Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1169853
www.negociosnow.com October 2019 15 SPECIAL EDITION By David Steinkraus I f someone had told the younger Jackie what I was going to be doing 10, 15 years later, I never would have believed them," said Jackie Puente. She has a high-profile posi- tion as executive director of external affairs for Comcast NBCUniversal Telemundo, and she is an almost-fluent speaker of Russian, which came in handy during the company's broadcast of the Sochi Olympics. She went to American Uni- versity in Washington, D.C., studied international econo- mics, spent a year studying in Moscow and worked in the U.S. Treasury Department after graduation. Then she worked in the nonprofit world before being hired by Comcast — which had just acquired NBCUniversal — to help enhance the company's partnerships with communi- ty organizations. Her role in external affairs touches many parts of the company's relations- hip with the Hispanic com- munity. Every day, she and her supplier diversity team are trying to engage and elevate Hispanic-owned businesses in some way, she said. Comcast spends several billion dollars a year for Telemundo, cable ope- rations, and NBCUniversal, and has a huge number of vendors, she said. What Hispanic busines- ses need is not very diffe- rent from what any busi- ness needs, she said. They need people who perse- vere, who think about a whole market and don't restrict themselves. Given the demographics of the Hispanic community, it's worthwhile to think about networks and relationships that will introduce you to people who may be outside of your view, she said. She works with people whom she developed rela- tionships with over several years, she said. These people were turned down but kept coming back as their com- panies grew. In business you need that flexibility to deve- lop partnerships, networks and different supply chain arrangements in order to be part of a larger enterprise solution, she said. "It's not giving up, not taking the first ten noes, hundred noes, thou- sand noes to heart, but to keep building and to keep growing," Puente said. During her work she became passionate about technology and the lack of access for various groups of people. Part of her job at Comcast now includes digital privacy, security and literacy. Her work covers Comcast's Internet Essen- tials program that provides high-speed access to lower- income people. Digital lite- racy education is built into this, she said, such as how to access news from relia- ble sources, how to find a job and how to enroll chil- dren in school programs. The young Hispanic population has a certain savviness about technology hardware, she said. (With a median age of 28, Hispa- nics comprise the youngest of the country's large racial and ethnic groups.) Yet the- re is a question whether everyone uses technology tools in the best way — for example, to get premium access to education and health care, or to expand a business online, she said. More broadly, she said, many people are willing to surrender personal infor- mation in exchange for free services. For a Hispanic business, or any beginning small business, that "free- mium" model is tempting because it's easy and cheap. "We're having this con- versation (with people) where, if you're not paying for the product, very likely you are the product," Puen- te said. "At the end of the day, the companies benefit off of your data. And how are you capturing either what you're giving away or what's being captured about you?" Jackie Puente Helping people learn the digital world