Corey Anthony has two decades of experience at AT&T. Anthony currently serves as SVP of human resources and chief diversity officer. In his current role, Anthony is responsible for identifying and developing leaders, aligning employees with the company’s vision and priorities, overseeing business unit HR support, and employee engagement.
Anthony recently served as a guest speaker at the “Culture and Code” luncheon during Black Enterprise Entrepreneur’s Summit held in Houston, Texas.
Following the luncheon with business leaders and small-business owners, Anthony spoke with rolling out and shared his thoughts on the importance of scalability for small businesses.
Why was it important for AT&T to serve as a sponsor for the “Culture and Code” luncheon during the Black Enterprise Entrepreneur’s Summit?
This event was important for AT&T to show our support for the small business community and the minority business community. It’s good to bring these businesses together to learn from each other and to learn from experts who can help empower small, Black-owned businesses.
What should all new business owners know before starting a business?
It’s important for new business owners to understand their market, You should have a strong business plan and strategy. There will be opportunities and growth in technology-based businesses. Software defined and data centric. If you’re forming or creating a business that can fit that ecosystem, you will have opportunities.
One word that remained constant throughout the event was “scale.” Why must small businesses understand the value of scalability?
Scale is the ability to do business on a lager footprint and with multiple functionality. As much as AT&T would like to work with small businesses, there is a physical limit to the number of partners we can have. As a result, scale becomes important especially if you want to move up in your market when considering the partners that you work with.
This is graduation season. For new graduates, what advice do you give?
I would overemphasis STEM. Make sure that whatever it is that you’re pursuing has connectivity in that space. That’s where opportunities are going to be in the present and near future.
