MSMEs get help from friends

TRADE Secretary Ramon Lopez, Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion and PLDT chair Manny Pangilinan lead the launch of the Kapatid Project, which aims to encourage big business to come up with programs that will benefit the micro and small businesses. The project is an initiative of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, Go Negosyo in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Mentorship is a powerful tool.

For the many companies that Go Negosyo has helped over the past 11 years, this has been largely instrumental in their respective success stories, and in advancing the group’s staunch advocacy for entrepreneurship.

However, even Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion admitted that much needs to be done still, as mentorship remains lacking among micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), which are hampered by lack of access to expertise, financing and markets.

Helping MSMEs was deemed critical as this segment, which comprise more than 99 percent of registered businesses in the country, was seen as the next drivers of global growth.

“The most powerful way (to support entrepreneurs) is through mentorship, It is important they are supplied with right mentors, and we’ve seen this in the case of franchising, for example,” Concepcion said.

Thus, to strengthen Go Negosyo’s mentorship thrust, it recently partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry to set up the “Kapatid” Project—an initiative aimed at encouraging large corporations, or the “Big Brother”, to help the micro and small enterprises through Inclusive Business (IB) models.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who was executive director of Go Negosyo before he was appointed head of the DTI, explained that under the Kapatid project, the DTI and its partners will help convince large companies to develop and implement their respective inclusive business models similar to what firms like Jollibee, Coca Cola, and Nestle have been doing.

“Inclusive business is all about linking the MSMEs to the value chain of bigger companies. And this can include agricultural farmers as well, wherein we will link the producers to the companies that will need them. This is not a new concept, but it is important for the DTI to find a partner in the private sector. We have already encountered many inclusive business models, but partnering with institutions that can implement this will allow us to grow the concept faster,” said Lopez.

Consequently, this will help fuel the growth of small enterprises in the country, which is the advocacy of Go Negosyo.

Inclusive businesses refer to those that engage the poor and low-income communities as partners, customers, suppliers and employees in their operations not out of charity, but because it makes good business sense.

“With the Kapatid, we are now building a network of different players in the value chain. With the different partners around, Go Negosyo, now acts as an accelerator which will encourage innovation, communication and collaboration among government agencies and private institutions that will direct efforts towards MSME development. Together, we can all create an enabling environment that creates a stronger entrepreneurship culture,” Go Negosyo said.