October 2003
B-W’s commitment to nurturing the economic development of Northeast Ohio recognizes the critical and growing importance of African-American entrepreneurs to the region. The Business Division’s commitment now includes providing educational resources and faculty support to The President’s Council Foundation, a consortium of chief executive officers from some of the largest African-American owned-and-operated businesses in the Greater Cleveland area.
The College’s involvement with these two related organizations is vital in light of census data showing that African-Americans start businesses at twice the rate of the U.S. population as a whole. However, African-American entrepreneurs are twice as unlikely to create wealth through their enterprises as non-minority entrepreneurs nationwide
The President’s Council supports entrepreneurial success and economic development within the African-American community by fostering strategic alliances with the CEOs of Northeast Ohio’s major public companies.
“Boardroom-to-Boardroom sessions between the leaders of African-American firms and those of majority corporations create opportunities for effective collaboration. Knowledge and insights are exchanged between corporate leaders and higher levels of understanding are achieved between these two vital parts of our economic community,” said Harvey Hopson,director of graduate services, Baldwin-Wallace College.
Prof. Hopson explained that B-W’s Business Division provided the President’s Council with a range of educational resources including access to B-W’s Corporate Roundtable meetings and Kamm Lecture Series. B-W President Mark Collier is an associate member of the Council.
Emerging Minority Entrepreneurs
B-W’s Business Division plays a pivotal role in the Emerging Entrepreneurs program which helps fill the void in the mentoring and training of African-American entrepreneurs. The Business Division, working with the President’s Council Foundation, developed a 10-month series of halfday classes which addresses the unique challenges facing minority entrepreneurs.
The Emerging Entrepreneurs Program is designed for African-Americans who have been operating their own high-growth-potential business for at least three years, have at least an associates degree or educational equivalent, and have a vision for expanding and growing their companies. With B-W Business Division faculty and local corporate executives serving as instructors/facilitators, the classes are interactive and include case studies and readings. Courses include strategic thinking, organizational structure, business plan development, marketing, sales and technology, and finance.
B-W’s Business Plan Clinic, under the direction of Professors Sandra Stark and Phillip Bessler provides a unique resource to the Program’s participants. “The opportunity to link the resources of the Business Planning Clinic with the Emerging Entrepreneurs Program has provided a very special learning environment for our undergrad and MBA students who serve the Clinic as counselors to the Program’s participants. B-W students are exposed to the challenges and problems facing entrepreneurs and are able to use their classroom and practical experience to help grow a real-world enterprise. Not only do we assist the entrepreneurs in creating business development plans, we have the benefit of expanding our knowledge and understanding of an important part of our economic community,” said Prof. Bessler.
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