Meet Kevin Burch | Technology Founder & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Burch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
As I approached an important milestone in my life, I begin reflecting on my next chapter as well as my epilogue. Key considerations were independence to be as I choose, building a lasting legacy and most important, having a meaningful impact with citizens from underserved communities locally and abroad. With close to 20 years of experience as an Information Technology leader at Fortune 500, consulting and workforce development companies, I have a well informed perspective about tech talent as my experiences have included recruiting, hiring, mentoring, managing, coaching and sponsoring associates through their career journey. Additionally, over the years, I have built a network of leaders and partners, that would benefit from a pipeline of capable resources who would help them implement solutions to grow and optimize their businesses. The result is BCivilized Solutions, which is a talent enablement and optimization consultancy that creates pathways for entrepreneurs and aspiring technologist to join and thrive in the evolving digital economy.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
BCivilized Solutions is a talent enablement and optimization consultancy that creates pathways for entrepreneurs and aspiring technologist to join and thrive in the evolving digital economy. We are also keen to help individuals from underserved groups to pursue family sustaining careers.

We approach our work with one guiding principle: Be civilized; socially collaborative, culturally aware, community engage, and most importantly – with integrity and respect

Our services include Business Development were we drive go to market and programming for stakeholders seeking to build a pipeline of underserved talent for internships, apprenticeships and entry level roles; Partner Alliances where through strategic relationship we can help organizations expand their capability, brand equity and new business results; Workforce Optimization, where as a Salesforce Workforce Development Partner and Cisco Systems Network Academy, we provide training and upskilling for developers and consultants and finally our Trusted Advisement, where we provide thought leadership on workforce development, strategy, industry trends, best practices, curriculum development and brand management

We are expanding our business development reach into West Africa in 2024 with a focus to amplify African Salesforce Consulting Partners as viable offshore development and support centers for US and Caribbean based companies. Capabilities will include Financial Services, Commerce, Sales, Service and commercial real estate.

What excites me most about founding BCivilized is it allows me to bring my full experiences to work everyday. My 30 years in IT ran the gamut from software engineering, cloud computing, business process improvement, strategy, mergers and acquisition, integration, global execution, community engagement, training, people development, problem solving, customer relationship and digital inclusion. In my role as CEO of the firm I can pull from any of the aforementioned competencies during the course of a given day.

The first year has not come without it’s challenges. Early on I was not consistent with how I articulated my brand promise and value proposition to prospective clients. It felt that I was “winging it” during every conversation. I even went into some proposals without a clear line of sight for how the buyer was going to pay for my services. As a result, I took a step back, evaluated those learnings and documented a repeatable and scalable framework, which has standardized my outreach and significantly refined my client and partner engagements.

There are many lessons that I have learned to date, however, three of the most important realizations has been that you must define meaningful KPIs, evaluate quarterly based on those KPIs and ask for feedback from all stakeholders, Therein lies the truth.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Day 1. Breakfast in my courtyard in Hollywood Lakes Drive A1A from Fort Lauderdale (Las Olas to Palm Beach)
Lunch at Bice Ristorante Palm Beach
Shopping on Worth Avenue
Happy Hour and Dinner at 50 Ocean Delray Beach

Day 2. Drive A1A to Miami Beach
Breakfast at Cecconi’s (Soho Beach house)
Shopping Bal Harbour
Spa/lunch at Setai
Lincoln Road for stroll people watch
Dinner Prime 112

Day 3. Drive to Design District
Breakfast in Dior Cafe Miami
Shop in Design District
lunch Sugarcane
Walk around Wynwood
Dinner Sexy Fish
Ball & Chain drinks, live music

Day 4. Drive to Coconut Grove
Breakfast at Greenstreet Cafe
Walk around Coconut Grove
Visit Viscaya
Lunch at Jackson Soul Food
Day spa at Fountainblu
Dinner at Hakkasan

Day 5. Smoothie for breakfast
Drive to Overtown.
Lunch at Red Rooster
Visit Lyric theater
Visit Hampton House
Drive to Allapatah and visit Rubell Gallery
Early dinner at Home Town BBQ
Wynwood bars and walking

Day 6. Drive to Sawgrass Mall
Visit outside stores
Drive back to Fort Lauderdale Beach
Lunch at Eddy Vs on Las Olas
Dinner, Gambling at the HardRock

Day 7.
Drive to Coral Gables
Brunch at the Biltmore
Head to the airport….

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My late Mom (Clarice Burch) who inspired me to “give” My wife, Audra Burch, who supported my decision to pursue my dream

Website: https://www.bcivilized-solutions.com/

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kevin-burch-a04b1a38