The growth of the new economy has enabled the rise of social enterprises in the Philippines—companies focused on new products and solutions while bringing innovative, practical, and sustainable approaches that also helps bring social and environmental impact.

The good news is that these kinds of enterprises have allowed Filipino entrepreneurs to make a business out of their passions.

Among these social entrepreneurs is Krie Lopez, founder of Messy Bessy, an organization that produces and sells natural cleaning and personal care products.

This institution was founded with the main purpose of providing education, employment, and rehabilitation to disadvantaged women and inspiring them to live a normal life despite their previous experiences.

“As a social enterprise, we believe that it is possible to create an impact for underprivileged people and make a difference while running a business,” Lopez said. “By discussing solutions and sharing insights, we hope to inspire and fuel new thinking among today’s generation to address social issues like women abuse.”

Social enterprises such as Messy Bessy hold a powerful impact on household, communities, and societies.

This organization’s efforts become more profound when they successfully intertwine their for-profit business to fund the continuous development programs of at-risk women.

More time to focus on what matters most

As these social enterprises face new challenges to growth, SAP has designed a Social Sabbatical program for employees to volunteer in helping social enterprises across the globe run at their best and supporting them to maximize their social impact.

To reach these goals, SAP employees are placed in highly diverse teams to dedicate their skills, expertise, and know-how in unique, short-term assignments focused on driving simplicity and customer success while strengthening their leadership competencies, cross-industry sector know-how, and intercultural sensitivity.

This year, twelve volunteers from SAP Concur in the Philippines have participated in the program for a six-week assignment with four social enterprises in the country.

Messy Bessy joined the program to address the lack of cohesiveness in their accounting functions. This is especially integral for the enterprise since they manage the records of their natural household and personal care products, as well as other operational processes, manually.

Social sabbatical volunteers from SAP Concur in the Philippines contributed in streamlining Messy Bessy’s accounting framework.

Their efforts included specific tasks such as appointing data owners, maintaining and owning data updates needed, building online order forms, and creating an excel network to synergize functions in Messy Bessy’s processes.

”The SAP Social Sabbatical program was a great experience because we learned so much and we were touched by the support of the team,” added Lopez. “We really got the advantage of reducing redundancies and became more efficient with our time so that we can focus on what really matters in our work—the young adults in our program.”