Gloria Rodriguez - Pharmaceuticals

One of my favorite parts of working in business development as "field staff" is getting to actually go out of the office and meet the amazing businesspeople we serve.  A large part of my time is spent more on "administrative" work - ensuring our local partners have the business training materials they need, helping to create a mentoring handbook, ensuring that finances are in order and that both Ecuadorian and North American partners are well informed about what their counterparts in another part of the world are doing.  But when I can meet with a businessperson like Gloria and hear how the work I do in the office to support our partner organizations like PCDE equips them to in turn empower Gloria, it brings an extra ounce of joy to the day.  So here is a story from a recent visit with Gloria and her husband.

Gloria Rodriguez is no stranger to work in pharmaceuticals.  With over 30 years experience working for multinational pharmaceutical companies to develop formulas, Gloria learned every aspect of production.  However, within large companies any formula she developed belonged to someone else, and she was powerless to help underemployed coworkers find extra hours of work.

Using her work experience and a class taught by Partners Worldwide affiliate PCDE, Gloria wrote a business plan to expand the laboratory she had slowly built with small purchases over several years.  Her goals were to meet the needs of aquaculture and poultry farming contacts, provide employment, and develop new product lines based on her knowledge of biochemistry.  With a small loan, she finished the production areas in the laboratory next to her house and purchased the machines she lacked.

While growth is slow and requires many government permissions and patents, Gloria has already begun to expand her business and give weekend work to underemployed workers.  And with the growth of the business, she already has fulfilled one of her hopes--to provide employment that would allow her husband to return.  He had spend many months living in another city during the week in order to keep his job.  Now he is able to be with his family and put his energy into expanding a family business that they hope will create many more jobs in the coming years.