The three-day biz fest organised by the BNI has attracted corporates as well as senior executives keen on interacting and exchanging ideas. Norm Dominguez, Vice Chairman Emeritus, BNI, met with AJIT JOHN and spoke about the business environment, the challenges of conducting business and his vision for BNI in the next ten years.
HERALD: What is your initial impression of the Goan economic landscape?
NORM DOMINGUEZ: I may not be able to talk about the economy but my initial impression is one of a city or a State in transition. From an economy that relies on tourism and mining to technology, industry. The infrastructure is beginning to change. As someone from outside looking in the greatest challenge I believe facing India is infrastructure. The entrepreneurial spirit in the country and here as an American I can say is huge because people are willing to do things to advance the country. But can the country advance fast enough? So that’s when you see this dance with government and industry and economies of scale coming together. I like the message I am hearing in this biz fest which is collaboration. Let’s bring small business, big business and government together for the benefit of the community. That’s how I would like to see it play out.
HERALD: How can BNI help Goa achieve a certain level of industrialisation?
ND: For years the credo of the BNI has been local business global network and it is an effort to help each other. When one looks at BNI Goa it is about the nearly 600 odd businesses in BNI that is involved in the local economy and during my conversation with the local Director RajKumar Kamat, he would like to have 1000 businesses in the network. This he believes will happen sooner rather than later. I think because of the exposure given to start-ups and I learned of the work being done by GEMS to train entrepreneurs which provides an educational platform. I believe in three to five years there will be people in the bleachers at BNI meetings. The work being done by GEMS is slowly creating an impact. I created a sentence to describe Goa and it goes as Goa is a hub of unity that ignites the future. Bring the entities like business, government and education together and you will unite the future. This reminds me of a mini California, Denver, Colarado was what Goa is now 30 years ago but it has grown. It has to be prepared when it tries to attract new business. The mindset is positive.
HERALD: The absence of skills is quite glaring amongst young graduates, how can BNI help?
ND: BNI is about values, and one of our core values is positive attitude and if you can insert a strong degree of positivity it will help. I have been working on this topic for four to five years now and it can be Goa or any part of India or any other part of the world and what is obvious is the presence of various distractions. If you learn the attitude of being positive then those distractions will go away. This is a relatively new education field. At BNI we have structure which was something that attracted me 30 years ago when I first started out. BNI operated with an organisation that is big in India called Toastmasters which helps people speak better. This skill is very important for everyone and especially for those who are out pitching business. The aim of BNI is help people grow their business who in turn will help others grow their business. This is a process which will help the individual and the community at large.
