Le Boss fostering Mauritian Entrepreneurship


Le Boss

The finals of the competition ‘Le Boss’ was held yesterday night (2 July 2011) on MBC TV (http://www.mbcradio.tv/browse/news/local/finale-du-concours-televise-le-boss/). Its for the first time that on MBC, the Development Bank of Mauritius (DBM) created the initiative for ‘re-boosting’ Mauritian Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  The website of Le Boss can be accessed here: http://www.dbm.mu/leboss/index.html . The Youtube videos have been uploaded by Darkprint ltd on http://www.youtube.com/user/quickdarkness#p/u. And the Facebook page link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LE-BOSS/107708422646875

There were 7 finalists who were entrepreneurs in a specific industry who had submitted their business plans to a panel of Jury. On the competition, they were given 6 minutes to answer questions of the jury members, who were professionals in their field. The winner of the first edition of ‘Le Boss’ is Ved Luchmun.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB5W7Mcq6Rk]

Ved (the banana transformation guy’)was very proud of winning this competition and became emotional at the end of the show, as all TV viewers witnessed. Many Congratulations to him and wish him all the best for his entrepreneurial spirit and his journey towards self-actualisation.

My Personal Opinion:

Firstly, It was nice to have Mr. Francois Woo, Director of Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile Ltée (CMT), the leading textile company on TV. He told his personal experience of how he started to become where he is today. On the web there is already a short description http://www.factory-buildings.com/compagnie.htm , however his live ‘testimonial’ had a greater weight. What I will retain is that: 1) one needs at least 10 years of learning and gaining experience in the field that one wishes to do business 2) hard work and sacrifice is essential as during this period (10-year), one will make savings, that will be invested in the new company that will take birth 3) With your own money invested, you will be more careful and this will have an impact on your decision-making process. Mr Woo had also taken the support of DBM for the financing of his projects and today, CMT can aspire to be amongst the top ten in garment manufacturing. For me, personally, Francois Woo is a role model for new Mauritian Entrepreneurs who are willing to compete on a global stage by seizing Government Support (whether in form of a DBM loan or help in business planning etc.).

Secondly, the members of the jury asked questions requiring critical thinking as they need to defend their business plan and be convincing. I appreciate the nice job of the members of the jury. Their questions liked to sustainability, feasibility of the business model- in the form of ‘what’s your strategy to tackle X and Y Challenge? What is your marketing plan? Management questions – Can you define Success? How can you assure Quality in your products? etc.. However, the thing of ‘buzzers’ – euhh , this concept is a bit ambiguous for me.

Thirdly, given I am in the shoes of a Freelance Web Developer (or Mauritian Technopreneur), it was nice to see a young finalist defending his eMarketing Business plan (SEO, Copywriting etc.) Miss Nabiilah is also a student whilst trying to conduct her business affairs. This is very encouraging to see female entrepreneurs emerging. I hope the ‘glass ceiling’ will eventually not exist. Also, Web 2.0 can provide most businesses a competitive edge and this has been outlined by someone in the audience in the TV show. So allez Nabiilah, ‘manz r li’ with your Mauritian Technopreneur spirit. I know its not easy as I had done the same during my UoM days.

To conclude, Le Boss has a good start. I hope that MBC could inspire a bit from BBC Dragon’s Den http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/ for any further editions.

What do you think of the show? Do not hesitate to comment….

Ashesh

Graduated from University of Mauritius, Young IT Specialist Award winner from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Part-Time Lecturer Open University of Mauritius. Loves to create websites and perform digital marketing. Blogging since 2007...

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