Group pushes firms to diversify

The Massachusetts Diversity Coalition started with the goal to make sure that the state’s minority- and women-owned businesses got a piece of the growing gaming sector. However, the group now has bigger fish to fry — it wants to make sure that all major development projects make diversity a priority.

Headed by Warren Bacon, director of the Minority Business Development Agency Business Center in Boston, the coalition includes Bacon’s organization, as well as the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Center for Women & Enterprise, Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Minority Contractors Association, Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, New England Area Conference of the NAACP and Veterans with Vision.

It is a heavy-hitting alliance that has widespread reach and influence. When they step up to talk diversity, people listen, which is exactly what the coalition expects.

Bacon said there is no better time than now — as the U.S. economy continues to strengthen and more and more development projects are underway in Massachusetts — to take a strong stand on diversity.

“We want to make sure there is a united voice from the diverse business community saying, ‘We are here. We want to be involved,’” said Bacon.

The place to do this begins at the development level because as new commercial construction projects seek approval from the city and state, diversity criteria are often involved. This can mean a number of things but, typically, a certain percentage of the work needs to be contracted to minority-, women-, or veteran-owned businesses.

Author: Photo courtesy of Greater New England Minority Supplier Development CouncilFred McKinney, a former head of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council and managing director of minority business programs at Dartmouth College’s Tuck Executive Education.

Meeting targets

The coalition wants to make sure this happens, push for higher numbers and help companies meet their diversity targets by connecting them to minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses.

If developers fail to fulfill their diversity commitments, fines may be imposed. For some, the fines are just looked at as a cost of business.

To coalition leaders, this is not acceptable.

“History is full of examples of contracts to engage minorities where the contract is won and the commitment is not followed through,” said Bacon. “We are here to say, ‘You committed to these goals and we are going to help you achieve these goals.’”

The most common excuse given for failure to meet diversity commitments is that there are not enough minority-, women- or veteran-owned businesses available to get the work done.

Not so. And the coalition can prove it. Its member organizations can connect with over 1,500 such businesses in all industries.

Another common complaint is that the businesses are too small and can’t handle the work that is needed. Also not so, according to the coalition.

“There are minority and women businesses that are of scale and can handle a reasonable project,” Bacon said. “And don’t ignore the little players , because one of the ways we can help is to team them with larger, diverse businesses that are very successful.”

A broadened focus

Launched in 2013, the coalition originally was called the Massachusetts Gaming Diversity Coalition and was focused on the billion dollars in development planned around the introduction of casino gambling.

The organization remains highly involved in the state’s gaming development and works closely with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on such projects, but last fall, the coalition changed its name and broadened its focus to major development in all sectors throughout the state.

“We dropped the ‘gaming’ from our name because we realized we have a bigger mission and a bigger venue,” said Bacon.

Fred McKinney, a former, long-time head of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council and now recently-appointed managing director of minority business programs at Dartmouth College’s Tuck Executive Education, said it is an opportune time to expand the coalition’s reach.

“There are a lot of plans on the books that involve construction and development in Boston and the greater Boston community. We are talking about billions of dollars in the private and public sector,” said McKinney. “The people that got together to form the coalition understand how important it is for all businesses to be involved in that economic development.”

McKinney was there when the coalition got its start. He said the political climate was right to take a stand for diversity in gaming, but now all is ripe for the picking.

“It was important to go beyond the gaming because this diversity coalition is something that the Boston community has needed for many years … to ensure that all parties benefit from economic development,” McKinney added.

Bacon points to other project such as the development that Chinese National Rail is doing in Springfield as an example of the large-scale projects on which the coalition can focus.

Ultimately, a larger and more diverse business community in Massachusetts is what coalition leaders really want.

“In five years, if we look back and we haven’t built a much stronger diverse business community then shame on us,” Bacon said. “We are in a period of perhaps historic opportunity.”