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Business model

IDEALS ENTREPRENEURS AWARDS 2022

La Carmelina is recognized in the Emprendedores de Ideales awards for its business model: inclusive, full of ideals and outstanding in community building.

Sergio Estrada, the leader of La Carmelina, has made significant contributions to the local culture with his attitude and example by always acting in the interest of the community and being open to collaborating with his restaurant as a space for integration.

The name of its cultural space is called Carmelina in homage to the women of El Carmen de Viboral. To so many slab artists who have put the municipality on the tourist and artistic map. We also recognize supporting entrepreneurial employees within your own company, which is of great value. He radiates passion, contributes and belongs to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in El Carmen de Viboral and the department of Antioquia.

What does this award mean to you and your restaurant?

It is an honor and a great reason for happiness to be invited to participate in the “Entrepreneurs of Ideals” awards. The mere nomination is already enough recognition and reason to continue working in pursuit of common ideals. I proceed to answer the questions asked.

What is your contribution to the community?

I just finished reading a book called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Charman. It struck me for many reasons, especially because the protagonist, like this server, is a lawyer. There you read “life moves into a more magical dimension when you start striving to make the world a more habitable place” p. 190. As a lawyer, I founded a non-profit corporation called the Colombian Center for Constitutional Studies (www.cecec.co) with which we have achieved important social changes. With Carmelina, we managed to undertake and impact the lives of many people.

Being an entrepreneur is much more than having a business unit. It is a whole philosophy of life represented mainly in the service to others through the generation of solutions to their problems or the creation of experiences that will help the integral growth of the team of collaborators and guests (or clients who call regularly).

Carmelina, with our motto CULTURE, HAPPINESS AND GRILL, has a philosophy, a DNA, that commits her to generating an experience that goes beyond gastronomy. The promotion of all the cultural expressions of El Carmen de Viboral, the generation of decent employment, the promotion of entrepreneurship, our interest in creating experiences that nourish the soul and mark the heart of our guests, allows us to affirm that we are much more than a restaurant.

At a time when we are experiencing a global crisis caused by the pandemic, our contribution has been the constant invitation to join forces, to overcome fears, to continue dreaming and make those dreams come true through entrepreneurship. Let’s look at three examples that affirm those words: a. La Cervezaton Carmelina, a special edition of our beer called C+19 (O Carmelina + 19 words of hope) that allowed us to help one hundred families of recyclers from El Carmen de Viboral; b. Carmelina Pasión Emprendedora: it is a new program with which we want to share everything we have learned to reduce the risks of future entrepreneurs; c. Carmelina Gratitude Plan. It consists of a points plan and a card whose value (half) will be allocated to social projects.

What stands out about your business model and business purpose?

This is our purpose: “The Carmelina business organization is supported by a philosophy whose main purpose is to generate unforgettable experiences through the fusion of the best gastronomic preparations on the grill, the house beer and magical spaces full of human warmth. Joy, color, nature, art and culture, which seek to impact the mind, health and soul of our human team, allies and guests”. There, our desire to offer much more than a great gastronomic experience is clearly noted. We want to feed the body and soul of all the people who come close to the Carmelina family. Make them dream, help them make those dreams come true through entrepreneurship, make them sit on our Dream Launch Pad, throw that dream into our Wishing Fountain and always remember that Carmelina was present contributing a small but solid grain of sand.

We could highlight several virtues of our business model, but we would like to mention four: a. Be absolutely consistent and firm with the defense of our purpose. b. Manage to build with our collaborators (or employees) an entrepreneurial team that will help them go from being employees, to being entrepreneurs; c. The enormous respect for the guest (client) whom we consider to be a great investor in trust, money and time. d. Our firm commitment to promoting all cultural expression of El Carmen de Viboral.

What human ideals do you always defend in your business environment?

The answer can be seen through a December 4 Instagram post from the Carmelinaculturayparrilla account. We are clear about our corporate social responsibility, and faced with the warning of how many families were discriminated against by not being able to enter restaurants because they did not have a vaccination card, we declare ourselves in conscientious objection in defense of the fundamental rights of these families and their families. members, enabling a space for the unvaccinated. The decision was not easy, it represented a great risk, but it was necessary to be consistent with our philosophy or DNA, which is based on values ​​such as equality, inclusion, solidarity, union, honesty and respect for the person and their human rights. your business environment?

On behalf of the entire human team of Carmelina and this server, we appreciate the attention given.