The Wave
April-June, 2006 eNewsletter
Volume 4, Number 2
Table of Contents
1-3
U.S. Strategic Framework
1 Sponsorship Opportunities
2 Need for Strategic Framework
2- 3 Stakeholder Survey
3 Sampler of Survey Comments
4
Women in the Supply Chain
4 Doing Business in India
4
Contact Us
Quantum Leaps, Inc.
(www.quantumleapsinc.org) is a US-based
non-profit corporation that is a global
accelerator for women's entrepreneurship.
It was designed to help create economic
opportunities in the US and abroad, by
identifying and connecting key women
entrepreneurial leaders, facilitating the
sharing of best practices across countries,
and helping to link effective programs with
resources. It uses 21st Century technology
to make a clearinghouse of resources and
best practices available to its powerful
global network of leaders and multipliers,
who then disseminate this information widely
to their members and stakeholders. The
organization began its work with a major
seed grant from the Kauffman Foundation,
which funds innovative programs that foster
entrepreneurship. IBM is a Diamond
Sponsor.
It grew out of two major international
conferences on women-owned small
and medium enterprises put on by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) in Paris in 1997 and
2000, for which our CEO served as Senior
Advisor. Quantum Leaps in?uences research,
policies, programs and practices that
expand the WE sector by concentrating on
6 core strategies:
1) WE research, data and statistics;
2) Entrepreneurial training;
3) Access to finance;
4) Access to networks and markets;
5) Technology as an entrepreneurial
enabler; and
6) Constituency building and advocacy.
We are also analyzing how these
areas impact growth-oriented WEs.
Page 1
The United States has been in the vanguard of
women's entrepreneurship for more than three
decades. However, policy and programs have
been ad hoc and reactive, rather than strategic
and proactive. And efforts to spur the growth of
women-owned businesses along the size
continuum have tended to be piecemeal, rather
than well-planned. As a result, a number of gaps
still exist in the policy and program infrastructure.
For women's entrepreneurship to reach its full
potential, women business leaders, advocates,
researchers, policymakers, corporations and
foundations have to become more strategic and
collaborative. By building part nerships and
leveraging private sector, non-proft, academic
and public sector resources, actors in the U.S.
can dramatically spur the growth of the women
entrepreneurial sector of the economy, at all
stages along the business continuum.
To achieve this objective —and bridge many of the
gaps in the infrastructure— Quantum Leaps is
partnering with leading organizations and
forward- leaning thinkers to develop an action-
oriented U.S. Strategic Framework designed to
fuel women's enterprise development to 2020.
The project won't stop at the conceptual stage.
As Robin Diamond of the Direct Sellers
Educational Foundation (DSEF) points out:
"Everyone who signs on to this
initiative has ownership, and
therefore responsibility to hold up
their end of things. The most
important thing is that this is not a
document that gets released and
then sits in a drawer, but that it
becomes almost a 'Constitution and
Bill of Rights' for U.S. women's
entrepreneurship."
Other Key Partners
- Organizations providing input
to develop the Strategic Framework, in addition to
DSEF, include such organizations as the Associa-
tion of Women's Business Centers (AWBC),
Center for Women's Business Research (CWBR),
National Association of Women Business Owners
(its Institute for Entrepreneurial Development
provided our seed funding), National Women's
Business Council (NWBC), Women Impacting
Public Policy, Inc. (WIPP), Women's Leadership
Exchange ( WLE), Women Presidents' Organization
(WPO) and Women's Business Enterprise
National Council (WBENC).
Key Issues Being Addressed
- The Strategic
Framework is examining seven areas, all of which
will be addressed in t he 2020 action plan:
•
Research, data and statistics that can result in
evidence -based policymaking and program
development,
•
Entrepreneurial education and training,
•
Access to debt and equity capital at all stages
along the business continuum,
•
Access to net works— corporate, government
and international markets, including global
supply chains,
•
Technology as an entrepreneurial enabler,
•
Advocacy and const ituency building, including
opportunities for stakeholder s to collaborate,
•
And
education of the media, policymakers,
corporations and the public about women
entrepreneurs and their economic and social
impact, by means of a strategic media
campaign designed to build ongoing support for
this dynamic economic sector.
continued on page 2, column 1
Sponsorship Opportunities for
Organizations and Individuals
Corporations, women's business associations,
foundations, and government agencies
are invited
to contribute to the support of this strategic
initiative in areas that are relevant to their
missions, such as research, finance, access to
markets, technology, entrepreneur ial tr aining,
advocacy, and media.
There are opportunities to sponsor online forums,
focus groups, face-to -face meetings, a Virtual
Economic Summit , the high-profile event at which
the U.S. Strategic Framework will be formally
launched, and to provide cash or in -kind sponsor-
ship of a national media campaign.
In addition,
individual donors
are invited to make
contributions at the level of $1,000, $2,500 or
$5,000, or more if desired.
For additional information about sponsorship
opportunities,
please contact us at:
U.S. Launches a Strategic Framework to Spur Women
Entrepreneurial Growth from 2007 to 2020
