Cebu to honor outstanding entrepreneurs

Cebu will honor top entrepreneurs in its first ever Entrepreneur Academy Awards in an attempt to boost businesses in the queen city of the South.

“We will be holding the 2008 Entrepreneur Academy Awards Night in Oct. 11 to help encourage and recognize successful entrepreneurs,” James O. Fantone, executive director of the Academy for Creating Enterprise said in an interview.

Fantone said the award is similar to the Entrepreneur of the Year award given by Ernst and Young annually.

The Entrepreneur Academy Awards will be giving a total of eight awards, one being the Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year.

Fantone said this award is given to the entrepreneur who recently started a business but has established clear and workable systems from marketing, sales, human resources to accounting and has evidently maximized limited resources. 

Another award is the Master Entrepreneur of the Year which is given to the entrepreneur who has maintained excellence in all aspects of the business over a sustained period of time. The business must have been founded more than three years ago and the owner or founder of the business must still be actively engaged in the management of the business. 

The Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year, Fantone said, is given to the entrepreneur who has applied an innovative approach, business solution or technology which resulted in improving business processes or in growing the company while the Retail Entrepreneur of the Year is given to the entrepreneur who has established excellent customer relationship in retail selling, thus increasing sales and expanding market reach. 

Fantone said the group is likewise recognizing the youth through their Young Entrepreneur of the Year. This will be given to the entrepreneur with age ranging from 21 to 28 years old who has maintained management excellence in running his business.

The Woman Entrepreneur of the Year will be awarded to a woman entrepreneur who has shown exemplary management over her business making her a trailblazer in her field of business.

Fantone said a key award will be the Social Entrepreneur of the Year which is for the entrepreneur who has applied practical, innovative and market oriented approach to the business or has created products and services which address the challenges faced by communities, helped solve complex social problems and benefited the marginalized and the poor.