With Aruban Prime Minister Mike Eman

On Saturday night,  I was invited to speak at the 65th Anniversary dinner of the Aruba Trade & Industry Association.  Over 350 political and business leaders attended this celebration.  When my presentation had to start with “Your Excellency, The Prime Minister of Aruba”, you know that you are at an important event!

With the global recession, the island has been going through its share of challenges, but there is a lot that all business people can learn from the people of Aruba.

1. Resourcefulness. The island has no fresh water, so they built a huge desalination plant that now produces some of the best drinking water in the world.  With a constant breeze on the island, wind is a major source of their power!  All small business owners can talk about problems, but it is the successful ones that execute solutions out of the resources they have.

2. Customer Service as a competitive advantage.  With beautiful weather and beaches, the island is very dependent on tourism.  (Where a large majority comes from America.)  Aruba’s customer service oriented economy does an excellent job of making American tourists and business people feel right at home.  They understand that in the crowded field of tourist destinations, customer service is the only long term advantage.

With Minister Michelle Winklaar

3. Building community. In Aruba, people of multiple ethnic origins all work together in peace on a 5X19 mile coral rock island in the middle of the ocean with few natural resources (a lesson we really need to learn in the US). In addition, the government, businesses and community know how to work to get things done.

Personally, I felt very privileged to be part of this event and hope that I can return to the region in 2011!

More photos of the event are at here!