PROJECT: 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…).

Antonia Sanin: “The time felt right to set out on my own”

Seeking to combine her passion for education, her love of children, and her sharp entrepreneurial ambition, Antonia Sanin has devised a plan to fuse her interests into a coherent business plan. Her company, The Globe, will conduct research into children’s development, provide a range of related educational services and products, whilst offering high-quality childcare, even to low-income families.

Antonia holds a BA in Management from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, which she followed up in 2002 with an MA in Business Education from NYU. “I’ve wanted to work in an education-related field for a long time,” says Antonia. “I have held several positions in higher education establishments [most recently as Development Director of Universidad de Los Andes’ School of Management], but over time, I have begun to shift my focus towards youth pedagogy. At NYU, I participated in an urban education program for underprivileged youth, teaching school children in the Bronx to read. It was an amazing experience, and stoked my passion for working with young people.”

Entrepreneurship in the blood

With a string of entrepreneurs in her family, Antonia has always been surrounded by the desire to make something from nothing. “Having my own company has been an ambition for some time, but I have had to learn a lot to get to this position. Now, the time feels right to set out on my own. I’m still young, have lots of energy, and despite the difficulties of starting up, I know I’ve got what it takes to succeed.”

A cyclical approach to education for students and parents

Welcoming children of 3-6 years of age in the afternoon, when kindergartens close, The Globe will offer a series of workshops and outings to attendants. The workshops support child learning, but will also gather information about best practices for youth education. Findings will be documented and then used to produce a further range of products, such as electronic books for children, and parent workshops. These will further develop the educational experience provided by The Globe.

Wide customer base

We aim to draw support from families whose children already attend some of the prestige kindergartens in nearby neighborhoods,” says Antonia. At the same time, Globe will seek to help children from low-income families. “When I moved back to Colombia from the United States, I taught a Social Responsibilities course at Universidad de Los Andes. Through close work with social foundations, I became aware of the inequality of opportunity available to children of different economic backgrounds, especially in education. This is something I want to rectify, so The Globe will offer reduced-price registration for poorer families, and incentives for wealthier community members – both individuals and companies – to support the less well-off.”

Confidence boost

Antonia discovered the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards through a family friend. “My confidence and enthusiasm for the project have really been boosted by my nomination for the final. I’m happy to know that a group of experts see my idea as structured and feasible and I hope that the coaching phase will help me with the strategic aspects of the plan.”

PROJECT: The Center for Vocational Orientation and Information, Mexico
Personalized career advice allowing high-school students to better plan the next step of their educational development. University drop-out rates are close to 86% in Mexico.

Claudia Garza: “Targeted career planning leads to future success”

Education may be the key to success, but in Mexico, a high drop-out and failure rate means that thousands of Mexican high school and university students aren’t getting the head start in life they need. However, if 37-year-old Claudia Garza has her way, soon every student in her region will have access to a personalized vocational assessment, paving the way to the right higher degree.

Claudia has a masters degree in the Science and Technology of Polymers, but it was her professional experience as a high school teacher that led to her formulating this business plan. “I became aware that in the state of Coahuila, the drop-out rate for universities and technical colleges was over 80%, while enrolment levels were extremely low. As a teacher, I realized that helping young people make the right career choices earlier was crucial to combating these trends. Providing such a service could also enable me to fulfill my entrepreneurial goals.”

So six years ago, Claudia established the Centre for Vocational Orientation and Information in her hometown of Monclova, Coahuila. Claudia and her staff advise new high school students on their career path based on an in-depth analysis of their strengths, weaknesses, and overall personality.

“We exchange ideas with pupils from an early stage, identifying their vision of the future, motivating them to achieve better academic results, and advising them on how to pursue their own goals,” says Claudia. “We can reduce the time a student needs to recognize his or her capabilities, making their work more productive.”

Self-evaluation to provide better services

A major difference from the traditional, state-led career counseling offered in schools is a continuous evaluation process that enables Claudia to fine-tune her services. “We offer several opportunities, in both the short- and long-term, for students to send us their feedback. This means we’re constantly learning how to do better.”

So far the results have been spectacular – an analysis of one of Claudia’s first groups of 55 students showed that 52 of them had gone on to enroll in courses that had been suggested in the career orientation sessions and that not a single student had dropped out.

Expanding horizons

Claudia is now poised for expansion across the state. “We’ve already grown our client base from 40 students in the first year to 150 in 2006,” says Claudia. “With the right backing and investments, we expect to expand that number to approximately 600 across the entire state of Coahuila in two to three years time.”

With around 30,000 students matriculating for a university education every year in Coahuila, there’s high potential for future development. “Our experience suggests that at least 25% of these students and their parents will be interested in our services,” Claudia says.
The Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards play a fundamental part in Claudia’s dreams for the future. “I’m already looking forward to learning from the coaches who will help me finalize my business plan, and winning would be a major boost for our expansion plans,” states Claudia. “I’m more motivated than ever to see my goals achieved!”

PROJECT: e-Customer Service, Argentina
Customer service consulting and outsourcing for e-businesses in South America.

Carola Pradas: “Improving businesses’ customer services while creating a source of employment for women”

Although almost half a million Argentine businesses have a website, only a few of them understand the impact of timely online communications with their customers. At least that’s what market research director Carola Pradas and her enterprise partner Marisa Otamendi (a consulting director) believe. And that’s why they have designed an online query response business, which has an inherent social responsibility function.

The idea enables small-to-medium enterprises to improve customer satisfaction by outsourcing their online query response service. “Many companies in Argentina underestimate the importance of providing an immediate, personalized response via the Internet,” explains Carola. “Not only do they lose on potential on- and offline sales, they also miss out on building customer loyalty.”

Carola and Marisa, both born and educated to postgraduate level in Buenos Aires, drew upon both their professional experience in international market research and their personal findings as online shoppers to develop the plan. “As customers ourselves, the responses to our test e-mails came four to seven days after the queries had been sent, if at all,” says Marisa. “The delay represents an opportunity for us to improve online client relationships.”

Starting their own business is a logical career move for both women. “As the Senior Research Director at a private consulting firm, I am constantly seeking out new markets and innovative products for the companies I advise,” explains Carola. Marisa, a Consulting Director and Head of Customer Development at the same firm is similarly motivated. “This plan is a great opportunity to add value to companies’ operations. To learn from Cartier’s coaching consultants whilst developing the model is particularly exciting.”

A win-win model

The aim of the business is to provide a 24-hour query response solution to companies that can’t afford in-house provision of this service. It’s more than a simple business venture, however. A notable differentiating aspect of Carola and Marisa’s project is their desire to create income streams for marginalized segments of the population.

“We’re looking to train and employ stay-at-home women currently without paid jobs. They may be homemakers or retirees. By tapping this employee pool, we aim to provide capable women with a monthly income from a job they can do from home. In turn, they’ll be able to contribute to family finances and gain greater independence,” explains Marisa.

Today Argentina, tomorrow the world

With no competitors in Argentina and a healthy Latin American economy, Carola and Marisa are eventually planning to roll out the scheme in Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay. “With Argentine employees’ language skills and our favorable exchange rate, we believe we can ultimately offer the service to companies worldwide,” says Carola.

The partners consider the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards as a building block to making their dreams a reality. “We actually jumped up and down when we heard that we’d been chosen as finalists,” confesses Carola with a smile. “The fact that we were selected makes the possibility of implementing the project much more concrete,” she adds. “It assures us that we’re headed in the right direction,” concludes Marisa.