As part of Uptown Consortium, Inc.’s (UCI) ongoing virtual event series, UCI recently hosted a panel discussion with Deborah Davis, Director of the regional Minority Business Assistance Center, and Marvin Dejean, Senior Managing Partner at Gilead Sanders, a strategy and innovation consulting firm. The event focused on two key topics for Uptown businesses: local resources and opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses and how businesses and nonprofits can adjust to a digital world, during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
The MBAC serves all counties in Ohio to provide services to small and underutilized minority and women-owned businesses, including bond, loan and collateral enhancement programs and Minority Business Enterprise, Encouraging Diversity Growth and Equity, Veteran Friendly Business Enterprise, and Women Business Enterprise certifications.
“We are very committed in working with minority-owned businesses and helping them to grow and to reach the next level,” said Davis.
The MBAC’s website includes several other resources for minority- and women-owned small businesses, such as contracting opportunities from various partners, business advising and more. In addition, the African American Chamber, which houses the MBAC locally, also offers several of its own programs and resources to support local businesses, including several business accelerators, an emerging leaders program, and more. While some programs, like the Exchange business networking events, are postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the African American Chamber is continuing most of its programs, and it’s offering virtual events as well.
Following Davis’ overview of local resources, Dejean began his presentation discussing the challenges facing small businesses and how businesses, nonprofits and government organizations can reinvent their business model for a digital world.
“We're really focusing on four key things. As an organization, when we help clients, we harness the power of technology, ignite human capital, deploy business innovation and creativity, and create unique customer experiences through digital platforms,” said Dejean. “That's what we help our clients achieve, and that's really the core of digital transformation.”
As a business futurist, Dejean and his team focus on trends to determine what the future business climate will look like across industries. Dejean encouraged attendees to pay attention to trends and run “what if” scenarios to understand how trends could impact their business and how to adapt models, technology and more to become “future proof.”
“COVID-19 has given us as business owners a shot across the bow, but it's really just a warning sign in terms of the massive and rapid changes that are going to take place in the marketplace, in the business landscape in the next decades to come,” said Dejean. “So as a business owner, a small business owner, a minority-owned business owner, it's important for you to understand these changes that are coming and start pivoting your business into a truly, what we call a truly 21st-century business.”
One of the most important trends Dejean identified for business owners was technological trends—artificial reality, augmented reality, smart devices, Internet of Things and more. Dejean expects to start seeing the convergence and commercialization of these types of technologies within the next three to five years.
“These are technologies and trends that as a business you need to be aware of because as your customers start shifting to these things on a commercial size or scale, how does it affect your business, how does it affect your supply chain, how does it affect how you deliver services to your clients?” asked Dejean. “It's going to be a highly volatile environment—very uncertain, very complex and very ambiguous, meaning you're going to have to operate your business in a very different way no matter your size, no matter your industry.”
Recently, most businesses have drastically adjusted their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many businesses implementing additional virtual services. Since customers have adapted over the past several months, Dejean expects customers to continue expecting the ability to receive digital services around the clock even after the pandemic ends.
“No matter whether you're providing a service or a physical product, what you want to be thinking about is how can I provide that to my customers in a seamless way by really removing friction at the customer points of contact and every point in my business. And the technology is there to be able to do that,” said Dejean.
When it comes to digital transformation for businesses, Dejean recommends focusing on a few key elements: technology, trends, innovation, insights, people, platforms and mindset. However, Dejean also emphasized that all business decisions should be data-driven. It should also be a continuous process—not a one-and-done exercise.
“This is a way of thinking and it's a journey, not a destination,” said Dejean. “Don't start all at once. Don't try to scale throughout the whole business. Start with one project, one team, and then, once you see the results, then you want to scale throughout the business. You don't want to start with a big bang but really just baby step by baby step, so you become better and better at it over time.”
Gilead Sanders offers monthly free webinars focused on digital transformation and the future of business. Anyone interested in attending future webinars can learn more at www.gileadsanders.com. For more information about the MBAC and African American Chamber, visit www.african-americanchamber.com.
The full webinar is available on Uptown Consortium’s YouTube channel here.