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This was determined after the presentation of the results of GE Money Bank & Let’s Go Foundation’s survey on women entrepreneurship, the first phase of the Women Entrepreneurship Program (WEP) which was launched last December. The program aims to educate and inspire young Filipina women to be enterprising leaders of society. Data from the survey will be used to develop a curriculum designed for teachers nationwide to adapt into their respective entrepreneurship programs.

Let’s Go Foundation founder prof. Jay Bernardo discusses the survey results.”An entrepreneurial culture will help uplift the quality of life of women, including their family, community, and aid in the economic development of the country,” says Jay Bernardo, Let’s Go Foundation founder and Asian Institute of Management (AIM) professor, during the discussion of the survey results at the AIM Conference Center in Makati City.

The research study, conducted by market research guru Dr. Ned Roberto, identified the tools that successful women entrepreneurs proved important in their businesses and the factors that affected their decision-making processes. It was aimed at gaining insights into the experiences, problems, success and attitudes of growing women entrepreneurs, the findings of which will be used to create a curriculum for an entrepreneurship training program specifically tailored to the needs of would-be women entrepreneurs.

The survey research focused on 100 growing women entrepreneurs, referring to women who are engaged in business for at least two years. Each of them was interviewed face-to-face, one-by-one by highly trained researchers who were guided under Roberto’s strict tutelage. Each was asked 29 questions that pertained to their experiences as they engaged in entrepreneurial activities.

The study showed that 43 percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed find the professor teaching the subjects as the process most useful in growing their businesses against the common notion that workshops are the most effective tools. “It is, therefore, essential to optimize the learning experience of every aspiring entrepreneur by equipping teachers with the right classroom materials,” says Bernardo.

The survey furthered revealed that 65 percent of growing women entrepreneurs initially worked in a private corporation before going into business. A good 53 percent of the respondents also showed that these women had parents who were both entrepreneurs. It was no surprise, therefore, that most of them drew their inspiration of going into business from their families.

In addition, the research study showed that 31 percent of those surveyed said finance is the most critical subject to master, while 26 percent said marketing and another 23 percent said strategic management. These results demonstrate the importance of structural or foundational education necessary for those who pursue majors in entrepreneurship programs.

GE Money Asia Corporate Citizenship leader Tomoko Takazawa notes: “By learning from the survey completed by Let’s Go Foundation and utilizing our expertise as a bank, as well as our experience of implementing financial education programs, we look forward to developing a unique curriculum which would really be beneficial for Filipino students. Empowering women through financial education is GE Money’s global objective for its corporate citizenship initiative.”

Let’s Go Foundation and GE Money Bank are now developing a teaching program to be rolled out to pilot schools in 2007. Based on the figures of the pilot research, the program will be refined and enhanced for wider implementation across the country, targeting women’s colleges in the future.

Taking cue from the results, the WEP recommended offering a program with finance, marketing, strategic management and human resource management as options for a major.

Open forum with (from left) television personality Ms. Che Che Lazaro; Sr. Mary Gertrude Borres, R.A., president of Assumption College and board member of the Consortium of Women Colleges, whose member schools will be the initial recipients of the curriculum developed from the GE Money Bank & Let’s Go Foundation research; and successful women entrepreneurs Chit Juan (chief executive officer of Figaro Coffee Company) and Anabel Tanco (general manager and director of Bizu Patisserie and Bistro).

Also, as part of the curriculum, students were urged to undergo on-the-job training in corporations in order to gain experience and training that will expose them to corporate systems and procedures. It was also suggested to integrate as priority targets the qualities of passion and dedication into the self-mastery or self-discovery modules of the training program for entrepreneurs. Networking skill, likewise, was also underscored as an important trait to encourage or even train early in the life of a woman.

In terms of the development of teaching materials, formulation of cases and/or creation of videos on the mothers, as well as the role of the family, of women entrepreneurs, were proposed by the program.

Finally, in order to optimize entrepreneurs’ learning experiences, it was deemed that the thrust be primarily put in preparing teachers, and then on developing teaching materials. Thus, an effective “Train the Trainors” program was advised.

GE Money Bank president and CEO Ben Kua reiterates, “The survey results are incredibly important because they point us in the right direction toward building a unique and relevant program that offers women interested in entrepreneurship the right foundations to succeed.”

Professor Jay Bernardo, Founder of the Let’s Go Foundation said, “An entrepreneurial culture will help uplift the quality of life of women, including their family, community, and aid in the economic development of the country.” The research study identified the tools that successful women entrepreneurs proved important in their businesses and the factors that affected their decision-making processes. “The research shows that 43 percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed find the professor teaching the subjects as the process most useful in growing their businesses against the common notion that workshops are the most effective tools. It is therefore essential to optimize the learning experience of every aspiring entrepreneur by equipping teachers with the right classroom materials,” Bernardo added.

The survey showed that 65 percent of growing women entrepreneurs initially worked in a private corporation before going into business. A good 53 percent of the respondents also showed that these women had parents who were both entrepreneurs. It is no surprise therefore, that most of them drew their inspiration of going into business from their families.

In addition, the research study showed that 31 percent of those surveyed said finance is the most critical subject to master, while 26 percent said marketing and another 23 percent said strategic management. These results demonstrate the importance of structural or foundational education necessary for those who pursue majors in entrepreneurship programs.

Tomoko Takazawa, Corporate Citizenship Leader of GE Money Asia also notes, “By learning from the survey completed by Let’s Go Foundation and utilizing our expertise as a bank as well as our experience of implementing financial education programs, we look forward to developing a unique curriculum which would really be beneficial for Filipino students. Empowering women thorough financial education is GE Money’s global objective for our corporate citizenship initiative.

GE Money Bank president and CEO Ben Kua reiterates, “The survey results are incredibly important because they point us in the right direction toward building a unique and relevant program that offers women interested in entrepreneurship the right foundations to succeed.”

Let’s Go Foundation and GE Money Bank are now developing a teaching program to be rolled out to pilot schools in 2007. Based on the results of the pilot, the program will be refined and enhanced for wider implementation across the country, targeting women’s colleges in the future. “We look at the program as a long term development opportunity that will encourage women entrepreneurship in the Philippines. GE Money is committed to support this initiative and will help roll out the program to more schools in the future,” Takazawa stressed.

PDB SME Solutions, Inc. that seeks to empower the Filipino entrepreneur in order to be globally competitive through developing products and services in information and communications technology complement Let’s Go as it illustrates its mission reflected in their group’s name as Leading Entrepreneurs Towards Sensing Global Opportunities. The non-profit organization was founded in May 2001 by Mr. Bernardo III, a professor at Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and is the Chairman of JAD Group of Companies.

Stipulated in the partnership, Let’s Go will provide useful articles and materials for SME.com.ph visitors and subscribers and also impart resource personalities for site queries in the Ask the Experts section. Members of the AIM academe and their corresponding field of expertise were named to actively participate in the said Web site’s section are:

• Prof. Maurino P. Bolante for Accounting
• Ms. Laarni Baluyot and Dr. Eduardo A. Morato Jr for Business Planning
• Prof. Francisco M. Bernardo III and Prof. Alejandro J. Ferreria for Entrepreneurship
• Prof. Cecilia B. Manikan for Entrepreneurship in the Arts
• Dr. Eduardo A. Morato Jr. and Prof. Richard L. Cruz for Finance
• Mr. Angelito Domingo, Dr. Milagrosa D. Lagrosa, and Prof. Jack Kanapi for Human Resource
• Prof. Gaston D. Ortigas Jr for Information Technology
• Prof. Tomas B. Lopez for Marketing
• Prof. Ronald T. Chua for Micro Finance Institutions
• Prof. Francisco P. Bernardo Jr, Prof. Mariano S. Lagman, and Dr. Ricky Sumallo for Operations
• Prof. Marie Lisa M. Dacanay for Social Entrepreneurship

Both parties will promote their co-branded activities through their respective sites, SME BizLink e-Newsletter, Plantersbank’s Business Line magazine and other leading dailies. Contents of their sites, particularly the business’ articles will be linked side by side and will be showcased in SME Resources and Tools section of SME.com.ph. Future projects like state-of-the-art seminars and trainings will soon be launched.