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Small Business Stories - Helen Han

Ivy Hartman: SBTV.com has brought out coverage on the road here at the NAWBO 2008 together rising conference in Phoenix, Arizona. And with me is Helen Han, the interim executive director for NAWBO. Helen, welcome to the SBTV.com. Helen Han: Well, thank you so very much. Ivy Hartman: And thanks for your time. You know, NAWBO is kind of going through a transformation right now. Tell us a little bit more about that. Helen Han: You know, as I seen sort of lies out and we’ve been ding this for this three and a half days of the conference together rising. Rising for us means that there is a sleeping tide of entrepreneurship that is crossing the United States in the world. And we really want to be able to capture the passion and the energy of women business owners so that we can literally create the energy and the kind of rising spirit that propels women. And as our mission says we’re here to propel women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political theories of leadership. Our transformation really speaks to the fact that we’re really looking to the future and we know that the power that women can bring to the table, in the boardrooms, in the business, you know at their own businesses, in the communities that they served are things that are so powerful that we need to really look at the organization inside out to make sure that we’re ready for this rising entrepreneurship, so that we’re there to support women, that chapters, the communities that are out there. We just feel that women have a unique perspective and women bring things to the table that we as an organization need to leverage in terms of bringing a united voice to the table as well as making certain that there’s access and opportunities available to support the needs of every entrepreneur in the United States. Ivy Hartman: I really like the vision of the organization and that sounds like very noble. Let’s talk a little bit about why you’re an interim executive director now, it’s going through another restructuring also. Helen Han: You know as in any business there’s always things that is right for certain period and the time and as a board, the board of directors decided that for the last eight and a half years we’ve gone through a great deal of change we’ve gone through a lot of growth and they want to really take leadership from an ownership perspective and look at how we can be much more aggressive and assertive in the way we chart our future. And in order to do that they took the step of identifying an executive leadership role that takes it into the folds and the assets of NAWBO as an organization. We’ve been outsourcing our operations to couture companies for a number of years and they’ve done a fabulous job in stabilizing the organization when the need was there. But we want it to be much more assertive and aggressive as looking at the future of NAWBO, so to a certain extent there are certain things that we have to let go in order to chart new courses in our history and we felt that it was a perfect timing in terms of making certain that the foundation was their to build upon the future vision of the organizations. So I’ve been called to come in as an Interim Executive Director while they are on the national search for a new executive leadership and while looking at a CEO position for NAWBO to place NAWBO at a place that is really competitive in the business community as a whole, as an organization that supports women entrepreneurship. Ivy Hartman: Well let’s talk about you a little bit personally. You’re not unfamiliar with NAWBO. You’re very familiar with NAWBO. Helen Han: Yeah, NAWBO has been my life for at least five and a half years now. I actually come from the Los Angeles chapter. I was the CEO, paid executive staff for the LA chapter of NAWBO. So I’ve been engaged in NAWBO for many years working with national, working with many of the corporate partners that are part of these conference and our corporate partners that are continued to support us. And there are many things that I bring to the table in terms of perspective from a local market perspective. So I’m hoping that those new perspectives and the ability to think about what the chapter needs are and what the membership needs are were also helped to propel the growth of the organization. Ivy Hartman: On a lighter note and even though you’ve been right on more recently probably in the last couple of months is sort of—so the conference itself has been a huge success. How much does the setting here in Phoenix and at the Biltmore play into that, what do you think about? Helen Han: You know the Biltmore staff, amazing. It’s been a wonderful coalition of people working together and that really speaks of the spirit of NAWBO. Because you know I got to give kudos to our volunteer leadership at the Phoenix chapter. When we come into a community like this, if we don’t have the support of the chapter it’s almost impossible to pull off what we do every year. The chapter members as well as the conference committee has been amazing in terms of pulling forth the resources and the energy and the passion for pulling all of the wonderful things that we’ve been looking at throughout the conference that we’re very, very grateful and we’re really excited about the opportunity to partner with local chapters to bring forth these types of resources to our attendee. Ivy Hartman: So what happens for you and for NAWBO after the conference is over, going back on Monday. Helen Han: Well, first I have to unwind a little bit and I actually have to go to the DC office next week and start new project. So actually during this summer the board is going to be very seriously looking at our strategic planning for the next year, looking at all the things that we want to prioritize. And you know it’s very interesting in terms of that transformation that we talked about initially. We’re shifting our minds just a little bit in terms of how we’re approaching what our organization’s platform should be. We’re looking at a much broader market perspective. Every entrepreneur is important but we also feel as a national organization that we really need as an organization to dominate the women market. And so for us we want to be very strategic in allocating our resources, making certain that we create partnerships and alliances within those markets that we want to cultivate. From a media perspective we actually put out a goal at the board level to say we want to dominate the top 20 media markets across the United States. It’s important for us to know that you know the chapters play a critical role in delivering our resources but at the same time if we don’t own the broader market of the platform that we stand you know we can’t be all that strong or cannot be as strong as we need to be to project the voice of women and already know public policy and they already know of all the community involvement. So that’s our goal from a broad perspective. Ivy Hartman: How about policy, always plays an internal role in the conference. It’s played a big role on this conference and also something else I’d like you to comment on is the international presence at the conference. Helen Han: Isn’t that amazing? Ivy Hartman: Yeah. Helen Han: I mean, that also we have to give a lot of credit to our international forum allowing to show how passionate about bringing women across the globe together. And so we were so pleased at the last minute that we were able to welcome so many countries into this conference. And I think every year we built a little bit more each year to bring that global world of women together. As we’ve said throughout the conference that interconnectedness of all of us through entrepreneurship is so strong that we have to recognize the importance of the international—advocacy for us is critical. This is how we gave birth to NAWBO in terms of making sure that women were being counted, that we had access to capital, and we also understand from a voice perspective that we have to be at the table in order to influence that decisions that impact all of us. So public policy is going to play a critical role in the future of this organization. Ivy Hartman: I heard an interesting statistic that we really occupy about 10% of the publicly held offices—and yet we’re a majority? Helen Han: Of course, we’re a majority. We’re the fastest growing. We are you know above rated percentage in terms of purchasing power. I mean we make all the decisions, let’s face it. And for us not be in the rooms, in the boardrooms or at the tables making those decisions that are critical to all of us is something that we really need to work on as an organization. Ivy Hartman: Thank you for being here with us. Helen Han: Thank you very much. Ivy Hartman: Absolutely, Helen Han, the Interim Executive Director for NAWBO. Keep it right here on SBTV.com as we continue our complete coverage of NAWBO 2008 here in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Ivy Hartman: SBTV.com has brought out coverage on the road here at the NAWBO 2008 together rising conference in Phoenix, Arizona. And with me is Helen Han, the interim executive director for NAWBO. Helen, welcome to the SBTV.com.

Helen Han: Well, thank you so very much.

Ivy Hartman: And thanks for your time. You know, NAWBO is kind of going through a transformation right now. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Helen Han: You know, as I seen sort of lies out and we’ve been ding this for this three and a half days of the conference together rising. Rising for us means that there is a sleeping tide of entrepreneurship that is crossing the United States in the world. And we really want to be able to capture the passion and the energy of women business owners so that we can literally create the energy and the kind of rising spirit that propels women. And as our mission says we’re here to propel women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political theories of leadership.

Our transformation really speaks to the fact that we’re really looking to the future and we know that the power that women can bring to the table, in the boardrooms, in the business, you know at their own businesses, in the communities that they served are things that are so powerful that we need to really look at the organization inside out to make sure that we’re ready for this rising entrepreneurship, so that we’re there to support women, that chapters, the communities that are out there.

We just feel that women have a unique perspective and women bring things to the table that we as an organization need to leverage in terms of bringing a united voice to the table as well as making certain that there’s access and opportunities available to support the needs of every entrepreneur in the United States.

Ivy Hartman: I really like the vision of the organization and that sounds like very noble. Let’s talk a little bit about why you’re an interim executive director now, it’s going through another restructuring also.

Helen Han: You know as in any business there’s always things that is right for certain period and the time and as a board, the board of directors decided that for the last eight and a half years we’ve gone through a great deal of change we’ve gone through a lot of growth and they want to really take leadership from an ownership perspective and look at how we can be much more aggressive and assertive in the way we chart our future. And in order to do that they took the step of identifying an executive leadership role that takes it into the folds and the assets of NAWBO as an organization.

We’ve been outsourcing our operations to couture companies for a number of years and they’ve done a fabulous job in stabilizing the organization when the need was there. But we want it to be much more assertive and aggressive as looking at the future of NAWBO, so to a certain extent there are certain things that we have to let go in order to chart new courses in our history and we felt that it was a perfect timing in terms of making certain that the foundation was their to build upon the future vision of the organizations.

So I’ve been called to come in as an Interim Executive Director while they are on the national search for a new executive leadership and while looking at a CEO position for NAWBO to place NAWBO at a place that is really competitive in the business community as a whole, as an organization that supports women entrepreneurship.

Ivy Hartman: Well let’s talk about you a little bit personally. You’re not unfamiliar with NAWBO. You’re very familiar with NAWBO.

Helen Han: Yeah, NAWBO has been my life for at least five and a half years now. I actually come from the Los Angeles chapter. I was the CEO, paid executive staff for the LA chapter of NAWBO. So I’ve been engaged in NAWBO for many years working with national, working with many of the corporate partners that are part of these conference and our corporate partners that are continued to support us. And there are many things that I bring to the table in terms of perspective from a local market perspective. So I’m hoping that those new perspectives and the ability to think about what the chapter needs are and what the membership needs are were also helped to propel the growth of the organization.

Ivy Hartman: On a lighter note and even though you’ve been right on more recently probably in the last couple of months is sort of—so the conference itself has been a huge success. How much does the setting here in Phoenix and at the Biltmore play into that, what do you think about?

Helen Han: You know the Biltmore staff, amazing. It’s been a wonderful coalition of people working together and that really speaks of the spirit of NAWBO. Because you know I got to give kudos to our volunteer leadership at the Phoenix chapter. When we come into a community like this, if we don’t have the support of the chapter it’s almost impossible to pull off what we do every year.

The chapter members as well as the conference committee has been amazing in terms of pulling forth the resources and the energy and the passion for pulling all of the wonderful things that we’ve been looking at throughout the conference that we’re very, very grateful and we’re really excited about the opportunity to partner with local chapters to bring forth these types of resources to our attendee.

Ivy Hartman: So what happens for you and for NAWBO after the conference is over, going back on Monday.

Helen Han: Well, first I have to unwind a little bit and I actually have to go to the DC office next week and start new project. So actually during this summer the board is going to be very seriously looking at our strategic planning for the next year, looking at all the things that we want to prioritize. And you know it’s very interesting in terms of that transformation that we talked about initially.

We’re shifting our minds just a little bit in terms of how we’re approaching what our organization’s platform should be. We’re looking at a much broader market perspective. Every entrepreneur is important but we also feel as a national organization that we really need as an organization to dominate the women market. And so for us we want to be very strategic in allocating our resources, making certain that we create partnerships and alliances within those markets that we want to cultivate.

From a media perspective we actually put out a goal at the board level to say we want to dominate the top 20 media markets across the United States. It’s important for us to know that you know the chapters play a critical role in delivering our resources but at the same time if we don’t own the broader market of the platform that we stand you know we can’t be all that strong or cannot be as strong as we need to be to project the voice of women and already know public policy and they already know of all the community involvement. So that’s our goal from a broad perspective.

Ivy Hartman: How about policy, always plays an internal role in the conference. It’s played a big role on this conference and also something else I’d like you to comment on is the international presence at the conference.

Helen Han: Isn’t that amazing?

Ivy Hartman: Yeah.

Helen Han: I mean, that also we have to give a lot of credit to our international forum allowing to show how passionate about bringing women across the globe together. And so we were so pleased at the last minute that we were able to welcome so many countries into this conference. And I think every year we built a little bit more each year to bring that global world of women together. As we’ve said throughout the conference that interconnectedness of all of us through entrepreneurship is so strong that we have to recognize the importance of the international—advocacy for us is critical. This is how we gave birth to NAWBO in terms of making sure that women were being counted, that we had access to capital, and we also understand from a voice perspective that we have to be at the table in order to influence that decisions that impact all of us. So public policy is going to play a critical role in the future of this organization.

Ivy Hartman: I heard an interesting statistic that we really occupy about 10% of the publicly held offices—and yet we’re a majority?

Helen Han: Of course, we’re a majority. We’re the fastest growing. We are you know above rated percentage in terms of purchasing power. I mean we make all the decisions, let’s face it. And for us not be in the rooms, in the boardrooms or at the tables making those decisions that are critical to all of us is something that we really need to work on as an organization.

Ivy Hartman: Thank you for being here with us.

Helen Han: Thank you very much.

Ivy Hartman: Absolutely, Helen Han, the Interim Executive Director for NAWBO. Keep it right here on SBTV.com as we continue our complete coverage of NAWBO 2008 here in Phoenix, Arizona.

Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services