Social Impact Accelerator Batch 2 Kicks Off with First Set of Learning Sessions
By Marielle Bordado
The Social Impact Accelerator under the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP) provides selected social enterprises (SEs) with a year of support, six months of which is an intensive program, to access markets, talents, capital, and guidance to grow their business and social impact. Learning sessions provide valuable opportunities for entrepreneurs to learn about topics that will help them refine their business models and develop frameworks and strategies to pursue growth.
As the acceleration program of the Batch 2 of SEs of the ISIP Social Impact Accelerator begins this year, a series of Learning Sessions were conducted for the SE Founders. Four Learning Sessions were conducted in October, focusing on topics such as Value Creation, Strategic Planning, Founder Identity, and Business Development.
Value Creation and Founder Identity
Running a sustainable business operation involves the constant practice of iteration. Whether in an operational, tactical, or strategic nature, recognizing customer needs and overall market needs is essential in creating and maintaining a competitive advantage for the business. Understanding the value of your products from your customer’s point of view is crucial in this endeavor.
A Learning Session on Value Creation and Founder Identity was held at the Australian Embassy in the Philippines on October 11. The SE founders of the Social Impact Accelerator Batch 2 attended the activity. ISIP’s Visiting Professor, Neo Kok-Beng from the National University of Singapore (NUS) led the session on Value Creation. [READ: The Value of Innovation: Creating Sustainable University-based Incubators through the Visiting Professors Activity]
The SE Founders of Batch 2 raised questions regarding the pricing of their products and services, and whether they should sell it cheaper by virtue of their venture as a social enterprise. Professor Neo explains “When you sell cheap, who benefits? The people who can’t afford it? Wrong. The people who CAN afford it will benefit,” he said.
Similarly, Professor Neo emphasized on the importance of value creation in the context of social impact. “When it comes to [social] impact, do not distort the market. The market is for everyone. Then people say you are heartless but if you don’t profit, who’s going to invest?” The question is how are you going to return this investment and how are you going to maximize it?” he explains.
“When it comes to impact, do not distort the market. The market is for everyone. Then people say you are heartless but if you don’t profit, who’s going to invest?” The question is how are you going to return this investment and how are you going to maximize it?”
Czar Carbonel, Co-Founder of Magwayen explains how they can apply the lessons from the session in their own SE. “[We can use] the new perspective on how it's not just lowering the price that will increase the impact of your product or service”
MK Bertulfo, Founder of FHMoms, shares her experience attending the Learning Session for the first time “As the Founder of [a] SE, I want to know if I'm doing the right thing. It's important for me to know the experiences of others,” she said.
MK further adds, “There are key points that we are already doing. Surprisingly, there's something more about value creation that was taught by the mentors and I love it.”
On the other hand, Raf Dionisio, Co-Founder of MAD Travel, emphasizes on the relevance of the topic to their SE. “MAD creates a lot of value through its soft programs. We need to formalize and systematize this,” he said.
Aside from Value Creation, a session on Founder Identity was conducted by Ray Refundo, Founder and CEO of Qwikwire, a multi-awarded startup focusing on cross-border payments. Ray shared his personal experience and journey as a founder and how they built a team culture of empowerment among employees of Qwikwire.
“I'm going through my own conceptualization of what it means to be a founder in a company like this,” shares Raf Dionisio. He adds that he is also hoping to learn frameworks on how to design value rather than focusing on marketing.
“I’m going through my own conceptualization of what it means to be a founder in a company like this”
Similarly, the session provided Czar Carbonel with insights they can apply in their organization. “The knowledge we learned is applicable specifically to building the team and culture. It also gave us general advice on how we can grow our client base,” she said.
Strategic Planning
On October 19, the focus of the Learning Session was on Strategic Planning. The objective of the session is to establish the importance of strategic planning in business and impact growth, how to incorporate into crucial business decisions, and identify best practices that best suit their business. The session was led by Joseph De Leon, an award-winning independent strategy and marketing consultant.
Aside from learning the main concepts and usual methods of strategic planning and modeling, the session also provided the SE Founders the opportunity to learn about each other’s business, providing input and identifying potential areas of collaboration.
Hazel Pajotagana of HiGi shares how they can apply the knowledge from the session to specific areas in their SE. “We can use it in refining the business model, knowing the real competitive advantage, and setting clear goals,” she said.
Czar Carbonel, on the other hand, shares the value of the session to the individual SEs. “I like how the speaker made an effort to really contextualize the advice according to our needs.”
“It’s crucial for us as a differentiator and we can apply this to our high-level strategy,” said Dan Layug of PeoplePods.
Business Development
The most recent Learning Session was on Business Development and Scaling.SE Founders learned not only about concepts on Business Development but also explore possible pathways to grow their client base, new ideas in line with their strategic goals, and ultimately grow their business and impact. After the session, the SE Founders developed a Sales Plan which they can use for lead generation.
The resource speaker for this session was Yacine Derradji, Co-founder and Chief Development Officer of Acudeen, an online technology platform that connects Small and Medium Enterprises to Financial Institutions through Invoice Discounting.
Yacine started by saying that planning for lead generation and scaling for him has always been about the long-term vision. He mentioned that while he does this, his co-founders complement him by looking at other strategic leads that are short- to mid-term because the market is constantly changing. He stressed the importance of finding the right balance and having co-founders as a crucial step towards achieving that. He further shared their journey in building Acudeen.
“There is impact whatever you do; even if the impact is small in the beginning, it can have a snowball effect,” said Yacine. Furthermore, he emphasized that “the real work begins when the company starts making money and entrepreneurs begin seeing cash flow in and out.”
“There is impact whatever you do; even if the impact is small in the beginning, it can have a snowball effect”
Dan Layug of PeoplePods expressed how this is relevant to their business. He asked for advice on their pitch to major industrial parks and how they can convince them better. Yacine advised them to present their impact “They want to see numbers, they need to hear from you guys what the best solution is. How does that impact the other accounts? Because that’s a lot of headspace.”
Hazel Pajotagana shares how this session relates to their current stage in the organization “We always aim to grow. At our current stage, we feel like we are almost there. Overall, we are thinking if [we are]going to another segment already, as well as diversifying. So the session has put things into perspective,” she said.
--
Two more Learning Sessions have been set for the Social Impact Accelerator Batch 2 before the end of 2019. These sessions will focus on the operational side of their businesses, particularly Accounting and Procurement. Through the Learning Session, ISIP aims to provide the SEs the technical support to help them sustain and grow their business, helping contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Social Impact Accelerator is one of the strategies of ISIP, a three-year project co-implemented by the UNDP Philippines and PhilDev Foundation, with generous support from the Australian Embassy in the Philippines.