As part of the celebration of its silver anniversary, homegrown hygiene company Sanitary Care Products Asia (SCPA) announced that it has joined forces with the Asian Institute of Management-Dado Banatao Incubator (AIM-DBI).
Together, they launched an initiative called the Human Investment x Impact Grant for Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (HIIGENE) that hopes to empower a new breed of Filipino business leaders.
The HIIGENE program is a search that will provide opportunities to deserving start-ups to accelerate Filipino businesses.
This will be the first time that AIM-DBI will emphasize people management philosophy as their top criterion, fully integrating SCPA’s DNA in the program. It will be anchored in SCPA Chairman and Founder Renato Sio and President Venjosef Sio family’s legacy of a people-first philosophy, and hopes to inspire entrepreneurs to put up a trailblazing company built on their peoples’ loyalty, trust, and respect.
They believe that the real secret to a successful business is its people, and according to the Sios, this is their way of paying it forward in time for SCPA’s silver year in the business.
SCPA created homegrown hygiene brands for Filipinos such as Sanicare, Femme, Tisyu, Cheers, Naturale and Jade. Throughout the years, SCPA has maintained its mantra of “Great love for what we do and the people we do it for” and has remained faithful to it in the conduct of their business. Over the years, SCPA has always believed that its people is the secret to the success of the business. SCPA stays true to this and now pays it forward as they kicked off their silver year with the HIIGENE initiative, which the company launched in a virtual event held recently.
Also present in the launch was “dreamagineer” and AIM-DBI Executive Director Prim Paypon, founder of non-profit organization called The Dream Project PH.
AIM-DBI, named after Silicon Valley tech pioneer Dado Banatao, targets innovation-driven entrepreneurs whose businesses have the potential to impact all sectors of society.
He shared that through HIIGENE, qualified start-ups have the chance to hone their leadership skills and grow their businesses through a 3-month long AIM-DBI mentorship program. Also, up to 3 companies have the opportunity to receive grants of up to PHP 500,000 each to fund their businesses. Truly, this collaboration is SCPA’s purposeful way to serve as a channel of blessing to Filipinos who aspire to create positive change in society.
The accelerator program’s activities are all set and scheduled for the rest of the year. Interested start-ups from AIM-DBI’s pool of 2018 alumni to 2021 enrollees may send in their applications starting April 1 until April 30.
These applications will undergo a rigid screening to make sure the grant will be awarded to those who fit the core philosophy of both SCPA and AIM-DBI. The awarding of grants will follow in June, ending in October with a culminating activity to highlight the winner’s progress.
The launch of this philosophy-designed program was monumental for SCPA and highlights AIM-DBI’s 3rd anniversary this month. The collaboration of these two organizations strengthens their respective belief in creating meaningful human impact through local businesses.
“What sets HIIGENE apart from other grants are these: First, this is the only time a local company is collaborating with a business school incubator work with startups as a pioneering business-academe-and-startup partnership. Second, when you talk about financial grants or competition grants here and abroad, we always talk of the innovation of the product or the technology; you rarely come across – and probably this is the first of its kind in the Philippines – where the focus of the grant is going back to the people who keep the company thriving and growing. These set #HIIGENE apart from the rest of the financial grants,” Paypon shared.
When asked by Frontpageph.com of the possibility of extending the initiative or grants outside of the AIM-DBI sphere to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the younger Sio said they just wanted to try it first since the company is marking an occasion. “We just want to study how it’s done well, and we’re blessed to have a partner such as AIM-DBI. We’ll see how it goes, we’ll take baby steps and if it’s something that will create an impact, even just in the mentorship portion, we’ll see.”
For the elder Sio, he sees the issue of sorting out all the applications and they still don’t have a criteria in selecting applications outside of AIM-DBI and they have no experience in that area. Maybe this project now can lead to that in the future. “We can probably set aside a percentage of our retained earnings for granting financial assistance to would-be entrepreneurs, or grant without equity.”
In response, Paypon said the reason why SCPA wanted it first to be exclusive to AIM-DBI is that another program cannot be replicated without any proof of concept. And one of the requirements is that the business has to be in operation for at least 3 years, with at least four full-time employees. “Our concern is that if a grant is awarded to a business that is not yet SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)-registered, chances are the grant will just be used for business registration. Our true hope is that the grant will truly impact the people, more than it impacts the business.”
Reaching its silver anniversary despite recent economic challenges is no easy feat. For SCPA, there is no better way to celebrate 25 years of success than giving back — not only because it is the right thing to do – but because it shares and honors a philosophy that allowed them to attain this accomplishment.
For them, it is all about “Putting people first.”