Yesterday, September 14, 2018, in one of the centers with the highest educational quality in terms of master’s degree in business management and continuous development of business development, the graduation of 37 brand new MDE’s was carried out. The important thing of this event and the incorporation per se, were the words of the three directors of the components that endorse the title, Alejandro Ribadeneira of the IDE, Audelia High of the Casa Grande University and Diego Jaramillo of the University of the Hemispheres.

In summary, Alejandro, referred to the family as the fundamental axis of the society system, Audelia, of the values ​​and principles on which education should be leveraged; and, Diego, who had the longest speech, talked about something that seemed more than important to me to share.

When referring to innovation and strategy, he spoke of Rwanda, a nation that until 1994 experienced one of the worst civil wars after World War II; and where, in less than four months, there was the biggest genocide known today, killing more than 800 thousand people.

When a nation like Rwanda has lived with internal and civil wars for more than thirty years it is expected that it is still in the reconstruction phase of the social fabric or of the nation-state infrastructure, however, Diego indicated that this African country today occupies the first place in innovation of Sub-Saharan Africa and the tenth in the world; where its president Paul Kagame aims to transform Rwanda into a middle-income economy, whose goals have materialized in the last decade by leaps and bounds, including 44 strategies for implementation in 20 years.

Rwanda, since the year 2000, has gone from a per capita income of 230 to 630 dollars and poverty has been reduced by 20 percent, according to World Bank data. It has an 8% annual growth of its economy, surpassing great powers such as China and Japan, yearning to reach 900 dollars per capita, to move from an agrarian economy to that of information and knowledge. The key to this revolution, which is forged with investments in infrastructure, the expansion of the telephone and internet and the officiality of English, is allowing its population to speak three languages ​​and manage programs that go beyond the basic operational utilities.

Diego also pointed out the importance of strategic planning. While in Ecuador we see a seven-year plan as a panacea, in the top ten R & D in the world, they already have a fifty-year plan.

Not in vain, Rwanda is the first country in policies to promote ICT for social and economic transformation, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. And apparently, without a doubt, this country, in democracy, is becoming the true African jaguar, comparable to the growth of countries like Vietnam, Singapore and South Korea.

Electricity in Rwanda, being one of the basic services with less coverage, demanded that students and their teachers find an immediate solution, so they decided to take classes under the public lighting, where literally the benches and desks were the sidewalks and the poles light the lamps that facilitated the reading at night.

It is not necessary to make apology and propaganda to the IDE or its directors. In decades they have managed to earn their deserved prestige thanks to the ethics in the management of learning and education. For this and that I did this mastery, not only to be a good company manager or CEO (Chief Executive Officer), not at all; I chose this academic center to grow as a human being and contribute with something more to society and to leave a legacy to future generations. There were some reasons that go beyond the material, are intangible that in one way or another I lived inside the Marine Corps in the elite bodies of special forces:

Trust and humility .- that provide managers, teachers and staff, we all talk to each other, the smile on the skin reflects transparency and open mind to give facilities to students. The impeccable and avant-garde facilities where everything has the aroma of good coffee; hence, the University of the Hemispheres, without being the IDE campus, is called the guardian of the Pichincha forests.

Flexibility. Orthodox make it flexible and easy to digest, where matters such as operations, control of management and finances, other complex, are given as a chat with friends and with cases that allow us to make decisions to problems attached to reality.

Agile resolution of problems.- The academic coordinators, in their rigor and demand, always provide solutions to problems that in other entities (I have lived in my own flesh) became a bureaucratic snowball, sacrificing time and resources instead of solutions immediate.

Coffee, that’s right, coffee in recesses with colleagues and teachers from different areas, sectors and countries allows us to further strengthen the bonds of trust, and that if in two years it does not end in a good friendship, it ends in an environment of business, respect and help.

I must be honest, and having faced the criminal political power of former President Rafael Correa Delgado, being a teacher of the IDE, it was not easy at all. Everything went uphill, therefore, in each class, study or meeting with teachers and peers, it became evident that the spirit of body also exists in the bodies where good spirits, common overcoming and healthy intentions rule.

It is true, not all enter with the same goals, some with short and medium term goals where it is believed that the material motives at the end of accounts are those that provide in life, the well-being that we so desire. On the contrary, I met more than one who stepped on the IDE for sharing criteria of the highest level, those that contribute to human growth and that in society exalt an entire nation. The values ​​that were discussed yesterday by Mrs. Audelia High and Alejandro Ribadeneira when they referred to the pillar that the family implies in the academic development of the human being added to the turning point of the learning curve, showed me that I was in the right place and in the precise moment.

I leave quietly, it has been the best investment, where I have received more than what I have given.

Friends, I believe that sharing my experience will allow you to have a greater vision of what the R & D of each human being involves, in a holistic and true conception that ultimately not only supports the economic well-being of individuals and companies, but also that results in improving the quality of life of cities and nations, and that in the complexity of the thinking of each one, the sensitive leader that humanity longs for is created.

Let’s not forget that in the value chain, more than entering raw materials and inputs, and being processed through qualified labor, the results, besides products, goods and services, are the sustainability of the individual, company, family and society in time and space; and, the intrinsic success in each one.

We are here to endure and transcend.

A fraternal hug.

LT CMDR. Msc. Edwin Ortega Sevilla

Guayaquil, September 15, 2018