From bisyo to ambisyon to vision

Last August, 19 individuals registered for the six-month Venture in Entrepreneurship (VIE) program of AIM’s Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE). They had one common driving passion–they wanted to go entrepreneurial and soonest.

They and VIE are a perfect fit.

The VIE is indeed designed for wannabe entrepreneurs. These are men and women, young and even not-so-young, who have either graduated from college or have chosen to pursue alternative tracks earlier than expected–all driven to pursue a pet business idea.

Although it is the first public offering of VIE, the processes the individuals are going through these days involve time-tested AIM teaching methodologies and learning experiences.

Its fundamental structure is drawn from the steps taken in preparing the Management Research Report or the final major thesis of AIM’s standard and longest running program–the Master in Business Management. In recent years, there has been a growing interest among this generation of MBM students to set up an entrepreneurial venture of their own versus the more traditional corporate career. Thus, we have given them the option to put up an entrepreneurial venture as the final integrating mechanism of their AIM learning experiences.

In addition, the research findings on entrepreneurship by ACE are giving VIE participants a better understanding of what an entrepreneur really is.

Q. What are you looking for and why?

A. A VIE applicant without a business idea will not be accepted into the program. Fair enough?

Because it will structurally support the development of the enterprise from business idea to start-up, the VIE starts with a module called "the first 14 days" where the participant must understand all of the following:

* enterprise life cycle and life forces;

* self assessment of values and preferences;

* environmental scanning and screening opportunities;

* learning to think creatively;

* learning to intuit;

* opportunity-seeking and idea generation;

* micro-market analysis;

* product concept development and innovation;

* entrepreneurial key success factors and pitfalls;

* entrepreneurial leadership; and

* visioning for the business venture.

At the end of this period, a VIE participant who discovers that entrepreneurship is not for him or her or who still does not have clearer business concepts is not allowed to continue on.

In the next five months, VIE participants will be subjected to more structured sessions in marketing, technology choices and operations, finance, organizational planning and fulfilling legal requirements. Although there will be case room sessions four days a month, the participants will be doing a lot of work applying their newly-found learning into the business concept.

For example, after the marketing module, the VIE participant will have to conduct an industry analysis, a micro-market and a consumer analysis. This is the foundation needed by the participant to perfect the product or service concept into a market-tested prototype.

In addition, the first draft of the marketing plan will be required. The VIE participant, just like the Master in Entrepreneurship (ME) student, will be helped along by an assigned faculty guru. At the end of the six months, a complete business plan will be put together as a guide to continue the implementation of the entrepreneurial venture.

The pioneer crop of VIE participants have just finished their first month and have gone through a process of finally choosing the business concept to pursue. The big input to the choice are the learning experiences of what makes a successful entrepreneur, as drawn from the ACE documentation of case studies on successful entrepreneurs in Asia.

When some of these cases are discussed with VIE participants, it becomes much easier to identify with the entrepreneurial models and, in the process, to discover what it would take to become a successful entrepreneur.

Q. What are some of the critical findings of the ACE research on successful entrepreneurs? How can these help a wannabe entrepreneur in zeroing on a business?

A. Clearly, one common trait of successful entrepreneurs is passion for the business. However, there can be different sources of, or reasons for, one’s passion. It can range from a strong determination to simply get out of poverty to a burning desire to industrialize the country. Self-serving concerns or national interests–be that as it may– passion is a key factor.

Q. What does passion for the business do for the entrepreneurs?

A. Passion for the business makes the entrepreneurs enjoy what they are doing for the business. It is no longer work but fun. It is doing things not because one has to do them but doing things because one wants to do them. It is because of passion that the task or activities done are excellent or superior in nature. And, if they are indeed excellent and superior in nature, the economic benefits simply become a natural consequence.

I have personally observed from both the ACE case studies on entrepreneurs and the student-entrepreneurs who joined ACE programs one important fact: that the greater the passion for the business, the greater the economic returns to the business.

Q. What do you advise winnable entrepreneurs?

A. For those who, like VIE participants, are in a critical stage of their life process and are looking for answers to the question–Which business concept will I pursue?–my formula is simple.

Ask youself: What is your current hilig or bisyo? Continuing on, let me say that, for as long as the bisyo is not fundamentally illegal or immoral, we can consider it as a platform for business development.

People are normally passionate about their hobbies or things they love to do. Notice, for instance, that most of the people in the orchid business started it as a hobby. The passion that a hobby elicits, if carefully guided towards the establishment of a business, can transform a hobby into a sustainable entrepreneurial venture.

In the case of VIE participants, I asked them which of the business concepts they submitted for VIE was closest to a pet hilig or consuming bisyo. Properly guided during the program, this bisyo can be transformed into an ambisyon and finally a vision for a business. It becomes something of significance that will not only bring out the passion of the entrepreneur but also , down the road, that of the people they will attract to work with them in synchronized and uniquely entrepreneurial fashion.

(Alejandrino Ferreria is the associate dean of the Asian Institute of Management’s Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE). You may send your questions/feedback to [email protected])