Business Development

LSC was selected as the Project Director to work directly for the Joint Center of Political and Economic Studies in a White House initiative led by the U. S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency, to develop a Minority Business Round Table. This Round Table, comprised of the Nations largest minority owned firms, represented a cross section of trades and interests to advise and provide consensus input to the White House on issues of importance to the minority business community.

LSC worked with the Metropolitan Washington Airport’s Authority (MWAA) on the development of their first Concession Opportunity Seminar. The event was designed to market to, and ultimately increase, the retail business participation of Disadvantaged/Minority/Women Business Enterprises, (D/M/WBE) at both Washington Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airports. This Seminar was designed to provide D/M/WBE firms with an understanding of the retail market, the concessions industry and the customer. It also provided information to entrepreneurs on future opportunities in owning a retail establishment in either the Washington Dulles International Airport or Washington’s National Airport. Currently, in providing operational support to MWAA’s Equal Opportunity Programs, LSC is responsible for planning its annual Business Opportunity Seminar, which is an extension of the original 1994 event.

On behalf of the Maryland State Highway Administration, LSC is responsible for interacting and supporting the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project’s Community Resource Board (CRB) comprised of individuals representing neighborhoods, businesses, civic and business organizations. Acting as the liaison between the community and the Project, CRB’s ongoing agenda is to address issues caused by the development of the Bridge.

JBG & Associates Public Outreach Program was designed specifically to inform and obtain local community support initially from the surrounding project area, then all of D.C. LSC was able to go into neighborhoods and garner testimony and written support from all 3 project area ANC’s, and 19 neighborhood business and arts organizations. Achievement: Outreach campaign successfully obtained the approval of the Zoning Commission to develop the outdoor plaza for varied public use.

Developed for Potomac Electric Power Company this Mentor/PROTÉGÉ Program, was designed to access and strengthen business development areas to increase the economic viability of the Protégé firm. The Program successfully assisted several firms.

Responsible for developing and implementing for M. A. Mortenson, a series of Program efforts that included: informational outreach breakfasts; participation with female contracting organizations; participation in female employment fairs, all targeted to increasing female employment on the job site in non-traditional construction jobs.

Developed for Turner Construction Company. This construction Program was aimed at mid level entrepreneurs seeking to advance their business to the next level. The course using experts from various business disciplines was conducted over an eight (8) week period and successfully graduated approximately forty (40) small, minority and women owned firms.

The Potomac Electric Power Company was sanctioned by the Public Service Commission of Maryland (PSC) to complete an assessment of national third party certifying agencies to determine which perform Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) certification, what criteria is used to verify and how the agency monitors or enforces the requirements. PEPCO was provided a list of certifying agencies that was appended to their signed Memorandum of Understanding (circa 2009) which provided a base of certifying agencies.
L. S. Caldwell & Associates, Inc. (LSC) was contracted to initiate a research program to ascertain which certifying agencies defined their programs based on the PSC of Maryland’s definition of a minority owned business. On behalf of PEPCO, LSC completed an extensive research effort to identify additional certifying agencies via internet searches and making inquiries with each agency contact person from the initial approved list and the additional agencies identified.
While the list of certifying agencies was compiled, inspected, and finalized, LSC researched various survey tools that could be used to gather data. An in-depth comparative analysis of (3) short-listed research tools was conducted. The means for gathering pertinent information needed to be flexible for creating a data collector with the ability to provide diverse and complex options. Survey Monkey’s programs offered fifty-one (51) templates with unlimited questions yielding a potential of fifteen (15) types of options including: multiple choice, rating scales and text box answers.
Surveys were distributed via a web link and sent by email using Boomerang, a mass email marketing program. The survey window was initially open to 308 certifying agencies for a period of (4) weeks to ensure all had sufficient time to complete the survey.
The following results were documented and produced in a final written and power point presentation for Pepco:

~Agencies from the PSC of Maryland’s M/WBE Requirements. One hundred thirty-nine (139) considered people of other descent to be classified and certified as minority protected class groups.

~Survey findings resulted: In identifying 13 firms that mirror exact requirements of the Public Service Commission of Maryland and 168 that have variances that may still have value to firms seeking specific certified M/WBEs.

~Some agencies no longer certify M/WBE. Thirteen (13) agencies no longer certify any type of business enterprise.

~Some agencies act as a Platform. Three agencies that received the survey only perform outreach and minority business advocacy.

~Agency Responsiveness: As this report went into publication, (9) agencies were completely unresponsive to the survey.