Unleashing the Potential of Women Entrepreneurs with Coca-Cola and Babson College

What does it take to unleash the power of women entrepreneurs?

That’s exactly what Babson College set out to discover when they were chosen by The Coca-Cola Company to review their 5by20 Initiative. Babson’s report, Unleashing the Potential of Women Entrepreneurs, analyzed the program’s problems, strengths, progress and outlook to see how they were doing in regards to their goal to reach five million women entrepreneurs throughout the Coca-Cola value chain by 2020.

“5by20 initiative matches extremely well with Babson’s own focus on empowering women in business as the Babson approach is to make sure that research, practice and teaching are all integrated in our major projects,” said Patricia Greene, Babson Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies and Academic Director of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and 10,000 Women.

The report opened with an overview of the 5by20 Initiative, laying out its focus and commitment to gender quality within a wide range of enterprises including economic development, sustainability and social goals. It then went on to explain the eight programs and six value chain sectors—producers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, recyclers and artisans—and ended with a review of 5by20’s efforts as well as its initial impact. Finally, a summary of key elements was provided along with information about successful scaling and lessons learned.

“[Babson] found that at the end of 2015, 5by20 had enabled more than 1.2 million women entrepreneurs across 60 countries, primarily in the retail (91 percent) and agricultural producer (6 percent) segments of the value chain,” the school revealed in an article. “Women have been enabled primarily through business skills training and access to finance and/or assets. While peer networking and mentoring are taking place throughout communities, it is often organic and difficult to track.”

Other key statistics from the report included:

• Engaging local business leaders is key to promoting women entrepreneurs. 5by20 relies on local executives to implement and drive women-focused programs within their operations. To induce these leaders and operations to participate, 5by20 offers a “solid business case that outlines the reasons why a local business leader should be investing time and money in programs that meet the 5by20 criteria.
• Identifying potential opportunities and weaving those opportunities throughout the value chain could additionally expand 5by20.
• By engaging leaders at a multitude of levels within an organization—from corporate leadership down into local business units—5by20 can be embedded throughout all aspects of the company, which has a better foundation for long-term sustainability including “aligned values, strategic leadership, development tactics, and commitment of resources.”
• To increase the program’s success, engaging local and global partners was also recommended. Partners add legitimacy and provide resources and expertise to the program. They also offer access to capital and social networks.
• The 5by20 Initiative should further develop its specific business training segments that are devoted to gender differences. This training is relevant to the project and adds to the global discussion about women’s empowerment, particularly within entrepreneurship.
• Finally, technology is key to 5by20’s success. Throughout the Initiative mobile phones have been used for training at times and locations that are convenient for women. Technology also provides additional scaling opportunity and enhances the design, delivery, and evaluation of the 5by20 programs.

 

The report concluded with a meeting on December 8, 2016, between Coca-Cola and Babson College. During the daylong, interactive meeting, experts met for a series of panels, dialogues and collaborative work sessions to talk about the results. The goal was to discuss women’s economic empowerment solutions using the report findings as inspiration.

“We very much liked learning about how the 5by20 project is not designated as a philanthropic activity, but built into their business model,” said Greene. “This resonates with much of what we think we are seeing in the field. It’s good business.”

As for why Babson College was chosen as Coca-Cola’s research partner, it seemed like a natural fit. “We believe that Babson College is the leading expert on research concerning women’s entrepreneurship,” explained Greene. “Babson is involved in research efforts such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Women’s Report, the Diana Project Reports, and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women reports.”

About 5by20 

5by20 is The Coca-Cola Company’s global initiative aimed at empowering five million women entrepreneurs across the company’s global value chain by 2020. Specifically, the initiative is aimed at the many small businesses that Coca-Cola works with in over 200 countries around the world—including everyone from fruit farmers to artisans.

About Babson College 

Babson College is one of the top-ranked colleges in the world for entrepreneurship education, according to the U.S. News and The Princeton Review. The goal of Babson is to provide a dynamic living and learning environment where students, staff and faculty can work together to solve real-world problems. As part of this, Babson is globally recognized for its “Entrepreneurial Thought & Action” methodology, which teaches through action, experimentation and creativity.

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