Social Enterprise Conference: People, Planet, Profit, and Peace
On November 3 and 4 in Marawi City, the Social Enterprise Conference 2019 (SECon2019) was held in Mindanao State University (MSU) Campus in Marawi City. SECon2019 was attended by 131 social enterprises (SE) practitioners representing 42 local businesses, civil society organizations, and government agencies in the city and surrounding communities in Lanao del Sur province.
With financial and technical support from the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) through the Office of Member of Parliament Atty. Maisara Dandamun-Latiph, the entrepreneurs gathered together to learn business development techniques and deepen their understanding of the role of SEs in promoting peace, protecting the planet, improving the quality of lives of marginalized sectors and ensuring profit and sustainability.
Anuar T. Mustapha, Enterprise Development Officer from non-government organization ECOWeb, enlightened the participants on the government’s support for social enterprises as a way to help people improve their lives and achieve peace. “The Philippine government is supportive of enterprises. If your SE is small, you do not have to pay taxes.“ In BARMM, the BTA is supporting the strengthening and creation of more SEs through training, direct assistance and various forms of support.
Professor Wendel Lontua from the MSU College of Fisheries said protecting the planet is not a simple advocacy. One way to make SEs work for the planet is to minimize the use of plastic-based products. There are millions of plastics ending up in the sea and these become the micro-plastics eaten by the fish that people eventually eat, he said.
One of the highlights of the first day was the talk by Prof. Abdulmojeb A. Pangompig, CPA, from the College of Business Administration and Accountancy of MSU. He says there are four Ps to observe when doing business— Product, Place, Promotion, and Pricing.
The last one, Pricing, can be done in various ways, namely, Penetration Pricing, Optional pricing, Premium Pricing, Competition Pricing, Value Pricing, Bundle Pricing, Skimming Pricing, Psychological Pricing, and Costplus Pricing. For Muslim believers, the best to use is Cost-plus Pricing, which counts in the actual costs of materials or ingredients plus the rentals, bills, labor, and other expenses to determine the right selling price.
According to him, pricing from the Islamic perspective is giving value to the client, making every aspect halal, and guarding against greediness. “We should not be the cause of the suffering of others,” he admonished the participants.
