EthnicMajority

(Business First) Ford Motor Co. plans to exceed its 2010 goal of purchasing more than 10 percent of its goods and services from minority- and women-owned businesses.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford (NYSE: F) did not disclose the total amount the company planned to spend with women- and minority-owned businesses in 2010. The company bought $2.7 billion worth of goods and services from minority- and women-owned tier-one suppliers in the United States in 2009, according to a news release.

Ford’s tier-one suppliers in return purchased $1.02 billion worth of goods and services from minority- and women-owned businesses in 2009, according to the release.

Total expenditures with women- and minority-owned businesses in 2009 declined from 2008 spending, primarily because manufacturing and sales volumes declined as a result of the economic downturn, Ford said.

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(BLR) In a move aimed at enabling small businesses to “participate in the nation’s economic recovery, including businesses owned by women, minorities, socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, and service-disabled veterans of our armed forces,” President Obama recently established an interagency task force—”The Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Businesses.”

Stating that “the federal government is the world’s largest purchaser of goods and services, with purchases totaling over $500 billion per year,” President Obama’s task force is intended to further Congress’ goal of awarding at least 23 percent of all federal prime contracting dollars to small businesses. Congress also established governmentwide contracting goals for participation by small businesses that are located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (at least 3 percent) or that are owned by women (at least 5 percent), socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (at least 5 percent), and service-disabled veterans (at least 3 percent).

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(Hotel Interactive) Supplier Diversity programs are at the forefront of many leading hotel companies’ initiatives and are quickly becoming an industry mainstay. In fact, many of today’s leading lodging companies are investing in diversity programs not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because companies falling under the Diversity banner are delivering real solutions to industry buyers at the right time and at the right price.

More important, these programs are not kowtowing to political correctness. In fact, hotel companies are finding themselves relying ever more on these typically smaller firms to fill gaps created by larger organizations that were overextended and succumbed to the effects of the Great Recession. Diversity classified companies are proving to be smarter and more resilient than many expected.

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(Finance & Commerce) Joan Johnson’s construction-supply business has furnished materials for projects ranging from Block E to the new Twins and Gophers stadiums, but it has yet to make much headway on highway and transit projects.

Johnson hopes that could all change soon.

She believes that her business, J-MOS, is in a good position — both literally and figuratively — to be part the biggest public-works project in state history: the $957 million Central Corridor project, which is gearing up for major construction this summer.

She’s so intent on being part of light rail history that she recently leased warehouse space on Endicott Street in St. Paul, a few blocks from the planned route of the Central Corridor, which will link the Twin Cities’ downtowns when it starts running in 2014. And she’s hoping to hire five to 10 additional employees.

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(Business Wire) Bank of America today announced a commitment to increase its spending with small, medium-sized and diverse businesses, pledging to purchase $10 billion in products and services from those companies over five years, with the spending amount expected to grow by an average of more than 5 percent each year.

“What businesses of all sizes are telling us they need most right now is more business,” said Brian T. Moynihan, president and chief executive officer, Bank of America. “In addition to extending credit and providing technical assistance and a full range of banking services to our clients, we want to increase our support by purchasing more of their products and services, particularly from small, medium-sized and diverse businesses — coast to coast and across a wide range of industries. We hope other large companies will do the same.”

Small, medium-sized and diverse businesses provide the bank with a broad range of valuable services and products, including advertising, furniture, cleaning, courier service, home inspections, legal services, landscaping, maintenance, photography, security and software.

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African Americans, Hispanics, women and Asians were deprived of at least $19 million worth of construction contracts in 2008 alone because of “widespread” fraud, abuse and mismanagement of Chicago’s minority contracting program, an internal audit concluded today.

Inspector General Joe Ferguson compared actual participation in the city’s minority contracting program to statistics reported to the City Council by the city Department of Procurement Services.

What he found was a program “beset by fraud and unlawful brokers” that has fallen far short of the city’s claims.

In construction contracts awarded in 2008 alone, companies owned by minorities and women got $19 million less than the city claimed they would get, roughly 15 percent of the total touted by the city.

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(BUSINESS WIRE)–Minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) in New York State continue to experience statistically significant disparities in their access to private and public sector contracting and procurement opportunities, according to a study released by NERA Economic Consulting.

The New York State Department of Economic Development commissioned NERA to conduct a statewide disparity study under Executive Law § 312-a regarding the participation of minority and women-owned business enterprises in state contracts. NERA’s report examined the past and current status of minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) in the geographic and product markets for contracting and procurement in the state of New York.

In the NERA report, “The State of Minority- and Woman-Owned Business Enterprise: Evidence from New York,” co-authors NERA Vice President Dr. Jon Wainwright and longtime NERA collaborator Colette Holt, JD, of Colette Holt & Associates, found that M/WBEs have substantially lower business formation rates and business owner earnings; are more likely to be denied credit even with comparable balance sheets; and during the period of the study, found that M/WBE firms were generally utilized at far lower rates than their availability. Furthermore, the authors of the study determined that the statistical evidence supports the conclusion that these outcomes are consistent with discrimination in New York’s contracting and procurement markets.

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(Inc Magazine) Having a minority-owned business certification can help you tap into a bevy of public and private sector programs. Here’s how to apply.

Corporations, the federal government, and state agencies all want to do business with minority-owned companies. The Department of Transportation, for example, requires that recipients of its funding award a percentage of contracts to minority-owned businesses and many large companies have goals for buying from minority-owned suppliers.

The reason for such mandates is twofold. First, contracting with minority-owned businesses is important to customers: “Corporate America understands that you cannot expect minorities to buy things when you haven’t done business with minorities,” says Steven Sims, the vice president of the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Second, it’s responsible: “It’s important because we have an obligation in government to ensure that all firms in our state have an opportunity to participate in contracts that are paid for with tax dollars,” says Luwanda Jenkins, the special secretary of minority affairs for Maryland.

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The California Supreme Court debated the constitutionality of Proposition 209 on Tuesday, questioning whether the reach of the 1996 ban on affirmative action in government should be limited.

During a hearing Tuesday, some members of the state high court appeared inclined to permit some type of affirmative action when needed to address deliberate and ongoing discrimination.

The court is reviewing a San Francisco ordinance that gives firms owned by women and minorities an advantage in city contracting. Although the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 209 in 1997, the state high court is not bound by the circuit ruling.

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