FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL October 12, 2015 | VOL. 51, No. 41
4 | BREAST CANCER WARRIORS
24 | GOOD THINGS HAPPENING
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Initiative looks to boost small-supplier participation BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com
C GOING PLACES? PAGE 6 From left, Garry Feldman, president, U.S. Computer Connection and Stamford Chamber of Commerce chairman; Education Award winner Sharon White of UConn Stamford; and Gov. Dannel Malloy at a recent event in which the governor pledged to make transportation a priority in his second term. Photo by Bill Fallon
onnecticut is now part of a national IBM initiative that has already produced $6 billion in contracts for small businesses eager to supply major corporations. Noting IBM alone had a $40 billion supply chain, Stanley Litow, president of IBM International Foundation and vice president for corporate citizenship and corporate affairs, said, “This is one-stop shopping for small businesses. You sign up. You get recognized as a supplier.” Called the Connecticut Supplier Connection, the cloud-
hosted program is free for corporations and small businesses. Litow called it “a simple idea, but it’s a little complicated to implement.” So far, according to an IBM-sponsored study, those small businesses that have landed contracts through the program have witnessed 250 percent revenue growth and doubled their employees within two years. Litow said the deals had boosted the smaller businesses’ revenues by a total $6 billion since the program’s 2011 launch. “Is this a good idea?” Litow said. “You bet it’s a good idea.” The initiative was rolled out Oct. 7 in Stamford where Business Council of Fairfield County » SUPPLIER, page 5
Eldercare changes with the ages BY REECE ALVAREZ ralvarez@westfairinc.com IT IS NO SECRET PEOPLE are living longer than previous generations thanks to advances in medicine and health care, but with this evolution has come a ripple effect of changes to the way seniors age and are cared for throughout the increasingly longer aging process. “The golden years are becoming the golden decade,” Kristin Sinatra, director of marketing for the non-profit Waveny LifeCare Network of New Canaan, said. Sinatra has been with Waveny for more than a decade and, along with CEO Bill Piper, has watched as new generations of seniors living longer and more active lives in their retirement are changing the landscape of in-home and facility-based care. “We have an independent living building,
the average age is 88, but in all of our services that number continues to get older and older — across the whole industry, not just Waveny,” Piper said. According to the U.S. Social Security administration, in 1940, the life expectancy of a 65-year-old was 14 additional years; in 2014 it was about 20. By 2033, the number of older Americans will increase from more than 46.6 million today to over 77 million. Piper and Sinatra said the current crop of seniors Waveny serves, which includes more than 500 patients daily across a variety of facilities and services, is undeniably part of an overall shift toward an increase in the popularity of at-home care in the assisted living industry. As health care providers, Waveny has responded with a continuum of care options » ELDER, page 17
William C. Piper, CEO of Waveny LifeCare Network in New Canaan.