Doing Business

Many local companies are still using the same bag of tricks to attract the best and brightest. If your current company or your future startup wants to make its people a competitive advantage, here are three changes you can start with - in this week's "Doing Business" column.

The right pieces seem to be there, but they’re not matching somehow. Entrepreneurs are still not talking the investors’ language; the investors are not yet very familiar or comfortable with the augmented risks of venture capital; and expats don't necessarily have the networks to find the right projects.

Costa Rica’s healthy democracy and active civic participation are something to be proud of. Many organized groups have ensured that economic interests do not overpower environmental or social aspirations. But this capacity of Costa Rican society to raise its voice and create pressure is merely a tool – a tool that can be used for both noble and selfish purposes.

They say everybody has a price. What they don't tell us is that sellers and buyers often have very different prices – prices that have little to do with supply and demand, as economic theory would have us believe.