1. This is an exciting time for the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.®
(NMSDC®
)
and our network of affiliate regional councils that stretches from Maine to Miami, San Diego to
Seattle and points in between. The national office is in the second year of an ambitious five-year
strategic plan launched in January 2012 that is reshaping our unique network.
Working in partnership with Accenture—one of our 476 national corporate members—we engaged
stakeholders from across the organization: minority business enterprises (MBES), corporate
members, and staff at NMSDC's national office and regional council affiliates. Through open
dialogue about our future, we assessed what we do well, how we might improve our operations, and
how best to meet the existing and emerging needs of our 13,000 certified Asian, Black, Hispanic and
Native American suppliers and 1,700 corporate members to remain the leader in minority supplier
development.
The plan included six focus areas: board engagement, business process standardization; network
governance; performance management; targeted services and expanded offerings; and technology
modernization. Working groups comprised of NMSDC corporate members, certified MBEs and
affiliate council presidents developed recommendations for each focus area. Our Board's Executive
Committee reviewed and approved those recommendations. Similarly comprised teams were formed
to develop an implementation plan for the recommendations.
As we approach the halfway mark in the strategic plan, I’m pleased to share our progress toward
creating a more streamlined, efficient organization. Here are our achievements to date:
Mission, Vision, Core Capabilities
Early in the process, we defined our mission, vision and core capabilities. Our mission is to advance
business opportunities for certified MBEs and connect them to corporate members--the same mission
under which the organization was chartered 41 years ago. Our vision is to be the leader in advancing
minority suppliers to help corporations meet their global supply chain needs. We will achieve this
vision through demonstrated excellence in four core capabilities:
 Certify – certification continues to be at the core of what we do—ensuring that minority
businesses are bona fide. More than four decades later, our comprehensive process maintains
its reputation in corporate America as the “gold standard” in certification.

2.  Develop – we continue to develop not only our certified MBEs to promote business growth,
but also our corporate members and NMSDC network staff, through new delivery channels
and expanded learning offerings.
 Connect – NMSDC connects corporate members with certified MBEs that meet their complex
needs through dozens of programs and events held year-round throughout the NMSDC
network.
 Advocate – leveraging our global presence, NMSDC promotes the value and innovation that
minority suppliers provide to corporate supply chains through print, electronic and digital
media outlets, Web sites and social media channels.
Strategic Network Restructuring
Work is ongoing in each of the focus areas; however, network governance took priority because of its
inter-dependence with the other five areas. The primary recommendation was to strategically
restructure the network to create equivalent council areas that were empowered and better resourced
to serve NMSDC’s constituents. Accenture evaluated and presented macro-economic data, including
the number of minority employers; geographic disbursement of MBEs and corporations; percentage
of growth in the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP); percentage of the area’s contribution to the
U.S. GDP; and market penetration to determine the best areas of the country to maximize corporate
and MBE participation in the NMSDC Network.
Using that information, affiliate regional council presidents, their board chairpersons, corporate
members and MBEs in attendance at the January 2013 NMSDC Quarterly Leadership Meeting
worked collaboratively to create a new affiliate map with 24 council areas.
Since then, the 11 affiliates directly impacted by the strategic restructuring have been working
together—with guidance from NMSDC and a project management consultant—to determine the new
consolidated entity, its leadership and staffing. The new network will be unveiled in January 2014.
Supporting the New Network
In order to support this new network and position it for maximum success, we developed a new
funding model. It provides more balanced funding from the national office to the affiliates, and will
be supported by a 10 percent increase in national corporate member dues beginning in January 2014.
As the strategic restructuring nears its completion, we are reviewing the current roster of NMSDC
programs and services to determine the need for changes in the delivery method. A similar process
will be used as we develop new programs and services for our stakeholders.
Our Technology Modernization team is hard at work on improvements and enhancements that will
create a true enterprise network to support our strategically restructured network. A replacement for
our proprietary database of certified MBEs is near completion, and a database matching service for
corporate members launched this past summer. The fee-based service compares a corporate member's
minority supplier database to NMSDC's database to insure the authenticity of a supplier's minority
status.

3. Benefits
The strategic restructuring offers benefits for all of our stakeholders.
Branding Campaign
To tie these efforts together, we launched a branding campaign in early September. Working with an
NMSDC-certified MBE, we held a two-day brand discovery workshop with select national office
staff, corporate members, affiliate regional council presidents and MBEs to develop a plan to
recharge and rejuvenate our brand. Moving forward, our outward appearance must align with the
incredible evolution that is taking place throughout the organization. While the look and feel of
NMSDC is transforming, our mission remains the same: to advance business opportunities for
minority suppliers in the global corporate supply chain.
Together with our corporate members, certified suppliers and affiliate regional council presidents, we
are moving NMSDC in a new direction. Learn more about the NMSDC strategic plan at
http://strategicplan2012.nmsdc.org and share in our excitement.
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