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I'M READY TO PLAY,
COACH!
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WITH THE
HELP OF MENTORS, MINORITY BUSINESS ARE GETTING INTO THE GAME.
BY WILLIAM POE
When many of us were in college or trying to settle into that first
career job, there was someone a little older and wiser who took
us under his or her wing and showed us the way. That person may
have been an upper classman, a professor, a co-worker, or even a
boss. And, without that caring tutelage, who knows what may have
come of us?
Well, the St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative is formalizing
that informal coaching process to promote the formation and long-term
success of certain Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs). The process
is called mentoring, and it matches experienced corporate leaders
with selected individuals running MBEs.
“Our objective is to help with the growth of minority businesses
in the St. Louis area,” says James Webb, president of the St. Louis
Minority Business Council, which nurtured the mentoring program
and is launching it in conjunction with the St. Louis Business Diversity
Initiative. “We know that this concept works.”
The initiative formed in 2000 by five area civic organizations,
is a collaborative effort of more than 100 area businesses that
are committed to developing a more racially diverse workforce and
supplier base. For the initiative’s purposes, a minority is a racial
or ethnic minority, and minority businesses are defined as firms
or companies that are at least 51 percent owned, managed or controlled
by racial or ethnic minorities.
“We
want each mentoring program to result in a business
relationship between the mentoring company and the
protégé MBE.”
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James
Webb
president,
St. Louis Minority Business Council
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The mentoring component, Webb says, is designed to initiate active
relationships between an MBE and a sponsoring company. Webb puts
the emphasis on “active.”
“We want each mentoring program to result in a business relationship
between the mentoring company and the protégé MBE,” says Webb, who
once operated his own minority business enterprise. “We’re trying
to match a sponsoring partner with a minority business partner.”
Although the mentoring program is still in the pilot stage in which
eight to 12 MBE protégées may participate in the program this year,
it has already had some notable successes. Just ask Annetta Vickers.
Vickers was the first to participate in the mentoring program (“I’m
the guinea pig,” she says.) and has a lot to show for it. As president
and CEO of T.A.B., Inc., Vickers runs a successful industrial and
office supply distribution business, and meets once a month with
Ed Keith, a retired Graybar Electric Co. executive, who serves as
her mentor.
“We’re
sending products all over the country for Enterprise.
We are serving 350 locations, and there is still room
for growth.”
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Annetta
Vickers
president and CEO,
T.A.B., Inc.
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“He’s helping me focus on how I can grow and develop as a better
distributor,” says Vickers, 44, who founded her company in 1998.
And grow she has. T.A.B. currently operates a 10,000-square-foot
warehouse with three full-time and four part-time employees and
is now looking to add a second 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Collinsville
and a 20,000-square-foot building in the City of St. Louis.
Vickers says she initially got involved with Graybar because T.A.B.
was purchasing electrical products from the larger company and “we
were looking to them to buy some products from us.” Graybar eventually
teamed up with T.A.B, says Karen Burkart, manager of MBE development
for Graybar.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Vickers adds, has also been unofficially
mentoring her and has grown into a $350,000 per year customer.
“We’re sending products all over the country for Enterprise,” Vickers
says. “We are serving 350 locations, and there is still room for
growth.”
Ivan James is an MBE owner who will begin the mentoring program
this spring. James, 60, heads Ivan James & Associates and a second
company, United Technologies and Systems, both of which are product
distributors. The companies employ nine full-time workers at a 30,000-square-foot
warehouse on the city’s south side.
The mentoring program, says James, will help him “win larger contracts,
establish a stronger financial base and, more importantly, grow
our company.”
Webb notes that St. Louis-area MBEs have lots of room for growth.
“Compared to other large cities, St. Louis ranks near the bottom
in terms of large minority companies,” Webb says. “We have lots
of small MBEs and a few large ones, but we have very few in the
middle.”
The mentoring program here is modeled on similar MBE vendor programs
sponsored by companies such as Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble and
the Big Three automakers.
“We want large companies to purchase from MBEs, and we want to spur
development of second-tier relationships whereby large MBE vendors,
in turn, purchase from other MBEs,” Webb says. “MBEs are an important
part of the total economic development picture and tend to hire
minorities. They are vital to the region.”
“We
work hard to ensure that the composition of our workforce
and suppliers reflects the community in which we do
business. It’s good for us, and it helps us get
more business.”
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Steve
Adams
vice president and general manager,
Enterprise’s St. Louis rental car operations
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And they are good for business. Steve Adams, vice president and
general manager for Enterprise’s St. Louis rental car operations,
serves as a mentor for Enterprise employees and says that, “We work
hard to ensure that the composition of our workforce and suppliers
reflects the community in which we do business. It’s good for us,
and it helps us get more business.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis
advertising and marketing communications firm.
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