The QuEST Forum Small Business Education Vision Presented At TIG (Technology Industry Group)
As mentioned in a previous article, another focus for QuEST Forum is the Small Business sector. BIZPHYX President and CEO, Sue Clancy recently presented to the Executive Board about Small Business initiatives as Chair of the Small Business Group.
In July, Sue Clancy and QuEST Forum CEO, Fraser Pajak had the opportunity to speak to TIG (Technology Industry Group) in Chicago. If you aren’t familiar with TIG, they are a group of supplier diversity executives from various technology companies in the ICT industry including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Apple, SAS Institute, Intel, Futjitsu, as well as others. Some time back, the Telecommunications Industry Group and the Technology Industry Group joined efforts to form the new TIG.
Sue presented on the QuEST Forum vision for Small Business Education. In an effort to add more value to QuEST Forum’s Small Business Group and ICT industry technology start-ups, QuEST Forum, QuEST Forum Academy and the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) Business School are developing educational tracks to drive improvements in the overall health of ICT small businesses. They’re also addressing education for technology start-ups to improve product speed-to-market with fewer defects and innovation and entrepreneurship:
The goal is to have these educational tracks ready and available by Spring, 2015. These classes will be taught virtually through Telepresence to reduce costs for the students and the instructors. 75% of small business members in QuEST Forum (most of whom are ICT suppliers) are also diverse businesses (WBE, MBE, DVBE, HBE, SBA and SDVOB):
It’s important that these small companies and technology start-ups are healthy and viable, especially as as more of these players enter the ICT supply chain. These small businesses ultimately impact the quality and delivery of service for the entire industry.
The Small Business Education vision was well received by the QuEST Forum Executive Board and TIG. Now comes the work of pulling it all together. Sue and her group are very excited about what the future holds. We will post updates as this initiative moves into implementation stage.
For more information on TL 9000 and QuEST Forum Small Business, please contact sclancy@bizphyx.com.
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