Women in Business
Programme
A Scale-Up Journey for Women-Led Businesses
Purposeful Growth × Resilient Scale
The Women in Business (WIB) Programme is a 6‑month scale‑up journey designed for women business founders who are leading established companies and preparing for their next phase of growth.
Built in collaboration with UOB SME Banking (Emerging Enterprise), the programme strengthens commercial clarity, leadership capacity, and regional expansion readiness through practical capability-building, strategic mentorship, and access to UOB’s cross‑border ecosystem.
Programme Schedule
10:00am - 10:10am
Opening Address by UOB FinLab
UOB
10:15am - 10:30am
UOB Business Outlook 2026 Insights
UOB SME Banking (Emerging Enterprise)
10:30am - 11:00am
From Awareness to Action: Government Grants That Support SMEs
SME Centre@SICCI
11:00am - 11:50am
Foundations for Scale: Leading with Clarity, Confidence and Commercial Discipline
This fireside chat is a conversational and experience-driven session that explores how businesses like Manna Group scale responsibly amidst economic uncertainty, with a focus on strategic clarity, leadership confidence, and commercial discipline.
Moderated By:
UOB
11:50am - 01:00pm
Lunch and Networking
10:00am - 5:00pm
Lifelong Learning Institute
11 Eunos Road 8, S(408601)
Business Resilience - Financial Discipline for Scale
A practical session for business owners focused on scaling with stronger financial discipline.
Learn how to uncover the true drivers of profitability, identify margin leakages, and apply unit-economics thinking to make better pricing, investment and growth decisions.
Designed to help leaders strengthen resilience and scale intentionally – not just grow revenue.
10:00am - 5:00pm
Lifelong Learning Institute
11 Eunos Road 8, S(408601)
Leadership Identity & Personal Brand for Scale
An immersive session designed for women founders to clarify their leadership identity and strengthen their professional presence as they scale.
Through guided reflection and practical application, participants gain clarity on what they stand for as leaders and translate that into confident, credible visbility that builds trust, influence and partnerships.
This session reframes personal branding as a strategic leadership asset – supporting sustainable growth without superficial self-promotion.
Digital Growth & AI for Business Leaders
9:00am - 4:00pm
The Foundry Table
30 Bencoolen St, S(189621)
Agenda Overview
This workshop equips women business leaders with practical, accessible ways to harness AI and digital tools to drive sustainable growth.
Designed for founders and decision-makers, the session goes beyond theory to provide a clear digital transformation framework that supports confident decision-making and day-to-day execution.
Through real-world case studies, hands-on demonstrations, and peer learning, participants explore how AI can be applied across key business functions—from marketing and customer engagement to operations and analytics.
The experience is further strengthened through curated breakout sessions and optional 1-to-1 clinics, offering personalised guidance to help participants move from experimentation to meaningful adoption with clarity and confidence.
9.30am - 10.30am
Frontier Firms: Harnessing AI & GenAI for Business Transformation
This session looks at how forward-looking “Frontier Firms” are redefining productivity and competitiveness by re-imagining the way work gets done with AI.
Tech Discovery: AI & GenAI for Businesses
This segment provides a clear, practical overview of AI and GenAI, focusing on what these technologies can realistically do for businesses today. Participants will be introduced to accessible tools and solutions that can enhance efficiency, augment teams, and scale output—without significantly increasing headcount or complexity.
Envisioning Workshop
Building on the Tech Discovery, this guided workshop helps business owners and leaders translate insights into action. Participants will reflect on their own business challenges and identify where AI can deliver the most impact across operations, marketing, customer engagement, or analytics—leaving with prioritised, business‑relevant use cases rather than abstract ideas.
Session Highlights:
- Insight into emerging industry trends and how frontier firms are leveraging AI today
- Identification of practical, high‑impact AI use cases aligned to real business challenges
10.30am - 11.00am
The 5 Focus Areas of Digital Transformation for Growth-Ready Businesses
A structured framework session that helps business owners look beyond tools to understand end‑to‑end digital transformation as a strategic growth driver.
Participants gain a clear mental model of how digital and AI capabilities come together across the business to support stronger decision‑making, capability‑building, and long‑term sustainable growth.
11:00am - 11:40am
Fireside Chat: SMEs on AI Adoption
To build confidence among business owners through peer learning, experience sharing and practical, honest advice towards adopting AI, especially for SMEs
11:40am - 1:00pm
Lunch and Networking
1.00pm - 2.00pm
Breakout Rooms
Participants can select one breakout track that they feel are most relevant to their business needs
1. AI for Marketing
This session introduces how businesses can use AI to strengthen their marketing efforts—improving visibility, engagement and conversion while managing time and resource constraints.
Participants will explore how AI can support content creation, campaign optimisation and audience targeting, enabling more effective marketing across digital channels without the need for large teams or complex systems.
Session Highlights:
- Practical approaches to applying AI in marketing with limited resources
- Driving stronger customer reach and engagement through data-informed marketing decisions
2. AI for Customer Engagement
Leverage easy-to-use AI-enabled platforms to strengthen digital presence, streamline marketing and sales activities, and deliver more personalised customer experiences at scale.
Participants will learn how AI-powered customer insights, data and segmentation can be applied to understand customer behaviour and optimise engagement across key digital touchpoints—from first interaction to conversion and retention.
Session Highlights:
- Practical, hands-on approaches to deepening customer engagement using AI and automation
- Turning customer data into actionable insights to personalise journeys and improve conversion
- Using accessible tools to drive meaningful engagement without increasing operational complexity
3. AI for Business Processes and Productivity Automation
This session focuses on how businesses can apply AI and automation to streamline internal processes, reduce manual workload and improve day-to-day productivity across different business functions and industries.
Session Highlights:
- Clear, practical guidance on improving efficiency and productivity using AI and automation
- Freeing up time for business owners to focus on strategic priorities, leadership growth and business expansion
2:00pm - 2:30pm
Sharing session by UOB
2:30pm - 4:00pm
1-1 Clinics
The 1‑1 Clinics provide participants with targeted, practical guidance to support their individual AI adoption journeys.
Session Highlights:
- Personalised guidance based on participants’ specific business challenges and readiness
- Practical advice on adopting AI in a structured, manageable way
- Clear next steps to translate learning into action beyond the session
Strategic Growth & Mentorship Kick‑Off Day
9:00am - 4:00pm
The Foundry Table
30 Bencoolen St, S(189621)
Agenda Overview
This integrated session brings together strategic clarity and meaningful connection to kick off the mentorship phase of the Women in Business Programme.
Participants build on earlier insights by sharpening growth and expansion decisions, before transitioning into structured mentor conversations.
The day is designed to help founders clarify priorities, deepen reflection, and connect with mentors who can best support their business transformation journey ahead.
9.30am - 12.30pm
Strategic Differentiation & AI Decision Guardrails
This session helps founders make confident growth decisions by identifying practical differentiation strategies that do not rely on radical innovation. Participants explore how existing strengths, new customer segments, and scalable business models can support expansion across ASEAN markets.
The session also covers key AI decision guardrails, highlighting the risks, governance, and compliance considerations business leaders must manage as AI is integrated into their operations.
12:30pm - 1:45pm
Lunch and Networking
1.45pm - 1.50pm
Welcome address and session overview
UOB
1.50pm - 2.10pm
SkillsFuture Sharing: Mentorship Grant Overview
UOB FinLab and Ecosystem Partnership
UOB
An overview of the SkillsFuture Mentorship Grant, highlighting how structured mentorship can be supported beyond the programme.
This segment is informational in nature, helping business leaders understand available pathways to deepen advisory support as they scale.
2:10pm - 2:40pm
Meet the Mentors
Meet the programme mentors and learn about their areas of expertise and experience. This segment helps participants identify potential alignment based on their current business priorities and transformation focus.
2:40pm - 4:00pm
Mentor Conversations: Guided & Open
A structured yet flexible session that combines focused group discussions with open mentor exchanges, helping founders identify the right mentorship fit for their growth and transformation goals.
Sessions Details:
- 2:40pm – 3:10pm – Guided Conversations
- 3:10pm – 3:40pm – Open Mentor Exchange
Capstone Day - From Strategy to Opportunity: Expansion, Insight & Community
Agenda Overview
The Capstone Day brings the Women in Business Programme to a close by linking strategy, market insight, and community.
Participants sharpen their expansion and pitching narratives, ground their growth plans with ASEAN market perspectives, and connect with mentors and alumni through meaningful peer exchange.
Designed as both a culmination and a bridge forward, the day reinforces clarity, confidence, and community as founders step into their next phase of growth.
2.00pm - 4.00pm
Business Expansion Strategy and Pitching for Growth
Learn how to articulate and pitch your expansion strategy clearly to investors, partners, distributors, and banks—especially in overseas markets.
This session focuses on brand storytelling as a differentiation lever in price‑competitive ASEAN environments and helps founders structure a compelling growth narrative.
Participants also get guided practice in pitching their differentiated expansion plans, with a brief focus on trademarks for overseas readiness.
4.00pm - 5.00pm
ASEAN Market Insights & Economic Outlook
This session provides participants with practical macro and market insights to ground their expansion decisions.
Translating regional economic trends into SME‑relevant implications, the session covers consumer demand patterns, operating considerations, and market risks across key ASEAN economies.
The discussion equips founders with a broader perspective to validate expansion plans and make more informed, risk‑aware growth decisions.
5:00pm - 5:30pm
Break and Preparation for Networking Night
A short transition break allowing participants to reset after the learning sessions, while alumni and mentors arrive for the evening programme.
Light refreshments are served as the space shifts from a workshop environment to a relaxed community setting.
5:30pm - 8:00pm
Women in Business (WIB) Community Evening
The WIB Community Evening brings together the current cohort, programme alumni, mentors, and ecosystem partners to close the programme through shared experience and connection.
The evening features lightly facilitated peer exchanges and organic networking, creating space for candid conversations, knowledge sharing, and relationship‑building across cohorts.
Alumni contribute practical insights from their growth journeys, offering perspective and encouragement, while participants deepen connections within the WIB community beyond the formal programme.
July - Sept | Mentorship Period
Grow with clarity and confidence
Personalised 1-1 mentorship to refine decisions and accelerate growth.
Business Needs & Readiness Assessment
Start by understanding your business needs and priorities for a more meaningful scale-up experience.
All things Women
Home-grown Sonata Dancewear makes a jete into South-east Asia by pirouetting on tradition
Two women entrepreneurs on how they tackled tradition and gender biases to transform their businesses
Discover how Ms Ethel Tan, founder of Edith Patisserie, turned her passion into a thriving business.
