japanese Benchmarking, and Manufacturing Metrics, respectively.

At the MIT based firm, Pugh-Roberts Associates, led Management of Technology consulting projects on: Corporate Venture Processes (Motorola), Measuring R&D Performance (Bell Laboratories), Strategic Technology Planning (Dun & Bradstreet), and Leveraging Information Technology (ICI).

Consulting methods recognized in the Harvard Business Case "Step Change at Du Pont's Camden Plant," 1994, which is being taught at the Harvard Business School (available upon request). Cited by John Sculley in his book, Odyssey: From Pepsi to Apple, 1987, as inspiring his formulation of Second Wave versus Third Wave management paradigms (see table in the Chapter, "A Telephone Call").

 

William Insaidoo
University of Cape Coast,
Cape Coast, Ghana

A faculty member in the Department of Economics at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and a PhD Candidate at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, he is a one-time Visiting Research Scholar at the Research Department of the International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C., and an Assistant Economic Research Officer of the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Accra, Ghana.

 

Tom Ermolovich
Online Program Director for the School of Technological Entrepreneurship

Tom is Visiting Assistant Professor at Northeastern University. He is I-cubator Director for the School of Technological Entrepreneurship and Online Program Director for the College of Professional Studies where he is developing an online master’s program in technology commercialization.

Over 20+ years in high technology management. Five time VP of Engineering and company founder. Management specialty is entrepreneurship and new product development in start-up situations. Past companies include: Voice Signal Technologies, American Internet, Concord Communications, Cisco Systems and Digital Equipment.

Holder of 4 U.S. patents in the areas of software design for asymmetric multiprocessing and software design for wireless communication systems.

BSEE from Northeastern University and an MBA from Bentley College.

 

Errol James,
President of Trigent Software

Errol James has over 25 years of experience leading and growing IT
professional services and solutions organizations, as well as conducting
M&A transactions both in the U.S. and globally. He has been a Partner-in-Charge of Consulting for Deloitte Consulting, Managing Partner with CSC’s Consulting and Systems Integration Division, CEO of CSC’s Global Communications Industry Group and Principal with Strategic Ventures. He is currently President of Trigent Software.

Trigent Software is a young, entrepreneurial offshore consulting, professional services and solution firm with 20% of its front-end professional staff located in Boston, MA focused on North America prospects and clients. 80% of Trigent’s professional staff is located in Bangalore, India supporting offshore software development, integration, maintenance, support and outsourced activities.

Errol has a B.S. Degree in Accounting and an MBA

 

Video of the Panel Discussion

Note: This is video 1 of 13, please visit the Entrepreneurship in the International Community youTube playlist to see the rest in the series, or click on the icon in the viewer above to select other videos.

 

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