Houston Minority Business Council, Inc.| Post No. 122307-2

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The question Houston Minority Business owners and HMBC members have been dying to ask…

For 20+ years, Richard Huebner has been the President of the Houston Minority Business Council (HMBC). Mr. Huebner, who hails from the state of Wisconsin, has a salary of over $200,000 per year. Before beginning our discussion about the merits of the HMBC, one question begs to be asked:

How does a White-man from the state of Wisconsin decide to make a career of being President of the Houston Minority Business Council? Is this merely exploitation?

We will engage Mr. Huebner for a response and let you know his answer.  Stay tuned.

NMSDC - Minority Business, Inc. | Post No. 122307-1

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Introduction

This year, the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (NMSDC) celebrated 35 years of ”Helping Minority Business [do] Business with Corporate America”. However, if you look closely, you will discover that the NMSDC is an organization (initially incepted with the best of intentions) that has morphed into a public relations medium for the large corporations that fund it.

According to its website, the NMSDC Network includes a National Office in New York and 39 regional councils across the country. There are 3,500 corporate members throughout the network, including most of America’s largest publicly-owned, privately-owned and foreign-owned companies, as well as universities, hospitals and other buying institutions.

Mission: Providing a direct link between corporate America and minority-owned businesses is the primary objective of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, one of the country’s leading business membership organizations. It was chartered in 1972 to provide increased procurement and business opportunities for minority businesses of all sizes.

The regional councils certify and match more than 15,000 minority owned businesses (Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American) with member corporations which want to purchase goods and services.

Is the NMSDC simply a public relations firm for the Fortune 500, designed to be a form of stock price insurance; giving the illusion of social responsibility?

Statistics & Highlights for Future Posts:

Our research has yielded the following facts [note: each fact will be addressed in detail in future posts as numbered]:

1. Most minority owned small business members of NMSDC have 2-4 employees and annual revenue of less than $100,000
2. Of the ~4.3 million minority owned businesses in the US, less than 18,000 (that is less than .4%) are members of the NMSDC and its councils
3. Structured as a not-for-profit, the NMSDC is primarily funded by corporate dollars
4. Corporate supplier diversity representatives | departments have no purchasing budget and no decision making authority
5. White women are the largest recipient of Minority Spend by Fortune 500 corporations for the last 5 years
6. NMSDC statements of how much corporations spend annually with Minority Business is not independently audited
7. The presidents of local councils have annual salaries upward of $200,000 +; HQ salaries are higher - $500,000 +
8. Minority business spend data detail is not shared with members
9. National headquarters nor local council revenue and expenditures are shared with members
10. Minority firms become “members” of one of the local councils be paying a non-refundable processing fee of $150 or more, and an annual fee thereafter, however; this only provides them limited access to corporations in their local area. If they want access to corporations outside of their local council’s geographic footprint, they must pay another fee (from $100 to $500) to reciprocally join the appropriate council
11. Minority firms are annually expected to dole out additional cash to attend luncheons and other events hosted by the national headquarters and local council; ranging from $35 to $200

Each of the above topics will be addressed individually in future posts. This is only the beginning…