It's always interesting to know what books are on a business leader's current reading list. When I recently visited Rwanda-based outsourcing company Gasabo 3D Design Limited, I spotted a copy of 'Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle' lying on the desk of CEO John Rugamba.

It seemed an entirely appropriate choice: the book tells the story of how Israel has defied regional boycotts and a relative lack of natural resources to become a major international business force and, more specifically, a widely recognised centre of excellence for information technology.

It could be argued that Rwanda faces even greater challenges in its struggle to build a prosperous knowledge economy. To much of the world, the name of this country is still synonymous with the tragic events of 1994, when some 800,000 people were slaughtered over the course of just 100 days, in one of the most brutally efficient genocides of the twentieth century.

Sixteen years on, I found that tiny Rwanda is looking to the future - and its success so far in achieving security, political stability and economic growth has made it a role model for other African nations. But if it is to be successful in forging a foothold for itself in the world of international business, much will depend on the ambitions and hard work of local entrepreneurs like John Rugamba.

He started Gasabo 3D back in 2007, as a spin-off from the Rwandan Information Technology Authority. Today, he employs 12 skilled engineers at the company's offices in the Kigali ICT Park, recruited primarily from the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and the Ecole Technique Officielle de Gitarama (ETO-Gitarama).

The company's engineers work to convert two-dimensional (2D) drawings into three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) models using software technology from SolidWorks, on behalf of clients in the USA, Western Europe and India. One of the most impressive names on this tiny company's customer rollcall is construction machinery giant, Caterpillar.

The Gasabo 3D team works in two shifts to meet international companies' demands for quick turnaround times: these shifts run 0730h-1630h and 1400h-2100h.

It's an interesting proposition. Other outsourcing companies offer this kind of service, mostly from India or China, but none can beat Gasabo 3D on price, Rugamba tells me. "At a charge of around $15 per hour to the client, and sometimes lower, we may even be half the price of competitors in other countries," he says.

Setting up the company was easy - all the paperwork was completed in a single day. The Rwandan government, under President Paul Kagame, is very active in nurturing and supporting new technology companies.

But building a strong, profitable outsourcing company in Rwanda, however, has been a harder path, Rugamba concedes. There's a lack of local managerial expertise on which he can draw and few international business leaders know much about Rwanda. Many would struggle to find it on a map. "One of our biggest challenges is helping overseas clients to have confidence in who we are, where we are and what we do," he says.

International marketing, however, requires money - another major challenge for Gasabo 3D. To build awareness, Rugamba gets a lot of support from the team at SolidWorks, he says. In fact, the copy of 'Start-Up Nation' was sent to him by SolidWorks' CEO Jeff Ray.

At the same time, Rugamba is also focussing on providing outsourcing services to local companies with architectural and engineering design needs, including telco MTN Rwanda.

Like many Rwandans I met on my trip, John Rugamba studied abroad (in his case, at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa), but returned to Rwanda determined to contribute to his country's resurgence. "That's important to me, so the challenges do not matter so much," he says. "Already, Gasabo 3D is showing people in other parts of the world what Rwandans can achieve."