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Need To See A Lawyer On Immigration Matter and Concerns? JNBS Provides The Service Of An Immigration Lawyer FREE OF COST To Our Customers. On The Third Friday Of Each Month Commencing FEBRUARY 20, 2004 The Representative Office 5039 N. State Rd. 7 (Sunshine Plaza) Call 1-800-390-7850 or    954-485-0444

Can¹t See the Forest for the Trees 
 The current hype now days is on diversity. As I scan a variety of news articles,  particularly those with a bent for economics of some sort, I find an unusual amount of ink touting diversity. Governmental entities are ³required² to focus their attention on diversity of all sorts. You open the employment door for laborers and in walks a variety of colors, cultures, ethnicities and languages. No special program, no special effort necessary to get them through the door - it¹s happens to be the makeup of today¹s labor force. 
    Ergo workforce diversity departments concentrate not on recruiting a diverse labor force but rather coaching employees to understand the different cultures, habits and accents of those once hired. 
    Not so with supplier diversity. Those brave and daring folk who man supplier diversity departments must develop practical and effective ways with elaborate procedures to ³recruit² minority¹s vendors. 
    Of course it does not end with the recruitment. There¹s the validation to ensure gender/ethnicity. The teaching of the systems to which an application will be made seeking business ­ technical assistance. A whole lot of hand holding to make the vendor a viable seller of the goods and service needed.  
    First there is the obvious public relation focus ­ to convince a skeptical minority community that the entity you represent is sincere. Then a list of ³certified² minorities must be developed and maintain from which the governmental unit might select to participate in their procurement process.  
    Sometime in the vigorous recruitment of the minority vendor the impression is that a certain amount of business is designated for the minority. This is not true with any public body. Everybody competes in the public arena. Mind you competing more than anything else means price. After all tax supported entities must ensure the taxing public that the best price was paid for the best service/product. 
    Historically this minority has in the back of its mind, and just may be on the tip of its tongues, that it will be faced with discriminatory practices in this marketplace. 
    Racial discrimination is so prevalent, so devious and so underhanded you find it hard to blame the minority vendor for being overwhelmed with the anticipation of unfair treatment. 
    There¹s an old saying - you can¹t see the trees for the forest. Apply this same logic to those vendors who so expectant of rejection because of race, they fail to apply other ³techniques² that might serve their interest. 
    Gladys Walters is the Director of the Small Business Center in Atlanta. Her feature program is called The Governor¹s Mentor Protégé Program. It was created to increase small business¹ odds for success by teaming them with prospering companies in business, technology and the development of sophisticated business solutions. 
    Of course most minority companies are small businesses ­ certainly by the standards and definitions of the Small Business Administration. Therefore a lot of minority companies could benefit from a Mentor Protégé type program. An alternative- an additional technique to get in the door. 
    Recently Windell Paige, the Governor¹s Director of the State¹s supplier diversity efforts, was singing praises for the mentor protégé program he conducts.
    This paper is not promoting such a program per se. We want to encourage minority vendors to look for other methods to position their company to meet the needs of the mainstream marketplace ­ discrimination notwithstanding. 
    Take a look at the business development practices of the Office of Supplier Diversity at the North Broward Hospital District. These procedures when adopted by the vendor endow the vendor with the business characteristics similar to those companies in the main stream. The results are the ability of the minority vendor to compete with non-minority companies in the main stream of business activity. 
    It is the very nature of business to be competitive, with or without discrimination. It pays for the minority vendor to look beyond the forest. There¹s a bonanza hiding in the trees. 

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Contact the JN Representative Office Sunshine Plaza
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and Commercial Blvd)

Phone:(954) 485-0444 or
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