I attended a grand lunch at Hotel Royal where Rama Bijapurkar, Market Strategy Consultant from India shared her views on social entrepreneurship. Rama is a very dynamic and articulate speaker; she really introduced me to some new ideas that had never crossed my mind before.

Even though I have a Computer Engineering degree, I didn’t think much about how poor people could use technology so easily. Well you don’t need to be literate to use an ATM, laptop or a cellphone in India… The country is changing very fast and technology is making a huge impact on people at the lowest income lowels (vegetable sellers, tailors, masseurs, etc). C.K. Prahalad in his book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid refers to how some companies are focusing on profit making by eradicating poverty. Companies can profit from the masses and also enable the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid to improve their economic condition.

Necessity is the mother of invention. NGOs have a lot of innovation as the need is severe and passion to deliver is strong. They however do not have the scale and don’t know how to commercialize their innovation. If private sector could help in this area we can create new possibilities. According to Rama the poor are very innovative as they have to think creatively in order to survive. With mentoring, support and coaching we can develop social entrepreneurs and develop market mechanisms that support a new world.

In the midst of the packed schedule organised by the Forum for the Chinese Delegation, I managed to catch Huang Hung, CEO of China Interactive Media Group (CIMG), for a few minutes to get her thoughts on the Women’s Forum, the activities of the Chinese Delegation and the entrepreneurship landscape in China.

This is not the first time Hung has attended the Women’s Forum. She believes that the Forum plays a critical role in bringing forward women’s point of view. It encourages women leadership to express their views on a wide range of issues, from business and politics to social responsibility and the alleviation of poverty. In addition, the Women’s Forum differs from other women’s conferences because it does not shy away from “feminity”, as evidenced by the beauty and fashion lounges in the Discovery Hall. In her mind, women leaders should be free to express their feminity should they wish to, and should not feel the need to look like a man. In this regard, I believe that “feminity” is regularly associated with “weakness”, and unfortunately this association is often formed by women themselves.

On the events organised for the Chinese delegation, she highlighted two in particular. First, she enjoyed the address given by Laurence Parisot, Chairman of the CEO Council in France. The session gave the delegation a glimpse of how other countries perceive China: the pros and the cons. The political and regulatory risks discussed were also particularly useful for members of the Chinese Government present in the delegation. Second, the session on “How to build an international brand”, led by Cartier, Chanel and Remy Martin, was particularly relevant, as more Chinese companies are eager to graduate from being the “factory of the world” and to move onto building its international brand identity.

As one of China’s most prominent women in publishing, Hung described China as one of the most exciting places in the world right now for entrepreneurship. The size and growth of the market mean that “a lot is possible”. On the downside, she understands that the current infrastructure and regulatory environment in China can be difficult for young companies. Entrepreneurs often find it difficult to find cheap financing, legal and accounting services, amongst others. So, a word of advice for all the budding entrepreneurs in China? Hung summarises it in one concise word: ”Persistence”.

Yesterday Friday we all discovered the winners of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards (see this previous post for details), five women entrepreneurs (see picture), one from each region of the globe (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America). When Bernard Fornas, President and CEO of Cartier International, announced the winners, he said that they took 7 hours discussing to make the decision. Not only me, but I guess a lot of people in the WF wondered: what criteria did they take into account for the evaluation?

Today I spoke to Freja Day, from Cartier International, and she told me that the evaluation is very rigorous. The three main criteria are: creativity (the degree of innovation of the overall business concept and idea); sustainability (financial impact of the business, indicating its long-term success); impact (community impact of the business, in terms of job-creation and impact on the immediate or broader environment).

The jury is composed of outstanding individuals of the business world, the non-profit sector and the academic field. There are five jury panels, one per continent, representing a variety of profiles, countries and cultures. The jury members all voted for the projects of the finalists.

Freja also said that the social impact of the project is very important, especially in emerging countries. The analysis of the business plans, showing the sustainability of the projects in the next three, five or ten years, counted a lot as well.

The Award is a long-term project and is going to be repeated. So, women entrepreneurs of the world, prepare your business plans for next year’s Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards!

When I saw her speaking Portuguese while walking around in the Women’s Forum, I was happy to find someone who speaks my native language. Only after I learned that she was one of the “Rising Talents“. Joana Loureiro is a real woman entrepreneur. She is the General Manager of Junior Achievement in Portugal, the world’s largest organisation dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship.

Joana told me that she knew Junior Achievement in the United States, where she followed a post-graduation course on Management of non-profit organizations. She then had the idea of bringing it to Portugal. Today, Junior Achievement Portugal has already established a network made up of over 600 volunteers and 600 teachers in 13o schools.

The advice she gives to people who think of becoming entrepreneurs are: first you have to try, to experiment. And the other important aspect is that you have to be willing to take risks. She said that in Portugal, for example, people tend to be very averse to risk.

With the importance of entrepreneurship growing in the world, it is quite amazing to see initiatives such as Joana’s in the Women’s Forum. We can hope that more women (and men) would be inspired by her and help create an entrepreneurial culture in other countries too.

The ceremony of the first Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards took place tonight Friday. The Awards are an international business plan competition for women entrepreneurs. It’s a collaboration of the Women’s Forum and Cartier with the support of McKinsey and INSEAD. There were 14 finalists, and the 2007 winners, who received the award from Aude de Thuin, founder of the Forum, and Bernard Fornas, CEO of Cartier International, are:

Africa: Lucie Avoaka, Santa Maria Medical Center, Ivory Coast (healthcare provider in the underprivileged region of Abobo, Cote d’Ivoire).

Asia: Nandini Pandhi and Yasmina McCarthy, Green Mango, India/Philippines (mobile phone-based virtual marketplace for low-income entrepreneurs and their customers in developing countries).

Europe: Bettina Götzenberger, LOmasLEGAL, Spain (low-cost legal services available from high-street stores, over the phone, and via the internet).

Latin America: Antonia Sanin, The Globe, Colombia (day-care center for children aged 3 to 6 that offers educational products and services developed from the experiences learned at center — workshops, manuals, blog…).

North America: Angel Chang, Angel Chang LLC, USA (luxury apparel with “performance” elements and functional designs: special stain-proof, wrinkle-free and odor-free material, color-changing silkscreen prints, 3-D optical illusion prints, fiber optics…)

Here they are, clockwise from top left, Nandini Pandhi, Angel Chang, Bettina Götzenberger, Antonia Sanin and Lucie Avoaka:

If you spend a few minutes with Antonia and Claudia, you will not want to leave them until you have heard the whole story! Not because they are from Colombia and Mexico and their story telling puts you under spell in the best Latin American fashion. Not only, at least. It’s because they are two very inspiring women and I want to share how their stories touched me.

Antonia Sanin and Claudia Garza are finalists of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards — the winners will be announced tonight. Being finalists has helped them a lot by giving them the confidence to pursue their dreams. Not that self-doubt has stopped them on their way to become innovative entrepreneurs so far!

They have developed two absolutely new business ideas which respond to a big need in Latin America, if not everywhere else: giving every child and young person the opportunity to take out the best of themselves. Is there a mission more important than that, I was thinking as I was listening to them.

Claudia Garza is an inspiring teacher who has worked for a number of years giving vocational guidance to kids and their families in her town in northern Mexico. Dropping out of universities is a huge problem in Mexico, with up to 400 million dollars wasted every year in students who never graduate. But it’s an even bigger problem for the student’s self-esteem and for the whole family which invested in the wrong career. Claudia turned this into a business. She developed a testing model to help kids decide their future independently from pressures from their parents or society. She boasts an impressive record of success and is now planning to franchise her company into other parts of the country.

Antonia Sanin has started an educational business which organises workshops for young children in Bogota. The idea is to show the world to children who may never get to travel out of Colombia. “I enjoyed seeing the world when I was small and kids should also get out of their little bubbles”, she says. It’s pure global fun, by the sound of it. After three months of setting up her business, she is also working on developing interactive multi-media tools for children and teaching aids for parents.

It’s a spell. Since meeting them I have not stopped thinking about my own dreams and how I can go about realising them… If Claudia and Antonia make the same impact on the children and young persons they will encounter in their businesses, Mexico and Colombia will be better places! And perhaps the grown-ups who meet them on the way like me will become better persons also…

The expectations are high for the finalists of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards 2007, a joint project by Cartier and the Women’s Forum, with the support of McKinsey & Company and INSEAD. Yesterday Thursday, the fourteen women entrepreneurs gathered to show their start-up projects in the Women’s Forum. There will be five winners of the Prize, one from each region (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America). The five winners will receive The Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Trophy, US$ 20 000 each, coaching support for one year and media visibility. I could talk to some of the finalists about what they expected from the Award (which is to be announced tonight). All of them agrees that it is already great to be among the finalists.

Lucie Cissé, an entrepreneur from the Ivory Coast, said that it is already an honor to be there. If she wins the Prize for her project of a healthcare provider in the underprivileged region of Abobo, she thinks that it will help her develop the project and it will also be good for Africa. The Argentinian entrepreneurs Marisa Otamendi and Carola Pradas are also very excited to be finalists. They said that the Cartier Award helped them make their dream come true, a customer service consulting and outsourcing for e-businesses in Argentina. The Cartier Award helped them develop their idea, write their business plan and organize their work. They argue that their project can benefit women, as it will allow them to work from home. If she wins, Bettina Götzenberger, from Spain, will be happy to benefit from the consulting and coaching that come with the Prize.

Among the European women entrepreneurs, Jenny Carenco, who quit a job in a consulting firm to open her own business, a new generation of baby food jars and frozen baby food, thinks that the products and services that the finalist women entrepreneurs propose make a real sense. Besides, she believes that the credibility of the structure of Cartier’s Award will certainly help them obtain funding for their businesses. Katalin Berenyi, a French entrepreneur, remembered that there are not many women entrepreneurs in France. According to her, the level of the projects of the finalists is very high and they are all very interesting. Her business is an anti-fatigue cosmetics range based on traditional Korean herbal science. If she is one of the winners, she believes her company will obtain a great visibility. Antonia Sanin, who created a day-care center for children aged 3 to 6 in Colombia, considers that the Cartier Women’s Initiative has already given her a lot. It helped her formally write her idea and consolidate her working team.

Indeed, Freja Day, from Cartier International, explains that Cartier has been a sponsor of the Women’s Forum since its creation in 2005. She reminds that women are the driving force of the economy. They wanted to create something concrete for women, a long-term initiative that could help women open and develop their own businesses. Cartier has a long history (founded in 1847) and, as Freja says,”women are the heart of what we do”.