Sourcing the World’s Untapped Talent
We’re living in perhaps the most important crossroads in human history. A time when the imperfect systems of the past collide with opportunity for a utopian future, fueled by a technological revolution and a global spiritual awakening. The outcome of which will be determined by our capacity to grasp the urgency of both.
For me, the answer lies in Brazil.
Brazil is the land of dichotomy; beauty that fills the soul, and pain that rips it apart. Home to 58 billionaires and nearly a million indigenous peoples. A population of tremendous creative capacity, shackled by their colonial past and iniquitous present. A country within a region of contrasts. A place of two worlds, whose survival increasingly depends on one another.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which describes the current and exponentially evolving environment driven by a fusion of technology and innovation, is underway and disrupting almost every industry in every country. And Brazil is no exception. Economies around the world are in a race to leave industrialization behind, adapting instead to technology-focused, entrepreneurial societies fueled by innovative, creative problem solvers.
Latin America has the largest skills gap in the world. But remains rich in untapped potential. Having spent ten years living and working in the region, I’ve been witness to it. Meanwhile, nearly one in four live in an urban slum with little access to opportunity or quality education. Just recently, Brazil made sweeping cuts to its public education system despite the fact that roughly one in three youth remain unemployed.
Not long ago, I spent a month in Brazil on an expedition to test assumptions about a vision; the new frontier of the 21st century is not unexplored territory, it’s the overlooked potential of people living in poverty, the creative genius of slum communities, and the promise of creating a more inclusive economy for the benefit of all.
Three in four companies in Latin America have difficulty sourcing talent. And a growing body of research demonstrates that investment in diversity and inclusion yields improved performance. The type of outside-the-box thinking required by the 21st century economy resides within the marginalized peripheries of the old system, in the slums where the convenience of the right angle is nonexistent.
I arrived back San Francisco with testimonials from over ten companies detailing their struggles sourcing qualified talent in Brazil, an enhanced sense of the ecosystem working to empower low income youth, and content revealing the barriers, dreams, and dedication of youth living in the country’s largest favela community, where I once called home for more than a year. We also delivered twelve Google Chromebooks to a partner NGO as part of an initiative to launch a tech innovation lab to provide access to skills training. With record talent shortages around the world, it’s not longer a question of finding talent; we need to build it.
To achieve our vision my Co-Founder Natalie Russell and I launched Plataforma Impact, a social enterprise pioneering the way the world sources untapped talent. We are leveraging existing social initiatives that provide training in both soft skills and technology, building a diverse pipeline of specialized talent, and creating a network of employers that offer insight on skills in demand and opportunities for graduates. Starting in Brazil, we plan to expand across Latin America and beyond.
By harnessing untapped talent and curating it to the needs of the market, we aim to service the appetite of the innovation economy while breaking the cycle of poverty for millions. Moreover, igniting this potential empowers those living the realities of social and environmental injustice today to be the thought leaders and the changemakers of tomorrow.
The future is under construction. And the decisions we make today as citizens, consumers, and investors are actively shaping the place we’ll call home. Though our collective conscious is increasingly influenced by technology, we remain fully autonomous over its use. We have a moral obligation to use it to build a world that works for all of us. If we don’t, we just may be denying ourselves the next vital step in our own evolution.
Gary Carrier and Natalie Russell are the founders of Plataforma Impact. Both have extensive experience in international development, collectively facilitating more than $17M in investments to more than thirty social enterprises across Latin America.
