Council's mandate: Prove minority firms run by minorities

FLINT - October is Minority Business Development Month, but the Michigan Minority Business Development Council works year-round to help minority-owned businesses get contracts with corporations.

One way it does that is by certifying that the businesses are actually owned and operated bymembers of a minority.

James Franklin III is director of the regional office of the council and has an office in Flint.

He said the council's members are the corporate members it serves, not the minority-owned businesses.

"We represent corporate America," he said.

"We certify the minority businesses they do business with.

"Minority businesses are not members of our association because we have to verify that they are who they say they are."

The council verifies the ownership, operation and control of businesses that want to be certified as minority-owned. Franklin said the council regularly sees companies that are not really minority-owned, but have someone attempting to pass as a "front" owner.

"We've had some that posed as the owner, we've had some that could not show that they were running the company," he said.

He said General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Delphi Corp. each have targets for minority purchasing, from 5 percent to 9 percent of total purchases.

"Most of the Fortune 500 companies do have a supplier diversity program," he said.

The automakers also have target percentages for their Tier I suppliers in the purchases they make.

An annual awards dinner, set for Tuesday at Cobo Center in Detroit, is the wrap-up for the association's program year. The guest speaker this year will be Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

One of the MMBDC's biggest events is its Buyer-Supplier luncheon in Flint. Last year the February program at the Riverfront Character Inn drew more than 1,200 people.

The council used to hold three buyer-supplier programs, but the one here was so successful that the other two were dropped.

"The Flint event has been very effective as a networking opportunity," Franklin said.

He said corporations want to do business with minority-owned businesses because the minority population is a growing market.

In 48 of the nation's largest cities, people identifying themselves as members of a minority group make up more than 50 percent of the population.

As the portion of the population called "minority" grows, its purchasing power grows, too, he said, and corporations recognize that.

"This is a domestic emerging market," he said.