Lesa Steele, MBDA Business Center Assistant with REI Native American Business Centers, recently joined other minority business leaders to discover strategies for helping businesses grow. The five-day program, entitled Growing the Minority Business to Scale, took place at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business in Hanover, New Hampshire. During the program, participants examined three strategies to grow a company – organic growth, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic alliances.
The program included topics such as business plan refinement, financing, marketing and operations, negotiations, leadership and innovation. Steele learned the foundations of innovation and how to apply them to Oklahoma’s minority-owned businesses. She plans to utilize the training she received to assist Oklahoma’s minority business owners in reaching the next level of success.
“The biggest highlight of the program for me was the interaction with the Tuck professors and peer participants,” said Steele. “Not only did we have the chance to learn from the faculty, but also to interact and discuss each topic with others in the class through study groups, break-out sessions and classroom participation.”
REI Native American Business Centers deliver technical assistance and training programs in an effort to build successful Native American and minority-owned businesses. Learn more by visiting www.reinabc.org.