Fintech South 2024, hosted by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), took place on Aug. 27-28 at the Woodruff Arts Center and Atlanta Symphony Hall. This year’s theme was “Fintech Lives Here!”
Dr. Loretta Daniels, Interim Executive Director, Technology Association of Georgia’, TAG-Ed and CEO and Managing Partner at Kendall and Kendrick Consulting Group, is an expert in organizational Leadership, DEI, conflict management, and communication. As an executive leader in the corporate arena, she has served in executive leadership roles such as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Executive Director of Sales Operations, and General Manager. In addition, she has written corporate training manuals Leading by Example and Fast Track to Excellence. As the former Executive Director of Corporate Relations of Kennesaw State University (KSU), she worked with medium and large organizations to define and deliver leadership growth certificate programs aligned with the company’s vision and objectives.
Dr. Daniels has recently created TAG Bridge Builders, a social justice and equity initiative to promote Georgia’s underrepresented tech professionals advance from mid-level positions to senior-level leadership roles, providing access to funding and customer acquisition for tech entrepreneurs.
Dr. Daniels partnered with C-level Leadership and HR to determine leadership development goals, identify training gaps, enable cultural workplace initiatives, and implement gender pay equality and equitable hiring practices. In addition, she served as the University Office of Diversity and Inclusion CoChair and Presidential Commission on Gender & Work-Life Issues. Also, she advised executive teams, including the President and Chief Diversity Officer, consulted as a subject matter expert on DEI challenges and solutions, and supported DEI’s continuous improvement efforts.
As an adjunct leadership instructor at KSU since 2002, Dr. Daniels delivered in-class and online lectures encouraging students to think strategically by applying fundamentals to real-world problems. Courses taught included Corporate Communication and Conflict Resolution, Human Communications, Public Speaking, Writing for Public Communication, and Foundations of Leadership. Additionally, she has designed a Coursera Specialty Certificate program, Advanced Leadership Skills for the 21st Century Specialization Certificate.
Dr. Daniels received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Organizational Leadership from Johnson University, a Master of Science (MS) in Conflict Management, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Communication from Bradley University, and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Mass Communication/Media Studies from KSU. She is a Certified Diversity Professional and the author of two books, For Women Only, Women Mean Business (J & W Publishers, 1992), and Unlock Your Success, a Comprehensive Guide for Starting a Successful Business (J & W Publishers, 2006). Dr. Daniels’ upcoming book, Organizational Leadership, published by SAGE Publications, will be available in January 2025 This textbook will offer a new and comprehensive approach to organizational leadership to address the paradigm shift in our global business community.
Connect with Dr. Daniels on LinkedIn.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from the Woodruff Arts Center at Fintech South. So excited to be here. So excited to be talking to my next guest, Loretta Daniels, who’s the interim executive director of TAG Education Collaborative. Welcome.
Loretta Daniels: Thank you for having me.
Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the TAG Education Collaborative.
Loretta Daniels: Well, we are the charity side of TAG and we focus on providing workforce solutions in the tech workforce.
Lee Kantor: So so what is the kind of the day to day entail when you’re trying to accomplish such a big goal like that?
Loretta Daniels: Yeah. What we do is we take a comprehensive approach. We we take a look at how do we help Georgians get into the tech workforce. And we have programs like the registered Tech Apprenticeship program. We are the first in the state of Georgia for that program. It allows minorities, veterans, women, individuals who may have had a degree in social science or business now to get into tech jobs. So we put them through training. We work with employers. They actually hire them. It’s different from an internship program. This is a program where they’re hired as an employee. We put them through training for positions like software developer or cybersecurity analyst, those kind of jobs.
Lee Kantor: Now, we’ve heard so much about kind of the talent challenges that companies are having in all aspects of the technology industry and the technology industry has, I would imagine, an unemployment rate of like negative because there’s a lot more demand than there is supply in that. Is TAG helping kind of build up that pipeline even at the earlier ages? You know, maybe even elementary, middle school, high school level, or is it just something for adults after they’ve graduated?
Loretta Daniels: Good question. We focus on let’s get them ready now. And so we will have an internship program that we do have this program. It really develops those high schoolers, those 11th graders and 12th graders who are looking to get into the workforce. Our internship program is designed to say, here, let’s get you into a tech world. Let’s, you know, have you take a look at different tech positions, careers so that you can be geared up to go there?
Lee Kantor: Now, is there any initiatives that are kind of you mentioned some opportunities for minorities? Is there any initiatives for women, minorities, people who are big consumers of technology but maybe not have kind of self-selected out of technology as a career path.
Loretta Daniels: Yeah, we do that. We have a mentorship program that focuses on mid-level individuals who may want to go into the tech space or want to be advanced into the tech areas and leadership programs, but that registered apprenticeship program is designed specifically for that. Let’s target those women who may not have thought they’d ever be in a tech position, but now they are.
Lee Kantor: And then is one of the challenges finding like enterprise level partnerships, is that one of the things that you, you work with to create that collaboration between the company that needs the talent and this, you know, aspiring talent?
Loretta Daniels: Yeah, that’s a great question. That’s one of the biggest challenges because so many companies, they have a need to develop this talent pipeline, but there’s just not going to be enough of graduates in tech degrees to fill these positions. So it’s really working with those employers to let them know that TAG is here to help them to have this unique way of filling these jobs. And so that’s what we do. The biggest challenge is just letting them know that they don’t have to rely on those who have graduated with a tech degree. We have to be more strategic. We have to be more creative on how do we fill this talent pipeline. And so the biggest challenge is educating these employers now.
Lee Kantor: Or is this something where the employers are working with universities or maybe TAGged to create like certifications or like customized education that’s going to serve their pipeline specifically? I’ve seen in other industries where enterprise level companies partner with a university or create their own certifications to kind of get that person ready for a job at that company. Like, they’re kind of growing their own talent pool.
Loretta Daniels: Yeah. Um, I have a higher education background And so that was one of the major areas that industry would come in and partner with KSU to create certifications and even to take a look at the curriculum to make sure it was, you know, relevant for what they’re looking for. But for TAG, we create certification certifications as well. We partner with Skill Storm for upskilling and reskilling degrees, especially not degrees but certifications in AI because of the AI workforce. But we also have our own leadership and workforce development certifications that we create.
Lee Kantor: And then an enterprise level organization can come to you and say, hey, we’re interested in this, and together you can create a curriculum that maybe helps them with their specific talent pool, but also gets that person a skill that that is marketable.
Loretta Daniels: Exactly. Like for instance, we have two programs that we’ve developed, Pathways to leadership. It helps with those leaders to be able to lead in technology, lead in the areas. And we designed the curriculum based on what our corporate members said they needed in leadership. We also have a succession planning for tech leaders, because one of the best strategies to, you know, keeping your profit margins where you need them to be is to have people ready to go into leadership positions. 25% of the companies in the United States have a succession plan. That means there’s another 75% that don’t have succession plans.
Lee Kantor: That’s shocking. Yeah. Now, um, so when you’re working with an organization, can you share a little bit about what that looks like? Do they come to you with, hey, we have this challenge, how do we build a curriculum or do they have that kind of baked in? They’re just looking for you to kind of identify the aspiring talent. Like, how does kind of what does that look like when you’re working with TAG?
Loretta Daniels: Yeah. So it’s a couple of different approaches. So when we created our leadership development program, the PTL, we did find out from them. What are you looking for in a leader so that we can add that curriculum. And what works very well is we have industry leaders coming in and teaching portions of the class so that they are all, you know, there’s buy in from them, right?
Lee Kantor: So everybody’s on the same page. Exactly. Now, are you finding that more and more corporations are open to these kind of untraditional ways to learn, like, are they okay with, oh, this person’s got a TAG certification? I’m okay with that. They don’t necessarily have, you know, the Georgia Tech degree.
Loretta Daniels: Yeah, I call that that that degree pedigree. Right, right. But so many companies are getting away from that. They’re they’re waiving the degree requirements. And that’s where our apprenticeship program comes in. So. Well because we identify those talents for them. Because all these companies, at some point they’re going to have to take a look at waiving the degree requirements, because there’s just not enough individuals graduating with tech degrees to fill these positions now.
Lee Kantor: Are you finding the applicants or the prospective employees? Are they open to this path? Like, are they like, oh, this is great. This is it’s almost like a cheat code, right? Like I’m not having to go through that degree, but I’m still getting kind of these key learnings that are going to make me marketable.
Loretta Daniels: Yeah, that is a great point. And here’s what happens. As a as a result of that, not only are they open to it, but employers are seeing a higher retention rate. So individuals who are coming in without a tech degree getting the certifications, their retention rate for these employers are 88% and higher.
Lee Kantor: Wow. So what do you need more of? How can we help you?
Loretta Daniels: Well, we need more employers to be welcome, you know, to welcome these strategies of having us help them to solve their workforce problems, create a tech talent pipeline. Um, that’s how you can help us get those employers coming to us.
Lee Kantor: So how does Fintech South play into all of this?
Loretta Daniels: Well, you know, because in Fintech South we have so many companies being represented. We even have people here looking for positions. And so, you know, just getting the word out and sharing with our sponsors, sharing with our attendees that um, TAG is about, you know, taking care of those tech workforce pipelines.
Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to connect with you or somebody on the team, what’s the coordinates?
Loretta Daniels: Just give me a call. You know, my email is Loretta at TAG online.org. And just ask for Doctor Loretta. And then.
Lee Kantor: Can they go to the website.
Loretta Daniels: TAG. They can always go to the website TAG online. It’s TAG ed online. Org and they can find us.
Lee Kantor: Well Loretta, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Loretta Daniels: Thanks for having.
Lee Kantor: Me. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back in a few. At Fintech South.
