Idea 371 of 500. Cluster 18: Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
Mentoring from abroad for the businesses in this list: one professional abroad paired with one business at home
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
Every idea in cluster 18 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Choose 10 ideas from this appendix that are already running as small businesses near you, and ask each owner the one question they would put to an expert abroad. Then match five of those questions to professionals from a Sri Lankan association abroad and set up a one-hour call for each. If the owners want a second call, and an association will fund the programme, you have a model.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan professional association abroad that wants a structured way to help home and would fund a matching programme its members can join.
- What leaves today
- The working knowledge of Sri Lankans abroad stays abroad while businesses at home learn by trial and error; one pairing moves that knowledge to where it earns.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
What bonds sold to Sri Lankans abroad have and have not done - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions that could carry value back
More from cluster 18
- 361A directory of Sri Lankans abroad: who does what, where, and what they will help with, verified
- 362Return-relocation services: the school, the house, the car, the tax, in one package
- 363Sri Lanka House in London, Melbourne and Toronto: a shop, a café and a desk, the Colombo model abroad
- 364Money-transfer products that buy a specific thing at home (a course, a machine, a roof) rather than cash
- 365Investment clubs of Sri Lankans abroad that own one business each at home, with a manager on the ground
- 366Import agencies in each city with a Sri Lankan community, stocking Sri Lankan brands and nothing else
Idea 371 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.