The nominees for the ISSI directorship presented Monday their vision and plans for the Institute.
In a public forum for stakeholders held in ISSI by the UP Diliman Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Asst. Prof. Richard Philip A. Gonzalo of the UP Asian Institute of Tourism shared his experiences working on the ground serving communities to support the tourism industry in the country. These inspired him to envision ISSI to be “the leading educational and research partner of Filipino entrepreneurs in medium and small-scale industries in the Philippines.”
To do this, he proposed to lead ISSI with a two-pronged mission: developmental and intellectual. The development mission is to provide relevant capacity-building programs for training institutions of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises as well as small-scale and community-based enterprises from “undeserved sectors of the Philippine economy”. The intellectual mission, on the other hand, is to promote “a UP brand of entrepreneurship through the delivery of high-quality research and by producing agents who are driven to strengthen the medium and small-scale industries in the Philippines”.
Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Luis Maria T. Bo-ot of the UP College of Architecture explained his vision for ISSI to become “a competitive center committed to the success and advancement of the Filipino creative entrepreneur and its role in national development—a center that moves competently with the times”. To do this, he proposed the following plans for the Institute: establishment of linkages for post-training assistance; ISSI training programs for entrepreneurship in information technology, construction and renewable energy; Institute for Scientific Information publication of studies regarding entrepreneurship in the Philippines based on ISSI experience and research.
Dr. Benito M. Pacheco, UP Diliman Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and Dean Ben Paul B. Gutierrez of the UP Virata School of Business, who also sat as search committee chair and member respectively, took turns moderating the subsequent open forum. ISSI staff posed questions to the nominees ranging from questions about their leadership styles to questions regarding changes they would impose once either of them was appointed director.
Other members of the search committee who were also present in the public forum were Prof. Toby Melissa C. Monsod of the UP School of Economics and Dr. Lourdes M. Fortus, special assistant to the UP president.
The search committee would convene once again tomorrow for the private interviews of stakeholders to facilitate the process of selecting the next director who would lead ISSI in the next three years.