The Shift to Online: How DTI and Thames are helping Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises

by: Dani Marcelino, Thames Undergraduate Student

The Department of Trade and Industry E-Commerce Group has chosen Thames International as its learning partner in launching the first phase of a series of free webinars targeted towards MSME owners who need to transform their business digitally. The webinar “CTRL + BIZ: Reboot Now!”, held from April 29 to May 2, 2020, brought together some of the biggest businesses from across the entire e-commerce ecosystem as partners. Representatives from Wunderman Thompson, Food Panda, GCash, GlobeMyBusiness, Lalamove, Google, Lazada, PayMaya, QuadX, Shopee, Grab, SIMM from Singapore, TransUnion, UnionBank, Zalora, and LeadMore shared their expertise and experiences on how to take advantage of the digital space.

The start of the “New Normal” came with unwelcome disruption to businesses of all scales. Most businesses were eager to shift to the digital space in response. With online operations as the only way to go, the webinar brought timely relief to micro, small, and middle-scale businesses as they struggled to keep afloat while navigating the digital world.

As a pioneer in entrepreneurship education dedicated to developing entrepreneurs and professionals to drive positive social impact, Thames International was trusted as the learning partner for the webinar. Thames hosted Zoom webinars and provided the framework and curriculum for the 4-day course, while the content and discussion was at discretion of the invited partners.

One of the participants, Eliza Mae, commented that it was “relevant to the changing times as all businesses transition to the new normal.”

The program, attended by more than six thousand via Zoom webinar and tens of thousands via Facebook livestream, proved to be a success based on an exit survey which resulted in 98.5% of the attendees indicating that the webinar was beneficial.

Participant Louel praised the program saying “This is an amazing initiative! As part of the MSME community, I am grateful that we are given this webinar to help us navigate our business particularly in this time of crisis. I wish we had more time to hear more from panelists. Regardless, the session was very informative and we wish to utilize all of these online platforms for our businesses. Way to go DTI!”

Another attendee, Ken, said that the “DTI Reboot Package will help us grow our small business during these hard times by learning new things about e-commerce. Thank you for supporting us.”

The webinar’s success can be attributed to Thames International’s successful online program. Thames selected core areas of upskilling, such as Marketing Essentials, Principles of Digital Marketing, HR Management and Leadership, Operations Management, Risk and Building Strategic Business Models, and Selling and Customer Service.

The result was what participant Neil remarked as “one-of-a-kind with substance.”

With Thames International at the helm of the learning component, the program will continue to aid MSME business owners and eventually foster competition in the market. The field is now more level, as more companies have the opportunity to fully utilize the digital space and are equipped with the knowledge to remain resilient in the new normal.

Thames International is committed to building a new order for the world by giving talented students and entrepreneurs the tools to thrive and lead the way in a world beset by rapid change. If you’re interested in augmenting your skills and making connections with some of the brightest minds in business education today, please take a look at our future-proof undergraduate and postgraduate programs.