August 29, 2011

The mission of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council is to significantly increase business relationships between our corporate members and our certified MBEs. We believe that minority business development is a key component of reducing poverty, unemployment, increasing wealth, and integrating American society. You are receiving this email in order to keep you abreast of developments with the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Supplier Diversity Issues and Minority Business Development. If you like what you read please share internally and externally.

Don Southerton to Speak at GNEMSDC Expo

Don

Don Southerton, CEO and President, Bridging Culture Worldwide.

Bridging Culture Worldwide CEO Don Southerton is an author, advisor, consultant, marketing strategist, researcher, and coach for many of the top Korean-based corporations with global business, along with major western firms that have ventures in Korea and Asia Pacific.

Since its founding, Bridging Culture Worldwide (BCW) has focused on global and Korea-related business services. Based on over 3 decades of experience, they share cross-cultural insights to global teams and management. Bridging Culture Worldwide core services include: Consulting, Strategy, and Research; Publications; along with Franchise and Licensing Development, Product Launch, IP, and Trademark.

How to Register GNEMSDC Expo 2011 Online

Some of the recent technology we have introduced is designed to make it easier for corporate members and certified MBEs to participate in GNEMSDC events and activities. Even if you have not confirmed your plans for the GNEMSDC Expo, you should still follow the instructions below so that we can better serve you in the future.

In order to register for the GNEMSDC Expo you will need to register with the GNEMSDC site (you only need to do this once, If you already have a log-in skip to #6 )

1. You can do that by going to www.gnemsdc.org and click on "log-in" on the top right hand side

2. It will take you to a new page where you will see;


a. New User

b. If you are a new user, to access corporate member/MBE applications, or to register for an event, you must create an online user account [Request Login]

3. Click on Request Login

4. Fill out the information requested and Click on Submit.

5. You will receive an email from Greater New England MSDC, subject GNEMSDC User Registration, open it and click on the "Please Click Here" to confirm your email address.

6. Once you have established a log-in please email tparedes@gnemsdc.org to let me know when you create the log-in so I can change your status from Registered user to Corporate Member or MBE.

7. Once you receive an email from Tatiana stating that I have changed your ID, you will be able to log in and see your company profile and toward the bottom you will see "My Events" and under that you will see - Are you interested in registering for one of our events? Go to our events page. Click on "events page" and you will see the expo information, from there you will see the price for attending the expo, exhibiting and sponsoring.


**Annual Sponsors- you do not need to register for the expo, we already have you registered.

We look forward to seeing you at the Business Opportunity Conference & Fair**


***Volunteer opportunity available - Contact Volunteer Coordinator (before August 31)***


If you have questions about the portal's features or are having problems, please give Tatiana a call, 203-288-9744.

Preparing for the GNEMSDC Expo - Corporate Members & MBEs

Please review this document below that outlines some key changes in the 2011 GNEMSDC Business Opportunity Fair and Expo. This information will assist you to make the most out of your Expo experience.

Understanding the 2011 GNEMSDC Trade Expo


To take a look of the updated list of Expo Exhibitors click on the link below. We have only a limited amount of booths left. If you are interested in purchasing a booth, we encourage you to call the office today. Each of the last three years all of the booth space was sold out.

2011 Trade Expo Exhibitors List

Mobility Services International Becomes GNEMSDC Corporate Member

MSI 2On behalf of the GNEMSDC Board of Directors, I want to welcome the Mobility Services International as a new corporate member of the GNEMSDC.

"Since 1981, Mobility Services International (MSI) has successfully delivered a complete range of corporate relocation services throughout the US and in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. MSI's success is based on core competencies in strategic planning, mobility finance management, applied technologies, process engineering and supply chain management. MSI clients are assured of: controlled costs, guaranteed service quality and employee satisfaction,

streamlined processes and reduced administration and dependable data for international

accountability and planning.

MSI offers clients the ability to design and develop a customized corporate relocation program based on your specific needs and requirements."


U.S. Relocation Services

  • Strategic Services
  • Program Administration
  • Pre-Decision Services
  • Home Selling Programs
  • Home Marketing Assistance
  • Inventory Management
  • Home Purchase Assistance
  • Temporary Housing Assistance
  • Rental Assistance
  • Mortgage Services
  • Property Management Assistance
  • Household Goods Management
  • Relocation Expense Management

UTC Supplier Diversity manager, Adriene Bruce

KJMOn behalf of the entire GNEMSDC network, I welcome Adriene Bruce to New England, UTC and to the GNEMSDC Board. Ms. Bruce was most recently the supplier diversity manager at Ameren in St. Louis. There she served on the St. Louis MSDC board and was instrumental in making Ameren one the best places for MBEs to do business with in the St. Louis area. While at Ameren from 2006 to 2010, Ameren's MBE spend increased by over 80 percent.

"Leading and accountable for advancing UTC's commitment to supplier corporate responsibility by setting and achieving company's operations' roadmap goals. This includes developing, recommending, implementing, managing and leading all aspects of an integrated corporate supplier responsibiity strategy and related programs. I work closely with divisional and cross-functional leaders in Supply Management, Supplier Diversity, and Environmental, Health and Safety. Key programs include: Supplier Diversity, Supplier Environmental Health & Safety and Supplier Code of Conduct. Responsibilities include: leading the company's corporate supplier responsibility strategy and governance; designing the company's supplier corporate responsibility inititiatives and fostering best practices. I drive and deliver the company's integrated supplier corporate responsbility strategy with demonstrable and measurable results; work closely with supply management and operations senior executives to provide resources and tools in support of key objectives, intitiatives, and action plans. I also work with various internal councils and commodity managers to ensure the implementation of strategy and processes drive an integrated supplier corporate responsibility program; and develop and enhance web-based company-wide supplier corporate responsbility training to ensure cross-functional awareness. I ensure a strong focus is on Supplier Diversity targets and measurements to achieve internal and external goals and targets. Lastly, I work with various external organizations such as the NMSDC, WBENC, and the US Department of Commerce's MBDA to ensure UTC is attaining it's supplier diversity goals and targets. "

Welcome Adreien. We look forward to working closely with you in your new role at United Technologies Corporateion.

NMSDC/GNEMSDC Upcoming Events, Activities and Information

Please take a close look at the events listed below. The links will take you to detailed information about the events. We will have more information for those events that do not currently have live links, but please mark your calendars and call the office.


Events and Activities:

  • Dr Fred will be appearing on the "Mind your Own Business" Radio Show this week. The show provides advice, information and connections for entrepreneurs, service providers and established companies. Tune into MYOB this Tuesday between 2-3 PM to hear my segment!

    Local Stations:

    WBNW 1120 AM - Needham, MA, WPLM 1390 AM - Plymouth, MA, WESO 970 AM - Southbridge, MA or stream online @ MYOBTheRadioShow.com

  • Roxbury Technology Open House on Sept 09, 8 am to 10 am.
  • Education Committee/NFIB joint event with UConn on Sept 14th, 1:00 to 3:30 pm. Edmund & Arlene Grossman Auditorium UConn Health Center, 400 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06032
  • SDP FY 2012 Annual Kick off & Networking Event, Sept 20
  • 6TH Annual Minority Enterprise Development Week Conference (MED Week) on September 23,
  • NMSDC Conference and Business Opportunity Fair at Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta Georgia on October 30 - November 2.

Information:

Opportunities with Corporate Members

If you are a corporate member, and want the Council to spread the word about your opportunity we would be happy to do that for you anonymously and for free!

And Finally...

Fred in ohio

Like most people on the East Coast, I spent this weekend hunkered down watching and listening to 24 hour weather reports and trying to catch up on some reading. I recently was able to finish two books and I am halfway through a third book. All three books are well written and very informative and I think could make up the reading list for a short course on African American history.


The first book I finished recently was Eugene Robinson's Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America. This book picks up on the work of sociologists like Julius Wilson and others who argue that with integration, African Americans with resources, talent and opportunity were able to grow economically while those without were left behind, creating the "underclass". Wilson's term for this was "the declining significance of race". Robinson argues in his book that Blacks in America now compose four distinct groups; the "transcendent", the "mainstream", the "emergent" and the "abandoned". The transcendent include the likes of African American business, political, entertainment and thought leaders. Fifty years ago having an African American President of American Express or other Fortune 500 companies was impossible, let alone an African American President of the United States.


The mainstream are those African Americans who have benefited from access to higher education and opportunities in a less outwardly discriminatory environment. The numbers in the mainstream have grown dramatically since the Civil Rights era. The emergent are the growing number of blacks from Africa and the Caribbean who bring the typical entrepreneurial mind set that other immigrants in the past brought with them. (More on this later in the third book.) And finally, there are the abandoned. These are those who are seemingly stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty, inferior public education, lack of access, and hopelessness. Robinson calls for a rethinking of the problem of race based on these changing realities.


The second book, Jefferson's Pillow by Roger Wilkins, a historian and nephew of former NAACP president Roy Wilkins, is a book on the four most important Founding Fathers from Virginia, Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Mason, and their personal dependence on slavery and the contradictions between their public pronouncements on independence and freedom and their own active participation in the "peculiar" system as slave owning elites. Wilkins avoids judging these Founding Fathers using the morality of today, but demonstrates how the institution of slavery was inconsistent even with the words in the founding documents of the nation and eventually would lead to the Civil War.

The third book, The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson ties the two preceding books together very nicely, by demonstrating that slavery had long term consequences that are still being felt today. In this book, Wilkerson follows the largest internal migration in U.S. history from 1917 to 1975 where over 6 million African Americans picked up stakes and left the South and came North.


It is important to know the historical context of minority business development. Our evolution as a nation is not yet complete. We all have work to do to make the beautiful words of Jefferson, Mason and Madison a reality.


In your service,

Dr. Fred