Business Spotlight: Solutions to Poverty Drive Entrepreneurial Professor

When Jose Brache was growing up in the Dominican Republic back in the ‘70s and ‘80s it was easy to find poverty – in fact, it’s still prevalent there. The key for Brache, a professor at the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, was learning from such conditions.

“I was a Boy Scout and visited many regions of my country and saw the tough reality of many people who were living in the ‘poverty trap,’” he said. “That raised questions and made me think of potential solutions.”

Brache’s parents came from humble beginnings and his father became an entrepreneur out of necessity, building a successful real estate development company from nothing. As he watched his father’s progress in the business world, Brache took notes.

“I learned that fundamentally if you are able to find a spot in life where you can create value – and you are flexible and willing to learn from your experiences – you can make a substantial contribution in any field,” he said.

Brache has been living, breathing, and preaching entrepreneurship ever since. He is an economist with a Ph.D. in Management from Adolfo Ibanez University and a Master’s in Applied Economics from Georgetown University. His research interests include international entrepreneurship, open innovation, inter-firm cooperation, SME´s internationalization, technology commercialization, geographic co-location, and innovation management.

Assisting both established and aspiring entrepreneurs with the challenging task of value creation is one of Brache’s passions. He says he strongly believes in building and nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems as a pathway toward stronger and better economies.

Brache, also director of the Huizenga Business Innovation Academy, says that coming to NSU gave him an opportunity to see entrepreneurship from its inception.

“The academy is a fantastic academic and scholarship program,” he said. “Students have the opportunity to get funding and run on-campus businesses. They also have a chance to get seed funding at the end of their program. The sheer possibility of making a contribution to the academy and its students was enough to bring me here.”

Brache’s relocation was quite a testimony to Shark Nation’s magnetism. He arrived at NSU in August 2021 from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, where he spent three years as the director of the Master of Commercialization and Entrepreneurship program.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, New Zealand and Florida see the world through different lenses, Brache says, because of their stark differences in other characteristics.

“New Zealand is a developed nation with one of the highest living standards in all of the world,” he said. “Many of the companies that I had the chance to work with had an orientation toward foreign markets because New Zealand only has a population of about five million people.

“In Florida, nascent businesses are exposed to more growing opportunities because of the size of the market in the country. I observe that many startups have a regional or national orientation instead of an international orientation.”

For Brache, those characteristics create an educational opportunity to instill a broader perspective in the students he teaches at NSU.

“I think that it is our responsibility as educators to show that there are many opportunities for Florida startups in foreign markets,” he said.

Knowledge is a two-way street, Brache says, adding that students at NSU are creative and savvy at identifying and developing innovative business opportunities.

“They are interested in topics that are ‘Best for our World,’” he said. “We have academy students with projects that try to solve environmental challenges, develop healthier foods, improve the wellness of people in the community with apps that tackle anxiety and depression, and contribute to those that are more vulnerable with not-for-profit initiatives.”

Posted 06/05/22