Message from the Faculty Directors
Nelson Fraiman, Columbia Business School
Professor Nelson Fraiman offers his perspectives on how ECLA, the only program of its kind targeted to Latin American entrepreneurs, will serve individuals and companies looking to expand their business presence and impact across borders.
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Video: Message from Nelson Fraiman (0:33)
Estanislao Bachrach, Di Tella Business School
The role of entrepreneurship in economic development involves more than just increasing per capita output and income; it involves initiating and constituting change in the structure of business and society. I believe that entrepreneurial endeavors are considered honorable and even prestigious for closing the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries. Beyond increasing national income by creating new jobs, entrepreneurship acts as a positive force in economic growth by serving as the bridge between innovation and the marketplace.There is a parallel with Darwin's theory of evolution and the three core themes of innovation: generating new ideas, selecting the good ones, and implementing them. Organisms survive and grow by generating variation, selecting elements that help them adapt to a particular environment, and propagating these across species. Those that do it right survive, those that don't disappear. Unlike natural evolution, however, we have the chance to intervene in the process of organizational evolution. Instead of random mutations and lucky accidents we can be a bit more strategic and purposeful, searching for and generating our own variety, making choices about which innovation to pursue, and managing the process of implementation and diffusion to make sure they succeed.
The ECLA program will help you to intervene in a process of your company, be more strategic and purposeful, make the best choices, and manage that process to improve your competitiveness across the world. The future of Entrepreneurship in Latin America appears to be very bright: we are living in the age of the entrepreneur, who is driven by risk taking, creativity, independence and rewards. The ECLA program contributes to create and improve more and better businesses within Latin American initiatives, particularly in light of the hyper competition and the need for globalization.
Estanislao Bachrach
Professor and Director of Business Economics Major, Di Tella Business School, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
