SEMP PROJECT

SUB-CONTRACTORS ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

SMART CEBU

Introduced last July 2009, a project by PhilExport, with the support of CBI, offered GTH, as part of the creative sectors, the unique opportunity to develop their own Sectoral Export Marketing Plan (SEMP).

Each creative sector (GTH, CFIF, FAME) had its own representatives develop the SEMP hands on themselves. This work was supported by assigned LEEs (Local Export Experts).

What is a SEMP ?

It is a
- sector plan ready to be implemented which provides updated value chain analysis of the GTH sector, export market analysis and sector opportunities, market entry strategy, sector action plan and financial plan
- means of communication and inspiration for the sector and its individual members. It aligns stakeholders toward a common goal and sets a realistic sector export agenda
- inspiration for synergy within the GTH sector or across the three creative sectors (GTH, CFIF, FAME)

Benefits of the SEMP:

It:

• will enable you to meet the crisis head on
• discovers opportunities you have not seen before
• will help you get ready for the next upswing
• lets you formulate new strategies for your company
• will help you maximize limited resources
• provides you with inspiration to develop your own company export marketing plan (EMP)
• thus gives you economic benefit to your company: increased sales and profit

^ Top

Program Objectives :

Subcontractors are considered the production arm of our export industry. They can greatly affect our export industry in meeting the challenging demands of export through meeting delivery dates, quality requirements and operations efficiency. The development of the subcontractors, plays the vital role in building up the growth of the export sector in the Philippines.

Cebu GTH as an organization with 104 members, are dependent on subcontractors to support their capacity to meet orders. With the demands of the export sector, it became a concern that subcontractors have not fully leverage itself with regards to improved productivity, quality and delivery.

In order to address this problem, the Cebu GTH Foundation, Inc. in partnership with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) came up with a program which will enhance the capacity of the sub-contrators to support the export industry through consistent product quality and on-time delivery. " Cebu GTH Subcontractor's Development Program " is envisioned to support the ultimate goal of the sector in accessing the export market.

Program Mechanics

The Cebu GTH Subcontractor's Development Program is designed for small to medium-sized manufacturing facilities and can be implemented in a variety of sectors. A cluster of five (5) companies/exporters with three(3) to five(5) sub-contrators shall be selected by the participating companies/exporters to participate in the group. Five Clusters will be formed from the 5 company recipients, as each recipient company will be considered as one cluster.

Leading industry experts shall be tapped by Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) to provide support, workshops, training and monitoring to participating companies throughout the program. This program will be conducted in two parts.

Part 1: The preparatory learning to prepare the participants to have an appropriate mind frame before the program will start. At this point we
will conduct a Values Formation Seminar.

Part 2: And second part will be the program proper. These will be composed of three (3)modules as follows:

2.1	Basic Business Management
2.2	Basic Financial Management with focus on:
	• Costing and Pricing • Proper Bookkeeping.
2.3	Basic Production Management with focus on:
	• Production Planning and Control • Production Quality

Trainings will be conducted by the industry experts/business advisors of
PBSP. Training, workshop and monitoring will be conducted to recipients
per cluster separately.

Budget Requirement

The whole course will run for nine (9) months to one (1) year. Clusters will be visited once a month. Each listed participant will be charged Three Thousand (Php 3,000.00) for the administrative fee for the whole course.

Volunteer Advisers will support all the clusters with the program for free. As part of our gratitude, for each visit every cluster should provide the volunteer adviser transportation allowance of three hundred fifty pesos to four hundred pesos (Php350.00 – Php400.00) depending on the distance of the company from the volunteer advisers place, and food allowance on each visit in the amount of one hundred fifty pesos (Php150.00).

^ Top

What's it all about?

SMART Cebu is a project implemented by a consortium of European and Philippine organizations in Cebu that is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) engaged in the home and lifestyle sectors in Cebu by promoting clean production, development of eco-friendly products and entering the green markets in Europe and Asia.

The overall aim of the project is to foster and support an increased competitiveness of SMEs in three sectors (furniture and furnishing; fashion accessories; gift, toys and house ware) and to contribute to a greener environment on Cebu.

The efforts on the production side will be complemented by a marketing and export strategy in order to stimulate the demand for these "green" products from Cebu.

The project SMART Cebu aims at
increasing the competitiveness of SMEs in the home and lifestyle industries and thus to develop a cleaner environment on Cebu.

The specific objective is related to the production of eco-friendly home and lifestyle products from Cebu: The products will be cleaner and the marketing will be enhanced and promoted.

We strive for the following results:

Result 1: BMOS are capacitated to promote and channel sustainable consumption and production effectively
Result 2: Develop an effective marketing strategy to boost sales of Cebu Green Products
Result 3: Production of Cebu home and lifestyle products is made cleaner and more efficient

Activities foreseen are: