This article was written courtesy of Cebuana Lhuillier’s New Ventures Division of their Product Management Group.
Last November 2019, Cebuana Lhuillier held its yearly corporate incubation program, Eurekathon.
As the Philippine’s largest microfinancial company, Cebuana Lhuillier has taken many strides to promote innovation and entrepreneurship through the use of digital technology to their employees.
The Eurekathon contest encourages employees to take part in the company’s continuous business and process improvement through the ideation of inventive products and services.
Among the numerous entries submitted, eight teams were chosen to refine their ideas during a three-day camp at the Cebuana Lhuillier Academy in Antipolo.
During the camp, the teams participated in a series of workshops in order to improve their incubated projects. Among these activities was On-Off Group’s Design Thinking workshop.
The participants appreciated how hands-on the facilitating team was in dealing with their queries. They expressed that the Facilitators spent ample time with each of the teams to discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
A key topic discussed during On-Off’s workshop was Empathy. It was explained that in order to successfully improve products and services, businesses should relate to their customer’s needs and feelings on a deeper level. This customer-centric approach is one that aligns with the company’s latest advocacy— Financial Wellness.
Cebuana’s Financial Wellness initiative aims to help millions of unbanked Filipinos become financially capable by encouraging them to save money and opening a micro-savings account, one that can help them achieve their financial goals.
For Cebuana Lhuillier, it was vital that their employees made efforts towards empathizing with the needs of the unbanked and underbanked in order to fulfill the company’s social mission of sharing Financial Wellness to more Filipinos worldwide.
The Eurekathon participants found this teaching to be most valuable in improving their generated ideas.