A Program that Helped Virginia’s Small Businesses Reach Their Full Potential
Ones to Watch (OTW) was an outgrowth of the 2011-12 SPQA “12 to Watch” program. It was a Commonwealth of Virginia program designed to help Small Businesses reach their long-term potential of sustainability and growth.
Each of these small businesses were introduced to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework – a nationally recognized business model for continuous quality improvement and performance excellence. The “Ones to Watch” small businesses began their experience by completing some of what we offer in our Discovery program such as an organizational profile and self-assessment questionnaire which focused on processes impacting leadership, strategy, customers, measurement/IT, workforce, operations, and results. The initiative also offered an SPQA independent evaluation and feedback report. An SPQA-assigned mentor guided the small businesses throughout the OTW experience and helped identify resources to assist in the development and implementation of a personalized business performance improvement plan.
Read testimonials of past participants and learn how their involvement with the SPQA OTW program strengthened and improved their organizations.
Voices from Participants
Organizations from the first and second Ones to Watch (OTW) cohorts shared some thoughts on their experiences with and the value of their participation in the Ones to Watch program. OTW is a collaborative initiative of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which selects small businesses for program participation, the department of Small Business Supplier Diversity, the…
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OTW Cohort Resources
The 2019 3rd OTW Cohort is using several resources to help drive their organizational excellence journey. It begins with a survey of leadership, which helps establish a baseline and begins to identify possible areas of improvement. This is followed by the SPQA Discovery process, which deepens understanding and provides assessment information necessary to develop improvement…
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Small Businesses see ROI
Six small businesses selected to expand their opportunities to grow their companies, enhance their customer service and contribute to Virginia’s economy.
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