Knowledge Network: Research and Opinions

Jordanian interior designer Rima Qunsol came to Thunderbird Oct. 16 with dreams of launching her own furniture line in Amman. She left two weeks later with even bigger plans after meeting a U.S. mentor assigned to her through SEEDS, a business education and mentorship program for Jordanian women entrepreneurs.

“My experience at Thunderbird for the last two weeks is something,” Qunsol said Oct. 29 after spending a day with her new mentor. “But the last 24 hours is something else. It’s been an eye opener in so many ways.”

Thunderbird’s Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship runs SEEDS in partnership with the Business Development Center in Jordan through a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Qunsol and the other 18 participants had 10 days of business workshops and site visits before meeting the U.S. businesswomen assigned as their mentors for the next two years.

Lynne Beyer, owner of Lynne Beyer Design in Phoenix, volunteered to work with Qunsol.

“I realized very quickly after meeting Rima that she is every bit as experienced in design as I am,” Beyer said. “I thought the best way for me to communicate with her about what my business is like was to take her with me.”

So the two women left Thunderbird together and spent the next 24 hours meeting Beyer’s clients and inspecting her design projects. Beyer even made arrangements for Qunsol to spend the night at a hotel Beyer had decorated.

The next morning, the women visited the design center where Beyer and other Phoenix professionals come to buy fabric, furniture, art and anything else their clients might need.

Qunsol quickly saw a market opportunity in Jordan, which lacks any type of one-stop shopping center for professional designers. “It’s amazing,” Qunsol said. “I think it’s a very good idea.”

She said a population spike in Jordan has led to congested roads in recent years, and interior designers now spend several days visiting all the scattered shops selecting materials for their clients. Her new plan is to open a design center like the one she saw in Phoenix.

“If you can lessen the hours going around and shopping for these things, you can be creative at other things,” Qunsol said.

She still has plans to launch her own furniture line some day. But when she does, she hopes to have her own design center in Amman as a place to showcase her creations.

Posted: 11|23|09 at 1:10 pm.
Filed under: Emerging Markets, Global Entrepreneurship.
Pinging is currently disabled.