Jorge Luis Contreras Herrera Email & Phone Number

Guatemala City, Guatemala, Guatemala

Enhance processes and boost sales to lead the Solar Revolution

Project ManagementInnovationDigital TransformationDigital MarketingSales

Antigua Guatemala

I gave talks and workshops on Design Thinking and Innovation to more than 3,000 people.Over the course of 20 years studying —and nearly a decade teaching— innovation and design thinking, I discovered that the biggest obstacle that people and companies face is the belief that innovation is out of their reach. Based on this insight, I created Innovation Everywhere with the specific goal of helping to overcome such obstacle.

Guatemala

I trained and coached more than 2,200 entrepreneurs in Business Model Generation. I created and continuously improved the syllabus for all the programs offered by the Municipal Entrepreneurship Center —the first formal entrepreneurship center in all Central America. After analyzing the impact of the technical training offered by the Municipality of Guatemala, we discovered that most people managed to learn to produce goods and services, but they rarely knew how to build a successful business around the skills they had learned. To overcome this limitation, we decided to create a free training program in entrepreneurship and business administration. We made it free because we intended to help the people who needed it the most. We were baffled when we discovered that more than 25% of those enrolled had university degrees and had come to us because all their education hadn't actually taught them how to start a business in real life —including MBA's from fancy universities.

I led and achieved the proposal, discussion, and approval of innovative regulation, such as the controversial Territorial Arrangement Plan of Guatemala City.Aware of the fact that private investment is the engine that drives economic growth, we strictly followed the Design Thinking methodology to determine what would be the single change in municipal regulation that would cause the greatest positive impact possible on the acceleration of private investment, to shape it into a viable proposal, to discuss it with all the relevant political and civil authorities, and to get it approved and successfully implemented.

I performed economic analyses of proposals for modification of current regulations.Back then, Economic Analysis of the Law was practically unheard of in Guatemala. We knew about it in the universities, but there was no documentation of it been used by any governmental authorities. Leading the field as usual, my contention that I was the first person to implement Economic Analysis of the Law in this country has not been disputed up to this day.

I delivered Business Model Generation lessons to over 9,000 students from all over Latin America.It can be hard to imagine nowadays, but back in 2014 online learning was still incipient. At that time, I hadn’t heard about any other initiative to produce a MOOC in Guatemala. When Galileo University came up with this pioneering project, I knew I just had to be in.

I gave the Business Model Generation course to the Postgraduate students.This Postgraduate was designed as the most effective way to improve the employability and job prospects of the Engineering graduates, by adding to their already excellent technical skills: business acumen, entrepreneurship networking, and more than 100 hours of hands-on start-up experience.

I delivered the courses Economic Process I, II, and III to students from all faculties of the university. Universidad Francisco Marroquín was the first university in Guatemala to adopt the Socratic Method as a means to improve the learning experience. I was lucky enough to be part of the first cohort of teachers who received the training to use this method and then implemented it in the classrooms. Such was our success that the use of the Socratic Method was extended to all departments and is still the norm up to this day.

Maestría, Economía, Cum Laude

Licenciatura, Economics

Licenciatura, Administración De Empresas Con Especialización En Finanzas