Women on the Rise – Proving They Can Do Business
Speaking at a 12th WIEF Masterclass session entitled ‘Empowering Women in eCommerce’, Fatma A. Elmaawy, the Managing Partner of Nairobi-based Auto Village, encouraged women to go into business, even from their homes, as they are capable of doing such. In taking effective steps, Elmaawy showed how women can take part in the business world.
She elaborated steps to be taken to turn a profit, i.e. starting from the right mindset, having products or services, a business plan, and promotion. According to Elmaawy, the internet era has opened more opportunities for women to do online business with a broader marketing reach.
E-commerce has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry. With women accounting for around 58% of all online purchases, and deciding between 83 – 87% of consumer purchases, the role of women in shaping the online business landscape is bigger than ever. This has given rise to e-commerce businesses run entirely by women and sometimes exclusively for women, which imparts a strong validation that there is a huge potential role for women to play in the e-commerce space.
At the same occasion, Founder & Owner of Indonesia-based www.koleksikikie.com, Riski Hapsari, inspired women to go into business by sharing her ups and downs in establishing her online enterprise. Starting her business as a home-based craft workshop in 2006, she leaped online with koleksikikie.multiply.com in 2007.
Since taking part in the 2013 2nd WIEF Online Marketing Workshop in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, , her online business has grown tremendously. Her key to success toestablishing Koleksikikie.com includes always keeping on schedule, staying informative, always connecting with people and enforcing continuous improvements.
Welcome to the Era of ‘Bots’ – The Automated Student Advisor
British Professor Richard Black, Pro-Director (Research & Enterprise), School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), states that technological innovation in the educational sector will produce ‘bots’ or robots that can teach and answer questions in real time as automated student advisors, within the next 10 years.
Refusing to consider the ‘bots’ currently being prepared in Silicon Valley as a disruption, Prof. Black, speaking at the 12th WIEF’s ‘Master Class session on Innovation in Education: Preparing for the Next 10 Years’ prefers to consider this invention as complementing rather than replacing the role of lecturers.
Blended models that combine online learning with a classroom environment will further complement higher education within the next 10 years. Exploiting the internet to enable groups of students to interact with their lecturer and with one another, this blended model will become more and more common in the future.
Speaking on the same occasion, Evi H. Trisna, Executive Director of Indonesia-based Gerakan Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaching Movement) stated she is optimistic that the movement can bring significant transformation in the educational environment (ecosystem) by empowering local people and making the students the center of an educational ecosystem.
The Indonesia Teaching Movement puts students in the center of the ecosystem and, therefore, opens equal room for interactions of all actors, i.e. the Government, headmasters, teachers, the society and parents. The change of the ecosystem has unlocked the hidden potential of local people, and led to innovations.
