ActionCOACH Guyana marks a decade in business

FOR the past ten years, ActionCOACH Guyana has been dedicated to helping local businesses scale up and improve their service delivery. Since its inception in November 2014, the local business coaching and development organisation has grown to become one of the largest private training institutes in the country.

During an interview with the Sunday Chronicle, Dr. Vishnu Doerga, Chairman of ActionINVEST Caribbean Inc., explained that the company’s core mission is business development. “Our vision is Guyana’s development through business re-education,” he said.

Reflecting on the company’s origins, Dr Doerga shared that, after years of experience in various business roles, he recognised that local businesses needed additional support to expand and thrive.
The chairman highlighted that ActionCOACH, which is ISO 9001 certified for coaching and training in Guyana, has made a significant impact over the years. The organisation has worked with over 20,000 women entrepreneurs, in partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.

Additionally, through collaborations with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ActionCOACH is currently providing direct support to more than 200 women entrepreneurs. This he said is beside the almost 1,000 companies they have worked with over the last ten years, helping them to scale from small to medium and medium to large enterprises and the tens of thousands of employees that have also been trained.

According to the chairman, the core concept behind coaching is to help individuals gain more clarity on their vision and their goals while helping them map a path through a planning process and holding them accountable.
“So, if you said you’re going to get this done, this week let’s get it done and if they don’t know how, we will train them on how to do it and then continuously help the business move week by week forward so that they will get to accomplish their goals, whether it’s opening more branches, serving more clients, employing more people,” he disclosed.

Dr. Doerga explained that ActionCOACH focuses on businesses that are unique and scalable. After an initial assessment, each business is placed into a coaching programme tailored to align with its specific goals.
When asked about the impact of ActionCOACH on Guyana’s development, Dr. Doerga noted that the company’s timing was ideal, as it started just a year before the oil and gas industry took off in Guyana. He emphasised that the company immediately began working with businesses aiming to elevate their service levels, and, to date, all of those businesses have experienced significant growth.

Over the years, ActionCOACH has expanded its operations, not only within Guyana but across the Caribbean, offering a broader range of services under the ActionINVEST Caribbean umbrella. One of the latest initiatives under this umbrella, he shared, is the International Business Conference, recently held in Guyana. The event brought together around 600 local and international businesses and investors, facilitating hundreds of business-to-business meetings and fostering new connections, joint ventures, and collaborations.

Dr. Doerga concluded by highlighting the organisation’s belief that creating more employment in Guyana requires addressing the gaps within the country’s economy and supporting business growth is key to filling those gaps.

“We need a lot more agro-processing… a lot more manufacturing; infrastructure is being built on the public sector side, it needs to be matched on the private sector side so there’s so much more that needs to be done, we believe that we can be an accelerator in making that just happen a lot smoother,” he said.

Meanwhile, looking ahead, Dr Doerga noted that the company aims to continue its growth and further help local businesses to develop and grow in various industries.

With plans underway for the expansion into a third location, he noted that this facility will be modern and contain all training tools that they utilise to deliver services at the highest levels.

“The next ten years is really to make sure that we are no longer classified as a developing country, if it is up to us here at ActionCOACH and ActionINVEST Caribbean, we must in ten years be able to say that Guyana is a developed country.”