Last October, Ernst & Young LLP announced the 11 winners of its 2012 U.S. Entrepreneurial Winning Women program (www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen), a national competition and leadership initiative that identifies and connects a select group of women entrepreneurs with the advisors, resources, and insights they need to scale their companies and become market leaders.

Launched in 2008, the program is intended to help women entrepreneurs break through the barriers that keep thriving second-stage businesses from scaling to their full potential. Once selected, the entrepreneurs participate in an ongoing, customized program designed by Ernst & Young to catalyze their companies’ growth by building and fostering critical relationships, enhancing leadership skills, expanding business know-how, and providing increased visibility. They are coached on the five crucial leaps they need to scale their companies: thinking big and setting higher goals; building a public profile; working on the business, rather than in it; establishing key advisory networks; and evaluating financing for expansion.

Research shows that the program is paying off in a big way. Revenues of program participants’ companies have grown almost 50 percent each year on average, with a corresponding 26 percent average annual growth in the number of jobs, according to a recent independent study directed by the Babson College Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership.

“Our Entrepreneurial Winning Women program helps bridge the gap for an area we call ‘the missing middle’ – those second-stage women business owners whose companies have emerged from the start-up phase but face a crucial inflection point in their growth journey,” said Kerrie MacPherson, Principal and Entrepreneurial Winning Women Executive Sponsor, Ernst & Young LLP. “By providing the right information, networks, and guidance, we’re able to help these talented women access capital, identify strong business advisors, and put the processes in place to radically expand their companies.”

Women entrepreneurs play an essential role in creating sustainable economic growth in today’s uncertain economy. In fact, women start businesses at twice the rate as men. However, despite robust growth in early stages, women-owned companies don’t always scale up to their full potential.

The Entrepreneurial Winning Women program is conducted in collaboration with several organizations that encourage the development and expansion of women-owned companies, including the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), The Committee of 200 (C200), the Kauffman Foundation, and Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership.•

The Entrepreneurial Winning Women lead companies across all industry sectors, including lifestyle and luxury brands, legal solutions, technology, logistics, health care management, manufacturing, corporate wellness, and food and beverage.

“The Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program has totally changed my definition of ‘big’ and opened my eyes to the growth potential for our company,” said Amy Buckner Chowdhry, CEO, AnswerLab and a member of the 2011 class of Entrepreneurial Winning Women. “I’m thinking entirely differently about how we measure being the market leader.”

Lisa Bair of Hobart Group Holdings, a 2010 class member, said, “Thanks to the Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program, I am now 100 percent focused on a three- to five-year vision that includes building out our expertise, the possible acquisition of complementary companies, and investment capital to allow us to scale.”

The Entrepreneurial Winning Women program is evergreen, meaning that, once selected, the entrepreneurs are encouraged to stay engaged in the program as long as it benefits them. Each of the Entrepreneurial Winning Women is assigned a local Ernst & Young professional who provides ongoing strategic direction and contacts and helps her stay connected to the community of successful entrepreneurs Ernst & Young regularly convenes.

In addition, the members of each new class of Entrepreneurial Winning Women receive an all-expense paid trip to the U.S. Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum® (www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum), an invitation-only gathering of nearly 2,000 high-growth, market-leading company CEOs. The annual forum offers a one-of-a-kind platform for Entrepreneurial Winning Women to introduce their companies and meet a well-placed community of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® winners, top executives, prospective investors, and business advisors.

Members of all classes are invited to return to the Strategic Growth Forum annually to learn, connect with one another, and refresh their sector and advisory contacts. The Entrepreneurial Winning Women are recognized at a special celebratory event during each forum.

“Incredible CEOs, advisors, and investors have approached me because they are interested in what we’re doing,” notes Elisabete Miranda of CQ fluency, another 2010 class member. “The amount of exposure and recognition that we received, especially at the Strategic Growth Forum, was a totally different and amazing experience.”•

The 2012 class of U.S. Entrepreneurial Winning Women was chosen from a group of 110 applicants by a panel of independent judges comprised of highly successful entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors, including: Howard Brodsky, Chairman and CEO, CCA Global Partners; Cynthia Cohen, CEO, Strategic Mindshare; Laurie Cunnington, President, Ward Williston Oil Company; Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, CEO, Advanced ICU Care and a 2011 Entrepreneurial Winning Woman; Jeri Harman, Managing Partner, Avante Mezzanine Partners; Rob Scott, VP and Worldwide General Manager, Hewlett Packard; and Mary Ellen Sheets, Founder, Two Men And A Truck.

For women, judge Jeri Harman notes, “The Entrepreneurial Winning Women program is a rare opportunity to find the resources and support – mentorship, networks, education, access to capital – to take their companies to the next level.”

Ernst & Young is committed to realizing the economic impact of women entrepreneurs throughout the world. In the Americas, the firm just launched the Entrepreneurial Winning Women program in Brazil. In 2013, Canada comes on board, with the U.S. program expanding to become the North America Entrepreneurial Winning Women program to provide recognition and business development opportunities for the growing number of Canadian women entrepreneurs alongside their American counterparts. Programs are also underway in Indonesia and Australia. In addition, Belgium, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the Slovak Republic, South Africa, Ukraine, and Hungary are planning to begin programs in the next 12 to 18 months.

“Women represent the largest emerging market in the world and their potential is limitless,” said Jim Turley, Ernst & Young’s Global Chairman and CEO. “In the next five years the global incomes of women will grow at twice the rate of the GDP in China and India combined. Along the way they are going to create the innovative products and jobs that help economies grow. We have to help them get there. That’s what Winning Women is all about.”

Yanty Isa, founder of an Indonesian food and beverage research and development company, said the networking opportunities offered by the program are particularly important: “As women, we have to juggle so many different roles, we often miss business opportunities.” Santi Mia Sipan, another Indonesian entrepreneur participating in the program, commented that the exposure it’s now receiving will help her go global.•