Business School initiative with University of Tübingen presents stories of women entrepreneurs reinventing their businesses during Covid-19 pandemic
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To provide training, support and inspiration for women are some of the goals entrepreneurship initiatives carried out by PUCRS’ Business School. In 2020, however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, none of the actions could be held in person.
One of these initiatives is the 1st Online Marathon of Women’s Entrepreneurship 4.0, in Jun 2020, in partnership with the University of Tübingen, Germany. The marathon brought together 26 women entrepreneurs to share the challenges faced during the pandemic, and lessons learned in terms of resilience, purpose, strategy, negotiation, financial, team and crisis management, in 13 days full of many live sessions.
The project will be available in the book Empreendedorismo feminino: protagonistas em tempos de pandemia, organized by Dr. Letícia Hoppe, Dr. Ionara Rech and Dr. Mônica Carvalho. Dr. Rech, who coordinates PUCRS’ Business Administration program, emphasizes that sharing experiences reinforces the idea that women are not alone and there to share the challenges and solutions.
“We decided to compile the initiative in a book so that it could be available to many more women to learn about the life stories of entrepreneurs. We are winning some battles and blazing the trail for generations to come. If I could give us women some piece of advice, it would be: let us take care of ourselves and take more chances on what we can accomplish”, she adds.
As part of the international initiative, which relied on the support of the Brazil-Germany Consulate, the Brazil-Germany Chamber in Rio Grande do Sul, the German Science and Innovation Center (DWIH) in São Paulo and the Women of Brazil Group, the book will be published in English .
The book was translated by Dr. Aline Fay, coordinator of the School of Humanities’ Modern Languages: English program, and Dr. Cristina Lopes Perna, a professor in the Graduate Program in Linguistics. The team also included four undergraduate research students: Camille Santos, Eduarda da Luz, Laura Amaro and Letícia Cezar.
Since 2016, PUCRS’ Business School has been promoting actions for women entrepreneurship to connect women entrepreneurs with techniques and solutions for their businesses. These efforts are intended to make more and more women protagonists of their stories to occupy leadership positions in the business world, in the most diverse areas. So far, these activities have reached out to more than 3,000 entrepreneurs.
“We co-create with those who are at the forefront of their business, but always take the time to learn more, share and contribute with other women. I would say with all certainty and pride that this is a distinguishing factor for women entrepreneurship at PUCRS”, Rech adds.
