Central and South Texas Minority Business Council

While the Central & South Texas Minority Business Council is still relatively young — it was formed in 1999 and affiliated with the NMSDC in 2000 – its leadership has not allowed its youth get in the way. “Our expansion has been a blur, but because we had the right staff managed by our [vice president and chief operating officer] Eva Leos, the strongest corporate members, the best motivated MBEs and the absolute greatest working board of directors,” said President Dinah Lovett, “our success has seemed almost like we were charmed. We draw the top corporate board members from all over the country, because we focus on what THEY need. Many of our board members don’t even live in our service area, but they have a presence here, and in order to serve their own corporations, their service on our board helps them accomplish their internal and external goals.”

The rapid progress has also dictated changes along the way, and one of the largest is occurring right now — the council is rebranding. CSTMBC has added “develop” to its tagline. “Development of our MBEs and corporate members cannot be stressed enough. This council strives to be a resource for all our stakeholders, and development for all constituent groups must be a strong focus for ’08 and beyond,” Lovett said. “Our council will lean more on its board members, corporate members and MBEs for leadership as well as activities in educational programs and events; we tried this tactic a little bit last year and were blown away at how our corporations and MBEs performed!”

Strong commitment

One of the keys to success has been the involvement at the board level. This occurs in part because of the council’s strict rules surrounding attendance. For instance, every board member must chair or co-chair a major event, from start to finish. “We also solicit board members for skill sets, not for money or notoriety. When you commit to the CSTMBC board, you’ve made a significant commitment for yourself and for your company to perform. We need value from our board members including leadership resources amongst many other contributions.”

The CSTMBC, named the National Minority Supplier Development Council’s 2005 Council of the Year, has over 120 corporate members and over 450 MBEs. The council is headquartered in Austin, Texas and has two new site office — one in San Antonio and another in Harlingen. Plans are underway to open an El Paso office in June.

“Since we cover the entire 1,254 miles of the Texas-Mexico border, it is incumbent upon us to be experts in cross-border issues,” she said. “We’ve ramped up in that area with the help of our corporate members and our MBEIC committee with vice chairs in all the major cities with their ears to the ground, taking the pulse of our service area continually.”

Looking forward

Where is the CSTMBC headed? Ultimately, as the council embarks on what the future offers, the goal of good and necessary work will remain in order for the council’s stakeholders to succeed. “We have to be fair to all – not one MBE or corporate member is treated any differently than another,” Lovett said. “And we want to share all our successful information with our colleagues. The CSTMBC is pretty well committed to success for all our stakeholders, all the time.”

According to Lovett, the group is also excited about embracing what international commerce has to offer and how it impacts the scalability and growth of MBEs. “We can’t wait to uncover the next opportunity for our MBEs and corporate members – the CSTMBC believes that unless our corporate members are informed and educated and have access to all the education the council can provide, pretty soon our MBEs won’t have anybody to do business with,” she said. “It’s up to us to be on the cutting edge of knowledge every day.”

By necessity, the council is also morphing into a more collegial being, Lovett explained. “This means that we will collaborate more with other councils on regional events that are good for our service area and the companies we serve. It was our board’s direction that the CSTMBC take a more nationally recognizable position in our network; so I ran for and was elected chairperson of the presidents of all the councils, and am their voice at the national level on the NMSDC big board, the NMSDC Executive Committee and the Business Consortium Fund board,” she said. “I’ll do a lot more consulting with executives placed above our board members on the org chart to try and find ways to move the needle on their spend and their programs.”