The next paragraph of this article was found by our marketing team in an ancient history museum. You have been warned, reader.
For the great master Aristotle and his philosophy of republicanism, the human being “flourished” and reached his fullness within his community (also known as polis). Man or woman, the citizen reached the maximum expression of his or her faculties by contributing to the Common Good. That is to say, to that which allowed the development of both the rest of the individuals and the community itself.
But almost 2400 years have passed since the postulation of this Aristotelian thesis. How to put it into effect in today’s world? How to put it into effect given our role in the software industry? We have argued, many times and in different articles, that the world’s future is defined by one specific word: software. Software’s ubiquity makes it possible for a new way of industrialization to emerge, which has little in common with the classical industries from the past.
For instance, this ubiquity has led Epidata to the creation of technological hubs within certain universities in our country, like the National University of La Matanza (UNLaM). This allows students to gain professional experience while continuing their graduate studies. Furthermore, we have promoted the development of projects in collaboration with the Laboratory on Foundations and Tools for Software Engineering, which belongs to the University of Buenos Aires.
Our commitment to education
Epidata is an international company with a global scope, and, during the last year, we have had different interactions with other institutions of higher education, such as Hofstra University, from the city of New York, and the University of Guelph, located at Ontario, Canada. This belief in fostering research work between the industry sector and the academy has also led to the orchestration of many IT workshops in neighboring institutions such as Andrés Bello University in Chile.
Organized within the framework of the Austral Education Group, we had the chance to interact with these academic communities. Austral Group is an educational services firm that coordinates international business academic programs and consulting experiences in Latin America, the United States and Europe. It focuses on offering business students the opportunity for personal interaction with senior executives from multinational corporations, renowned economists, senior government officials, and entrepreneurs who are shaping the business environment across the world.
While interacting both with Hofstra University and the University of Guelph, it was a fascinating experience to hear the students’ opinions on which companies are entering the US and Canadian markets with innovative strategies.
The encounters with Hofstra University and the University of Guelph were organized according to three different but complementary perspectives. The first one was Strategic Management, where the students posed questions on Epidata’s growth throughout the years. Secondly, it was the time for Human Resources, where we analyzed which values should be carried to the North American market in order to have a good performance. At this point, we made valuable exchanges sharing the particularities of our different region’s folklore. Finally, we talked about Operational Management, where we reviewed the key points on how software is actually sold.
The world is a competitive place with many “players” aiming for the same goal. But it should not be forgotten our responsibilities as global citizens, like working to have a true outreach to society and improving the lives of others. At Epidata, we believe that engaging with different higher institutions of education allows communities separated by thousands of miles to experience the benefits of shared learning and work collaboratively for a better future. Or, as Aristotle would claim, to contribute to the Common Good.
