Making Filipinos happy through Hapinoy

MANILA, Philippines - Bam Aquino and Mark Ruiz are partners in crime. Their felony? Founding MicroVentures Inc. (MVI), a social enterprise that services microfinance institutions and their clients. MVI is the same group that launched a program that transforms the traditional Filipino sari-sari store into branded community stores.

MicroVentures, as a social business enterprise, aspires to be the leading partner of micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

“The goal of MicroVentures is to help grow the business of micro-entrepreneurs,” said Mark Joaquin Ruiz, founder and managing director.

Mark is backed up by seven years of corporate experience in Unilever Philippines’ customer development. He eventually left the senior management team to pursue his calling in social development through entrepreneurship and education.

Together with Mark Ruiz is high school buddy Bam Aquino who leads MVI as its president. Before co-founding MVI in late 2006, Bam was chairman of the National Youth Commission, the main youth policy-making arm of the country, from 2003 to 2006. He is the youngest person in Philippine history to head a government agency.

Looking at the careers of Bam and Mark before founding MVI, these two friends have been individually making their marks in their respective professions, but each one saw the need to share and start something to help the country through social entrepreneurship.

To help actualize the mission of MVI, they launched the Hapinoy Sari Sari Store Program.

“Hapinoy is a community of micro-entrepreneurs. By trying to help the sari-sari store, we eventually had to set up the community store,” Bam said, highlighting the essence of the program.

Hapinoy is a play on the words Happy & Pinoy, the colloquial word for Filipino. “Both words embody what we stand for, that the Filipinos remain generally positive amidst the trials that come their way. Happy Filipino. Hapinoy,” added Mark.

The culture of the sari-sari store, or small retail stores in the country, inspired the creation of the program. Hapinoy statistics recognize about 700,000 sari-sari stores in the country, usually located within or as an extension of the storeowner’s home, making up for 30 to 40 percent of total retail sales in the Philippines. 

In 2007, MVI launched the Hapinoy Sari-Sari Store program with microfinance borrowers in mind. Today, the program has evolved into a full-service micro-entrepreneur enhancement program: a network of micro, small, medium, and large enterprises where Hapinoy community stores and sari-sari stores serve as the hubs for goods and services that are coursed through the program.

Once a sari-sari store is converted into a Hapinoy community store, it receives the following benefits (as enumerated in their website www.hapinoy.com): access to capital store improvement, product sourcing and optimized cost of goods, business and management-related trainings such as inventory and financial management, and technical and sales support through the Hapinoy Store Doctor Program.

MVI is currently working with Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) and Taytay sa Kauswagan, Inc. as microfinance institutional partners.

True enough, friends create impressive and inspiring outputs together. And while it is easy to conclude that the program only provides the needed facelift to the sari-sari store in the microlevel, ask the nanays how it has changed their lives.

On Sept. 27, Go Negosyo will be recognizing Bam and Mark as Go Negosyo Inspiring Young Filipino Entrepreneurs in the 2010 Youth Entrepreneurship Summit at the World Trade Center, Pasay City. The award will be presented by Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion along with the Go Negosyo trustees.