THE INNOVATIVE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

1. NUR ATHIRAH BT MUHAMMAD ANIS    62212117087

1. MUNA MUNIIRAH BT ABDULLAH          62212117084

1.  NUR ANIS SURAYA BT MOHD JOHARI   62212117135

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

We are the students of UniKL BIS in Bachelor of Management and Entrepreneurship year 1. Our group consist of three members. We decided to choose and summarize the journals of The Woman Entrepreneur. In this blog, as you can see there are few journals and stories about these women entrepreneur which could insipire you to be success like them. We hope that we could share informations together.

Successful stories ( DR SORAYA RAHIM )

Dr Soraya Rahim Ismail of Boost Juice Bars, tells LIM WONG HOOI entrepreneurs are masters of their own destiny, but then you can never truly ‘switch off’.

Dr Soraya Rahim Ismail, 42, the founder and managing director of Vitality Boost Sdn Bhd, master franchiser holder of the Boost Juice Bars in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. says leaving the corporate world to start her own business was something of a culture shock.

It meant going from a job with a proper support structure to back you up to practically doing everything by yourself.

However, Soraya says she’s rather motivated by the fact that selling health drinks means she’s contributing positively to Malaysia by providing a healthy alternative to fast food.

You’re a high achiever, with a doctorate in chemical engineering from Imperial College, London. Can you tell us about your dissertation and what you found interesting about it?

My PhD was about Optimisation of Chemical Process Design using a heat and mass mathematical model. This involved developing a model for design of chemical plants or processes, such as distillation processes for the oil industry. As my models were developed based on case studies to solve actual design problems provided by the industry (i.e. by oil and gas companies), the PhD (which took three years to complete) was not simply theoretical. I enjoyed tackling a large problem by logically breaking it down systematically.

What motivated you to start a business?

I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. The largest influence was probably my parents, who individually had their own businesses, where my father owned a travel agency in London when I was growing up. I was with the management consulting firm Accenture for 10 years, travelling from the UK to many locations, including Europe, Japan, USA and Australia, specialising in customer relationship management and marketing.

However, it was not until the right opportunity came along that I left the corporate world in 2009 while I was senior manager with Accenture in London.

How did you know what business to go into?

As master franchisor of Boost Juice Bars in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, I found this business ticked all the boxes for me. It is a brand and also a product that I am passionate about.

I already had the idea in 2007, hence I established the company in 2007 (while I was still with Accenture) and started negotiations with the Australian company who owned the franchise to become the master franchise holder in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, but it was only in 2009 that I opened the first outlet in Suria KLCC.

It allows me to contribute positively to Malaysia by introducing a healthy alternative to fast food while building a Malaysian company to provide jobs. It also presented me an opportunity to return to Malaysia after over 20 years of living and working abroad.

How different has it been compared to being a professor or a consultant?

With an initial capital of RM1mil from our savings, my husband and I did all the backend work involving human resource, administration, supply chain and marketing when we began with 12 staff for the first outlet.

Today, we have a staff of 300 in both the Malaysia and Singapore operations.

The challenges of starting a business from scratch and introducing a brand to a new market are very different from having an established corporate job, where you usually have the support structure in place, as well as a guaranteed pay cheque at the end of the month!

Overnight, I went from a job where we managed large teams of people with managers reporting to us to literally doing everything ourselves at the beginning.

However, it was a great learning experience and ensured we understood every aspect of our business.

We also had all these great marketing ideas and a strong vision of where we wanted to go but we had to grow the business to a certain level and size before we had the capacity and funds make it happen!

How has it affected your personal life?

Running your own business carries the benefit of being your own boss and being in charge of your own destiny, but on the flip side, you can never truly ‘switch off’ from work.

As my husband Nick Tiernan, also the regional director, and I are both running the business, we tend to ‘talk shop’ most of the time and have had to learn how to work with each other!

We are both opinionated and are not always in agreement, which makes for very colourful debates that we both enjoy!

Today’s modern women have their sets of wheels to show. What is yours?

I drive a Volvo XC90 which I love as it is practical and comfortable. Our boot is often filled with our sporting equipment – whether it’s bicycles for our regular family outings to the park or kitesurfing gear on trips to Kuantan during the monsoon season!

Fact file

What is your motto in life?

My motto with my staff and customers is: Love life & stay healthy.

What do you enjoy most about being an entrepreneur?

The flexibility to schedule my working day so that I am able to send and pick up my six-year-old boy from school every day – something that I would not have been able to do if I had remained in my old corporate job!

What do you do to de-stress?

I exercise regularly as part of my schedule. This allows me to have some ‘me’ time and de-stress effectively! I love yoga, swimming and cycling – all great activities that you can easily do in Malaysia!

Are there any figures that you look up to?

Janine Allis, founder of Boost Juice, who was a mother of three young children when she founded Boost Juice in 2000, is an amazing role model.

She started the business from scratch through hard work and determination, and has a highly successful business that continues to grow 15 years later.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/smebiz/people/2015/05/18/you-cant-truly-switch-off/#wBvwYzAHB6mAe40a.99

Successful stories ( CHRISTY NG )

Christy Ng, the 27-year-old Malaysia-born entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of ChristyNg.com – an online shoe company specializing in handmade custom-made shoes, wedding shoes, high heels shoes and women fashion footwear since July 2010. Christy always had an entrepreneurial spirit and started designing shoes while holding a full-time job with a pharmaceutical company in 2010. She has a flair for drawing and decided to display her first designs on a Facebook page she set up and in July 2012, the biotechnology graduate started a website to sell her bespoke shoes with savings of less than RM10,000 as a start-up capital and the rest was history.

The Story of Christy Ng

An online business helped her keep operating costs low as there were no rentals and utility costs to worry about. With low overheads as she did not need to pay rental, she used the money earned to develop and strengthen her business operations. Today, 40% of her customers purchase the shoes from her website. Customers are mostly from the United States, Australia, United Kingdom and Singapore. Online business helped her to reach customers in places they cannot reach, thanks to the internet. She used part of the RM250,000 prize money she won at the 2013 Alliance Bank Bizsmart Innovation challenge, on research and development and improving business operations. One investment is a 3D engine in the website that allows potential customers to swap colours, fabrics, sizes, add ribbons or straps, in-soles and and other things that make up a pair of shoes.

How are Christy Ng shoes different?

Being too familiar with the shoe-sizing conundrum, Christy Ng Shoes develop, design, and manufacture their own products here in Malaysia. They strive to innovate and make their shoes not only more fashionable but more comfortable with constant and ongoing research and development. The team provides special hand crafted custom-made shoes designed to fit all feet sizes and shape. With the “Design Your Own” feature on their web platform, everyone can design their dream shoes and choose from a tasteful variety of fabrics, textures, prints, laces and more and create their dream shoe in 3D real time render. With over 1 million possible design combinations in terms of different material options, heel heights, heel types, body pattern types, accessories and more – you can be certain that there is always something for any occasion and everyone!

Today, women from over 30 countries wear Christy Ng and they are truly proud that their mission is coming along pretty well, one pair of shoe at a time. Christy Ng has truly brought ‘Shoe Heaven’ to us, as aptly stated in her business slogan.

Regardless whether Christy will be the next Jimmy Choo, one thing for certain is that Christy is a resounding Malaysian pride!

The place where all shoe dreams come true

— @christyngshoes

Successful stories ( MAC CHUN LYNN )

Mac Chung Lynn, the director of Nando’s Chickenland, finds she is breathing, living and eating Nando’s — and loving every minute ofit! The mother of three talks to AGATHA MATAYUN about how she juggles her family life and her thriving business. 

WHERE her personal life is concerned, Mac Chung Lynn normally prefers to keep a low profile.  

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There’s no power dressing for this lady who is slender of form yet shoulders a huge responsibility both in business, where she heads a 500-strong staff, and at home as mother of three young children. 

That she’s well versed with the media was obvious as, after the introductions, she said: “So, you want to start with the personal details?”  

Taking a deep breath, she began: “I am 33. I was born in Petaling Jaya, and went to Methodist Primary School. At the age of 10, I went to Garden School to study, before going overseas at the age of 12. I went to England, to boarding school.” 

It was like a recitation as she continued: “I was there for five years and then afterwards I went to university to study architecture at the university of Wales in Cardiff.”  

Being sent to boarding school at 12, and so far away from home as well, must have made some impact on her. But Mac was reluctant to delve on this part of her life, saying only that she enjoyed her time there and that it “makes you independent and at the same time it also strengthened family ties.”  

Adding a bit more to her family background, she said she has two younger siblings and that her mother is a housewife and her father is an engineer. 

“Nando’s was started in 1998. I got married also in 1998. I have three children, a boy aged three and two-year old twins who know way too much for their age,” she said, laughing. 

And then she was talking about business. 

“My dad is the master franchisee and I run the company on his behalf,” she said. 

This reticence to talk about personal things runs in her family, as those who know them are well aware of: her father is a recognised corporate figure who prefers to keep a low profile and he encourages his children to do likewise. 

As for how the family became a Nando’s franchisee (Nando’s Chickenland Malaysia is in 60% partnership with Nando’s Resources Ltd, which is part of a public listed group of Nando’s Chickenland in South Africa), Mac said it was her father who went for it after tasting the food for the first time in London.  

“We were sitting in one of the Nando's outlets near where I was living in Putney and he was so wild about the taste that he called the manager over and asked who owned the franchise and where the company was from. And within a month, my brother had written to the company.” 

As one of the requirements of being a franchisee was that a family member must be in charge of running the company, Mac, who was then an architect, found herself assuming the role of director.  

Sceptics would say that with her family background, she wouldn't have much to lose if the venture fell through compared to the ordinary Joe with limited financial resources, but Mac took it on as a personal challenge. However, she readily acknowledged the help that she received from her father and others. 

“I was 25 when I first started, and I was really thrown in at the deep end, but the support the parent company gave was tremendous. My dad was also a big help,” she said, recalling the time when she first stepped into the food business. When Nando’s in Malaysia opened its first outlet in 1998, it was in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis and it not only had a stiff market in the casual dining industry to contend with but also a weak economy at that time.  

A lot of people, especially the competitors, said there was no way Nando's would survive, Mac related.  

“I would like to say that we are still here, eight years later,” she said with glee.  

For the record, the company that entices customers to enjoy the “fiery taste of Afro-Portuguese Flame Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken”, its signature dish, now has 20 outlets in various locations in the Klang Valley, Penang and Malacca. 

Being fully occupied in running Nando's, Mac has had to put architecture on the back burner but she still keeps in touch with her first vocation. 

“My husband and I have an architecture company, and I still have a little say in the business,” she said. “But I am not involved in the running of the company.” 

The way it is now, she said, she is “breathing, eating and living Nando’s. It's funny. It just gets to you.”  

Mac hesitated in saying that architecture was her first love, but she said it gave her a good grounding in managing a business, especially where people were concerned. 

“In architecture, you have to mediate between consultants and clients and so it was a good grounding.” 

Her love for food also helps, particularly in the area of product development, she said. 

“I love food, mainly Western, like pasta. I am not fussy, and I enjoy cooking. That in itself is an interest that helps in running the company, especially in product development. I am personally involved in that as well.” 

Mac's entrepreneurial skills were recognised when she received the SMB Women Entrepreneur Award in 2005. It is given to non-listed SMIs or SMEs headed or founded by women entrepreneurs.  

Despite the long hours at work –she leaves for the office at nine in the morning and comes back at 7pm – Mac said she makes it a point to spend time with her children.  

“It’s been hard,” she admitted. “But the advantage of having your own company is, as long as you manage yourself well, you can have the flexibility of spending more time with your kids. But it definitely does take a toll on the time you have with them.” 

She would love to take the children out for walks more often than she does now, she said. “My husband and I like a lot of outdoor things. We take them for walks to get them out more.” 

One thing she doesn't go for is taking her children to shopping centres during the weekends, which seems to be the trend these days. 

“We are getting them more interested in outdoor activities like walking and playing more games outside. I remember when young, Templers Park was a fantastic place and we used to go there for picnics,” said Mac, who thinks that there are a lot of nice outdoor places like parks in Malaysia that are very popular with the public.  

But Mac is hoping to realise her wish to have more time with her children in the next few months even as she embarks on an expansion plan for Nando’s Chickenland. 

“Basically, we have reached 20 restaurants. Our aim over the next five years is to reach 45 or 50 restaurants. In order to get there, I have to look at the company structure and one of them is to get a chief operating officer who will drive the company at operational level while I concentrate on the company at strategic level. 

“With that I can look at the expansion of the company more strategically, eventually look at Singapore, but it will also let me have more time to spend with my kids. How they grow up will be influenced by how I bring them up.” 

One thing that will not feature in her children’s life is going to boarding school. She insisted that she enjoyed the experience and that it equipped her with a lot of soft skills that would help in later life, like not being shy to meet the press. 

“One thing about boarding school, you learn to talk in public and do a lot of courses in public speaking. It teaches you to be independent, definitely,” she said.  

“But no, I am not going to send them to boarding school. That's one thing that's definite. You are away from your family, and, as a mother I don’t think I want to be separated from my kids.” 

In her roles as mother and entrepreneur, Mac has a fine balancing act to perform for a while yet, but looking at her current achievements, she seems to be doing very well on both fronts now.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2006/07/16/macs-sold-on-her-chicken-biz/#GdJfbuEfzOrQKyfm.99

SUMMARY OF  

EXPLORING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL CHALLENGES OF FOOD PROCESSING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN IRINGA, TANZANIA AND STRATEGIES USED TO TACKLE THEM

In Tanzania, the socio-cultural environment represents a key factor affecting entrepreneurial capabilities of women entrepreneurs. For instance, poor education and training, interference and lack of support from husbands and lack of business information have been found to be critical socio-cultural factors that affect negatively the financial performance of women small and medium enterprises in Tanzania.

The institutional theory. It focuses on the process that forms the basis for social norms and behavior. An institutional theory is considered relevant in this study because it illustrates how socio-cultural challenges from the perspective of regulatory, normative and cognitive structures could affect the development of women entrepreneurs in food processing business in Tanzania. 

Women entrepreneurs in Tanzania well in manage their time. They woke up early in the morning for cleaning, fetching water and preparing breakfast for the family members. Upon completion of all domestic activities, they continued with food processing activities until late noon when they went back home to prepare meals. During evening hours, women proceeded with business activities. Women entrepreneurs seemed to manage their time properly by dividing time for domestic and business activities.

(THE JOURNAL URL)

https://journal-jger.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40497-017-0076-0

SUMMARY OF 

SOCIAL WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

EXPLORING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL OF FOOD PROCESSING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN IRINGA, TANZANIA AND STRATEGIES USED TO TACKLE THEM

          Women entrepreneurs have significant contributions to the economies of sub-Saharan Africa. However, women in this religion are facing a shocking array of challenges in their business environment. This paper examines the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the food processing industry in Iringa, Tanzania. The study employs interviews and focus group discussions in collecting data and utilizes content analysis for interpreting findings. The findings indicate that these women entrepreneurs face problems of lack of access to markets, unequal social responsibility and lack of enough capital. It also shows that women entrepreneurs in the food processing business of the region employ an array of transversal strategies in order tackle and mitigate the socio-cultural challenges, including the creation of economic groups and entrepreneurship clubs.

Entrepreneurship is the process of seizing an opportunity to introduce new products or services in an effort to transform inventions and innovations into monetary value(Szycher, 2014). Social entrepreneurs typically further broad social, cultural, and environmental goals and commonly is associated with the voluntary and non-profit sectors (Thompson, 2002). Social entrepreneurship is the process of pursuing innovative solutions to social problems. It is an approach to social and environmental problems that combines innovation and opportunity just the way any entrepreneur would (Adetu, 2004). The field of social entrepreneur has attracted enormous attention from various sectors in the society. In thus, permeates the mainstream consciousness in both the developed  and developing countries as a promising mechanism for alleviating poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and other societal problems. Social entrepreneurship is gaining attraction across the Arab world (Magrabi, 2012). New entrepreneur seek not simply to innovate or make money, but to do special good also to achieve a lasting impact on their business as well as the communities. 

(THE JOURNAL URL)

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40497-015-0028-5

SUMMARY OF 

THE STRENGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO MENTORING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS : HOW TO FREE THE STRENGHTS WITHIN THEM

A strengths based approach to mentoring women entrepreneurs how to free the strengths within them. Firstly, more women entrepreneurs are beneficial to the european economy. Entrepreneurship has long been suggested as a must go path towards European recovery and growth, especially during the years when the entire continent has been faced with a severe economic crisis.

Secondly, a strengths approach for the business weak femine gender. Women entrepreneurs still constitute a minority in the business world mainly due to various barriers that arise from their femine gender such as anachronistic societal and cultural perceptions, plans to make a family while in business, need to undertake multiple roles in their business and at home, the difficulty to convince investors and raise capital, feelings of insecurity and fear of failure in a tough business world (winn 2005).

Thirdly, bringing can dos on stage. Strengths-based mentoring is a leading edge approach that yields positive results as it is an evolutionary experience for both mentors and mentees.

Fourthly, starting with a trustworthy relation between mentor-mentee. A caring relationship between the mentor and the woman entrepreneur is paramount for facilitating the latter to develop her inner strengths while enabling her to elevate from average A+ performance.

Fifth, we all have talents. Aiming to provide a deeper insight into strengths-based mentoring and unravel the ways in which it can be applied in the context of female entrepreneurship the meaning and importance of talent are primarily discussed given that it constitutes the basis of strength.

Sixth, we all have strengths. A strengths is a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that is a anthentic and energising to the user and and enables optimal functioning, development and performance.

Seventh, stages to free the strengths within you. The discovery, recognitiom, freedom, use, combination and evaluation of strengths underpin the personal and unique pursuit and development of one’s inherent talents which enable the realisation of one’s potential and goal achivement.

In conclusion, as the case study above suggest, strengths based mentoring can prove a solid base in order for the women entrepreneur to be able to develop her self-confidence and self-efficacy as well as a clear view of how she can best respond to the business environment through self-reflection and evaluation based on their strengths.

(THE JOURNAL URL)

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2192-5372-2-13

SUMMARY OF 

WOMEN-OWNED FAMILY BUSINESS IN TRANSITIONAL ECONOMIES

The lack of male entrepreneurs causes women and young women entrepreneurs gain a place in the world. Most of entrepreneurs venturing into this field by led family business in order to examine familial influence on strategic entrepreneurial behaviours, including opportunity recognition and innovativeness. The empirical study on leadership in family firms remains largely unstudied.

Family context may have a special importance for a women entrepreneurs. Many article says that women work-life balance is a more complex and demanding task, involving family embeddedness as the main issue. Family involvement on entrepreneurial orientation and growth and at the same time decrease the influence of risk taking on growth. In the family business context, researchers have found that family firms are less inclined to undertake risk, perhaps because the survival of firm is of utmost importance. This seems to be especially true in emerging and underdeveloped economies.

The motivation of entrepreneurs has been shown as an important factor associated with superior firm performance static personality characteristics and other individual traits have not been proven less effective at predicting performance. This is a process of perceiving a possibility to and in both cases, new profit potential emerges. Similarly, innovatives is perceives as a highly relevant component of entrepreneurial orientation in the family firm context.

Examining the influences on innovative behaviour in family firms can contribute to our understanding on how these business strategically prepare for and implement and new inovations. Competitive environments sustainable strategic advantages. Instead, competitive advantages arise from a family firm’s capability to constantly redeploy, reconfigure, rejuvenate, and innovate their capabilities in responding to the changing environmental conditions.

(THE JOURNAL URL)

https://innovation-entrepreneurship.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2192-5372-3-8

SUMMARY OF

 THE CONTRIBUTION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS GROWTH : THE CASE OF GREEK LADIES

 

    Greece is rated rather high in contribution of entrepreneurs in financial life. Looking at percentages, the related gender rate is 15.51% for women entrepreneurs to 22.56% for men entrepreneurs. The above-mentioned parameters often force them to become their own bosses, motivating them to pursue entrepreneurship.

Women experience a ‘work/life blend. It is very challenging to define the balance in a uniform way, especially because those women micro-businesses are run from home. They have to earn their own money and at the same time have to be a wife, sister and a mother.

The gender gap for technology - gap of role models. Despite the contemporary success of young women with University degrees, there is a global, distinct gap between Human and Technology studies. A 78.5% of first-year students said that they regularly used computers before attending college. The figures for women and men were 77.8% and 79.5%, respectively, but women spent far less time on the internet. They were half as likely as men to rate their computer skills as above average and were five times less likely to pursue careers in computer programming - 9.3% of men as opposed to 1.8% of women.

Women entrepreneurs have become a strong driving force in today's economy. They usually are experienced, qualified, and well educated. Unfortunately, between other competencies, technology is still out of women entrepreneurs' comfort zone.

(THE JOURNAL URL)

https://innovation-entrepreneurship.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2192-5372-2-3