One of the more commonly used acronyms in today’s business development arena is the term TBED or “Technology Based Economic Development”. In short, TBED efforts seek to identify and commercialize new technologies that have the potential to become significant new businesses which in turn help to revitalize regional economies, create new jobs, regain our country’s competitive advantage, etc. The challenge with most TBED efforts is that they generally fail to fully engage the broader community – particularly the historically underserved populations of minority groups and women. While I have seen a noticeable increase in the involvement of women (though clearly there is more work to be done) - led by such organizations as Springboard Enterprises, Phenomenelle Angels, and Golden Seeds LLC., to name a few; minority populations remain significantly underrepresented. Given the documented realities of our shifting national population trends which call for ethnic minorities to represent roughly half of our nation’s population over the next 20+ years, we can no longer afford to not fully engage all members of our community in TBED activities.
As significant TBED resources are invested in our nation’s colleges and universities to help commercialize new technologies, a few areas that our academic institutions can consider include:
-
Hiring more diverse professors in Science, Chemistry, Biology, etc.
-
Working closer with minority and women focused economic development organizations to form more structured partnerships
-
Working with minority executive recruiters to identify top management talent for new ventures
-
Connecting with such national organizations as:
-
The PhD Project, an organization focused on driving more minority professionals to doctoral programs and business schools - www.phdproject.org
-
-
-
-
-
As for the host of other TBED organizations in our regional and national community, we simply must do a better job of engaging and connecting with diverse populations. Information dissemination is critical. To ensure that opportunities are being effectively communicated and reaching non-traditional audiences, TBED organizations must adopt new and creative methods of sharing information through diverse media channels and outlets, forming new collaborations with leading minority and women focused organizations, and investing the necessary time and resources to ensure that the connections actually happen and are sustained.
It’s time for new and innovative collaborations to spring up whereby budding new concepts such as TBED are commonly known and embraced by all citizens in our increasingly diverse community.
Darrin is Chief Economic Inclusion Officer of JumpStart and President of JumpStart Inclusion Advisors. He founded and ran his own strategic planning and management assistance firm and spent 16 years in the commercial banking and finance industry. Darrin has an MBA from Baldwin Wallace College and an undergraduate degree from Mount Union College. He has led a series of workshops and seminars on matters of economic development and diversity.