IBM sponsors 5th Tuck-WBENC executive program

More than 50 successful women business owners from Washington State to New Jersey gathered recently for the 5th Tuck-WBENC Executive Program at the IBM conference facility in Palisades, NY, sponsored by IBM. Led by Dr, Len Greenhalgh, professor of management and director of executive programs for minority- and women-businesses at Tuck, the attendees received intensive executive level training in management, financials, growth strategies and personnel development.

The five-day program was taught by Tuck professors in a curriculum developed especially for women business enterprises certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council to help WBEs who are beyond the startup phase of their businesses to assess, improve and grow their businesses.

The coursework was designed to assist WBEs in developing a clear strategy,pursuing excellent customer value, making the most of business processes, developing the keys to adequate cash flow, managing relationship for the long term and motivating and empowering employees. This invaluable intensive learning experience focused primarily on increasing the competitive advantage of the participants’ businesses.

The attendees benefited not only for the outstanding instruction, but also from the synergy that developed almost immediately among the business owners.The exchange of ideas as well as open discussions of successes and challenges helped to build a coherent learning community that will be a continued source of support, expertise and strategic alliances for a long time after graduation.

The program is designed to make a big difference in how owners and top executives think about and operate their businesses when they return from the program. Each participant used her own business as the case study. Using learning groups, the WBEs applied the tools they have learned to assess and improve their businesses,using the same diagnostic and strategy-implementation approaches that external consultants would use.The design of this program draws on Tuck’s decades of experience in refining programs for minorityowned business enterprises. Tuck is the nation’s oldest graduate school of business, and is rated the number one business school by The Wall Street Journal.

In addition to the WBEs,Linda J.Denny, president and CEO of WBENC and Michael. K. Robinson, global director of supplier diversity for IBM were in attendance. Javette Jenkins-Hines,U.S.sourcing manager, technical services/ integrated supplier chain at IBM was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony. This joint-sponsored program is one of many example of IBM’s commitment to supplier diversity development. The idea for the program another “out of the box” IBM initiative. IBM has committed to being the host through 2010, according to the IBM Web site. The next program is scheduled for Oct. 5-9, 2008 at the IBM Palisades, NY conference center