GERC conducts "2nd Co-op Entrepreneurs Conference"
by GERC Inc.
On December 14, 2021, GERC Inc., in partnership with We Effect, conducted the webinar “2nd Co-op Entrepreneurs Conference (CEC).” Participants came from the Philippines, with guest-participants from Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand.
In 2018, GERC Inc. organized the first CEC in Cebu City, Philippines, with female participants and some male participants from co-ops and other development organizations in the Philippines. The second CEC that carries the theme “Women entrepreneurs thriving together in the new normal” was participated in women member-entrepreneurs from the pilot co-ops of the “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Co-ops (EWEC)" Program of GERC Inc. in the Philippines; women entrepreneurs and also men entrepreneurs who are also members of other co-ops as well as officers, staff, and members of other primary co-ops/federations/unions and other member-based organizations and social enterprise organizations; representatives of GERC Inc.’s fellow partner-organizations in the We Effect Philippines Program, local government units’ co-op development offices, and co-op-supporting private and government organizations, including the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA); individual development actors; and other interested viewers. All in all, the participants came from the Philippines, with guest-participants from Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand. The Conference had a total of 382 registered participants. Some participants joined the CEC webinar via group viewing in their particular venues, such as co-ops and workplaces.
GERC Inc. Chairperson Dr. Emma A. Nieva and We Effect Country Director Ms. Jessica U. Soto opened the Conference with their messages.
Resource speakers came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Philippines. In the morning, resource speakers were Dr. Maria Rufina of Malaysia; Ms. Patareepan Pongwat of Thailand; and Mr. Joey Bermudez of Philippines. In the afternoon, resource speakers came from the COCOHUB Enterprise and also Ms. Ligaya Miras of Philippines; Dr. Rufina and Ms. Shadhana Sekaran of Malaysia; and Ms. Dewi Nova Wahyuni of Indonesia.
GERC Inc. thanks Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) for its support to the Conference; and also the following persons who acted as CEC’s virtual coordinators and moderators: Ms. Mildred Cerezo, Ms. Joan Camasura, Ms. Chrysalin Rubio (Philippines); Mr. Annamalai Muniandy; Ms. Theivanai Muniandy, Dr. Sivajohti Suppiah, and Ms. Sekaran (Malaysia); and Ms. Dewi (Indonesia). The invocation song and intermission numbers were provided by Mr. Dyzon Pesquera; Ms. Josie Allow; Ms. Leslie Canuto of Tagum Cooperative; and Mr. Johnriel Bedrijo and Mr. Kenn Tenebroso of LMPC.
Boosting women entrepreneurship
One of GERC Inc.’s current activities is implementing the Project “Institutionalizing Women Empowerment and Gender Equality in Philippine Cooperatives,” in partnership with We Effect’s Philippines Program “Equality First: Working Together Towards Gender Equality, Transformative Housing, and Empowerment of the Rural Folk.” The Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Co-ops or EWEC is among the components of the GERC Inc. Project with We Effect.
The EWEC Program upholds the development of and support to co-op women entrepreneurs, especially the micro and small entrepreneurs, and the enhancement of their enterprises through the business development services provided by their co-ops. In expansion of the EWEC Program’s objectives, GERC convened the second CEC.
Sharing by resource speakers
-MORNING SESSION-
In the morning of the Conference, the topics and speakers were:
“The Power of Networking” - Dr. Maria Rufina
“Networking of Women Micro and Small Enterprises in Thailand” - Ms. Patareepan Pongwat
“Networking Through a Marketing Platform to Showcase and Market Products of Women Entrepreneurs in the Philippines” - Mr. Joey Bermudez
--“Power of Networking”
Dr. Maria Rufina (Malaysia) is a corporate training strategist and entrepreneur with a journey in entrepreneurship since 2002. She is the founder chief executive officer (CEO) of ACE Biznez Academy Sdn Bhd and ACE Biznez Services; and is president in Malaysia of the Oxford Centre for Leadership of the United Kingdom. With her passion about empowering people and bringing out the best in them so that they can make a difference in their organizations, to-date she has trained more than 50,000 people in Malaysia and internationally in various industries, in government, and in non-profit organizations. She founded and is advisor of MiWEPs, a national women organization in Malaysia with 700 members. Among the many awards she has received for her remarkable work is the ASEAN Outstanding Women Entrepreneur Award in 2016 from the ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs Network. She became the first female secretary-general of the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KLSICCI), and was instrumental in having five women in KLSICCI’s Management Council, a first in its 87-year history.
In her talk, Dr. Rufina emphasized the benefits of networking; common mistakes in networking; and 10 steps for power networking. Highlights of her talk:
1. Networking gives opportunities; exposure; contacts and relationships; common ground; and learning.
2. There are many opportunities during regular interaction among people to do good networking. But people seemingly do not recognize these opportunities, or they take these opportunities for granted.
3. Be careful of the mistakes or misconceptions about networking that can delay or prevent effective networking.
4. Ten steps or tips to help people check their apprehensions or fears about doing networking:
a) Create a game plan with strategy, preparation, goals, and tactics
b) Have a conversation starter
c) For positive first impression, use the GUEST style: G for Greet; U for use their name; E for eye contact; S for smile; T for think “them” first
d) Build rapport and trust
e) Give a 30-second self-explanation
f) Observe the five-minute rule to interact with a person in order to have meaningful conversations with as many potential connections as possible
g) In a roomful of people, walk a room by going to all its areas. You should introduce yourself to others along the way.
h) Approach groups of three people, where it is likely that one of them will not be actively involved in their conversation and will be open to talking to you.
i) Care about people
j) Stay in touch without asking for favors
--“Networking of Women Micro and Small Enterprises in Thailand”
Ms. Patareepan Pongwat (Thailand), for 30 years, she has been training entrepreneurs in Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. She was a consultant on enterprise development to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU); and was a former chairperson of the Asian Women in Cooperative Development Forum (AWCF). When she worked for the Credit Union League of Thailand (CULT), she developed her commitment to helping women improve their lives. She strengthened her belief that women can only take a leadership role when they know that their families are not hungry. She also believes that women who are given loans for business should also be provided support in order to succeed in their business. She always emphasizes the need to look beyond a product by looking at the people who produced them. For instance, she is the consultant of more than ten projects of persons with disabilities who are engaged in furniture-making, mushroom production, rice mill operation, drinking water purifying, and other operations.
In her talk on the networking of women micro and small enterprises in Thailand, Ms. Pongwat gave the participants a look into her vast experience as an enterprise development consultant and entrepreneur, with a solid background as a cooperator and gender equality advocate.
Highlights of her talk:
1. She explained to the participants how an enterprise can operate, such as in the tapping of workers; sourcing of materials; production; marketing; and networking.
2. Tap co-op members and communities, especially women with enterprises, from different Thai provinces as skilled workers and as producers of quality materials and products. The quality materials and products can be put together to produce even more beautiful and functional products.
3. The rich Thai cultures is preserved and promoted in variety of products, even if the modern touch is added to these products.
4. For marketing, Ms. Pongwat has led and helped entrepreneurs take part in exhibitions; trade shows; fashion shows, with some done in the Philippines; and also in using the facilities of the Women Cooperative Product Development Center (WCPC) of CULT. Ms. Pongwat helped set up the WCPC in year 2000, when she was still working in CULT.
5. In what she calls the “Kingdom of Women,” Ms. Pongwat said that the operation of micro and small enterprises is the tool to develop women by developing specific traits in them as entrepreneurs. Co-op members need business coaching when they get micro-finance loans that they will use for micro-enterprise, for the purpose of gaining income.
6. Showing photographs of examples of global-quality products of women entrepreneurs, Ms. Pongwat related that Thailand’s “One Tambon-One Product (OTOP) drive, with “tambon” meaning town, strongly helps in encouraging rural people to use their local wisdom to develop distinctive products for both domestic and foreign markets.
7. During the pandemic, entrepreneurs should make their business, product, and service differentiated and interesting—to stand out among others and thus earn more. The new normal also gives opportunities to increase income through the creation of more products for the office and home. Online marketing should also be considered, with questions to answer like what are the kinds of products to sell?; who are the customers and why will they buy the products?; where will the products be sold?; and when will the products be sold?
8. By being creative, one can produce a variety of products from a main product. Examples:
a) For food line: bananas, fish, and coconut to be served, packaged, and sold in many interesting ways
b) For non-food line: workers, especially women, are trained to be create various excellent products, while not wasting any materials
c) For service line: this line is also a source of income, such as services for health, beauty, and housekeeping services.
--“Networking Through a Marketing Platform to Showcase and Market Products of Women Entrepreneurs in the Philippines”
Mr. Joey Bermudez, a Certified Public Accountant, is the founding chair and CEO of Maybridge Financial Group and founding CEO of Iskaparate.com, a unique selling platform for entrepreneurial women of lesser means. He has an experience of being a CEO for 19 years and of being a past and current board officer and senior advisor for 24 years in organizations in the Philippines and other countries. He has been involved in foundations, development organizations, finance institutions, property companies, insurance brokerage firms, and other organizations. He is a past president of the Management Association of the Philippines and held a high-level consultancy position in Southeast Asia with the International Finance Corporation-World Bank Group.
Mr. Bermudez discussed the Iskaparate.com model of networking using a marketing platform to showcase and market products of Filipino women entrepreneurs. He is the principal founder of iskaparate.com, which was created while trying to respond to the enormous ill effects of the pandemic. Since April 2020 with the start of the lockdown, nine million Philippine microenterprises had been dying, he said.
Highlights of his talk:
1. Rising from what they believed to be the needs of the entrepreneurial poor and from what they realized to be the actual situation of the entrepreneurial poor, Mr. Bermudez and his colleagues morphed, shaped, re-shaped, and transformed Iskaparate.com so that it can really do what it can for microentrepreneurs.
2. Iskaparate.com enables microentrepreneurs to build their store and do their selling; have support for their back-office; and build their capacity.
3. As an inclusive vendor network, Iskaparate.com is now participated in by 500 entrepreneurs and more than 500 stores offering food, non-food, and services from the country’s different regions. Iskaparate.com aims at building vendor network to 100,000 micro-entrepreneurs in 5 years.
-AFTERNOON SESSION-
In the Conference's afternoon session, the focus was on showcasing women entrepreneurs in agri-enterprises (Philippines); women entrepreneurs (Indonesia); and women entrepreneurs in co-ops and social enterprises (Malaysia). Presentations were:
“Showcase of Women Entrepreneurs in Agri-enterprises (Philippines)” – the Coconut-based Enterprises or COCOHUB and Ms. Ligaya Miras
“Showcase of Women Entrepreneurs (Indonesia)” - Ms. Dewi Nova Wahyuni
“Showcase of Women Entrepreneurs in Co-ops and Social Enterprises (Malaysia)” – Dr. Maria Rufina and Ms. Shadhana Sekaran
--“Showcase of Women Entrepreneurs in Agri-enterprises (Philippines)”
Featured the stories of the Coconut-based Enterprises or COCOHUB and of Ms. Ligaya Miras, a woman farmer leader.
COCOHUB is located in Tuburan municipality, Cebu, Philippines. It is one of the business activities of the Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC), in partnership with the Philippine Coconut Authority. LMPC’s main office is in Lamac municipality, Cebu. COCOHUB Officer in Charge (OIC) Mr. Demetrio Repollo oriented us on their start-up activities that included training for the workers, who later operated impressive machineries and facilities. After hurdling initial uncertainties, COCOHUB was soon producing an array of food and non-food products that utilize coconuts at a hundred percent. Women at the forefront of COCOHUB’s operations are skilled workers and are leaders in the COCOHUB work stations such as sisters-in-law Elizabeth and Emilia Gemarino who shared in the video presentation their experiences in COCOHUB. Women workers in COCOHUB are also really among the enterprise’s beneficiaries. As the women earn income from COCOHUB, this also means that some of the women who are married do not have to solely depend on their husbands’ income to support the family.
The COCOHUB operations also give important opportunities for coconut farmers who, as Mr. Repollo had emphasized in the presentation, are among the poorer farming sectors. From COCOHUB’s start in 2016 to its inauguration in 2020 and until now, the challenges it has faced are closely tied to its growth stages, among which are the need for knowledge of the business at the start; market development; and with the market having been developed, the need to supply the huge demand for COCOHUB products. In stark contrast to COCOHUB’s early days, a number of government agencies are now much willing to give support to COCOHUB’s business.
Woman farmer Ligaya Miras had a dream. Her dream was that she would be able to bring their family farm’s products to big markets or buyers in Cebu City. Her family’s source of income ever since, starting with her parents, was farming in Sudlon 2, a barangay or small village in Cebu. As Ms. Miras told us in the video, she had observed the difficulties that her parents faced in farming such as the need for funds and for farm inputs. And since they also did not have a sure market, they really did not know if they would earn from their crops.
Going fast forward in the life story of Ms. Miras, she has since become a member of LMPC since 2013; and now heads 15 clusters of farmers in their village. These clusters were formed through LMPC’s efforts to help farmer-members, with a minimum of 10 members in each cluster. The Miras Farm now produces several types of crops that are delivered to institutional buyers such as branches in Cebu City of some of the most popular fastfood chains. Ms. Miras and her fellow farmers have also become “Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)”-certified farmers, also through the training received from LMPC.
In the video presentation, Ms. Miras talked about her strengths that she developed through her own initiative and also through assistance of her fellow farmers and from LMPC. These strengths have helped her succeed as a farmer and, with little doubt, have also been developed by the farmers that she works with. Ms. Miras is a caring and empowering leader, an astute entrepreneur, a vibrant networker, a person who is always willing to learn new things and share her learnings with others. She lives the values of cooperativism and acknowledges the life-changing role of a co-op, in this case the LMPC. She also values the power of patience, determination, and hard work combined with Divine Assistance, a sentiment that is shared by Mr. Repollo in the COCOHUB.
--“Showcase of Women Entrepreneurs (Indonesia)”
Ms. Dewi Nova Wahyuni is the proprietor of Warung Perempuan Kopi, with Warung meaning “star” and Perempuan meaning “woman.” Ms. Dewi started her business in 2018, serving the best coffee bean varieties sourced from around Indonesia. She moves around her coffee stall to wherever that there are events, trade fairs, and exhibits, and she makes sure that customers have a choice how they want their coffee served. Ms. Wahyuni and her team share advocacy and knowledge about coffee and gender equality while reaching out to communities, such as women in co-ops and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) community. Ms. Wahyuni and her team also have what they call a social service where a percentage of their sales go to families affected by the COVID 19 pandemic especially the women and children.
--“Showcase of Women Entrepreneurs in Co-ops and Social Enterprises (Malaysia)”
Featured two women whose business endeavors have gone beyond the borders of their country, rising above enterprise-related and discrimination challenges. Both women also offered advice on operating enterprises in normal times and in the new normal.
Dr. Maria Rufina, among her other endeavors, is founder and CEO of ACE Biznes Services and Academy, and she is also involved in a co-op that assists retirees in Malaysia. Her more than 20 years of experience in corporate training and organizational development consultancy in different countries has been recognized with different awards. Going into entrepreneurship with strong determination, she did struggle in the early years, including having to endure discouragement from some people on the basis of her gender and race. But she kept going, and she passed on to the participants some learnings in entrepreneurship:
1. Use the mantra of doing good work in anything that you do. Use the power of networking to achieve your objectives. And believe in God’s work, and bless others in return for what you have received.
2. People in business should be creative and innovative. Adapt to the pandemic such as by learning and using other ways and platforms to bring your products and services to customers. Digital technology is one of these platforms. If possible, use the hybrid of digital technology and face-to-face interaction to get even more productive results.
3. Women entrepreneurs should upgrade what they know, from time-to-time, to add value to themselves, even before they can attempt to add value to other people.
4. Entrepreneurs should be involved with organizations like co-ops, non-government organizations, associations, etc., so that they can connect, share, help, and gain strength from one another.
Ms. Shadhana Sekaran, who formed Le Langgri Foods to bring family recipes to everyone’s home, manufactures ready-to-eat “sambal” or chili sauce or paste, following her grandmother’s delicious recipe. From a simple order for a few bottles of “sambal” that she had to prepare for many days in her kitchen, her business now produces up to 2,500 bottles a day, with a lot of practice and study, she said. Based on her experience as an entrepreneur, she highlighted these points:
1. When commercializing a business, especially from having to start small such as for Ms. Shadhana’s family recipe becoming a product for sale, look at all business details and needs. These needs include the big challenge for funds and market. Initially, she had to go to what she called the “MaPa Bank” or her Mama and Papa for her funding needs. She also had to actively and personally do the marketing and promotion, and in letting the public be aware of her product’s good qualities.
2. She needed to be tough in going out and promoting her product because she had stiff and unfair competition from some other manufacturers. She had to be strong when facing discrimination, of being looked down at as an entrepreneur and getting feedback that she could go instead to a more “ladylike” business.
3. With the pandemic causing marketing and logistical problems for her business, she looked for solutions and became aware of the e-commerce platform. She learned about it, joined related online groups, and started to use e-commerce for her business. In fact, she even expanded her market to Singapore during the pandemic and through using e-commerce. From her experience, she said that entrepreneurs should always be students because anything learned is never enough.
4. Be passionate entrepreneurs in everything that you do. Having passion makes you regain your drive whenever you feel down or get doubts about you are doing.
5. Practice social responsibility as one of the elements of your enterprise.
Added feature: Online networking session
After the formal closing of the second CEC in the afternoon of December 14, a number of participants stayed on to join the Conference’s added feature—an online networking session. GERC Inc. opened the session as a Zoom meeting that lasted a little over an hour where the participants joined quick break-out rooms to open their microphones and cameras, and introduced themselves and what they do, e.g., being a co-op officer, being an entrepreneur and describing their products/services/business needs, etc.
Back to the big room after the break-out rooms, feedback from the participants on their experience included having gotten contacts for possible business tie-ups. Ms. Salome Ganibe, GERC senior consultant, was the main moderator of the online networking session, and she encouraged the session’s participants to continue their networking with one another especially after getting the other participants’ contact information. Room moderators for the break-out rooms were from the GERC Inc. team and from MiWEPS. GERC Inc. will send the participants of the networking session the names of participants and their email address for future networking purposes.
Download the morning presentations of the second CEC
CLICK HERE for the presentations of Dr. Rufina, Ms. Pongwat, and Mr. Bermudez.
