by Anna Szlendak
Today we are talking with Antoni Luís Ferreira, an Aych expert in Business Modeling from Portugal.
Antonio, you are a business coach, how does it work?
Well, I do various things, I am a business coach, I am a business advisor. I work as well as a product designer in several areas, I mean not only in business, but also in culture, social innovation, tourism, territorial development and so on.
One of your projects is Verde Novo.
Well, actually it is a small company. I work in two small companies, one is more business oriented and this one, Verde Novo is more focused in the area of tourism, culture, social innovation and territorial development. We try to create a value, but not only economical but also cultural and environmental one. We have like systemic approach to territories and sectors and what we do, we develop strategic plans, we work also as consultants in those areas, we help to conceive and plan projects. We also organize events, publish books. We do a lot of things, according to what our customers want, but also we develop a lot of projects by ourselves. Sometimes we try to implement them, sometimes we look for partners who would help us to do that.
What do you think about international cooperation?
I think it is very important, I´ve been working in some projects that are related with that kind of dynamics.
What about your cooperation with AYCH?
I was a coach in the first phase of the project in Santo Tirso. Mostly I was coaching entrepreneurs’ projects. I don´t know the entire project, I worked only in part of it, but from my experience I can say it has a good methodology. It is great for young entrepreneurs to have a chance to cooperate and interact with other entrepreneurs from other countries. I think that sometimes it is not easy to find a lot of entrepreneurs with right profile to benefit from all what is possible from the project. I wish more young people have a chance to get to know the project. I will take part in Creative Jam in Santo Tirso as well, when it will take place in autumn.
So, how does coaching process look like?
We are available to help to all projects that were selected, it´s like 17 or 18 projects. We have a team of coaches and we are helping in very flexible way. A part of that we have around 5 workshops in specific areas, like teaming, business modelling, finance and marketing. We have also scheduled coaching sessions for each project and if any of them needs an advice they can always contact us.
