Diego Sánchez, the director of the “Centro Integral de Servicios Empresarial” (Comprehensive Center for Business Services) CreaMe located in Medellín, Colombia visited the International Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship 3IE of the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María in Valparaíso (Chile)  for one week.  The objective of the internship was to internalize the processes, incubation model, team, the Institute´s portfolio of projects, and sources of financing.  On top of that, Mr. Sánchez participated in an entrepreneurship workshop, met with entrepreneurs and shared his experiences.

“We use Chile as an example in matters of entrepreneurship, with some of their programs for example” said Mr. Sánchez about his motivation to participate in the internship program.  He added that the work done by the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and the 3IE Institute “seems like a very good connection as far as how to bring out the potential of the students.  Something very interesting is that they can come out of this opportunity with a prototype to validate whether or not the idea works.”

At the end of his visit, while marveling at the infrastructure and colors of Valparaíso, Mr. Sánchez emphasized the importance of the people in the organizations. “In the end, the institutions are people who work, the ethics they have, the values of responsibility, love, and passion for what they do. In the end they are the people that cause an organization to grow or to fail.”  His advice to the entrepreneurs was to develop a good profile of their clients, look for allies in each country, seek accompaniment in different programs and see which of them is the best at what they do at the international level because “you are not competing with other Chileans, but rather with the world, so always look to have the best of the best and be different.”  

During the internship week in Valparaíso, Mr. Sánchez, Víctor Aguilera, director of the 3IE Institute, and René Villegas, manager of new businesses at 3IE, announced a proposal aiming to create a collaborative network between CreaMe and the 3IE Institute.

About CreaMe and incubation in Colombia
CreaMe Centro Integral de Servicios Empresariales is a business incubator that started back in 1996.  Their objective is to generate an entrepreneurial culture, create and strengthen businesses in Colombia. Integral stands for a tool aiming to execute and achieve the objectives of the entrepreneurs, the institutions and the territorial entities involved in economic development promotion. Diego Sánchez is the director of business development.
With respect to CreaMe methodology he added that “we work using a system called nodes that are specialized units of business accompaniment to cover any type of services.  The special feature is that this is done in alliance with a third party that has identified market or technological needs. Together we work on the entrepreneurial processes and give more potential to the entrepreneurs.”

About the state of entrepreneurship and innovation development promotion in Colombia Mr. Sánchez said that “the entrepreneurial culture in Colombia has advanced, and a lot of work has been done in high schools and universities.  The government and the state have taken the reigns in this process.  Law no. 1014 of entrepreneurship is coming. The objective for this law is to give direction to managing entrepreneurship.  Today, entrepreneurship is alive in Colombia, and it has generated very important accompaniment mechanisms, financing and commercialization”.

For more information about infoDev’s 2009 Internship Program for Incubator and Pre-incubator Staff in LAC, visit here: www.idisc.net/en/Article.38914.html.