The Wave
April-June, 2006 eNewsletter
Volume 4, Number 2
Page 2
Goals and Expected Outcomes
- The Strategic
Framework will develop effective strategies for :
•
Creating cutting- edge information about
women's entrepreneur ship,
•
Increasing underst anding of women
entrepreneurs and their economic and social
impact, by building relevant metrics,
methodologies, and templates for
benchmarking, including metrics to determine
the social and economic ROI from investing in
women's entrepreneur ship,
•
Making the business and economic case for
investing in women's entrepreneurship,
•
Presenting policy recommendations that can
spur positive change,
•
Building momentum and support for policy
change, including understanding of best
practices, and strategies for implementing the
U.S. Action Plan between 2007 and 2020,
•
Creating oppor tunit ies for stakeholder s to
work together,
•
Educating media, policymakers and
corporations about women entrepreneurs and
their impact, and
•
Supporting entrepreneurial success initiatives
that lead to economic development, job
creation and growth.
How We Are Creating the Strategic Framework
-
Quantum Leaps will develop a draft Strategic
Framework containing key concepts and recom-
mendations, which will be developed and tested in
collaboration with relevant experts. Stakeholders
will provide strategic input by means of a multi-
phase process that includes:
•
Inviting researchers and experts in the field of
women's entrepreneur ship, plus trend
forecasters as guest experts, to participate in
two Research Online Forums during the fall of
2006. These experts will help frame the big
questions and challenges in women's entrepre-
neurship, identify gaps, and recommend
solutions. They will 1) develop an action- oriented
research agenda designed to spur the growth of
the sector from 2007 to 2020, and 2) identify
ways to collaborate on projects that will address
research gaps. Research forums will be
conducted in cooperation with top academic and
corporate researchers, and the Center for
Women's Business Research.
Development of the Strategic Framework will
also include:
•
Holding focus groups and expert roundtables
with thought leader s at important women's
business conferences and events in 2006
(currently under way),
•
Holding online for ums on other key issues,
•
Drafting "strawman" models of the Strategic
Framework, for which concepts and
recommendations in key areas will be tested
with relevant stakeholders in late 2006 and
early 2007, and
•
Conducting online and email polling in late
2006 and early 2007, to test and validate
concepts and recommendations.
These activities will conclude with a 3-week
Virtual Economic Summit
on Women's
Entrepreneurship in ear ly 2007. The Virtual
Summit will build upon all of the activities
leading up to it, and will culminate in the formal
adoption of the Strategic Framework as a
multi-year economic agenda for women's
entrepreneurship in the U.S. from 2007-2020.
The Strategic Framewor k will be released in the
spring of 2007 at a high-visibility forum, and is
expected to be formally presented to the
President, the Congress and the SBA Adminis-
trator. It will be launched with an
extensive
media campaign
in 2007, including briefings for
editorial board members.
Impact in the U.S.
- The Strategic Framework will
energize the women's business community,
which will assist with data gathering, providing
recommendations, promoting findings with their
members, and benchmarking results.
More importantly, this initiative will foster
collaboration among stakeholders. Organiza-
tions will use this living blueprint as a
roadmap
for action between 2007 and 2020,
with stake -
holder organizations taking responsibility for
implementing and collaborating on actions that
are crucial to their constituencies. A Report Card
assessing implementation of the recommenda-
tions will be released at two year intervals.
Global Impact
- The documented process,
models, templates, and metrics used to create
the U.S. Strategic Framework will be made
available to other countries and regions of the
world in late 2007, so that they also can develop
a process for adopting a Strategic Framework
that is culturally appropriate.
Conclusion
- This critically important Strategic
Framework will help catalyze the future growth
and development of women's entrepreneur ship
in the United States for the next decade and a
half. We look for ward to working shoulder to
shoulder with key women entrepreneurial
organizations, their members, and other
stakeholders in blazing new trails, and bringing
our collective vision for women's entrepreneur-
ship in the United States into reality!
Why a Strategic
Framework Is Needed
The last time that the U.S. addressed
women's entrepreneurship
systemically and strategically was in
the late 1980s, when the National
Association of Women Business
Owners (NAWBO) orchestrated
congressional hearings by the House
Small Business Committee, drafted
HR 5050, and engineered its passage
as the Women's Business Ownership
Act of 1988.
This landmark legislation eased some
problems with women's access to
business credit, mandated a business
census of all women-owned
businesses, created the pilot program
that developed into the ex tremely
successful Women's Business
Centers, and created the National
Women's Business Council (NWBC).
Eighteen years later, leaders of
the women's business enterprise
community have agreed to again
take a strategic look at gaps in
the women's enterprise infrastructure,
and strategies to overcome them, in
order to accelerate the growth of this
sector, and to enable women
entrepreneurs to achieve their full
economic potential.
Stakeholder Survey
The survey that appears below was
sent to a number of key stakeholders,
requesting their feedback. A
sampler
of some of the comments
received
appears on page 3.
Please contact us at
would like to complete this survey.
Question #1 – Issues –
Below are
some of the key issues that will be
addressed by the U.S. Strategic
Framework. Please provide us with
feedback regarding the issues you
think are most relevant and
important, especially to you and your
organization. Are there any other
important issues not mentioned here?
For the issue or issues you are most
familiar with, are there any case
studies and/or best practices
(policies or programs) you want to
highlight?
Continued on page 3, column 3
