HNEW
Hanoi Association for women entrepreneurs – HNEW is Vietnam’s first legal entity created by women entrepreneurs and leaders for occupational and social organizations for women. ExperienceCORE has helped HNEW to reorganize itself from a community organization to an influential leader that enables Vietnamese women leaders to go global through creative platforms for personal and business development.
HNEW is Vietnam’s first legal entity created by the Association of Women Entrepreneurs, for women business leaders to share and exchange ideas.
Consulus was appointed the strategic innovation consultant to be the catalyst for transformation and growth and to navigate through foreseeable roadblocks that lie ahead. The transformation includes a redesigned organization identity and an association model that creates an enhanced progress mechanism; to reflect the readiness of Vietnamese female business leaders who are ready for Industry 4.0.
“The global economy needs to have sustainable development in every aspect of socio-economics. The world needs more women entrepreneurs and leaders, and this is the opportunity for Hanoi women entrepreneurs to entrench their roles and their values towards family, business and community.” Ms Ha Thi Thu Thanh, Former Chairwoman of HNEW shared.
Association model
Strategic review to harness inherent strengths and discover opportunities
An important part of this transformation exercise was the research, conducted to obtain clear insights into the perceptions and needs of HNEW’s current and potential members, and the identification of the organisation’s inherent purpose. Interviews with Chairwoman and members of Standing committee were conducted while online survey was launched for all members.
It was clear from the research that HNEW consists of many influential leaders coming from big corporations in Vietnam. HNEW also has built a strong reputation and partnership relationship with reputable organisations and institutions locally and internationally. HNEW also has been organising a wide range of activities for both personal and business development for the members.
However, the research results showed although HNEW has been established 10 years ago and has organised many activities for the members, the Standing committee was not certain about the core value of the association since there was no formal mechanism to track and monitor that. The result also showed that HNEW was contested by too many similar associations for female leaders, which positioned HNEW to be one of many options for their target audience to choose from, hence the participation rate at key activities was not consistent, especially when the activities are paid events. Also, although all members do believe in the 3Cs values of HNEW, which include Cá nhân – Chân thành, Công việc – Cam kết, Cộng đồng – Chia sẻ (translated as Individual – Sincerity, Business – Commitment, Community – Sharing), they don’t all share the same understanding about how to act upon those values, although they really want to.
Time to redefine the Purpose of the association
Success is not accidental. It is an intentional outcome that happens when organisations are designed according to their purpose of existence. This purpose acts as a strategic reference point and helps to guide organisational identity, common practices, instructional systems, association culture.
| Brand Purpose | To enable Vietnamese women leaders to become global through creative platforms for personal and business development |
|---|---|
| Ability | Train and develop woman leaders holistically |
| Influence | Center of influential woman leaders |
| Differentiation | Benchmark of woman leadership |
The new well-defined purpose model was then translated into HNEW’s new enhanced organisational structure to differentiate themselves from similar associations.
Leadership Index Development
The research insights show that personal development was one of the most important aspects of why their members joined HNEW, however there seems to be a huge gap of capacity and influence between members. To make sure the association stays true to its purpose and to become the benchmark of woman leadership in Hanoi, Vietnam and beyond, the Leadership Index has been established for every member’s progress to be measured and tracked against.
Specifically, in order to clearly evaluate member’s progress, a feedback system will be built to collect feedback data from our members, which will be built on metric index called the Global Woman Leadership Index to regularly assess and identify members with outstanding potential. After that, it was decided to build an operational calendar with the goal of balancing the personal development as well as the business development of the business.
The Leadership Index system includes detailed criteria and metrics encompassing the 4 key aspects:
- Self-development capacity
- Ability to bring businesses to a sustainable growth
- The ability to connect members
- Association development capacity Capacity as brand ambassador of HNEW
Since HNEW was preparing for the next leadership tenure (2018-2023), the Executive Committee members and Standing Committee have agreed to be the first group of leaders to be measured and benchmarked against the HNEW Leadership Index.
Brand Experience
Visual Identity development
With a renewed purpose that portrays HNEW as an association that delivers meaningful value to female business leaders, it is time to develop a distinctive visual symbol which can inspire and be framed within the community context and beyond.
Using the Consulus’ 3-Signs Methodology, the team developed a new visual identity for the brand with an aim to convey a unique symbol of leadership and success.
Old logo:
New logo:
The new logo is inspired by the image of the “Mấn“, traditional Vietnamese hat, it is the symbol of the nobility of Vietnamese women. And it was inspired by two women, who have gone into the history of the nation. Hai Ba Trung – which appeared in many images with such dress, who became the first queen of Queen of Vietnam, and also Bui Thi Hi – “the first business woman of Vietnam” and “Grandmother of Chu Dau pottery”.
The second shape of the logo is candle, which is the symbol of the halo and the ability of a leader to transfer burning passion to their followers. This new identity clearly shows HNEW is moving towards the development trend of the world, integrating into that trend, ready to receive opportunities and overcome challenges, asserting its role and value to family, business as well as community in a new standard, international standard for female business leaders in Hanoi in particular and in Vietnam in general.
From stationery to marketing collaterals the new identity visual language served to remind all stakeholders of HNEW’s role in the business industry and how its solutions can help transform Vietnamese women.
Online experience design
HNEW website was redesigned to reflect the new corporate visual identity and to be mobile-friendly in order to serve today’s smartphone generation. HNEW’s official website at www.hnew.org.vn
