Nucleus Approach - the Entrepreneurs' Network

07.10.08 - How to benchmark business chambers and associations in order to stimulate changes - criteria, scores and the application in Vietnam

01.10.08 - Brazil: International Empreender goes Colombia, Mexico and Chile to disseminate the Nucleus Approach - see its latest newsletters

27.07.08 - Bonn: SEQUA adopts the Nucleus Approach. Discussion with Rainer Müller-Glodde

24.07.08 - Maurice: Message from Siegfried Jenders about the consideration of the introduction of the Nucleus Approach in Mauritius ...

20.07.08 - Algeria: Jordi Castan and Ederaldo Ribeiro, Joinville, Brazil, train CEOs and Nucleus counsellors of chambers supported by AAPOP

05.05.08 - Munich: The Fundação Empreender / Foundation Entrepreneur, Brazil, and the HWK Munich sign an Agreement of Cooperation ...

07/2007 - Turkey - Brazil: At the 5th Congress of the World Chambers Federation in Istanbul CACB wins in the category of "International Cooperation between chambers' ...

Simone Lehmann, International Consultant, will start to work for SEQUA in November 2008.

From 2002 until 2006, she was involved in the implementation of the Nucleus Approach in Sri Lanka. As SEQUA team member she will support the adaptation of the Nucleus Approach in different contexts starting with a sustainable production programme in Vietnam.

The partnership project between CAINCO - Cámara de Industria, Comercio, Servicios y Turismo -, SEQUA and the DIHT - German Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry - invited Jordi Castan, Brazil, to present the Nucleus Approach and explain how they work and their impact.

CAINCO is offering in the framework of the cooperation with the DIHT services to SME members and MSMEs, which are presently informal enterprises. As CAINCO members they can turn into formal enterprises.

Up to date the activities concentrated on the organisation of the enterprises in order to improve their products, to help them in their registration process and to identify new markets.

The Nucleus Approach permits that CAINCO's already started activities could reach a new impact level. With CAINCO counsellors it would be possible to reach more concrete results and a bigger impact in a shorter time. Entrepreneurs of the same sector can gain more information and know-how through discussions and exchange and can start more activities together.

The high level of the CAINCO counsellors and the partnership project with the DIHT increases the chances, that the creation of Nuclei in Santa Cruz de La Sierra works successfully in a short time.

- the videos of CAINCO as example for the presentation of a chamber and its services (es)

- the presentation of the CAINCO - DIHT - SEQUA project in the SEQUA web site in German.

Discussion between SEQUA - Ralf Meier, Head of Program Management, Dr. Florian Lütticken, Program Coordinator EU, Veronique Chavane, Project Director, responsible also for SEQUA's participation in the AAPOP - GTZ Algeria project - and Rainer Müller-Glodde: SEQUA adopts the Nucleus Approach.

Since its start in 1991, SEQUA's strategy had been always not to involve itself into the partnership projects between German chambers and those in other countries but to concentrate on administration, financing and reporting aspects. Ralf Meier explained that this is starting to change. SEQUA develops and adopts approaches, strategies and instruments for the development of chambers and business associations and offers them as support to chamber partnership and other projects.

Based on the good experiences of the HWK Munich - Fundação Empreender / Foundation Entrepreneur, Brazil, CACB - SEBRAE - KHK Essen, Brazil and bfz Hof, Brazil and Mozambique, GTZ in Sri Lanka and Algeria, SEQUA decided now to adopt the Nucleus Approach and to apply it in different projects. Dr. Florian Lütticken told about applications sent to the EU for projects in Central America and Santa Cruz, Bolivia. In planned projects in Vietnam and Bangladesh is considered to apply the Nucleus Approach for the introduction of "Sustainable Production". The bfz Hof is preparing a project in Pakistan and applies the Nucleus Approach in the south of Mozambique together with GTZ. In addition is in discussion the application of the approach in South Africa, eventually together with CACB, Brazil.

Message from Siegfried Jenders, German freelance consultant, who observed the implementation of the Nucleus Approach in Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2007:

"Here in Mauritius, twenty years ago was implemented an impressive project in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Munich - ZOPP, Metaplan etc., everything is still there. Last year, an EU mission proposed an approach and activities very similar to the Nucleus Approach. And now, I also integrated this approach into my project proposal, also because a number of new chambers were created during the last years."

Jordi Castan and Ederaldo Ribeiro, Joinville, Brazil, train CEOs and Nucleus counsellors of chambers supported by AAPOP in chamber and Nucleus management. The assignment is result of the integration of SEQUA into the AAPOP - GTZ project.

Ederaldo Ribeiro was the first Nucleus counsellor in the context of the development of the Nucleus Approach. He started his job in September 1991 in the ACE of Joinville. Some years later he joined the team of the Fundação Empreender / Foundation Entrepreneur, worked for some time as freelance consultant and participated in the dissemination of the Nucleus Approach in Brazil. Presently he runs his own consulting and training company with up to 16 collaborators.

17 years after the start of the partnership project between the Chamber of Crafts and Small Industries for Munich and Upper Bavaria and chambers of commerce and entrepreneurs in the northeast of Santa Catarina, Brazil, HWK and FE confirmed their cooperation by signing a respective agreement.

Heinrich Traublinger, President of the HWK, Uwe Stortz, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurs of São Bento do Sul, who signed the agreement on behalf of Adriano Zimmermann, President of the FE, Lothar Semper, CEO of the HWK

For the third time since 1996 members of Environment Nuclei from the north-east of Santa Catarina visited the "International Trade Fair for Water - Sewage - Refuse - Recycling" - IFAT in Munich.

The participants were mainly environment specialists in larger companies and come from Brusque, São Francisco do Sul, Jaraguá do Sul, Itajai and Blumenau. Uwe Stortz, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurs of Sao Bento do Sul, led the group.

Environment Nuclei have been formed in the region in the context of the partnership project between the Brazilian business chambers, the Fundação Empreender and the HWK for Munich and Upper Bavaria since the early 90s. There was and is a high suffering and pressure regarding the disposal of industrial waste and sewage.

Apart from the IFAT, the group visited a number of private and public institutions in the sector.

For the evaluation of the trip by the participants see the Portuguese version (pdf).

Representatives of the HWK Munich and the Brazilian members of Environment Nuclei

The framework conditions for successful entrepreneurial activities depend highly on the quality and intensity of the "Public Private Dialogue".

Simone Lehmann analyzes the case of the ACE Joinville, Brazil, in order to show in Vietnam how chambers and the public sector can cooperate in favour of the development of the local and regional economy.
More ...

Simone Lehmann, Bonn, Germany, ex-ESSP - GTZ in Kandy, Sri Lanka, started her second Nucleus mission in Vietnam

On request of GTZ - SMEDP Simone Lehmann elaborated after her first mission in November 2007 some operational proposals in which way and where the Nucleus Approach can be applied in order to stimulate organisational development processes in business associations and to mobilize the entrepreneurs. Likewise in Algeria, in Vietnam is an important point of discussion the relationship between associations / chambers and governments - see the short analysis of some associations (en / ppt / 2 MB).

The final report and the decision about the start of a project based on the Nucleus Approach is still pending.

On invitation of the NEF and the PMSME, master carpenter Christian Treffer, Munich, Germany, went again to Kandy in order to work with Carpenter and Saw Miller Nuclei.

In 1994 / 95 he had worked with the carpenter Nuclei in the northeast of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Afterwards he organized and accompanied Brazilian entrepreneurs during their three month apprenticeships in Munich. In 2005, he trained and counselled the Carpenter Nuclei of the Sri Lankan chambers in the Central Region. In 2007, he accompanied the Saw Miller Nucleus of the CCICP, Kandy, during their trip to Germany. They visited saw millers, training institutions, chambers and the trade fair "RESALE" in order to check the market of used machinery.

Interview with Jordi Castan, Brazilian entrepreneur, about Nuclei, chambers and the entrepreneurs (English / Français)

Jordi Castan is engaged in the development of the Nucleus Approach since its start in 1991. In 2004, he told about his own experiences with Nuclei and the changes in the enterprises and the chambers in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

The Algerian group met him in Joinville and discussed with him aspects of the organisational development of chambers of entrepreneurs.

Now, on invitation of AAPOP he came to Algeria in order to participate in some workshops with the chambers and to do consulting concerning the implementation of the Nucleus Approach.

If I give you a pfennig, you will be one pfennig richer and I'll be one pfennig poorer.
But if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too. - Einstein (Pfennig = old German smallest coin)

Dave Maurice, National Coordinator of the PMSME - GTZ and board member of the NEF, sent this aphorism, referring to the presentation of the Nucleus Approach to a new group of entrepreneurs and the exchange of know-how and experiences among Nucleus members. The crucial question is: “Do you put your business secrets on the table?”
More ...

The NEF - Nucleus Enterprise Foundation - started as a non-profit consulting organisation after the end of the promotion of the ESSP, Kandy, by GTZ in June 2007. Since then, some of the supported chambers and associations gave up to organise and run Nuclei. The argument seems to be simple : No subsidy, no Nucleus!

Amina YOOSUF, director of the NEF, analyses in the latest news letter the situation.

When we asked in December 2007 the CACB in Brasilia, why the number of chambers running Nuclei had decreased from its peak of 900 in 2004 to presently around 600, the answer was similar : chambers not getting any more subsidies from the Programa Empreender / SEBRAE lost interest.

The subsidisation of chambers and Nucleus activities has always been a point of discussion - but not in Santa Catarina, Brazil, where the Nucleus Approach started in 1991 in the framework of the partnership project between the Chamber of Crafts and Small Industries for Munich and Upper Bavaria and chambers of commerce and industry (ACE) / Fundação Empreender. There, subsidies were never necessary. The Nuclei and the organisational development of the chambers started to work because the entrepreneurs were convinced of the approach and wanted the Nuclei.

The question is, what we can derive from the Brazilian and Sri Lankan experiences for the Nucleus Approach in Algeria.
More ...

On 31.12.2007 in 12 chambers 58 Nuclei (+35) with 521 participating entrepreneurs (+322) are active

Region	Chamber	Nuclei	Participants
West	CAM Tlemcen CAM Oran CAM Mostaganem CCI Dahra CCI Tafna Total	3 8 7 8 3 29 (+19)	44 61 51 64 24 244 (+157)
East	Bejaïa Sétif Jijel Total	9 6 2 17 (+11)	94 56 18 168 (+ 115)
Centre	Alger Tizi Ouzou Blida Tipaza Total	1 5 1 5 12 (+5)	08 45 08 48 109 (+50)
Total	31.12.2007	58 (+35)	521 (+322)

(CAM = Chamber of Arts and Small Industries / CCI = Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

277 (53 %) of the participants are chamber members; 244 (47 %) entered in contact with a chamber the first time. They are not yet members.

The CACB - Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Entrepreneurs of Brazil, Brasília - has started a Yahoo group on the international level in order to exchange information and experiences about the development of Nuclei of entrepreneurs and of chambers and associations. Up to now are dominating contributions in English and Portuguese. In case of interest in participating enter in yahoo groups and look for the group "International_Enterprising" or contact the administrator of the group bruno.hernandez@cacb.org.br

During the last 25 years, Rainer KOLSHORN, ex-GTZ, developed and disseminated the methodology CEFE in four continents with much courage, persistence and perseverance. He created a paradigm for the promotion and the development of small enterprises. Hundreds of counsellors and trainers and some hundred thousands of entrepreneurs have been influenced through his work. This is extraordinary because also in the international technical cooperation the modes come and go, sometimes without leaving substantial impact.

Many of the ideas of the Nucleus Approach are based on CEFE. All the elements of the methodology CEFE can be applied also in Nuclei. In this way the Nucleus Approach contributes to the institutional sustainability of the principles of CEFE.

Last Sunday, Rainer KOLSHORN died. We will miss him very much. CEFE will continue.
Rainer Mueller-Glodde

A group of chamber, government and AAPOP representatives studied the application of the Nucleus Approach and its effects in Brazil.
More in French and Portuguese ...

Dr. Melim graduated with the doctorate about the development of Social Capital among micro and small enterprises: the experiences of the Sector Nuclei of the "Program Entrepreneur" in Brazil. -
More ...

CACB wins competition in the category of "International Cooperation between chambers

At the 5th Congress of the World Chambers Federation in Istanbul CACB wins in the category of "International Cooperation between chambers' with the" Programa Capacitar Nordeste "- training program for chambers in the northeast - in front of competitors from Germany, Spain and England.
The project bases on the Nucleus Approach and was supported by the German BMZ via SEQUA and the regional federation KHW Essen, Germany.

Welcome
to the Nuclei of Entrepreneurs
in Chambers and Associations

News and Events

Last update 24.10.2008

Links to other Nucleus promoting / running institutions

Welcome to the Nuclei of Entrepreneurs in Chambers and Associations

News and Events

Last update 24.10.2008

Links to other Nucleus promoting / running institutions

Welcome
to the Nuclei of Entrepreneurs
in Chambers and Associations