Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Dusting off an old blueprint for black success

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published May 16, 2006

The solution to greater economic prosperity in our African-American business community may very well lie in concepts about independence and self-help.

"It is easily seen that if every member of the race should strive to make himself the most indispensable man in his community, and to be successful in business, however humble that business might be, he would contribute much towards smoothing the pathway of his own and future generations."

It's an approach that would work well in today's business climate, so you might be surprised to learn those words are more than 100 years old.

Booker T. Washington, the legendary educator, tried to put his business theories into practice when he founded the National Negro Business League in 1900. Since 2003, the Urban Florida League of Business has been working to revive Washington's ideals here in Tampa Bay.

The league, which is not affiliated with the Urban League, is holding its annual daylong expo and interactive summit Wednesday at Westshore's Doubletree Hotel.

The keynote luncheon speaker will be Keevin Williams, vice president of the Florida Black Business Investment Board. The board is a public funding source for small, black-owned businesses throughout Florida.

The event will feature a panel of prominent black business leaders, including Larry Newsome, president of the company that led the effort to develop Tangerine Plaza and Sweetbay Supermarket in St. Petersburg's Midtown area.

Other panel members are: Joli Cooper, founding partner of Cordova, Smart and Williams; Aurora Financial Services president Richard Hollins; and Chloe Coney, chief executive officer of the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa.

For more information or luncheon tickets, call 813 932-8894.

According to event co-chairman Henry Carley, the most important aspect of the event is that it's more than a one-day celebration. Carley, former president of the NAACP Hillsborough chapter, said this is one of the first steps in creating a blueprint for enhancing the community.

"This is a plan of action,'' Carley said. "We're not going to just talk the talk, we're going to walk the walk."

The league bills itself as Hillsborough County's only IRS-approved African-American chamber of commerce, and there certainly seems to be a need for greater cohesion in the black business community.

A study released earlier this month indicated the city is falling short when it comes to the hiring of minority and female business owners for major contracts, primarily in the construction industry.

However, Carley says the construction industry can't be the sole focus.

"There are still some areas available for entrepreneurs that we're not in," Carley said. "We have a lot of black lawyers and accountants, but we still don't manufacture or sell many commodities."

That starts with getting business owners and potential entrepreneurs prepared to take advantage of opportunities, he said. The league's blueprint not only includes a focus on educating and training owners, but it's also reaching out to elementary and college students.

Carley said black businesses need to become more interdependent in terms of working with other established companies. Black businesses need to look at becoming a bigger part of the mainstream business community.

Overall, I think the business setting has to become more multicultural as the world becomes more globalized. While much has been made about the city's disparity study, Mayor Pam Iorio and other elected officials and business leaders would do well to focus on creating broader diversity in the business community.

After all, when regional business heads named its top 10 leaders in a Times survey earlier this year, not one was an African-American, and Hispanics and Asians also were woefully underrepresented.

The term "good old boy network" - and all that it implies about a lack of opportunity for women and minorities - needs to be retired in Tampa Bay once and for all, and our leaders have to set the tone.

As Carley noted, a number of black business owners are considering relocating to Tampa. I'm sure the same could be said for business people of other ethnicities. And I know when they come to town, they're going to want to see at least some prominent leaders whose faces look like their own.

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at (813) 226-3406 or hooper@sptimes.com.

[Last modified May 16, 2006, 06:20:13]