The St. Louis Minority Supplier Diversity Council recently “stepped away” from its national affiliate because of a difference in how they serve minority business enterprises (MBEs), said James Webb, president and CEO of the council.
“The national affiliation wants to focus on larger MBEs who have a national and international scope,” he said, “and our focus is on local and regional MBEs.”
The national organization – the National Minority Supplier Development Council – provided about 10 percent of the local council’s $1 million budget, and the rest was covered by local corporations, he said. Now these local corporations will fund the council completely.
St. Louis’ 40-year-old council provides financial support, and training and education for its corporate members and MBEs.
“We will continue without the national affiliation because we are a St. Louis-based and St. Louis-focused organization,” he said.
Despite this, the council recently made a move to push its members towards national opportunities.
On Nov. 26, Webb announced that the council is now working with the Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council (CMSDC) to help local MBEs compete on a “global scale.”
The Chicago council received a $900,000 grant to operate a federal business center at the St. Louis Minority Supplier Diversity Council for three years. The federal Minority Business Development Agency’s business center will assist minority entrepreneurs and business owners with consulting services, contract and financing opportunities, bonding services, building business-to-business alliances and executive training.
St. Louis was one of six cities selected to receive the federal grant, and Webb said all of that money will be spent in St. Louis, though the money is funneled through the Chicago council. Webb said the federal program will give local MBEs the support they need to land national opportunities.
The council chose Chicago as a partner because they have been successful in working with the federal government, he said.
“Partnering with the Chicago MSDC helps us to grow the reach of MBEs in St. Louis faster and create more jobs to help our region prosper, while expanding various programs,” Webb said. “By helping our MBEs we also address the issue of employment. Our collective MBEs currently hire 10,000 people.”
Chicago’s council is also headed by St. Louis-native Sheila Morgan, who is sensitive to the local MBE marketplace, Webb said.
“Our goals with this grant are to create and retain jobs and award contracts to St. Louis-based minority businesses,” said Morgan, president and CEO of Chicago MSDC.
Minority Business Development Agency is the only federal agency created specifically to foster full participation of MBEs in the national economy, said David A. Hinson, national director of the agency.
“This new center in St. Louis will expand the number of front-line business experts we have providing strategic consulting services to minority-owned businesses to help grow both the local and the U.S. economy,” Hinson said.
Regarding the council’s new independence from the national affiliate, Webb insists that 98 percent of the St. Louis council’s members will not be affected because “they are MBEs doing local and regional work.” For those who are doing national work, they may align with the national affiliate through the Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council in Indianapolis. The national council links 3,500 corporate members and 16,000 MBEs nationwide.
Webb said the council is still aiming to reach its Billion Dollar Impact goal, a program which connects MBEs to corporations in St. Louis to generate more than a billion dollars in additional MBE spending by July 2014.
He believes the new federal business center will help them do that.
He said, “Those are federal dollars that will help support the growth of our minority businesses.”
