HINSON: REPOSITION COMPANIES FOR GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
What the MBDA is focusing on is essentially creating an entire generation of substantial minority businesses across industry sectors. Businesses need to restructure themselves to position themselves to apply for and get the amounts of capital they need. On the contract side, it really entails creating the relationships and building the strategic partnerships that are necessary to compete for larger and more substantial contracts. Most of the great opportunities are in the private sector. We’re looking to improve the performance of minority-owned firms in the supply chain of substantial companies. On the government side, we’re looking to help minority-owned firms gain access to the relationships throughout the various channels of government so they are better positioned to compete for substantial contracts. It’s the larger contracts where the real economic value is. (See the full transcript of our exclusive interview.)
Inside MBDA, we’re creating an industry focus within key industries that we and the president believes are very important. We are aligning these firms together with the idea of taking those entrepreneurs who are interested in green technology, health care, IT and smart grid technology and looking to partner them with substantial companies that are already in those industries. We can create a sort of incubator and business relationship model so that firms have an easier path to gain these new and innovative technologies. We’re looking at those companies that have the management and capacity to actually get bigger work and work with them on an one-on-one basis so they can begin to gain access to the technologies first and the contracts that follow those technologies.
Full interviews of Locke, Wade, and Hinson will be available next week on BlackEnterprise.com and on the fall premiere of the Black Enterprise Business Report television show.
Derek T. Dingle is the editor-in-chief of Black Enterprise Magazine.