Steve Mariotti, Kaizen interviewee and founder of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), wrote about his experiences with young entrepreneurs at the Bright China Entrepreneurial Spirit Award (BESA) ceremony. “…These young people would most likely end up as low-income workers in factories. Through the NFTE/Bright China program, they were inspired to start their own businesses,” Mariotti said.
Chan Luu is CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles. Her designs are now carried by stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Banana Republic, as well as in high-end stores in London and Japan. We met with Chan Luu in L.A. to discuss entrepreneurship in the design business, how she combines creativity with bottom-line thinking, and the challenges of maintaining a successful enterprise in the fashion world.
Luu: It has been happening for a long time and, of course, it’s always exciting.
Kaizen: But your story starts in Vietnam, where you were born. Where in Vietnam did you grow up?
Luu: I was born and raised in South Vietnam, in Nha Trang. I don’t know if you know that town. It’s more toward the center. It’s a seaside town, very beautiful. I was born and raised there. But mom and dad had business in Saigon, so I did go back and forth.
Wired Magazine interviews author Robert Neuwirth on black market entrepreneurs. The underground economy, Neuwirth says, is the second-largest economy on Earth (after the U.S.) and is a major source of innovation.
In our latest issue ofKaizen we feature an interview with Chan Luu, CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles.
Also featured in Kaizen are: student essay contest winners Farzaneh Farhangi, Kelly Foster, and Rebecca Robinson; Extreme Entrepreneurship Day; filmmaker Jeffrey Van Davis‘s discussion panel for his film Only A God Can Save Us; and guest speakers Douglas Den Uyl, who visited us from Indianapolis, and Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, who visited us from Argentina.
A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Ms. Chan Luu.
If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.
Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s Executive Director, talks with Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, co-founders of Bases Foundation, on the political and economic climate in Argentina.
The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship welcomes Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano to Rockford College this Thursday, October 13, from 11 am to 12:15 pm, in Scarborough 208. Fernández and Sarano will give a joint lecture entitled “Doing Business in Argentina: The current business climate and the ethical dilemmas it presents to entrepreneurs and corporations.”
Federico N. Fernández and Martin Sarano are the co-founders of Bases Foundation, a non-for-profit organization devoted to foster awareness and promote the benefits that individual freedoms bring to society. Mr. Fernández (President of Bases Foundation) is currently editing a book on Karl R. Popper which will be published in 2012. Mr. Sarano (Vice President of Bases Foundation) is a Chicago Booth MBA student and has worked in different corporate and consulting roles in various industries.
All members of the campus community are welcome to attend.
This year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week will take place from November 14 – 20. Last year, over 400,000 Americans participated in all 50 states. GEW promotes innovation, creativity, job creation, and economic growth through a variety of activities, which include: a competition to find the 50 most promising startups worldwide; a clean technology competition; a competition to win a free yearlong trip around the world; and Startup Weekend, a networking event focused on creating new startups.
A Kauffman Foundation report, “The Grass is Indeed Greener in India and China for Returnee Entrepreneurs,” concludes that Indian and Chinese students in America are more likely to return home to pursue their career goals as those economies improve. “Most returnees now say the entrepreneurial advantages are better in their home countries, where they can benefit from lower operating costs, heightened professional recognition, greater access to local markets and a better quality of life than they could attain in the United States,” the report states. While this “reverse brain drain” will impact entrepreneurship in America, as many entrepreneurs are Chinese and Indian immigrants, most returnees still maintain their American contacts, which could create more international business opportunities.
Eduardo Marty is the Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina, an educational outreach program. Students in JA are taught how to prepare a business plan and raise funds. Approximately 50,000 students per year across Argentina participate. Marty has also held academic posts as professor at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, and the University of Buenos Aires. He was the host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics. We met with Mr. Marty in Buenos Aires to talk about his business education programs for young people and the state of entrepreneurship in South America.
. Kaizen:Where did you grow up in Argentina?
Marty: In Buenos Aires. I went to elementary and high school here and the University too.
Kaizen: Before university, what was your education like?
Marty: Well, I went to school called National Buenos Aires. That’s the oldest high school in Buenos Aires, created in 1770. It’s a public school, but it’s a very prestigious one. It was the first school in Buenos Aires. To enter, you need to pass a very tough test once you finish elementary school. From five students submitting and applying—they accept just one. Our education is divided into elementary school and then secondary school. When I was in sixth grade I tried to pass the exam and I did it, so I was one year younger than the rest.
The Jewish community attends that school a lot. It is a very intellectual community here in Buenos Aires. By the way, you know that after New York Buenos Aires has the second largest Jewish community in the hemisphere.
