The 2008 Entrepreneur Academy Awards Night, an event created to highlight successful business men and women members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will be held for the first time in the Philippines on October 11, Saturday, 6 p.m. at the On-Stage Ayala, Cebu City.
Three big institutions--The Academy for Creating Enterprise, Brigham Young University-Hawaii and Yamagata Foundation—will give away eight major awards with a total of P1 million in cash prizes. A total of 149 nominees engaged in various businesses were selected from a pool of more than one thousand enterprises coming from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Nominees will vie for any of the eight major awards with the following qualifications:
1. Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award – excellence in all aspects of the business over at least three years. The owner or founder of the business must still be actively engaged in the management of the business.
2. Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to the entrepreneur who recently started a business (below 2 years) but has established clear and workable systems from marketing, sales, human resources to accounting and has evidently maximized limited resources.
3. Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to the entrepreneur who has applied an innovative approach, business solution or technology which resulted in improving business processes or in growing the company.
4. Retail Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to the entrepreneur who has established excellent customer relationship in retail selling thus increasing sales and expanding market reach
5. Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to the entrepreneur with age ranging from 21 to 28 years old who has maintained management excellence in running his business.
6. Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to a woman entrepreneur who has shown exemplary management over her business making her a trailblazer in her field of business
7. Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to the entrepreneur who has applied practical, innovative and market oriented approach to the business or has created products and services which address the challenges faced by communities, helped solve complex social problems and benefited the marginalized and the poor.
8. LDS Entrepreneur of the Year Award – given to the entrepreneur who has demonstrated leadership and excellence in business, church and community and has been a mentor to other blossoming entrepreneurs
Nominees were categorized into 2; first is for the ACE and BYU-H alumni who will vie for the first 6 awards mentioned above and the second is for General LDS entrepreneurs who will vie for the 7th and 8th awards.
Winners will be judged on the following criteria: profitability 25 percent, degree of innovation 15 percent, competitive advantage 15 percent, marketing and selling techniques 15 percent, expansion to other markets 10 percent and future vision 20 percent. Judges will come from the pool of executives of the three institutions behind this pioneering event.
