For this month’s column we turn over the space to Recharger’s Director of Global Events Patricia Ames.
Vegas is a gambling town, and the Recharger team has just returned from what felt like a pretty high-stakes game — ReIndia Expo in Mumbai. And it made me start to think. About pioneering and taking risks, about growth, and about opportunity.
Starting up a new venture in a developing economy halfway around the globe is going to be a challenge at any time. Getting the ReIndia project off the ground and implemented seemed even more daunting than expected.
At every step, from the initial strategy to the planning process and then through to the actual implementation, we were told by industry experts that we were way too early. India was not ready. Wait several years. But we had faith in our research, our existing experience in international growth markets and our gut feeling. We took the risk, made the huge initial investment in time and money and were joined in this risk by the brave companies that dared make the investment in booths, travel costs and time away from their offices to explore and hopefully build new markets for their businesses.
America’s history is scattered with fabulous tales of great pioneers and risk takers. It was time to pack up some of that entrepreneurial spirit and bring it over to the world’s largest democracy — India. Once we started this venture we realized quickly that the Indian entrepreneurial spirit is not only active, but a match for any other country. All the remanufacturers needed was a jump start to get the industry organized, access to quality information and a voice to spread the word.
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This article will be available online on 10/01/2008
