ADE Consulting specializes in diversity
ADE Consulting Services, Inc., a St. Louis-based management consulting firm, has been playing a key role in the region’s efforts to create a more inclusive and equitable environment for minorities and women.
Walle Amusa, civil rights activist and organizer, founded the company more than 10 years ago as a consulting firm. The firm focuses on three major areas: business/workforce diversity, public education and issues advocacy.
“We focus on the hard social issues, and diversity is one of them,” says Amusa.
“Diversity is a permanent aspect of our lives. We live in the most culturally diverse nation in the world. This is both a difficult challenge and a potential source of great strength for communities. When diversity works, it is beautiful.”
In the areas of business and workforce diversity, ADE Consulting Services has worked on numerous construction projects in Missouri. Primarily, its work in the construction field focuses on the region’s prevailing standard of 25 percent MBE and 5 percent WBE participation on construction projects.
“Diversity works only when there is equity,” Amusa said.
“Equity comes only from a sustained commitment to the full and all-rounded development of human cognitive capabilities and a sustained commitment to match women and minorities with opportunities in the private and public sectors of the regional economy.”
The company works with public and private sector clients and minority/women-owned firms to help meet or exceed goals and provide assistance to M/WBE firms. Its workforce diversity efforts focus on recruitment, placement and retention services for minorities and women interested in construction.
“Regional economies are the basic units of competition in the global economy. Our region cannot effectively compete when significant portions of its human cognitive capital remain underdeveloped and underutilized,” Amusa said.
“As a company, we know how to make diversity work for stakeholders. Essentially, we use a non-antagonistic and data-driven process of strategic planning, training, implementation, evaluation and correction to help move clients and our region beyond disparity.”
The firm’s work in public education focuses mainly on bridging the educational leadership gap. Student underachievement is a direct consequence of the leadership gaps that prevail at various levels of the educational process, according to Amusa.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to provide strategic solutions to the difficult social and economic issues of our times,” Amusa said.
“Our primary objective is to help our region in successfully tackling the issue of equity in business, employment and education.”
