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April 21, 2005
Hub business boosters launch minority purchasing initiative
Yawu Miller
Since the year 2000 Census revealed that Boston’s
population is now more than 50 percent people of color, civic
leaders have increasingly cited the city’s diversity as
one of its assets.
Yet the multi-hued throngs seen on Boston streets fade to white
inside the boardrooms and corner offices of the city’s corporations
where people of color are few and far between.
An initiative unveiled last week is aiming to change that by helping
minority-owned businesses to grow their businesses and claim a
larger share of the business in the city. Called the Initiative
for a New Economy, the program was funded with a $1.3 million
grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and $100,000
grants from the city of Boston, The Boston Foundation and the
United Way of Massachusetts Bay.
The initiative will work on supplier development — the process
of building the capacity of small businesses to bid on large contracts.
The goal of the program, according to Mayor Thomas Menino, is
to make the city more inclusive.
“If we really want Boston to be inclusive, it must be in
board rooms, in government and in business,” Menino said.
“Boston is a minority-majority city. For this city to work,
everyone must be part of it.”
The approach outlined by the Initiative for a New Economy is new
for the city’s business community. In the post civil rights
era, black business assistance often meant goals and quotas that
encouraged companies and agencies to do a certain volume of business
with minorities.
While many minority businesses benefitted from those programs,
businesses pulled back from such efforts in the ’90s when
the business climate became more competitive. At the same time,
governmental programs came under attack from Republicans and conservative
activists. Many government set-aside programs that channeled contracts
to minority suppliers were cut in response to legal challenges.
The approach favored by the INE is to build the capacity of minority-owned
businesses so they can compete with larger white-owned firms.
Minority business owners will not only be coached on the bidding
process, but also receive help strengthening their balance sheets
by helping them obtain financing.
The program will also work with corporations to help them institute
minority business programs.
Because the city’s people of color are gaining an increasing
share of the population, it is crucial for those communities to
have a share of the business generated here, said Gail Snowden,
a vice president at The Boston Foundation.
“The growth of the city’s business sector will come
in a large part from minorities,” she said.
Black business owners at the meeting expressed support for the
initiative.
“As advocates for black business, we are happy to support
this initiative with its focus on the critical issue of capacity
building for businesses of color that can meet the needs of today’s
marketplace,” said Shelley Webster, chairwoman of the Burroughs
Group, a consortium of black Boston area businesses.
The idea for INE came out of the Business Collaborative, a nonprofit
business group of major corporations and minority entrepreneurs,
which in 1993 commissioned a study of the business environment
for minority enterprises in Massachusetts.
The study’s chief recommendation was for local corporations
to embrace supplier development. INE was formed to implement that
strategy.
According to the study there are approximately 60,000 businesses
of color in Massachusetts. Only 6,000 have the capacity to bid
on supply and service contracts with local corporations. The study
found that minority businesses have grown by approximately 9.3
percent per year, more than five times the rate of all corporations
in Massachusetts.
But the minority business owners polled in the study said the
climate for doing business in Massachusetts has not significantly
improved in the past decade. Corporate leaders present at last
week’s announcement said they were committed to changing
the business climate for minority businesses.
Among those present were Paul Guzzi, president and CEO of the
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Paul Grogan, president and
CEO of the Boston Foundation and Bill Van Faasen, executive chairman
and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield.
“If you look at who’s at the table, there are some
very strong players,” noted Karl Nurse of Nurse Communications.
“Based on their track records you can imagine what they
can accomplish.”
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