Very Short Interview No. 1 (Week 3)

What’s your occupation? For how many years?

Manuel Schiappa Pietra is the President and CEO of Free Balance and Information Technology for the past 10 years. Free Balance builds public management solution for underdeveloped governments. The company believes that the foundation of democracy is a good governance and can only be accomplished with sound fiscal management. According to Manuel Schiappa Pietra, customers are the core of his company so much so that the company includes them in their product development process. He mentions that FreeBalance does not repurpose enterprise solutions. FreeBalance software is used to manage a quarter trillion (US) annual budgets worldwide.

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

The dictionary definition of an entrepreneur specifies it as a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business and usually with considerable initiative and risk.

Being an entrepreneur starts with embracing a new idea and transforming it into a business initiative to generate revenues and profits. Risk and reward are the core principles for an entrepreneur. Organizational skills and lots of enthusiasm are paramount in the life of an entrepreneur.

What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?

A clear and better understanding of the business tools available. To study and evaluate “real life” examples of other businesses – successful and failures. Independent thought, the courage to make a decision, the methodology to draft a business plan, the people skills into which build negotiating ability.

 How did you find your team members to help build your organization?

Through executive recruiters, professional social networks and “word-of-mouth”. Freebalance wants to attract and reward and repain (to keep someone in the company) the best people to maximize our ability to reach our corporate objectives for company revenue growth and profitability. Freebalance human resources plan are created to take advanatage of our customer markets and reflect unique business opportunities for someone to join our company. Our plan rewards continuous achievements, innovation, and hard work.

I couldn't agree more that I wish that the education I received in school was more of a hands own, experience oriented kind of learning. That's the way I can truly learn, grasp, and retain real life experiences and information. I also appreciate the way he developed his team members because social networking is huge and very opportunistic. His job has purpose, and helping underdeveloped governments is a real life issue that he gets to help which is so rewarding and inspiring.