Perseverance is courage

“In truth, courage is shown in not giving up,” says Viola Cheng. In 2016 Ming Yung Enterprise and Good Food Enterprise became the first designated “benefit corporations” in Taiwan’s restaurant industry, and Cheng, their CEO, earned a spot on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list of Asian social entrepreneurs.

Cheng’s father worked as an executive in computer research and development, and her mother was a teacher. Although growing up amid privilege, Cheng came to under­stand the frustrations of the dis­advant­aged through her work as a volunteer. “When I was young, our mother would bring us to a preschool to help care for the children.” From a tender age Cheng acutely understood that society contained many different life circumstances.

“Our earliest foray into the food and beverage indus­try was in a restaurant at the Bitan riverside scenic area,” says a smiling Cheng, who shares a “couple face” (strong resemblance) with her husband Yang Boyu. “We wanted to do good for society, so we’d often put on public interest activities there. Children’s Day and Mother’s Day are big holidays that provided chances to make a lot of money, but we observed them by providing food to parents and children in family support centers. Back then it never occurred to us that what we were doing completely matched the benefit corporation model.”

Cheng and Yang are both fully engaged in work bene­fiting society.

Yang, who studied architecture at university, and his brother James, who studied landscape design, first marketed creative uses for green building materials. Then, more than a decade ago, the Yang brothers entered the dining industry when they helped a family assistance center that was supporting a group of young people. “They wanted to open a restaurant but lacked money and skills.” Apart from putting up the money and making good use of their design expertise to open a restaurant and employ the young people, they also helped the staff learn viable skills. Because these first steps were so successful, they went on to establish a chain of eateries. “We opened 25 restaurants in all, employ­ing more than 400 people.”

Apart from teaching skills herself, Cheng also encourages her staff to enroll in training sponsored by the Workforce Development Agency of the Ministry of Labor and to take accreditation exams.

“We have many workers who save up some money and open their own businesses. There was even a cook who got interested in design and, with James’ counsel, obtained Class C certification for interior design, and is now making a living as a designer.” Cheng and her family take great joy in seeing their workers grow, stand on their own two feet, and set off in their own directions in life.

In 2017 Cheng (right) attended the Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar at the East–West Center, a thinktank in Hawaii. (courtesy of Viola Cheng)

Opening another door

“The coronavirus pandemic has had a big impact on our business,” says Cheng, not mincing words. To be sure, their operations have been hit hard.

After counseling workers to change careers or fields and go work for other companies, Cheng shifted gears herself and temporarily left the front lines of the dining business. “Now we are mainly doing consulting on retail chain expansion.” She is making use of her previous management experience to train management teams and provide comprehensive planning for chains opening new locations.

“For someone like me with a thirst for new know­ledge, changing tracks wasn’t a big deal.” Cheng is an official Facebook #SheMeansBusiness trainer for the Asia‡Pacific region, and she goes to remote areas of Taiwan to instruct and assist microentrepreneurs on using social media apps to highlight their own brands. One case involved advising a father‡daughter team opening a Hong-Kong-style turnip cake business. She helped them establish their brand through videos that told stories. One focused on the father‡daughter relationship and another on the passing down of a gastronomic legacy. They made a deep impression on consumers. The approach real­ized the goals of turning food stands into modern retail businesses and creating brands for traditional industries.

“The issue of assisting female entrepreneurs is only growing in importance.” Several times the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has invited Cheng to serve as a lecturer or instructor in connection with its “Women Entre­preneur­ship Flying Geese” and “Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator” programs. On topics ranging from fundraising and financial management to skills development and sales channels, she has happily shared her knowledge and experiences, both the bitter and the sweet.

Quanfood International’s “Modern Menu New Plant Meat” is a successful example of the assistance she has provided. Apart from referring Quanfood cofounder Emily Chang to sources of financing, Cheng also set the tone for a marketing campaign that emphasized the health advantages of zero-cholesterol, low-calorie, and low-­glycemic foods as well as the creation of a new mouthfeel through innovative technology. The campaign has helped the company bolster its position in Taiwan and advance into international markets.

On March 8, 2021 the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the American Institute in Taiwan joined hands to kickstart the US State Department’s Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program in Taiwan. Cheng took training to become a program instructor and participated in DreamBuilder, an online curriculum for entrepreneurs that aims to leverage the special qualities and strengths of women, with the expectation that participants will then become international bridges that help to raise women’s competitiveness.

Viola Cheng (right) consulted with Quanfood for its Modern Menu line of plant-based mock meats, helping its founder Emily Chang (left) with financing and media referrals.

Promoting social enterprises

Social Enterprise Insights (SEI) is the most influential Chinese-language platform for sharing information about creating and nurturing social enterprises. It can be used for promoting and building connections, and for mentally supporting and motivating social entrepreneurs. “We really put our all into everything we do.” Sunny Lin, one of the platform’s founders, who is now serving as its CEO, has a pair of big, bright eyes, whose steadfast gaze reflects her determination to promote the ideals of social entrepreneurship.

When Lin entered National Chengchi University to study public administration, she went in without specific expectations, but during her studies she gradually developed an interest in advancing her understanding of non-profits. Her support for the concept of social enter­prises only strengthened when she attended graduate school in the United States.

“As a founder of SEI, I feel that I must shoulder full responsibility.” Lin and the idealistic youths at SEI are spending their time and energy promoting social enterprises with the aim of changing society’s values. Their determination to fight for their ideals and to keep creating and pushing forward has garnered recognition. It is a key to Social Enterprise Insight’s success. Over the ten years since its founding, SEI has met with success after success, and it is now offering an ever-­broader array of services. In 2017 the platform added an English version of its website. While holding true to their original ­ideals, SEI staffers have continued to gather informa­tion about social innovations and social enterprises from Taiwan and abroad, as well as writing in-depth articles, opinion pieces and case reports, thus building the platform into a comprehensive knowledge bank.

Talent incubator

With the support of the “Vision Project” of DBS Bank and the United Daily News Group, SEI has crystallized the entrepreneurial insights of those who came before them in three books: The Power of Good, Making a Difference, and Starting Out: Ten Lessons About Social Enter­prises. These have introduced the people of Taiwan to the definition of social enterprises and the rules that govern them, and provided guidelines about how to achieve a balance between commercial considerations and the public interest.

Social Enterprise Insights has also added departments responsible for training and empowerment, as well as for activities and exchanges. These support social entrepreneurs to smoothly navigate the early stages of their journey. “We first opened our iLab to nurture fledgling social entrepreneurs in 2014.” SEI serves as a kind of incubator and accelerator, providing its students with key resources, such as access to UnLtd (the world’s biggest online network for cultivating social entrepreneurs), courses and training, matches and referrals, as well as guidance and advice.

Lin mentions that SEI has also assisted educational entre­preneurs to develop markets. “We have helped them to work with the personnel departments or welfare committees of major corporations to put together customizable curriculums for new entrepreneurs.” Apart from giving new entrepreneurs an arena to demonstrate their talents, these efforts have also in­directly helped those being trained and even their children to better under­stand social enterprises. A greater sense of identification brings ripple effects.   

“We play the role of intermediaries and match­makers.” SEI has helped make connections for agri­cultural entrepreneurs launching new products, giving them an entrée into the supply chains of major cor­por­ate purchasers.

In the course of assisting small farmers SEI has amassed a wealth of diverse data about outstanding farmers in various locations, so the organization quickly springs to mind when companies need referrals related to agriculture.

One major corporation that was sponsoring an athletics event and family day wished to go through SEI to invite agricultural social enterprises to set up stalls at the event. “We first asked about the corporation’s aim in making the invitations (whether to sell products or to promote ideals), the type of food products they wanted (raw or cooked), geographic preferences, and how sales revenues would be divided. Once we had confirmed these details, we then suggested suitable social enter­prises to partner with them.” Looking to facilitate sustain­able cooperation and enterprise development, SEI takes great care over the matchmaking process.

An official Facebook #SheMeansBusiness trainer for the Asia–Pacific, Cheng teaches microentrepreneurs how to make use of social media to build their brands and market their products.

Women at the helm

The hope that Taiwan will become a hotspot of social entrepreneurialism and even its leading exponent in Asia has been a source of motivation for SEI. When speaking about the obstacles and frustrations that women entre­preneurs face, Lin notes, “The biggest difficulty I’ve had is that our intellectual property is not respected.” The fruits of Lin’s hard work have at times been copied whole cloth, and when she has presented evidence of this plagiarism to the offenders, she has found it hard to get fair treatment.  But a strong sense of mission has made Lin and her strong team of women only more deter­mined to overcome the obstacles they encounter.

Although Cheng has encountered setbacks in business that forced a return to square one, they have never fazed her. Rather, she has overcome these hurdles by opening new businesses and seeking out new avenues, actively throwing herself into various programs to empower women entrepreneurs through her counsel and instruction.

Viola Cheng and Sunny Lin have leveraged the knowledge economy to bolster their capacity to change society and prevailing ways of thinking. Knowing that there is power in belief, they have willingly taken on responsibility as first movers, blazing a trail toward a better future for Taiwan.        

Sunny Lin, founder of Social Enterprise Insights, is engaged with the birth and transformation of social enterprises.

At SEI’s 2019 Christmas party, Lin and all of SEI’s full- and part-time staff got together to share their thoughts. (courtesy of Sunny Lin)

Founded a decade ago, SEI helps social entrepreneurs smoothly navigate the early stages of their ventures.

In 2016 SEI held an anniversary forum on the theme of “embracing the future” at the National Taiwan University Sports Center. There was no shortage of enthusiasm among the participants. (courtesy of Sunny Lin)