| GNEMSDC Advanced Leadership Program (GALP) |
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We are pleased to announce the start of an exciting new program, the GNEMSDC Advanced Leadership Program (GALP). The program consists of 5 full-day sessions led by outstanding business professors and writers. The professors in this program represent the best executive educators in the world, and are from the top business schools in the world. The GALP faculty includes, Steven Rogers of the Harvard Business School, Len Greenhalgh of the Tuck School of Management, Olav Sorensen of Yale School of Management, and Jeffrey Fox, best-selling author of "
How to Become a Rainmaker" and other top selling business books.
At lunch during each day of the program, we will have corporate CEOs and other C-Level executives speak to the program participants. The CEO faculty include Anne Noble, President and CEO of the CT Lottery, Kevin Kelleher, President and CEO of Cartus, William Jennings, President and CEO of Bridgeport Hospital, Rodney Powell, President and COO of Yankee Gas, Carlton Highsmith, Retired Chairman of Specialized Packaging Group and Joseph Black, Chief Procurement Officer of Aetna. The program begins on Friday October 4, 2013 and ending on Friday, November 8. (There will be no class on November 1 because of the NMSDC conference.)
The program is geared to the owner/entrepreneurs of firms with $10 million in annual sales or more who are looking to significantly grow their business's top and bottom lines. Participants will not only experience the wisdom of the assembled professors, participants will benefit greatly by learning from the other high powered MBE owners in attendance. Space is limited to 25 MBEs. Think of the value of simply making the connections that being part of this program can do for your business; that alone is worth the investment of your time and resources.
Participants will receive a certificate signed by all professors in the program. This will be a valuable reminder of the time invested in this innovative program. Program Details CALL TODAY! |
Olav Sorenson - GALP Professor - Strategy and Positioning
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Professor Olav Sorenson is the Frederick Frank '54 and Mary C. Tanner Chair Professor of Management at the Yale School of Management. Professor Sorenson is leading off the GNEMSDC Advanced Leadership Program on Friday, October 4 at the GNEMSDC offices in Bridgeport, CT. Professor Sorenson will talk about the importance of marketing positioning as a strategy for success. This topic is very important for MBEs who are trying to become "top of mind" for corporate procurement executives. How many of our readers started their companies with a good idea based on a variation of someone else's great idea. This might get you some success, but it will not help you make profits that can sustain you. Strategy and positioning is all about how you fit in the market in ways that help you maximize your goals. This session is the first of five in the series.
Professor Sorenson has taught at UCLA School of Management, the University of Chicago School of Management and the London School of Economics.
 Also speaking at lunch that day is Rodney Powell, Chief Operating Officer and President at Yankee Gas, a Northeast Utilities company. Mr. Powell will tie into the discussion of strategy and positioning and talk about the risks of not implementing bold strategies.
There are a limited number of seats left. For any MBE interested in attending this day long, high-level meeting, please call the office for details. You should not miss this opportunity in your professional development!
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GNEMSDC Business Opportunity Trade Expo: September 24-25
On Line Registration NOW OPEN!
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Business Opportunity Trade Expo is on September 24-25 , Hartford Convention Center, 100 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, Connecticut 06103.
Click to REGISTER ON-LINE TODAY!
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| Exciting Changes in GNEMSDC Business Opportunity Trade Expo |
 The GNEMSDC Business Opportunity Trade Expo has been a tremendous success for a long time. So why change? Because change can be good. We are looking to make a major change in the Trade Expo this year. For so long we have told anyone who will listen, that the business case for supplier diversity is determined by connecting corporate supplier diversity efforts to top-line sales and business development efforts. So for the first time in our Expo's history, we are inviting corporations to bring their small business development teams to exhibit on our trade show floor, under certain conditions.
The conditions are these:
1) A corporate sales group can exhibit if they are corporate members of the NMSDC/GNEMSDC; and
2) A corporate sales group can exhibit if they also have a booth for their buying/supplier diversity group. The corporate members must have two booths one for buying and one for selling.
I believe that our corporate members have goods and services that can help our MBEs become more profitable and efficient. But more than this, I believe that having corporate business development teams at the Expo will open up opportunities for MBEs with this important part of the house. Additionally, having corporate business development teams solidifies the relationship between the corporate buy side of the house to the sell side of the house. I believe strengthening these relationships helps MBEs by strengthening the position of supplier diversity teams within the corporation.
So this is an invitation to our corporate members to encourage their business development teams to exhibit at the show. I recommend - I strongly recommend - that corporations considering bringing their business development teams use this as an opportunity to highlight how existing MBEs are part of their sales efforts. Highlighting MBE participation in their supply chain would be my recommendation to any corporate member who takes up on this new aspect of our show. This is going to be exciting!
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One on One Session September 24 at the Expo
Technology and New Buying Organizations bring New Excitement! |
This year we are attempting to improve on our very successful One-on-One meetings between MBEs and corporate buyers. Last year we arranged over 1,000 meetings between buyers and MBEs. This year are attempting to significantly increase the number of meetings between MBEs and the buying community. We are introducing a web based appointment application that both our buyers and sellers can use to more efficiently plan and schedule their time at the event. The program will go live after Labor Day.
Here are some of the basics to expect from this technology solution:
1) Registered Buyers will be able to manage their own appointments. This is a demand driven system. Buyers can state in the program the types of goods and services they are interested in and want to see.
2) Registered Buyers will be able to see which MBEs want to see them and approve meeting times for the MBEs they want to see and put others on a waiting list.
3) Registered MBEs will be able to see what buyers are participating in the One-on-One sessions and what they are looking for.
4) Registered MBEs can request meetings with specific buyers/companies.
5) In order for MBEs and Buyers to participate in this One-on-One program they must be registered
for the Expo.
6) In order for MBEs and Buyers to see who is participating in the program they must be registered
in the Expo.
Over 50 GNEMSDC/NMSDC corporate members participated in One-on-One program last year. This year we will exceed this number significantly because we are partnering with the U.S. Department of Defense. The DOD's One-on-One program that has been very successful over the past few years, but did not occur this year. So we have invited their primes to participate in our event this year. We are looking forward to bringing these buying organizations to our event to meet with our MBEs during the One-on-One program, Tuesday, September 24 at the Connecticut Convention Center. This public-private partnership to increase MBE opportunities is unique and exciting.
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Upcoming Events
2013 GNEMSDC Business Opportunity Expo
September 24-25 at Connecticut Convention Center, Hartford, CT
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There are several events coming up on our calendar that are designed specifically for MBEs to learn about corporate opportunities. We know how busy everyone's schedule is, but these are events often hosted by our corporate members with the expressed purpose of finding out more about you and your business with the ultimate aim, to make you a valuable supplier to their companies. Here are some events you should consider:
- September 6 - How to Do Business with National Grid - Additional Information and Registration. SOLD OUT!
- September 10 8:30 - 5:00 SBA Workshop - Government Contract Negotiations at the Boston SBA office register at http://sbaworkshops.stoverteam.com
- September 24-25, GNEMSDC Business Opportunity Expo, Hartford Convention Center, 100 Columbus Boulevard, Hartford, Connecticut 06103
- September 26 6:00-11:00pm Ritmos de Salud - a cultural performance to benefit Joslin's Latino diabetes initiative Additional Information
- October 2 12:00pm - 1:30pm Diversity and Inclusion Professionals Second Annual Awards Luncheon at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, RI Register Here
- October 4 - Promising Scholars Golf Classic Laurel View Country Club, Hamden, CT (to benefit inner city New Haven high school graduates matriculating into 4-year colleges and universities.)
- October 4 - RIBBA Annual Awards Gala with keynote speaker Dr. Randal Pinkett for additional information contact Liz Oliveira at events@ri-bba.com or 508-989-7434
- October 23 - 5:30-7:30 Celebrating Diversity in the Greater Bridgeport Business Community at People's United Bank Lobby. (850 Main St. Bridgeport) October 27-30, - NMSDC Business Opportunity Fair and Conference, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX Registration Brochure
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| GNEMSDC MBE Pre-Certification Webinar |
 September 3, 2013 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
This FREE Education seminar is open to applicants interested in becoming a certified Minority Business Enterprise via the NMSDC/GNEMSDC Certification Process. This session is held via an online webinar call.
Please email Jennifer Little-Greer jlittle-greer@gnemsdc.org to register and receive the Call Meeting Details. The registration for the call will close at 1:00 pm on the day of the call.
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Connecticut Celebrates Women Entrepreneurs
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September 20, 8:30 am to 2 pm. at UCONN Stamford Campus, Stamford, Connecticut.
This conference brings together women entrepreneurs throughout Connecticut and provides an opportunity to network with each other, showcase their ventures and participate in a variety of educational workshops to help take their businesses to the next level. Workshop topics include: funding and planning for your business, marketing and social media as well as attaining life/work balance. In addition, participants can learn about the resources offered by the State of Connecticut to support women entrepreneurs and how to leverage the advantages that women and minority-owned businesses have in today's marketplace. The conference also features lunch with keynote speaker Cindi Bigelow, President and CEO of Bigelow Tea, for an additional cost.
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Dr. Fred to be Honored by Gateway Community College - September 28
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 Dr. Fred McKinney will be inducted into the Gateway Community College Hall of Fame along with Willam Curran of Halsey Associates, Richard Borer, President and CEO of Easter Seals, Roberta Hoskie, President and CEO of The Outreach School of Real Estate, and Debborah Mele, Senior Sales Manager at at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale. TheHall of Fame Reception takes place on September 28 at 20 Church Street in downtown New Haven at the brand new campus of Gateway Community College.
Dr. McKinney served as chairman of the board for Gateway Community College during the early stages of the planning of the beautiful new facility and continues to be an annual supporter of a scholarship for a Gateway student majoring in business, entrepreneurship or economics. Your support by attending the event would be appreciated and goes to a great cause - urban community college education.
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| SBI offers SBIR/STTR Proposal Reviews at No Cost |
 The SBIR Acceleration and Commercialization Program started about a year ago. To date, the state has committed over $1,000,000 to Connecticut's SBIR winners to help advance their technologies, win Phase IIs, and speed up revenue generation. Please review the program for eligibility. We welcome your comments.
Please check Zyn and SBIR.gov for other important information concerning the SBIR/STTR Program
Check SBIR Source for other award information.
For more information email or call (860) 257-2894. Small Business Innovation at Connecticut Innovations, formerly the Connecticut SBIR Office, was established in 2004 to help small businesses in Connecticut obtain federal SBIR/STTR grants of up to $150,000 for Phase I and $1,000,000 for Phase II. Today, it provides essential programs to stimulate and accelerate "innovation to commercialization" for the state's small business technology stakeholders. |
| Corporate Member of the Week: Pitney Bowes |
 Pitney Bowes is a leading provider of customer communication technologies. Our software,equipment and services help businesses communicate more effectively in today's multi-channel environment, so they can build long-term customer relationships and drive profitable growth.
Through our unique combination of smarter analytical tools and expertise in physical, digital and hybrid communications, we're helping businesses meet the many challenges of connecting with individual customers today. We also provide strategic outsourcing services to help organizations streamline their mail and print operations and manage critical documents.
Delivering more than 90 years of innovation, Pitney Bowes provides business communications software, mailing systems and services that integrate physical and digital communications channels. Long known for making its customers more productive, Pitney Bowes is increasingly helping other companies grow their business through advanced customer communications management. Pitney Bowes is a $5 billion company with about 27,000 employees worldwide.
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| MBE of the Week: Minuteman Trucks |
 Minuteman Trucks was established on October 10, 1990. Bill and Dick Witcher acquired it as a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company through the Dealer Development Program. Throughout the years they have gone through many changes to get to where they are today. Minuteman is a certified MBE with GNEMSDC and the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office, as well as the affiliate memberships with The New York & New Jersey Minority Supplier Development Council.
Minuteman Trucks, Inc. is New England's complete medium & heavy-duty truck support center. We sell International and Ford commercial trucks new and used. We have a complete Service center staffed by Ford, Navistar, and Pierce trained technicians with ASE & EVT certifications. Minuteman also has a full-service Body Shop with a state-of-the art paint spray booth. Our Parts department stocks over $1.5 million of parts in the 2-story warehouse. The Lease & Rental department can help supply a business with 1 truck or a custom fleet. Minuteman has 150 full service lease or rental vehicles in its fleet. Minuteman Fire & Rescue Apparatus now sells Pierce fire trucks and Road Rescue ambulances to the New England market. |
| CVS Caremark Honored with Supply Chain Education Award |
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This award recognizes an organization that demonstrates superior commitment to supply chain education.
"It's our great pleasure to recognize CVS Caremark, who has demonstrated a long-term dedication to promoting supply chain educational programs, supporting students who seek this field as a career choice, and for offering continuing education to their employees," said V.K. Unni, the interim dean of the Bryant University College of Business. "CVS Caremark exemplifies the symbiotic relationship that all large businesses who are interested in a quality workforce should have with institutions of higher education."
"CVS Caremark recruits from Bryant University, they participate in supply chain career fairs, they host tours of the supply chain facilities and offer internships to undergraduates," said Teresa McCarthy, associate professor of marketing at Bryant University. "Their commitment to supply chain management education is extraordinary and they are deserving of this recognition."
The Bryant University Diamond Award for Industry Excellence in Supply Chain Education was presented at the SCMS opening reception, attended by dozens of industry professionals. |
Associated Construction Company Has Opportunities for MBEs
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 Associated Construction Company (ACC) is looking for MBEs to work on a major renovation of 777 Main Street in downtown Hartford. This 27 story office tower is being converted into 285 apartments and will occupy 315,000 square feet of new residential housing. The work will take place in a 14 month time frame beginning in the Fall of 2013. For more information contact Ken Woodward at kaw@accgc.com on or before September 20, 2013. ACC is looking for everything Access Doors to Wall Protection and everything in between for this project.
Associated Construction Company is a GNEMSDC corporate member and is located at 1010 Wethersfield Avenue, Suite 304, in Hartford, CT 06114. |
| Suffolk Downs to Conduct North Shore Vendor Forum |
 Vendor Forum at Hawthorne Hotel on Wednesday September 11, 2013, 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Suffolk Downs has partnered with Caesars Entertainment to bring a $1 billion world-class resort casino to Greater Boston. In addition to creating 4,000 permanent jobs and 2,500 construction jobs in the area, the resort is expected to spend approximately $150 million annually on goods and services from local and regional businesses. We will be hosting a special event for North Shore businesses to discuss our multi-faceted business partnership program for the resort.
Caesars Resort at Suffolk Downs and the North Shore Chamber of Commerce invite you to attend a vendor forum for North Shore businesses on Wednesday, September 11 from 7-9:00 p.m. at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem. The vendor forum will provide information and guidance on becoming part of our local business program and will include representatives from Caesars sourcing and purchasing staff as well as business partners from Caesars properties in other locations.
In June, we hosted a vendor forum at Suffolk Downs with the help of the East Boston, Revere, Winthrop and Chelsea Chambers of Commerce. The event was a great success, with more than 300 local business owners finding out how they can partner with Caesars as we move forward.
Our integrated local business plan includes opportunities for local businesses to become on-site vendors, supply goods, products and services to the resort, partner with the resort through Caesars Total Rewards program and provide businesses access to the increased number of employed residents in the local community. The Caesars Total Rewards program, will allow over 45 million members to earn and redeem rewards credit at participating local businesses throughout Greater Boston.
We are very excited about our business partnership program and the opportunities it will provide to area businesses. We look forward to sharing more information about this program at the vendor forum on September 11 and are hopeful that you will be able to attend.
In addition, Dr. Fred has just been asked by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to serve on the Supplier Diversity Task Force. The purpose of this group is to provide guidance to the Commission on applicants' supplier diversity proposals as part of their efforts to win the limited number of Commonwealth licenses for casinos. I am honored by the invitation to serve. (And I apologize for referring to myself in the third person - so un-cool.) |
| Looking for Volunteers to Speak with BHA Resident Entrepreneurs |
The GNEMSDC is working with several Bridgeport Housing Authority residents who are entering the world of entrepreneurship.
We have taken these residents through a great program of starting and operating a business. Each of the participating residents brought an idea to the program. We are helping them turn that idea into a real business. As part of the program we are introducing these early stage business owners to some of our outstanding MBEs.
We are looking for a few more volunteers from our MBE and corporate community to come and meet these aspiring entrepreneurs. We are also looking for some MBEs to be judges for a business plan competition featuring these entrepreneurs. If you are interested in assisting us and these entrepreneurs, please give me a call, 203-288-9744.
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And Finally...
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OK, it's Labor Day. That means everyone who works gets a day off except the millions of workers who work in the retail and food industries who are catering to our collective Labor Day sale shopping joneses. (I checked the grammar on the plural of jones, and I think I am correct.) In any case, most of us had an extra day of not having to physically go into the office. But more and more of us never go to the office anyway. It seems to be the new norm in corporate America for everyone to be working remotely at home in our most comfortable slippers instead of those uncomfortable wingtips or stilettos. Yes it is still true, that when we have to go out and meet with a client or a supplier, we have don work clothes and give the impression that this is our clothes de rigueur. We also assume that the person we are meeting with is also appropriated attired and in the right physical space.
I bring this up because in an ad above one of our corporate members Associated Construction Company has the contract to convert a landmark office tower in downtown Hartford into residential space. This is not entirely new, there are many quaint loft condos in many cities across the country that were once factories. But I have to believe we are on the verge of a massive and irreversible depopulation of the American corporate office. This will have massive implications for all businesses who for the past 100 years or more have catered to an office or a factory as a concentrated place of work. There is an interesting bit of economic deja vu at work here. In the pre-industrial revolution era, before workers were concentrated in factories, the owners of capital took their inputs into the rural villages and "hired-out" the work to families. They provided the raw materials, gave them wage and collected the finished products which were then sold. It was because this mode of production was not as efficient as re-organizing workers into larger concentrated places of work that the hiring-out system went into decline. But it looks like we are returning to this pre-industrial revolution way of doing business. Perhaps it is technology that makes this possible and the fact that as busy as we are, very few of us are actually making something that we can physically hold in our hands. This transformation of work from the office to the home will not only impact commercial real estate prices and home prices, it will force suppliers to reorganize their strategies in this new corporate landscape.
Of course I am not arguing for the elimination of Labor Day. We all know from our own experiences and those of others who have been either kicked out of the office in order to work at home, or have chosen this option without a gun to their head, that the chances are, we work far more hours working from home than we ever did in a corporate space. We will probably need Labor Day more not less as a break from the daily grind even if we can work in our slippers.
In your service,
Dr. Fred
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Hartford Connecticut Mayor Pedro E. Segarra - Mayor Pedro E. Segarra will be our Keynote Luncheon Speaker on Tuesday, September 24. 
President of NMSDC Joset B. Wright-Lacy - Mrs. Wright-Lacy will be our Keynote Luncheon Speaker on Wednesday, September 25. 
Caesars Entertainment is holding two small business seminars next week on September 10 and September 11. The September 10 event is in Boston at Roxbury Community College. The September 11 event will take place in Salem, MA. If Caesars Entertainment wins the license they are planning to spend over $150 million per year on goods and services. MBEs interested in learning more about these opportunities should attend these events next week. For more information on the two events please call617-548-9846 or visit friendsofsuffolkdowns.com/events.
CVS Caremark was awarded the Bryant University Diamond Award for Industry Excellence in Supply Chain Education during the 6th 