This Network of Successful Entrepreneurs Pays It Forward
There’s this concept in economics called the multiplier effect, which is how money being invested indirectly benefits other parts of the economy. It says that when injecting capital into a project, there’s a chain reaction of benefits that’s felt by other industries.
With the government’s Build, Build, Build program, for example, the large demand for construction work brought with it new jobs for thousands of Filipinos. (Let’s assume there’s no corruption or ill will in this scenario.) This increases their income, which in turn benefits the companies behind the products and services they can now purchase. More business for those companies means more jobs are created within them, and the multiplier effect goes on.
Nonprofit organization Endeavor Philippines is also utilizing the multiplier effect in its strategy, but instead of a massive infrastructure project or a large corporation, it’s seen in high-impact entrepreneurs.
“Since we started in the Philippines in 2015, we have been steadfast in fulfilling our mission of creating an economic multiplier effect by accelerating the growth of high-impact entrepreneurs,” said Manny Ayala, the managing director of Endeavor Philippines, in a statement.
Endeavor is a global organization that aims to find and train high-impact entrepreneurs around the world. It defines high-impact entrepreneurs as “those that start a firm, make it a big success, and reinvest their success as role models, mentors, and investors of the next generation.” It’s currently present in 31 countries, where it’s built up a network of over 1,700 high-impact entrepreneurs.
In the Philippines, Endeavor has grown its network to 20 high-impact entrepreneurs who represent 16 companies. These include Xurpas founder Nix Nolledo, furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue, and Bo’s Coffee head Steve Benitez.
In an impact report published last December, Endeavor revealed that since being inducted into the organization, the 16 companies these entrepreneurs head have increased their annual revenues by P3.6 billion. Their revenues totaled P6.3 billion in 2017.
But Endeavor is prouder of another statistic: After they became members of the organization, these 20 high-impact entrepreneurs have created over 1,700 jobs within their companies. It also mentioned that they are mentoring and even investing in over 50 local companies.
While that 1,700 figure might seem small on a national level—data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that there were 800,000 more employed persons in 2018 compared to the year before—Ayala sees it as a testament to these entrepreneurs’ potential to spark the multiplier effect within the Philippines. He highlighted that with these entrepreneurs’ inclination to “pay it forward,” Endeavor is beginning to shift what it really means to be a successful businessman.
“Think of it as a positive virus that you infect them with this principle, with this idea that helping others is a good thing,” Ayala told Entrepreneur Philippines in a story published last April. “That your success is not just the size of your company, it’s [also] the size of your positive impact.”
After the launch of the impact report, Endeavor Philippines announced that it had already grown its network with the addition of two new high-impact entrepreneurs: Patrick Lynch and Tony Ennis of financial technology startup First Circle. This reinforces Endeavor’s continuous mission to spark the multiplier effect within entrepreneurs to help improve and develop the country.
