Pace University's Women Entrepreneur Event
Ivan Seidenberg
New York, NY
October 23, 2007
Introduction by Stephen Friedman, Acting President, Pace University.
There’s nothing more energizing than being in a room full of people with big dreams and big plans.
Today, we are surrounded by excellence.
One hundred years ago, two brothers named Homer and Charles Pace took out a $600 loan, rented a classroom in lower Manhattan, and started a school to teach the principles of business to men and women who aspired to a better life. A century later, Pace still leads the way in nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit. I am proud to be an alumnus and a supporter.
I’m also honored to share the dais with Maria Bartiromo and Nell Merlino. Maria, of course, has been one of the true pioneers in business journalism. And as the founder of “Take Your Daughter to Work” Day, the “Count Me In” Foundation, and the “Make Mine a Million” program, Nell has done as much as anyone in the business world to build a community of women who can teach and challenge one another to achieve their goals.
Commitment like that is contagious, and everyone here has caught the bug. Like thousands of women across America, you’ve taken up the challenge to become one of a million entrepreneurs with a million dollars in revenue by the year 2010. I am thrilled and inspired by your energy.
The only real question now is, as the very male head of a very big business, what the heck am I doing here?
I’m here because – for all of our obvious differences – my business and yours actually have more in common than you think.
Like you, Verizon is focused on how to make our business grow.
Like you, we’re always looking for ways to make our business more productive, profitable and competitive.
Like you, we’re on the lookout for the next big idea that will transform our company and propel us into the future.
And like you, we believe that technology is key to helping us meet all of those goals and succeed in the 21st century economy.
In the next few minutes, I want to talk briefly about how and why Verizon is invested in your success. I’ll discuss the broadband and mobile technologies that are changing the business landscape for companies, big and small. And I’ll conclude by talking about how these empowering technologies – combined with your entrepreneurial spirit – can help you achieve your million-dollar dreams.
First, let me say just a word about who Verizon is and what we do.
We’re a wireless company with more than 62 M customers nationwide. We provide voice, broadband and video services over our landline network to more than 21 M consumers and 2 M small businesses in 28 states and the District of Columbia. And we’re an Internet backbone and global communications provider for business and government customers around the world. We also have a big impact on the economy through our supply chain – last year, for example, we did business with more than 1,500 women-owned suppliers, to the tune of almost one billion dollars.
All together, tens of millions of customers rely on our networks and services to keep them connected -- at home, at work and on the go. In this fast-paced and competitive world, our success depends on our ability to anticipate the needs and solve the business problems of our most demanding and dynamic customers.
That’s why, when we think about growing our business, you and your business definitely have our attention. You know the statistics:
- 10.4 M women-owned businesses in the United States.
- Five new start-ups by women every minute – twice the growth rate of the economy overall.
- $1.9 Trillion in annual sales.
- And with only 3 percent of women-owned businesses hitting the $1 M threshold for revenues, there’s plenty of headroom for future growth.
Surveys of women business owners show that – in overwhelming numbers – you want to expand and grow your businesses. But that’s not all the surveys say.
They say you want to be your own boss and control your own destiny.
You want to integrate work and home and improve your quality of life.
And the vast majority of you see technology as a key factor in your business success.
At Verizon, this is music to our ears.
We’ve devoted many years and many billions of investment dollars to build the modern communications networks on which the 21st century economy runs.
- We’ve turned our telephone network into a broadband network with such technologies as high-speed DSL and fiber to the home, and we’re constantly enhancing them with the speed and two-way power that are increasingly central to today’s business models.
- We’re seeing the same transformation in the world of wireless. Mobile phones are already an indispensable part of modern life.
Now, with the proliferation of smart phones, BlackBerrys, and laptops with built-in broadband access, mobile data is close behind. And as we deploy next-generation networks, wireless multimedia – video, music and two-way data – is also growing fast.
With these new broadband and wireless networks come a whole host of services, applications, devices and products designed to put all of these capabilities to work for the customer.
This revolution in information and communications technology has made every business a technology business and triggered a period of unprecedented productivity gains and innovation. Now, as we extend these capabilities deeper and deeper into our networks, the speed, power and flexibility once available only to big corporations is increasingly available to individuals and small companies.
So what does that mean for you? The short answer is, broadband and mobile technology can break down the barriers between you and your goals.
Technology breaks the time barrier – giving you a virtual assistant that works 24-by-7, never takes a vacation, and gives you access to tools that can boost your productivity, protect your data, and help you manage your business in a secure and efficient way.
Technology breaks the geography barrier – transforming the world’s one billion Internet users into a single gigantic market that can be accessed by anyone with a computer, a high-speed connection and a great idea.
Technology breaks the barrier separating work and home – giving us more control over our time, more opportunity to build and sustain communities, and more power to integrate all the dimensions of our lives.
Most profoundly, broadband and mobile technology breaks down the entry barriers that have made it hard for small enterprises to compete -- leveling the playing field and creating new opportunities for growth. In many ways, technology is the great equalizer: it helps big companies think small and small companies think big.
In the information economy, the most valuable commodity isn’t the physical product itself but the idea that produces it. And if there’s anything the last ten years have taught us, it’s that the next great idea – the kind that disrupts business models, creates markets, and changes the course of entire industries – can come, literally, from anywhere.
Maybe even right here in this room.
On behalf of Verizon, I want to congratulate all of you on your achievements. I look forward to working with you as customers, as suppliers … maybe even as competitors. And I can’t wait to see what happens as you break down the barriers and realize your million-dollar dreams.
