Growing Curacao’s Economy by 1%: 10 for 50 (10 initiatives for 50 million ANG’s)

‘Complexity is your enemy.

Any fool can make something complicated.

It is hard to make something simple.’

Richard Branson

I.                    Introduction

On the whole, Curacao’s GDP has grown at rates that are significantly below the regional or world average over the past 10-18 years.[1] Often when speaking about possible avenues for economic growth in Curacao, we start with macro-economic tenets, broad visions and goals. All too often that’s also where we stop. Unfortunately that is not where money is made, for a country or its people. Money is made at the micro-economic  level.

As a business strategist it is my job to find avenues for growth given the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and to make those as concrete and simple as possible for those in the organization to understand and implement. I set out to do the same with the Curacao economy, an organization smaller than a Fortune 500 company. The following is what I came up with. Basically, the argument is that if we can find 10 projects to each produce ANG 5 million a year extra added value (export) , we will achieve a growth of 1% above the ‘normal’ average.

II.                 Assumptions

a.       Curacao’s GDP is ANG 5.5 billion (in Dutch: miljard), a little over USD 3 billion

b.      To grow 1% over and above the average 0.6%[2] that the Curacao economy has grown over the past 10-18 years, we need ANG 55 million in extra economic activity every year.

c.       The tourism multiplier is 1.6.[3] For simplicity, we assume that the overall multiplier for the Curacao economy is 1.8. So, we need about ANG 30 million in new economic activity every year to grow the GDP with 1%.[4]

d.      Let’s say that, all else equal, we are totally safe with 10 new initiatives/year with ANG 5 million (USD 3 million) each in new added value (i.e. export), for a total of ANG 50 million (USD 30 million) extra added value annually.

e.      Added value basically means that a company’s operating expense, interest and profit are left or paid in Curacao (and, in this exercise, paid for by foreigners). These would include payment for wages, utility, insurance, taxes, rent, bank interest, dividend, etc.

f.        Imports enter the equation as a ‘negative’ factor. For every extra dollar in import the required extra export increases by the same dollar. So it is best to concentrate on services (which require no import) and on ventures where the imports have already taken place. For instance, a hotel has already been built with imported raw material. Maximizing its direct revenue or any other revenue it may spur, entails little import or capital outflow.

III.               The question is:

1.       Which of the FDI leads generated over the past 2 years by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of General Affairs, the Curacao Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Curacao Airport Holding, the Curacao Tourism Bureau, etc. are likely to generate ANG 5 million per annum or more from foreign sources?

2.       Which local companies/sectors can we help generate an extra ANG 5 million/annum or more in export added value.

3.       What, if any, are the obstacles to making either of these a reality. What is needed to remove any obstacles?

We just need 10!

IV.               Conditions

1.      All ideas for initiatives must fit within the general vision of tourism, hub, business and international financial services for growth. Ideas for hub and international financial services are not included since the author is unfamiliar with their business models.

2.      Note that if we just get more businesses catering to locals, regardless of how innovative they may be, money just changes hands locally. There is no influx of more money, so the economy will grow only minimally.

V.                 What produces ANG 5 million (USD 3 million) in added value?

1.       150 foreign students each spending USD20.000/year on Curacao. Two semesters at a local medical school cost at least USD 11,000 in tuition alone. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, in 2009 St. George’s Medical School in Grenada graduated 640, while Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica graduated 754 medical students.[5] What do we need to do? We need to sign a letter to ‘recognize’ that these schools exist in Curacao. We do not need to accredit them. We just need to recognize that they exist, much in the same way a notary attests to the existence of many other things. This is needed so that students can get student loans from their respective governments.

2.       200 cosmetic surgeries at USD15.000/patient. A friend spent USD 30.000 in Colombia on surgery.[6] Did you know that U.S. surgeons take U.S. patients to Costa Rica for surgery in operating theatres set up in luxury hotels?[7] We must amend laws to make this possible and train nurses to specifically nurse clients, who are likely to pay for the treatment themselves, after elective surgery.

3.       40 extra tickets/day sold by local airlines to foreign visitors for USD200/ticket.

4.       In 2011, visitors spent close to 3.2 million nights in Curacao. If each left 1 dollar more per night, e.g. as a tip for the chambermaid, we would have reached the goal of USD 3 million. We must incentivize visitors to leave that extra tip for the chambermaid and train the chambermaids to suggest it. I still have a picture of the Martha’s Vineyard chambermaid, the first ‘suggestion’ I received almost 30 years ago while in college.

5.       Less than USD10 more spent (preferably in services) by each of the 400.000 stay-over tourists on Curacao. That is one extra cocktail. We must train waiters to up-sell. In Barbados, the National Institute for Service Excellence provides these types of training.

6.       The same cocktail for each of the 400.000 cruise tourists, please.

7.       In the United States, the guideline for tipping has long been between 12% and 18%. If we raise our tipping suggestion from 10%, we will make between 20% and 80% more on tips.

8.       5,000 visitors leaving USD600 net at festivals and carnivals every year. In 2011, 4,930 visitors came to the Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival. They left USD1,717 (gross) per person.

9.       One in eight (12%) visitors, 100.000 total, stay-over or cruise, buying one or more locally made pieces of art or craft for USD 30 total, like a Chichi. We must help the sector produce and merchandize their goods. The same holds true for beach and ‘in-city’[8] massages with the healing power of laraha and datu.

10.   250 extra conference visitors per month, each leaving USD 1,000 on Curacao. Dr. Myles Monroe, CEO of Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship, who landed on Curacao in his private jet for some motivational workshops some years ago, has made a business out of getting faith in the Bahamas, with ongoing conferences for every demographic. CTB has a department to attract MICE. Many of the 20.000 local business owners and professionals, who are agents or members of global organizations, can also make a conscious effort to get their meetings and conferences to Curacao.

11.   15 extra ship repair jobs at USD 300.000 (parts are imported). I do not know the average revenue of a ship repair.

12.   15 extra houses of USD 350.000 sold to foreigners (much of the construction material is imported). We must adjust the regulations to enable these foreigners to spend more than 6 months on the island without having to leave and ask for a new permit. Wouldn’t we rather have the ‘penshonado types’ stay 12 months?

13.   100 consultants getting foreign assignments for USD 30.000 per year. Provide easy e-zone status so they bring the earnings home. Disclosure: I am a local consultant. I have the required industry knowledge.

14.   Waste cardboard sells for about USD 100 per ton.[9] If we ship 30.000 tons/year we get USD 3million in foreign revenues. Elsewhere, cardboard is being stolen! If we don’t have enough we can also sell mixed waste glass for USD30 per ton or add Bonaire and Aruba’s waste.

15.   Give ANG 5million in jobs to foreign consultants, medical clinics (medische uitzendingen), etc., and the required added value rises by the same amount. We must make a conscious effort to reduce these numbers, especially when foreign cooperation (SEI) is winding down. The donor money we were getting ads to our GDP and reduces the donor’s. It is only fair that they donor would want to get some of it back. But, if the funder is local, a conscious effort should be made to keep the funds locally, and in the process, increase local expertise.

16.   If 5,000 immigrant workers each send ANG 250/month home, the required number rises with ANG 15 million! According to the Central Bank of Curacao and St Maarten, transfers out of Curacao due to worker remittances reached ANG 80 million in 2011.[10] When attracting new industries or employees we should focus on those who are most likely to spend their earnings in Curacao rather than send it off-island.

VI.               How can we organize to achieve this?

1.       We must agree that it is easier and cheaper to use existing resources to capacity than to attract new ones. The existing resources have already been sold on Curacao and are invested here. If these (local or foreign) existing resources do well, they will likely attract more. If they do badly, that sends a negative message. One can also argue that existing resources need to be treated as loyal customers.

2.       The Clinton Global Initiative asks each (invited) member – business, government and NGO leaders, Nobel laureates, philanthropists, etc. - to make a concrete commitment to solve a global issue (in one of 12 broad tracks), in a bold innovative way. It’s not a structured program.  Each year the members gather to measure their progress, network, share knowledge and be inspired. Why does this model work? Because, we believe, working with diverse groups with different cultures (and underlying preferred business models) delays decision-making.  Every ‘captain’ would want to lead the group. That does not work. In addition, the yearly event provides a natural moment to measure how effective a ‘captain’ really is.

3.       We could use the same model and start the Curacao Economic Initiative.

4.       Each member chooses 1 commitment a year, and finds or provides funding for its execution.

Critique is welcome. Ideas may be used with appropriate acknowledgement of source.

Tamira La Cruz, MBA, founder and CEO of MarkStra Caribbean, is a consultant on research, corporate strategy, competitiveness and innovation. A graduate from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, she has a continuing interest in small state innovations and growth. She can be contacted via  www.markstra.com, her blog  Caribbean Research and Strategy  or tlacruz@markstra.com.

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[1] Reference to be confirmed

[2] ibid

[3] Ministry of Economic Development

[4] People have argued that the overall multiplier is larger. That would make the task at hand even easier.

[5] http://chronicle.com/article/Students-From-Caribbean-Med/125681/

[6] http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Colombia-s-budget-plastic-surgery-w-slideshow-1810223.php

[7] http://www.healthcostarica.com/tummy_tuck_costa_rica.html

[8] New Orleans’s French Quarter is full of foot-massage parlors for feet tired of walking through town

[9] http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/07/inside-surprisingly-lucrative-world-cardboard-theft/2761/

[10] If that money had been spent locally, that would have added 2.6% to our GDP. Other middle income countries such as ours only lose 0.2-0.7% of their GDP to remittances.[10] In 2010, Barbados received 2.99% of its GDP in remittances.

Living in mud huts

In the Amigoe Newspaper of October 5, Mr. Mike Willem, director of the Antillean Contractors Assocation (AAV), suggests that Curacao must economize, reform and become cheaper. This because over the past 20 years Curacao’s economic growth has been less than 1% on average. Focusing on ‘economizing’  is what Curacao has been doing for 20  years, with success in some areas - look at our schools, roads, poverty and subsequent crime-, but not in GDP growth. Why would continued focus on the same thing yield a different result this time around?

According to the World Economic Forum, Switzerland, Singapore, Finland, Sweden and Holland, in that order, are the most competitive countries in the world. They are also nowhere near ‘cheap’, which, according to Mr. Willem, is IMF’s recipe for success. Instead, these countries have consciously sought and found high-added value sectors and jobs where a small cost-differential is not a deal-breaker.

In this increasingly competitive world it requires professional skill  to find  and analyze these opportunities. Unfortunately more than a generation of our best and ‘go-to’ professionals have specialized in economizing, becoming cheaper, repeating broad macro-economic tenets, regulations and laws.  As a result, as a country we just don’t know how to identify and  go after the high-added value innovative and global 21^st century industries and opportunities. We also do not think it  is a priority. Case in point?  The new Minister of Finance and Economic Development, himself a public finance expert, has enlisted the support of no fewer than three high level public finance experts, but, to my knowledge, not one expert in economic/business development, the area where the new minister is likely to be less strong.  I am a business development strategist (often misunderstood and dismissed in Curacao, I might add). Yesterday I returned from a business development conference. I respectfully submit that we must urgently professionalize our business development approach and skills, and make it a priority. After all, if our priority is to become cheaper, the simplest solution is that we all live in mud huts instead of brick houses.

Tamira La Cruz, MBA

5 october 2012.

Tamira La Cruz, MBA, CEO of MarkStra Caribbean (1995), specializes in helping organizations in small states to establish, maintain or grow their revenue, profit or following. The practical solutions are based in research, strong analysis and strategy, as well as 25 years of regional work experience. Based in Curacao, she is a graduate from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (MBA) and Boston University (BSBA. She publishes regularly on small state innovations and growth. Contact via  www.markstra.com, or tlacruz@markstra.com.

Prepared Remarks for the 2012 Curacao Innovation Event

Prepared Remarks at the 2012 Curacao Innovation Event

Curacao World Trade Center, 20 September 2012

Tamira La Cruz, MBA

Permit me to add a business strategic side to our discussion today. As a business strategist it is my job to look for concrete and sustainable opportunities taking the relative strengths and weaknesses of an organization as a given.  Yes, we can and should endeavor to change, a.o., our educational system. How long would that take? Can we afford to wait? What can we do NOW to get on the innovation train?

I suggest that innovations happen in Curacao organically every day. We need to recognize them as innovations, make them marketable (internationally, if possible). It is when profits are made on innovations (or seem possible) that people get excited about innovation and join the movement.

On another occasion I also used the example of a doctor who argued that he cannot innovate because he works in a small hospital with limited resources. I asked him: “Are your patients still alive?” Of course, but that is because I had to find creative ways to make do with little resources. So he had a ‘necessity’ as Dr.  Peterson mentioned as a prerequisite to innovation. I said: “Then you have innovated. You have found a way to achieve the same result with fewer resources”. Finding solutions with fewer resources is the textbook definition of innovation!

There are about 200 countries in the world.  Holland and the USA, our ‘examples’, are very high-income countries.  Most countries cannot afford the innovations conceived in these markets. They are often too expensive and sometimes too complex for a small market. An innovation conceived in a small middle income country like ours is more likely to be more suitable and affordable for many other countries. In Blue Ocean Strategy, Kim and Mauborgne call these types of innovations ‘value innovations’: more suitable and more efficient.

How big is the market for innovations based on a small economy? Of the 200 countries mentioned before, 56 are small sovereign states. There are also 33 dependent small territories (like Curaco and Aruba)  and 125 small islands with populations smaller than 1.5 million.  So, depending on your innovation you have 211 markets!!  Yes, it does require a shift in the way we think, as you mentioned, Dr. Peterson.

If you are an architect and you have found an innovative way to build energy-efficient houses in the tropical island of Curacao, and there is absolutely NO reason you could not do so. Better yet, you are better positioned to do this than any architect living in Delft or New York, certainly since the advent of the internet. Anyway. If you have found an innovative way to build energy-efficient houses in Curacao, you have found an innovative way to build energy efficient houses in Aruba, in St. Lucia, in Key West Florida, in Mallorca, in Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania, in the Philippines, in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, etc. etc. You don’t have to go build them all yourself. You can license the technology to others, make some money for yourself and some foreign exchange for the country.

In 2009 I set out to purposely outline the unique opportunities that arise from being a small state, possibly an island, possibly in the tropics. The findings were presented at the international SALISES conference in Trinidad & Tobago in 2010. The focus was knowledge innovations. Basically these are innovations by business and professional service providers: consultants, designers, engineers, translators, doctors, nutritionists, etc.

I wanted to make the same analogy for small countries as the late C.K. Prahalad made for Bottom-of-Pyramid countries, where people live on a dollar a day. He found that  they have come up with unique innovations that can be marketed in other very poor countries, against a profit.  My question was: could innovations in small countries be marketed to other small countries?

I can provide many more examples of small island marketable strengths. But let me conclude: We might take them for granted, but we have some textbook examples of innovation!  Because in a small economy there is a REAL NEEED to be efficient! There is a NECESSITY, the prerequisite for innovation. There is also an unexploited opportunity to export these innovations to other small markets.

I ask the policy makers, supporting agencies here today, fellow panelists, to please support  this sector by:

1.      promoting local  innovations abroad. It helps the local innovator grow.  It also aids in attracting knowledge and medical tourism industries. Potential investors want some evidence that a ‘cluster’ exists locally, where they can get support services and professional exchange. That is the reason Silicon Valley is what it is today. Some promotion would include:

a.      using/suggesting them as speakers at international venues

b.      including their innovations in presentations about Curacao business

2.      providing incentives and support in the broadest sense. Help the innovation leaders lead so that the followers have someone to follow, with best practices and inspiration.  These would include:

a.       The elimination of OB tax (revenue tax) between knowledge workers. We need interdisciplinary teams to produce world-class solutions and effective ‘clusters’.  OB tax between suppliers hampers these.

b.      Easy access to e-zone benefits for the amounts exported. Now the knowledge exporting company would have to move into an E-zone building, or pay double rent (a doctor cannot move there).  Some E-zone buildings do not even accept locally owned companies

c.       Tax credit for the acquisition of knowledge (an asset), same as there is a tax credit for the acquisition of  real estate and fixed assets

Tamira La Cruz, MBA, founder and CEO of MarkStra Caribbean,is a consultant on research, corporate strategy, competitiveness and innovation. A business economist, she has a continuing interest in small state innovations and their monitization. She can be contacted via  www.markstra.com , her blog  Caribbean Research and Strategy  blog or tlacruz@markstra.com.

These remarks were made as a panelist at Dr. Ryan Peterson’s keynote speech at the 2012 Curacao Innovation Event, September 20, 2012, based on a 2010 paper Exporting Knowledge Innovations of Small States presented at the 2010 SALISES Conference at the University of the West Indies.

‘Executives are looking for more than technology. They are looking for answers.’

Introduction to Seminar on the occasion of

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day and

UN’s Year of Women and Girls in Technology

by Tamira La Cruz, MBA, Member of Curacao Knowledge Platform on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Curacao

‘Executives are looking for more than technology. They are looking for answers.’  Clara Shih, 29, founder Hearsay Social.

Allow me to show you some more answers

Who are these people?

Soccket was invented by a group of female college students in New York. One of them, Jessica Williams, graduated in 2010 with a degree in psychology and economics. She must be in her early twenties.

Jenny Drinkard, the founder of the crate shown on quirky.com, has a degree in industrial design. She is also in her early twenties. The founder of Quirky.com is Ben Kaufman, also in his early twenties. Depending on how you want to look at it, Quirky.com is a company, a website, or a community where you can submit your design ideas. The community will comment and help you improve it. They will also suggest pricing. When the time comes, Ben Kaufman will make a prototype and manufacture your product. In principle it does not matter where you are located.

Jane McGonigal is 34, developer of the game of Evoke.com. She is Doctor Jane McGonigal with a degree in performance studies. She has received numerous accolades as one of the best game changers, innovators, thinkers, etc. of our current times. Her game Evoke encourages players to submit creative solutions that might solve some of the world’s problems.

These stories and more give me hope for ourselves and girls AND boys in Curacao.  These are the stories that bring to light the opportunities, the level playing field, the flat world, that lies before us in the information society. ANY one in Curacao could also have come up with the ideas we saw and make them global.

We must get the idea of limitless opportunities in our DNA

This sea of opportunities is new to all of us on Curacao. It is not part of our DNA. All we and our forbearers know is that we have a small market which is bad for everything. Kleinschaligheid is our curse. We have limited and expensive access to information. We have no raw materials to speak of. Transportation to and from Curacao is expensive. We have never functioned from a mindset of ‘abundance’ and limitless opportunity.  But that is exactly what the information society offers. We have some catching up to do, to get to a mindset of limitless opportunity.

We already have enough physical infrastructure, broadband and whatnot, to enable everyone to Google and find innovative ideas and be inspired by them, as I was, or to find ways to help make their ideas a reality.

Preliminary results of last year’s census show that 65% of all Curacao households have a pc or laptop at home, and 55%  of all households have internet at home. My company MarkStra Caribbean’s research in 2010 yielded that among people between the ages of 18 and 65, the more relevant segments, 82% have pcs or laptops at home and 78% have internet connection at home. Today much of that connection is broadband, even in schools.

We are working on our security infrastructure. Ms. Martis will speak to that. And I hope we will find steps forward with regard to our data and internet privacy laws, which Ms. Helders will speak to later.

What can you and I do?

1.      Incentivate to participate

For those of us who teach, regardless of the subject, we can use examples in our classes that have ‘information society’ DNA. Sometimes it does require more preparation, but let’s resolve to do so. If needed give incentives and rewards for students to engage in increasingly innovative ways in the information society. By the way, in his work on country competitiveness, Michael Porter, finds that in high income countries the ‘incentive compensation system’ in companies is much better developed than in lower-income countries. All the more reason to give incentives.

In the same spirit, encourage your students, children and perhaps yourselves to participate in global contests of the information society. For its 10^th anniversary a few years ago, Google held a contest ‘Project 10 to the 100^th ’. People could submit ideas that helped solve five (5) global challenges. There are 200 countries in the world. 170 or 85% participated. Has Curacao?  It’s not about winning. It’s about an emotional and intellectual commitment to the future, an immersion, which needs to be near absolute.[1]

In this regard, please allow me a plug for Rotary. For its Rotary Group Study Exchange project (a global project) our Rotary District is seeking professionals aged 25-40 with at least 2 years of experience to go on a one month study exchange to Sweden next February.  Sweden is the 3^rd most competitive country in the world with lots of emphasis on environment and innovation. Let me know at tlacruz@markstra.com .

2.      Strategize

In my daily professional life I help companies grow through research strategy, competitiveness and innovative thinking.   I would be amiss if I did not suggest that there must be some system to the madness, some strategy. The same Hamel and the late CK Prahalad that I mentioned before suggest that countries should ask themselves: “Given our unique portfolio of competencies, what opportunities are we uniquely positioned to exploit?” In Curacao we have long considered geography as our unique competence. While that is true, we must realize that in the information society the role of geography is increasingly smaller. So, where else might we find unique competencies? Let me give 3 ideas:

a.      We live and work in a small state. As professionals, consultants we have often had to develop solutions because the available solutions were too complex or expensive for our small markets. As I said before, there are 200 countries in the world. Of these, 56, i.e. almost 30% are sovereign small states with a population of less than 1.5 million people. Could those be your market? Could some thing that you developed for Curacao be sold to another small state? I first mentioned this at a conference at UWI with scholars from around the Caribbean and elsewhere. Then and since, everyone gets excited whenever I mention it. I hope you do too.

b.      There are at least 125 islands with fewer than 1.5 million people. By definition they all lie in a salty sea, and have issues related to shore and beach management, transportation, etc. Certainly they are looking for answers which can be provided in the realm of the information society.

c.       We are an increasingly touristic island. In 2011 we had around 400.000 international stay-over arrivals and an equal amount of cruise arrivals. According to the World Tourism Organization there are some 1 billion international arrivals in the world each year. At least 25 million of those are to Caribbean islands. Certainly there are solutions still to be found for some of the issues facing this industry.

3.      Work together. We hear that every day. But I want to be more specific. I was trying to make a coherent story about this. But I will just spit it out.

a.      I suggest that to get ahead we have to work in interdisciplinary teams. Before a doctor, engineer, marketer could be successful by ‘covering’ all the disciplines herself. Today that is no longer true. Internet and social media have had integrated marketing and technology in ways we could not have foreseen, as Ms. Kleinmoedig will attest to later. To take advantage of the opportunities in the information society, we must work together, across disciplines. It is no longer an option. It is a NECESSITY.

b.      For many reasons these interdisciplinary teams cause tension. But, we must not retreat. That’s the whole idea. Diversity of eyeballs, and the resulting tension, whether because of discipline, gender, age, ethnicity, or religion breeds better answers.

So, on the eve of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, in UN’s year for women and girls in technology, let me end where I started: Executives are looking for more than technology. They are looking for answers. We must prepare to deliver those answers. The way in which we prepare is a whole new ballgame.

Tamira La Cruz, MBA, is a consultant on research, corporate strategy, competitiveness and innovation. A business economist, she has a continuing interest in monetizing small state innovations. She can be contacted via  www.markstra.com , her blog  Caribbean Research and Strategy  blog or tlacruz@markstra.com.

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[1] Hamel and CK Prahalad, Competing for the Future

Business and business development in Bonaire

I found my 'home' in Bonaire: Central Hotel Bonaire.


Right in town, new and clean and affordable. Makes it a lot easier to develop business in Bonaire.
Key words: hospitality, tourism, real estate development, nature, heritage, art, research, feasibility study, business plan, strategy and innovation.









The engagement was to do a quick scan of the overall cost-of-living in Bonaire.

Finding innovation and learnings in Africa and the Kilimanjaro

Some time ago I called someone's bluff and ended up in Africa and on top of the Kilimanjaro. 

I learnt of and started paying attention to the opportunities in Africa. I also realized there is a lot we in Curacao and the Caribbean can learn from Africa, in any case from Tanzania:

1. Impressive eco-lodges in Tanzania. One of them was the 'execution' of the artist's impression of a 140-room hotel and retail development in Curacao I had written a business plan for about a month earlier.  The boulders in the picture below are the wall of the restaurant. 

2. Since I am writing a book on innovations in small states and how to monetize those, I was especially interested in Zanzibar, which is also a small state with a population of less than 1.5 milllion. Like Curacao's capital Willemstad, it's capital is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Knowledge workers in small states share the common fact that they have had to found creative solutions because of limited resources. Hence, they have innovated.




3. What a global world! My cousin (an catholic econometrist living in Holland) and our guide Omary (a Tanzanian moslim who had barely finished secondary school), were both 27 years of , fans of Manchester United, Rihanna, some 'Reggaeton artist, who I, of course don't know. Omary also knew the Beach Boy's Kokomo song "Aruba, Jamaica, Bahama... ."
Here Bob Marley's "One Love" greets us when arriving in Zanzibar.

4. In Zanzibar we went to a street festival. Soup and sugar cane juice were served in a regular plastic bowl and glass glass, which you had to return afterwards. Green and sustainable!

4. The Tanzanian guides were excellent. This is our safarai guide Omary, who besides Swahili, speaks English and had learnt himself French. His book was a few handwritten pages of French words and sentences he once learnt.

5. Most of all I am impressed that someone had such good marketing skills to get so many people to want to summit the Kilimanjaro. In our case, we were neither hikers, had never slept in a sleeping bag, let alone a tent, for seven days, out in the middle of nowhere.

I plan to go back to Africa, not as a tourist, but as a volunteer or a consultant. Volunteer, that was the bluff.

Find your innovation!

‘How COULD I innovate?’, he shouts. ‘I work in a small country, in a terrible hospital, where there is no money for anything. I can’t finance any research myself because the government pays me late for my services. On the other hand, my colleagues in Holland……..’

‘But, I bet that BECAUSE you live in a small country and work in a terrible hospital, you have found creative ways to keep your patients alive with limited resources.’, I suggest.

 ‘Sure thing’, he says, still mad. ‘I HAVE to.’ 

‘So, you have innovated,’ I respond. ‘If you have found a way to produce the same results with fewer resources, i.e. more efficiently, that’s an innovation.

His face lit up. ‘We must talk about this further.’

This introduction is the continuation of that discussion. Then I will ask you to stay after the key note speaker’s talk. We will then open the floor for interaction and ask how the Chamber of Commerce or others can help you monetize, capitalize on your innovation.

By the way, the notion that ‘you have innovated if you have found a way to produce the same results with fewer resources, i.e. more efficiently’ is from a theory called Blue OceanStrategy. The authors also assert that it is even better ‘If that efficient solution is also better suited to the needs of your client (because of market size, complexity, climate, gender, ethnicity, etc.).’

So, the question is not whether you have you innovated, but where.  Please allow me to share some thoughts that might inspire you:

• I did not tell the doctor that there are 200 countries in the world. Holland and the US are among the 10 richest. Simplified: 190 countries, 95% of all countries cannot financially afford many of the Dutch or American innovations in health care, or many other areas.

•  Even if they can afford it, for a great many countries these innovations are unsuitable, because they are too complex, because there is not enough local talent to implement them, etc. Sounds familiar?

•  A few weeks ago someone told me. ‘My health-related service is targeted to older people, of the average age and income of cruise tourists. I can do the whole thing before they leave the island. I promote it online.’…Of course. Last year 400,000 cruise tourists visited Curacao. 

• Then there is “One Laptop per Child”. Up to now the program is mostly available in large low income countries. If we can develop a good program to introduce this in Curacao, we would be the first middle income, small country to do so. Don’t you think other small middle income countries would be interested? ‘Scale’ is a challenge for them too.

• CHUKKACaribbean, from Jamaica. They have zip lines and other adventure travel tours (ATV’s) in three countries. Do YOU have an innovative touristic attraction that can be implemented in another island? There are some 30 Caribbean islands receiving over 20 million stay-over tourists each year. On the other side of the world, there are yet more touristic tropical islands…

•   Fresh Water. You know that fresh water will be a challenge everywhere. If you Google (in English) about gardening in dry climates or harvesting rainwater, most solutions, websites, blogs, come from Australia and New Zealand. We ALSO live in a dry climate. If you are an engineer, landscape designer, etc. have you discovered a marketable solution to deal with this? 

• I have a friend who is a nutritionist. She specializes in weight loss and has her own ‘program’. She said: “I am at a loss when I get clients who eat traditional local food. Because, I don’t have a lot of ideas with guiambo, yuka, chayote, etc. My education included regular potatoes, strawberries, brussel sprouts, etc. I ask you: Have you seen ANY weight loss program based on tropical fruits and vegetables? By the way:  40% of the world lives in the tropics! By 2060, 60% will because older people like warmer climates. 

• Black women spend 5 times more on hair care than White women. Most of our products come from the US. Is there any large global brand for Black women living in hot climates? There are 800 million people living in ‘tropical’ Africa. Yes, some people laugh when I mention Africa. It IS the one undiscovered continent in the world, full of opportunities. The Trini’s are laying a major oil pipeline there, funded by an international organization.

• Of course you can choose an innovation that covers the whole world. But what would be your competitive advantage in knowledge and experience?  Some years ago, when the Jazz Festival was still at Brievengat, an American music entrepreneur told me: ‘Yes, she is a great singer. But, she should sing another genre. There are thousands of equally great voices in the world that sing popular tunes. Breaking through will be impossible.’ Izaline Calister and Emphrem J’s success are not a just luck.

• There is one BIG exception, that perhaps confirms the rule. Technology!  Today’s keynote speaker, Clark Russel, is the CEO of an IT company. There are global opportunities for internet games, all kinds of apps, etc.,  IF we focus on using the internet productively, rather than consumptively. Last Sunday, a saw Jane McGonical, a games developer, speak on CNN’s The Next List  about the games she is making to improve health… She had a serious brain injury and developed games that have helped her. 

That was the first part. Find your innovation! In the next post, how do you monetize your innovation, i.e. capitalize on it?

In case you are wondering, there are about 200 countries in the world. Of these, 56 are small states with fewer than 1.5 million people. There are 33 small dependent territories and 125 islands with a population smaller than 1.5 million. Only 240 cities in the world have more than 1.5 million people.




Speech delivered at the Curacao Chamber of Commerce's Services Lunch Seminar, April 17, 2012.