The third edition of the competition "Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year 2012", supported by AIC, DEKA Group and National, will be held this year under the theme : "Building for our tomorrow". 273 applications were submitted this year and 96 finalists, which have created 17.670 jobs directly and indirectly. From these 96 finalists, 24 will be selected next month to participate in the grand finale. One of them will be crowned at the ceremony of awards to be held in December.

The award "Women's business of the community", which will also be awarded, will value the extraordinary women whose activities are not only innovative and future-oriented, but especially those that companies have made a difference in their communities, by integrating ethical values ​​and the corporate social responsibility.

"[...] It is a remarkable tribute to all those involved in the third edition of this competition which is much stronger and creates more interest than in 2010 when it was launched [...]" declared Damian Blackburn, CEO of Digicel Haiti.

"The more we see, the more we realize that business people who give their time to participate in these competitions are committed not only to their own companies, but also for the development of the Haitian economy, because they know that if Haiti does not have a a sustainable economic base, creating jobs and increasing exports, its economic structure will have no foundation. Similarly, if the overall economy remains weak, it will be impossible for individual companies to attract other businesses, especially those from abroad," declared Awais Malik, Head of Commercial Operations at Digicel.

"Our entrepreneurs know they are working hand in hand with the Haitian people and that the dependence is mutual. They learn together. In fact, we are learning all together," concluded Damian Blackburn.

In the period before the grand finale, the 24 national finalists will participate in a three-day training at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, designed to provide them the leadership skills and the strategic vision they need to succeed.

Based on the experience of FIU, the 24 national finalists may begin to plan the best way to perform the 50 hours of training of Business Edge, kindly sponsored by our sponsor the Société Financière Haïtienne de Développement (SOFIHDES). The national winners of the 6 categories will receive 50 additional hours of training bringing the total to 100 hours. One of the options of the training is to examine ways to increase the return on investment (ROI), by making sales teams more efficient and effective

HL/ HaitiLibre