REGION–KOPŘIVNICE
One for All, All for One
That Is When Women Support Women
Successful women – businesswoman, president of ČMAPM, ambassador of the Choose women
campaign and author of podcasts – Kateřina Haring. The Moravian-Silesian region and Kopřivnice
are her home, but also a place where she always likes to return and spend time with her family.
Three years ago you became the president of the
Czech-Moravian Association of Women in Commerce
and Industry (hereinafter ČMAPM). This association
is celebrating twenty-five years of existence this year.
Which of the planned visions have you succeeded in
implementing?
I managed to implement all the visions that I identified.
Whether it was increasing the number of members--the
number of members has doubled since I took the office-or improvement of the organization and management
of the association, its PR, finances--we managed to get
important partners, and also to prepare and develop new
projects. We are an eminent member of the international
association FCEM, where we hold an important position
and we are the voice of Czech female entrepreneurs.
ČMAPM is a member of the international association
FCEM (Femme Chefs d´entreprises mondiales), where
you became the European vice-president in 2017. Why is
the FCEM membership important for ČMAPM and what
are the benefits for the members?
FCEM is an international association of female
entrepreneurs, which was established at the end of
World War II in France. Only one association of female
entrepreneurs per each country can be a member,
and the Czech Republic is represented by ČMAPM.
Today, approximately one hundred countries from
every continent, or rather, a hundred individual national
associations, are members of the FCEM, which means
about five million female entrepreneurs around the
world. That is a large network for the development of
business relationships, finding new partners, expansion
abroad, or just sharing experience, thoughts and ideas.
FCEM is a permanent member of the UN and it also has
its observers in the EU. FCEM has concluded a strategic
partnership with UNIDO, which is the economic agency
of the UN. We participate in projects that go beyond
entrepreneurship, through which we connect women of
various levels on all continents.
ČMAPM started a campaign called Choose Women this
May. Why was this campaign created?
The Choose Women Campaign is a part of the International
Day of Female Entrepreneurship, which is supported
by the UN, for which I am the Czech ambassador. The
campaign usually takes place in November and its goal
is to support female entrepreneurs. On a day selected
in advance, the campaign supports buying products
and services produced by women. As a great number
of small businesses, especially small entrepreneurs and
self-employed people, were hit by the pandemic--and
there are many female entrepreneurs among them--we
72 ǀ POSITIV 4/2020
decided to help them by recommending their products
and services on social media. Since May, we have
recommended around 100 women. Anyone can
nominate them. We review the nominated names and
the council picks the most interesting ones. We received
very good feedback for this campaign and it is also very
popular on social media. Many entrepreneurs are happy
that they got new clients due to this campaign, and other
media have started to be interested in them.