A Central Ohio woman is bucking trends, and her work impacts your life every day.
When you shop at DSW or pull an item off the shelf at Wal-mart, Michelle Kerr's company helped make it possible.
She's the founder and CEO of Oxford Consulting, and her company's IT systems connect customers and suppliers, making businesses efficient.
"As a consumer, I go into Wal-mart and I buy Kraft macaroni and cheese. We are sending that signal back to Kraft to say, 'Oh, by the way, we sold this much at these stores. You need to produce more.' And so Kraft then tells their suppliers, 'I need more macaroni. I need more cheese sauce. I need more boxes.'" Kerr said. "So all of that connectivity and optimizing that connectivity is really what we're doing."
It's almost like translating language, making one computer system talk to and understand another.
Oxford also offers IT start-up and IT support to small businesses.
Kerr was only 24 years old when she started Oxford at her kitchen table. She now operates a $17 million a year global operation. Her parents immigrated to Columbus from South Africa when she was a child, leaving everything behind to come to America and start a business.
"I had grown up around that entrepreneurial spirit, and I think so much of my passion and determination comes from wanting to make sure that I was leveraging that opportunity that I was given by coming from this country," she said.
Kerr said that Central Ohio is a great place to start a business, because women here support each other. But, she said, it wasn't always easy to connect.
"Most women have a good social network, but they don't have a good business network," said Melanie Martin Jones, founder of the Women's Council of Central Ohio.
Jones, an attorney, started the council to connect representatives of more than 50 area women's organizations.
"In my practice, which is intellectual property, I would have a client come to me and say, 'I need somebody to do IT. I need somebody for a CFO.' My network was all men. I didn't know any women," she said.
Jones is also now president of the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
When NAWBO started in 1997, 24 percent of local businesses were women-owned. That number is now 30 percent.
"At least it's growth and that's good, especially in this economy," Jones said.
Business owners like Kerr are part of the growing network of Central Ohio women who are helping other women succeed.
"We are nurturers. We genuinely like to see each other be successful. It's not as cut throat and competitive. We're happy for each other," Kerr said.
For additional information, stay with NBC4 and refresh nbc4i.com.
To submit a story idea or news tip, e-mail stories@nbc4i.com.
MORE: NBC4 Local News | Local Crime News
NBC4 SPORTS: Sports News, Video
NBC4 POLITICS: Headlines, Interactives & Video
ted nugent veep los angeles kings earth day timothy leary jonathan frid pujols
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.