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The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) marked its tenth birthday with "Launching the new decade: the enterprising economy," its annual salute to women's business enterprises. The gala black-tie get-together for WBEs and the big corporations they do business with was held March 29 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, TX. The event looked forward, and also back over WBENC's first ten years, "celebrating a decade of accomplishments."
The anniversary theme will continue at the annual conference and business fair, "Women in Business 2007: launching a new decade," in Los Angeles at the end of June.
There's movement on many fronts at WBENC. This February the council opened its new affiliate relations and certification office in Allen, TX. It's working on a new website with features to help its members do business, and redesigning WBENClink, its Internet database.
"We're very focused on our mission to level the playing field and give our WBEs access to the corporate marketplace," says Linda Denny, interim president.
The three-legged stool
WBENC advocates for women-owned businesses as suppliers to America's corporations. It's the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the U.S. The council has three distinct parts: its WBE members, its regional affiliates and its corporate members.
"It's like a three-legged stool," Denny says with a laugh. "It wouldn't work without all of those parts."
Going global
In a survey last year, international corporate members identified five overseas market areas where WBEs would have a good opportunity to do business: Canada, the U.K., the European Union, India and China. Many WBEs are already working offshore, and WBENC will help them connect with global supply chains.
"Our multinational corporate members instigated this, because taking their supplier diversity programs outside the U.S. is an important part of their growth strategy," says Denny. "If our WBEs are going to serve these companies they have to be willing to work where they're needed."
A toolkit on the new website will point the way to relevant national and international regulations, financial and legal ramifications, exchange rates and other details.
Partnering with the big players
Denny told the story of a WBE whose major customer wanted to work with her at a new operation in Beijing. The big player helped the WBE set up her own Beijing operation.
"We're hoping that by getting our members better prepared and helping them understand what's necessary, many of them will be able to make things like that happen even faster," Denny says.
Offshore mentoring
WBENC is breaking the ice by offering to mentor women's business organizations in other countries. By giving them with the benefit of its own experience, WBENC hopes to speed up the creation of programs customized to a variety of legal and cultural requirements.
In the U.K., for example, WBENC is working with Prowess, an advocacy network that supports women's business ownership. It is sharing documents, standards, guidelines and more. The time is right, as the British government recently approached Prowess for help in identifying homegrown WBEs to be vendors at the 2012 Olympics.
This February WBENC welcomed Prowess reps to the U.S. for a week-long visit. "We feel we can accelerate their certification goal within the U.K.," Denny says. "The other side is to help the British companies understand supplier diversity programs and how to use the certified businesses. A lot of learning is needed on both sides of the issue."
Website and WBENClink: redesigned for convenience
The organization website and WBENClink are both being redesigned with member convenience in mind, adding technology advances that became available since the last update in 2003. Designed Solutions Group, a certified WBE, is handling the design and launch of www.wbenc.org.
WBENClink will have more sophisticated search capability, making it easier for corporate members to locate the WBEs they need. Corporate procurement folks will be able to communicate directly with WBE suppliers. The certification process will be streamlined, with downloadable certificates, and data will be collected automatically for the WBENC database. This major upgrade and redesign is in the hands of CVM Solutions, a WBENC corporate member.
The new website will offer a personalized login page, message boards, simplified conference registrations and more. "Our people are busy," says Denny. "The quicker and easier you can make the systems, the more use they'll get.
"Technology can give a small organization like WBENC the outreach to make sure our members are being served the way they want to be served," she declares.
Don't miss the big event!
WBENC's eighth annual national conference and business fair, scheduled for June 25 to 28 in Los Angeles, CA, gets bigger each year. There were seventy more corporate and WBE exhibitors in 2006 than in 2005, and at least that many more are expected this year.
Corporate reps tell Denny they value the business fair for the quality of the contacts they make there. "We work on that," she says.
"We make it a point to coach our members on how to get their messages across quickly, clearly and memorably. Our corporate members not only find the WBEs they're looking for, but they find women who understand how to go about contacting and selling to them."
Denny is WBENC's interim president; last year she stepped in for WBENC founder and now president emeritus, Susan Phillips Bari. A WBE search firm is working to identify candidates and select a permanent president, and Denny hopes to be able to announce the new WBENC head before the conference.
D/C
- Kate Colborn & Christine Heinrichs
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