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Brazil's Banco da Amazônia is launching the Banco da Amazônia Award for Conscious Entrepreneurship (Prêmio Banco da Amazônia de Empreendedorismo Consciente), an international award to promote ecosystem projects for conscientious business in the Amazon region.
The objective is to encourage the largest number of people in the world to come up with concrete, viable solutions for the economic and social development of the region, with zero destruction.
The prize is open to everyone regardless of age or profession. Individual entries will be accepted that are also the product of group or organization efforts.
Entries must be submitted no later than January 31, 2006. Complete rules are available on the web at http://www.bancoamazonia.com.br/premio and at Banco da Amazônia branches in Brazil.
The best project will be awarded the equivalent of US$ 100,000. Prizes will also be given in three categories: authors up to 30 years of age, between 30 and 65, and over 65.
The best in each category will receive round-trip airline tickets for two to anywhere in the Amazon from anywhere in the world, not to exceed 8,000 miles.
The trip involves staying at least seven days in cities in the Amazon. Hotel accommodations for two people for 15 days are included.
Candidates will need to submit detailed strategic and operational plans for implementing business ecosystems with 360-degree benefits.
Business ecosystems are integrated networks of enterprises in a specific region that cross different industries, involve several activities, and bring together numerous capabilities in a sort of defined mutualism of activities that complement one another to meet needs within a larger spectrum.
The benefits, as a consequence, will be "360 degrees." They will affect everyone and include the preservation and rebuilding of biomass and habitats, the extraction and tapping of knowledge, quality of life, and well-being of local populations and new arrivals, all of which will generate for the region not only economic results, but benefits of every type.
Viable Solution
It is intended that the projects presented are characterized as specific and viable solutions, in other words, strategic and operational plans for the creation and development of various managerial organizations, together capable of contributing to the realization of the developmental vision for the Amazon region.
Economic and social development that signifies not just quantitative growth of GDP and other economic indicators, but also consistent improvement of the quality of life throughout the region, with no exclusions.
Zero destruction means not just maintaining what is still untouched, but also restoring what has already been destroyed, of the country's and the world's greatest ecological asset.
The purpose of the Banco da Amazônia Award for Conscious Entrepreneurship is to provide high visibility to these new businesses models, which are preferable alternatives to the forms of economic exploitation currently extant in the area as well as the ones that may be imposed in the near future, starting from traditional economic activities, based on the intensive use of resources.
The design and installation of these new models, in line with the emerging age of knowledge and services, will not simply assure the maintenance of the enormous intrinsic value represented by the ecological assets of Amazônia, but will also be capable of leveraging the economy of the region itself and even of Brazil. In that sense, Amazônia ceases to be a problem and effectively becomes a factor for development of the country and the planet.
Evaluation and Dissemination
The registered works will pass through a pre-selection process carried out by the Brazilian company "Amana-Key," which provides support to the Banco da Amazônia on strategic and administrative issues related to the Banco da Amazônia Award for Conscious Entrepreneurship.
The best 30 will be chosen in the pre-selection stage, which will be directed to a judging panel for their final evaluation. The judging panel, formed by people with broad knowledge for evaluation of the proposals, will be responsible for indicating the 12 project finalists and the winner.
The authorship of the projects will not be known by the assessors until the final stage, when the finalists will make live presentations. The entire evaluation process will be tracked by an audit company with an international reputation, in such a way that there is no favoritism.
The three finalists for the main prize and for the prizes in each one of the three categories will make a presentation of their works in an event held in the Amazon Region itself, on March 27, 2006, in the presence of the judges and open to the public.
At this time, the Judging Commission will already have chosen the winning works in the various categories. The presentation is, in fact, one way of allowing the 12 best works to be introduced to a wider public.
The following day, March 28, 2006, a seminar will be held for investors who wish to learn more about the concept of conscientious ecosystem business and about the winning projects.
The idea is for guests invited from abroad and Brazil to gather at this official event of the Banco da Amazônia, in the presence of the bank's officers and contractors, to talk with the investors present.
It will be an opportunity to conduct business. The proposal is that, working with the Federal Government itself, the seminar will create interest among foreign investors in attracting capital into the country, seeking long-term returns for the accomplishment of those projects with great economic perspective and a maximum level of social and ecological responsibility.
As a further benefit of the initiative, it is anticipated that the Banco da Amazônia Award for Conscious Entrepreneurship will give rise to a special program, a series of educational seminars, allowing many Brazilian specialists to extend this new concept of ecosystem and conscientious entrepreneurialism in the country and abroad.
Banco da Amazônia
The Banco da Amazônia is the Brazilian Federal Government's financial agent with the mission of promoting the Region's socioeconomic development on a sustainable basis.
The institution has been following the letter of its mission, each year expanding its activities with three major goals: social inclusion and reduction of social inequalities; growth with job generation, employment and income; promotion and expansion of citizenship and stimulation of democracy.
The commitment to changes contained in the Banco da Amazônia's Strategic Project 2004-2006 makes an explicit contribution towards drawing a varied developmental model for the area, which seeks to unify environmental and social concerns.
It seeks to catalyze the creation of solutions which are preferable alternatives to the forms of economic exploitation currently extant in the area as well as the ones that may be imposed in the near future, starting from traditional economic activities, based on the intensive use of resources.
The idea recognizes the possibility of reversing this tendency through the application of new models, in line with the emerging era of knowledge and services.
Thus, the leveraging of the economy of the region itself and even of Brazil is proposed, starting from the enormous intrinsic value of ecological assets represented by Amazônia (a value that only exists insofar as it is not completely exhausted).
Amana-Key
Amana-Key is a private Brazilian company with more than 30 years of activity, specializing in areas of management, strategy and reinvention (radical innovation) of organizations, seeking solutions for equations which at first glance seem impossible to resolve.
It has worked on educational programs, updating executives on the most innovative trends in the areas of management, strategy and leadership, and on projects to reinvent companies and their actions. Assuredly, it is one of the most specialized companies in the world in this particular sector.
It seeks knowledge and know-how through international research and access to the world's best specialists, who come to Brazil to participate in events organized by the Company for local executives, to foster modernization of thought processes and refinement of competencies.
More than 7,000 high level professionals from private and public organizations pass through its education programs focussed on the development of an updated and conscientious management.
Its purpose is to serve as a world benchmark in radical innovations which are capable of generating genuine development by people, organizations, communities and the world at large.
Banco da Amazônia - www.bancoamazonia.com.br
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