Day 29: Just Say “No”… to Business

Today, I had an interesting discussion with one of the members of the cooperative. He came to me and said that he had decided that he didn’t want to be a businessman. He mentioned to me how the whole process of writing a business plan was too complex for the local market and that he is more passionate about working directly with the former gang members in a non-profit setting.

The first thing I did was to let him know that I feel quite strongly that everyone should pursue what he/she is passionate about and that I was glad that he had decided to pursue his passions. It is wonderful that he has decided this now instead of six months from now. That being said, I am afraid that he is using this as an excuse to return to his comfort zone, in which he frankly is not really doing a whole lot of good for the target group that he is so passionate about. Unfortunately, my friend has a tendency to zigzag around depending on his short-lived interests. This is further exasperated by the fact that the organization with which he works has no vision or strategy and he really has limited experience handling money. I shared with my friend the reality that any organization, whether for profit or non-profit, should go through a process of self-definition. Although in theory he understands the value, he does not seem disciplined enough to go through the entire process. Thankfully, most of his peers see the value in going through the business plan process and are diligently moving forward.

I can already see what is going to happen in the future and it makes me sad for my friend. He has a lot of potential but still lacks a lot of discipline and drive. It is comforting to know that he has taken to heart some of the concepts that I have shared with the team since my arrival, but I wish I could do more to help him.


Joel Montgomery

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Day 28: High Definition

At 7:45am, Leonel the taxi driver gave a honk in front of the house to let me know that he had arrived. I grabbed my bag and jumped in the backseat. We sped through the city streets this early Sunday morning, whizzing past bottlenecks that usually deterred us during the week. Upon arriving at work, a man quickly tried to grab my backpack, but thankfully it was only Javier. We yelled in the building to wake up the guard so he would let us in. As we arrived in our office, we realized that there was no electricity. You never know what will happen in a developing country. Slowly all the members of the team arrived and we began our meeting. The main reason why I had wanted to meet was so we could further define what the purpose of the new cooperative would be. During Friday’s meeting at the Association of Honduran Maquilas, the team had given the impression that the cooperative was a single company and I found this to be contrary to many of the plans that we had put in place, so there was obviously still some confusion. Although there were some intense moments of discussion, everyone felt better after we finished, as the road forward was much clearer.

After the meeting, we continued to work in the individual businesses over lunch. We all sat at separate tables and people would come up to me to ask questions about doubts they had about the business plan process. Probably one of the most exciting moments happened as I was listening to the discussion at one of the nearby tables. One of the staunchest critics to the business plan process was suddenly telling a new member of the team how important it was for him to create a business plan for his company. For me, that one sentence reinforced the fact that I was getting through to the team. I will certainly walk away from this experience having learned a lot from the team, but I am thankful that they, too, have learned a lot from me.


Joel Montgomery

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Day 25: Socially Oriented Graphic Arts

Today, I had a lunch meeting with Espectro Ganzua, the socially oriented graphic arts company. We made some major breakthroughs in terms of further defining their strategy. One of the ideas that came out of the meeting was the concept of offering a service to clients in order to measure the true need of a social campaign. Most companies have market research down, but they don’t know where to begin when conducting a social campaign. Is the message that they are trying to communicate really necessary? Does the public already understand all or part of the message? By offering this service, Espectro Ganzua would be able to partner with sociologists to actually measure these types of questions within the community, thereby enabling the client to make a more informed decision all the while helping the creative team to refine the campaign to the realities of the market. Certainly the idea needs to be explored directly with potential clients, but I like how the group is starting to think outside the box.

The other major area that we discussed in our meeting was the difficulty of forecasting numbers. I suggested that they break up their projected growth into phases and estimate how many clients, workers, equipment, etc. they would need to enter each phase. They could then use this information to fill in the gaps from where they are currently and ultimately put a time frame around each growth phase. The team is moving along and I am hopeful that the hard work they are putting into the business plan process will produce fruit.


Joel Montgomery

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Day 22: Starting the Week in Style

Every morning, I have an arrangement with a taxi driver to pick me and take me to work. The curious thing is that I believe he is the only Honduran who ever arrives early. I woke up this morning at the usual time, took a shower and just as I was pouring my cereal, the phone rang, to indicate that Leonel, the taxi driver, had arrived… 15 minutes early at that. I scarfed my food down and grabbed a bottle of homemade juice from the small refrigerator in my room and ran out the door.

When I arrived at work, I tried to open the bottle of juice, but it was under an extreme amount of pressure. As I slowly twisted the top, I thought to myself, “This is some strange type of juice.” Having finally opened the bottle, I gave a sniff and wasn’t sure if it was still good or not. I figured that my friends would have a better nose for the smell of local juices, so I asked Jovel and Javier to smell the golden liquid. Both agreed that it was fine, so with that I sat down to work with the strange concoction by my side. After quite a few sips of the pineapple liquid, Javier came by and said, “You know that it is alcoholic, right?” Here I was, Monday morning, drinking a homemade Honduran wine without having the slightest idea that it was alcoholic.

Later in the day, I met with both Espectro Ganzua (Graphic Design) and Centro America Consulting regarding the progress of their business plans. It is incredibly satisfying to see the teams struggling through the process of refining their ideas and putting their strategies together on paper. The step-by-step guide that I am developing to help the teams through the business plan process is proving to be quite useful as it gives them a point of reference as to where they are and how all the pieces fit together. I have also developed an Excel worksheet that helps the teams through the process of building the financial aspect of their business. This is the area where people seem to need the most help.


Joel Montgomery

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