"The old line in business is that it isn't what you know, but who you know. Now, however, some of Lexington's old guard in business have come together and founded National Diversity Solutions (NDS) to make sure the people with the know-how know who as well.
NDS aims to get minority-owned small businesses up to speed and able to compete for contracts with larger, established businesses around Kentucky. NDS was founded by CEOs and high-ranking officials from areas of business as diverse as the constituents they hope to serve, according to one of those founders, Kentucky American Water president Nick Rowe.
"We're all proud to be founding members because we all do come from different diverse backgrounds: corporate America versus entrepreneurship versus (academia). I think it says a lot that we are all committed to the same thing, and that is creating diverse opportunities for minority inclusion," Rowe said.
NDS was established in April by Rowe, along with the company's CEO, D. McGinnis Mitchell of Premier Mortgage; NDS chairman Les Kimbrough of Kimbrough and Associates; Dr. William Crouch, Jr., president of Georgetown College; Urban County Council member George Myers; Ed Owens, a senior vice president of Fifth Third Bancorp; Mike Scanlon, president and CEO of Thomas and King; and the company's vice chairman Phil Wilkins, president and CEO of Rising Star Inc.
Rowe said a group like this will help minority-owned startups gain the expertise and learn what is needed to compete for and then complete high-level jobs. "They may have the skill set but may not have the opportunity to do certain projects, because they don't have the wherewithal to get the bonding capacity or whatever the case may be. Hopefully we're going to open up some doors for folks," he said.
While NDS will help bring small minority-owned businesses into the fold and give them the kick start needed to grow, Thomas and King's Scanlon said his involvement and that of others is not an act of charity.
"It is good for business and we make money on it," Scanlon said. "This is not bleeding heart, we just want to be nice guys. This is a social responsibility and a financial opportunity for Applebee's, Thomas and King — any businessman — to not only do the right thing but make money."
Scanlon said larger businesses like his have been inclusive in their employment, but have run into difficulty in attempting to be inclusive concerning the companies they bring into their supply chain as well as other contractors.
"Minorities of all types are very loyal to businesses who reach out to their community to do business with them. So the minority communities in Central Kentucky begins to understand that Applebee's/Thomas and King is reaching out to them, wants to do business with their minority-owned vendors, and they become even more loyal customers. And we've proven that; we know that happens," he said.
Putting these businesses in touch with companies they may never have known existed is the job of NDS and Mitchell.
"In so many cases, you see these opportunities and you want to go after them, but you don't understand the requirements and you don't understand what it's really going to take, you know, to get involved in that. You can't take a $3,000 company and get involved in a $20 million opportunity; it doesn't happen that way. There is a transition that needs to take place, and we plan to be the company that helps with that transition and kind of connects the two," Mitchell said.
Companies can come to NDS to find out what they need to do to work for larger companies, and NDS assists them free of charge. But when a company such as Thomas and King is looking for new links in their supply chain, NDS charges them for services that Scanlon compared to those of a recruiter.
To make sure a company has the ability to accomplish the tasks required of them, "we qualify those companies based on our technology, which captures risk data, captures sales data, captures DMB numbers, certification numbers ," Mitchell said. "Because that's part of the fear (of contracting companies); they haven't gone through a process and been screened to know whether they can produce or not."
NDS has also partnered with Messer Construction on a construction branch of the company that will seek to achieve greater equity on construction sites.
"We have been part of lots of projects where there were requirements to meet economic inclusion goals. As far as I know, we've never missed a goal. But what we found was that we as engineers and managers were serving the goals instead of building relationships with other human beings," said Messer CEO Pete Strange.
"If you're a small business and you want to do business with Messer, you can stay up every night doing estimates and never have time to grow your businessIf we do some relatively simple things to share our expertise to provide you with support and create a framework for growth and success, then it's possible that you will be able to start small, grow incrementally over time and become a partner for us in serving our customers," he said.
For NDS, Scanlon and Rowe said, the goal is beyond getting more minority-owned businesses involved just for the sake of getting minority-owned businesses in the mix.
"Our goal is to drive up on a job site one of these days with our construction arm in our partnership with Messer, and have the job (site) look like America, people from all different backgrounds," Rowe said. "But more importantly, people won't just think about that, they will think 'Boy, they did a good job for us, what a quality job.'"
Business Lexington Editor Tom Martin contributed to this story.