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| Nicole Fearon |
What’s the context?
One of the challenges for Trinidad and Tobago is to diversify the economy and build upon the strengths that the country has - other than its oil and gas resources. Diversification can only happen if there are people who are willing to take a risk and pour all their energy into developing new innovative and entrepreneurial businesses. More often than not, the entrepreneurs who start such businesses have had a significant career before ‘taking the plunge’.
Who is our ‘Champion’ this month?
This month’s Champion is a person who has decided to ‘take the plunge’ and transition from a highly successful career path into the world of business. Our Champion is Nicole Fearon, the last of nine children in a family where she describes ‘I wasn’t brought up, I was dragged up!’ She explain that having five older sisters was like having ‘six mothers’ and she learned how to use this to her advantage by ‘working the network’ - a skill that has been of great value during her career!
How did her career start?
She moved to the UK when she was young and completed her secondary and tertiary education there. After completing her university studies she started her career in the IT sector working in sales with several different companies including HP, Vistorm and a search engine optimization company. In 2003 she and her husband decided to move back to Trinidad and Tobago with their two daughters aged three and five years. The climate and lifestyle ‘pulled them back home’.
What happened next?
Since moving back to T&T she has continued to work in the ICT sector in the IT solutions and corporate sales areas. She has worked with major companies here including Fujitsu, IBM, and Flow - where she was the Corporate Sales Manager. In these roles Nicole found the difference between working in the UK and Trinidad to be quite stark. In the UK, business success revolved around building relationships with customers. In T&T, Nicole says that relationships tend to have a quite different basis. They often go way back to the days when you were a child or to who you are related to. Over the years she has had to build on those connections and build credibility as being a reliable service provider.
What are some of her achievements?
Nicole is a person who many would say is driven. She was once asked why she works so hard. After thinking about it she realized it’s because she wants to see changes for the better - improved business processes, improved circumstances for those around her and a better family life. What drives her is seeing her efforts deliver results that she is proud of. She sets ambitious targets for herself. That’s why she qualified as a member of the IBM Top 100 Club - something else she is proud of. She not only sets tough targets but also achieves them. At Flow she spent two years shaping and implementing sales strategies for media sales and SME sales as well as implementing a Customer Relationship Management System - roles she says that kept her from ever becoming bored!
Why is Nicole our Champion?
Because she has made one of the biggest calls in her life - to give up her corporate career and start up her own business. It’s called ‘Ah!piece’ and will be officially launched before the end of January, 2012. It is an online portal that will enable visitors and people living overseas to purchase unique Trinidad-designed and artisan-made products - including soaps, jewellery, wood carvings and ceramics. She sees the development of ‘Ah!piece as’ a bringing together of all her experiences into one venture that has the potential to grow into a portal for all things Caribbean-designed and made’. She has a solid group of people supporting her including her husband, children, other family members and friends, as well as customers and co-workers who have supported her dream. She also has solid support from the artisans she has approached and her web team - Fenominale - who she says have been very accommodating.
What does this mean for T&T?
The final words that Nicole gave us really sums up what her personal move means for T&T. ‘Faith, trust, belief and some elbow grease and brain juice. When I tell you that I am working on it, you can believe me…. I am really working all avenues to make Ah!piece succeed!’ That’s how an economy changes -through the efforts of driven people like our Champion. Without them such change is impossible.
Key links:Nicole on LinkedIn Ah!Piece
Key question: What can we do to help an ambitious new venture like this succeed? It will generate value from our creative culture!
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