Tell Webster
Is it time to change the way we define minority entrepreneur?
In some respects, "tween" is the best way to describe
C. Michael Gooden's com-pany. Integrated Systems Inc. has
outgrown the SBA's definition of small, but it's definitely
not a Fortune 1000 corporation.
But if a controversial initiative approved by the National
Minority Supplier Development Council works as planned, Gooden and
a select group of minority entrepreneurs could break into the
Fortune ranks.
The initiative creates a category of
"minority-controlled" companies, and allows this new
class of entrepreneurs to seek equity from institutional investors
without losing minority designation. To do so, the owner must
retain at least 30 percent of the firm's economic equity;
control day-to-day operations; keep no less than 51 percent of
voting equity; and operationally control the com-pany's board
of directors.
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"Discrimination doesn't stop when you get larger,"
says Weldon H. Latham, a lawyer with the Shaw Pittman firm in
Washington, DC, who specializes in diversity issues, "why
should the programs that allow [minority entrepreneurs] to
participate in the mainstream of American business?"
Gooden knows the frustration of trying to grow a company using
only debt financing. "You take action," he says,
"then have to sit back and work off the debt."
And Gooden warns, "We're racing against the clock. The
more [corporate] consolidation we see, the more we lose the
opportunity to participate in the market."