Viewing page 53 of 356

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

INTERRACIAL COUNCIL FOR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

April 24, 1979 - New York Hilton

ICBO this year marks its 14th anniversary as the first national voluntary agency devoted to helping minority entrepreneurs start, expand, and manage their own business ventures. ICBO's function is to bring private sector resources to bear for minority business growth. 

ICBO's organizers believed that if minority business men and women could offer their goods and services to the American economy on an equal and competitive basis, questions of race and economic imbalance would begin to disappear from the American business scene. 

Through its corps of volunteer consultants and professional staff, ICBO has substantially aided over 19,000 minority business firms and helped them obtain $105 million in financing and $70 million in contracts. 

ICBO's services are made available through Local Councils, each with its own volunteer board of directors and professional staff. The work of the Councils is supported and coordinated by the ICBO National Office in New York City. 

ICBO's management, financial assistance, and other services also benefit majority community corporations, from which ICBO draws financial support, in their own minority enterprise and economic development efforts. In addition, ICBO can undertake specific projects in concert with major corporations which have beneficial impact on minority business - e.g., supplier company development, dealerships, management help to minority firms in which larger corporations are financial institutions have invested. ICBO programs available across the country are: 

Business development. ICBO provides minority entrepreneurs with a full range of management consultancy services. Special attention is being given to the acquisition of fairly sizable "majority" companies by minority owner-managers.

Capital resources. ICBO helps minority enterpreneurs  [[entrepreneurs]] develop business plans and projections and obtain financing for stabilization or growth of existing firms as well as for new ones. As this capital is obtained from commercial banks and other sources external to ICBO, the service is helpful to hundreds of financial institutions across the country while also aiding clients. 

Market development. ICBO helps minority firms develop their marketing plans and strategies, gather information about corporate and public sector contract and sales opportunities, matches the minority vendors to these opportunities, and then gives management or financing assistance, as needed, to the vendor firms to help them secure new sales and fulfill contract terms and schedules. 

Management training. ICBO gives free business management courses in most locations. Over 11,000 people have completed theses programs which, using a case study method, provide practical training about business operation based upon the experience of ICBO clients over the years. 

[[2 images]]

Malcolm L. Corrin, ICBO President and Chief Executive Officer. 

L. to R.: Reginald H. Jones, Chairman and CEO, General Electric Co., dinner speaker; Robert B. Meyner, ICBO/New Jersey Co-Chairman.