Minister Satyakama Maharaj, founder of Sacha Cosmetics, has added ‘author’ to his portfolio with the launch of his memoir this week.
Speaking at the launch of “Building a World-Class Brand on a Shoestring Budget” at the University of the West Indies on Monday, he said he was motivated to write the memoir after realising there were few books for business people from small, developing nations.
“I wanted this memoir to be different. I wanted it to be light, easy to read, sometimes even funny, with no charts, graphs, photos, technical diagrams, but packed with real lessons and practical advice. It’s storytelling at its best. I wanted it to be useful to anyone, regardless of where they live or what resources they have.”
He noted that he handed over control of the business to his son and his wife when he took up his role as Minister of Trade, Investment and Tourism.
“We opened 17 stores in Trinidad, four in Panama. It’s an extensively tested model of Sacha stores and Sacha kiosks. But we are the manufacturer. And we are a low-cost manufacturer selling at premium prices. So we have decided, before I became a public servant, that we are going to franchise the brand.”
One of the people asked to review the book was Economist Professor Roger Hosein, who described the book as a valuable addition that will benefit undergraduate and postgraduate students.
“The words that you used, this book could easily work as a graduate-level trade manual. That’s one of the things we are missing. We don’t learn these things at the university. This, here, was poetry in motion. It was beautiful trade in motion.”
The book is currently available on Amazon.