Bidiversity

IBM has announced a variety of resources for entrepreneurs. The announcement is timed with IBM’s sponsorship of Global Entrepreneurship Week – an initiative taking place in 75 countries from November 17th through the 23rd – designed to inspire, connect, inform, mentor and engage entrepreneurs.

IBM, in collaboration with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, has launched new resources and a Spanish language version of a web-based Small Business Toolkit tailored to women and Black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian owned businesses in the United States.

The toolkit provides entrepreneurs with the kind of professional human resource, legal, marketing, and finance-related information templates normally available to much larger companies. The Small Business Toolkit now includes:
-daily expert advice by Jim Blasingame
-a new women’s business-focused blog hosted by Deb Osgood
-a new partnership with MicroMentor for personal mentoring, and a new small business video learning series in partnership with BUZGate.org.

IBM is also putting entrepreneurs with the best business plans in touch with venture capitalists. As part of its Global Entrepreneurship Week “Digital Challenge,” IBM is challenging participants to submit ideas for dynamic business models that will link venues on the 3D Internet to their real-world counterparts. Five finalists will be selected to present their business plan to a panel of venture capitalists chaired by IBM’s Venture Capital Group during the Spring of 2009.

“Entrepreneurs play a critical role in today’s economy,” said Chris Caine, Vice President for Governmental Programs at IBM. “With the world becoming increasingly connected there is unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs to now become innovators on a global scale. IBM wants to see these new entrepreneurs succeed and is working to help them grow. We are proud to be a part of this unprecedented global event challenging entrepreneurs to dream big and improve the world.”

“For seven days, millions of young people around the world will be introduced to entrepreneurship and encouraged to think about how innovation can take them anywhere, no matter their location on the map,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, co-founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

“We are excited to partner with IBM in this endeavor and hope that our work to connect and inform aspiring entrepreneurs continues beyond the Week and changes lives around the globe.”
IBM also works with a diverse group of suppliers; in 2007, IBM spent more than $2.3 billion with more than 350 diverse suppliers worldwide, and the company maintains an active mentoring program for diversity-owned suppliers to help them go global.

IBM Global Entrepreneurship Week Activities
In conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week, IBM will facilitate and broadcast roundtable discussions via the Web. These will provide advice from experts aimed at helping all entrepreneurs — including Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American and women — globally succeed.
IBM will host two “Women Entrepreneurs Leading Innovation Globally” webcasts on November 19, during which panels of female business leaders and entrepreneurs will share their insights, experiences and best practices for starting and growing a global business.

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