‘Find the factor that will make you stand out’
By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:36:00 08/02/2008
ON AUG. 29, the lights in the Makati field office of the Private Enterprise Accelerated Resource Linkages Project Phase 2 (Pearl2) will be turned off for the last time as the six-year project draws to a close.
But the valuable lessons, best practices, environmental management, gender sensitivity, capacity building and research on priority sectors such as the jewelry, footwear and furniture industries would be left behind to benefit Philippine small- and medium-scale industries.
Pearl2 Project Director Edward Sutherland hopes that with the free access to the learning from the six years of operation in the Philippines through www.pearl2.net, local SMEs would grow and reach their full potential.
“We worked with many partners over the past six years and what we will leave behind is an information portal, a gateway or like a search engine where SMEs can go to for information,” Sutherland said. “It should be up and running by the middle of August.”
“We do put a lot of effort in the development of the project and what we are concerned about is that after we go, the lessons or success stories will go, too,” he added. “But through the website, anybody can just come in and search on what we have done in Pearl2.”
Pearl2 is a private sector development project of the Canadian government through the Canadian International Development Agency that cost about 10 million Canadian dollars to implement.
The Pearl2 Project works directly with business support organizations and investment promotion centers to support the development of SMEs that create meaningful jobs for men and women.
It had three main components: Sectoral Enhancement, Partnership Development Facility and Capacity Development of Investment Promotion.
SE is focused on supporting six of the 10 key industries identified by the Department of Trade and Industry (furniture, food processing, wearables, natural and organic products, gifts and houseware and information technology through training, market and export enhancement and policy studies).
CDIP, on the other hand, is focused on strengthening the capability of IPCs to promote investment and facilitate links between Philippine SMEs and firms and groups outside the Philippines.
PDF, meanwhile, is designed to contribute to projects of eligible BSOs in their efforts to promote SME development and job creation.
Sutherland said he believes strongly in the potential of the BSOs and trade organizations to help SMEs, which is why he is heartened that BSO Network Philippines Association Inc., which groups together executive directors of trade organizations from all over the country, will live on to carry out the objectives of Pearl2.
The members are involved in furniture export, handicrafts and home furnishing, holiday décor, leather goods, fashion accessories, among others.
“The collaboration among like-minded individuals can help SMEs succeed and grow because they can share best practices to improve the business,” Sutherland said.
This is why Pearl2 put a lot of effort into strengthening of trade associations and raising the capability of the executive directors.
It was from these efforts that the BSO Network evolved.
Through the network, trade groups in Luzon, for instance, who are challenged to meet ex port standards could learn from their counterparts in the Visayas who are old hands in the export game.
The need for such collaboration is even more vital these days when SMEs are faced with such daunting challenges as a strong peso, soaring inflation, rising oil prices and ever stiffening competition in the world market.
“But I am always optimistic and I tell the industries that there are always opportunities even with crises of some way, shape or form,” Sutherland said.
In a talk before the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation, Sutherland cited the opportunities presented by the aging population in the developed countries.
“Traditional furniture may not work anymore for older people. But then they do not want orthopedic furniture. They still want something with good design,” Sutherland said. “I do not see anybody catering to that market now.”
The key to success for SMEs, he said, is to find that differentiating factor that will make them stand out from the rest.
“Like if you are in the furniture industry, you do not make furniture for everybody, but for that certain market that you can focus on,” he said. “There are always opportunities, no matter what the conditions are.”
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